Page 30 of The Triple Threat
Ellie waved me away. “It’s fine. Those things will be in their shed thing, won’t they?” Her head shot around and she looked at me panic stricken. “They will, won’t they?”
“Yeah.” I laughed. “They will. So, what made you so scared of them? And why did your brother never tell me?” I asked, determined to pay more attention in the future.
“That’ll be because he’s a weasel.” She shrugged. “I remember being about three or four and Dad brought me with him to see your dad and I ended up screaming the rooks from the trees. Dad couldn’t get me to stop and Mom was convinced he’d smacked my butt or something. I couldn’t stop crying to tell her he hadn’t, but just kept making a mooing noise.”
I leaned my head back against the rest. “How come I don’t remember that?”
“You’d gone to Dallas with your mom and Carter to see Disney on Ice.” She snorted and indicated to turn onto the track that led up to our property.
“I fucking did not,” I protested. “You liar.”
“I’m not lying,” she said, her tone matter of fact. “Carter had a thing for Aurora, and you were madly in love with Belle. On your eighth birthday you told our moms that you’d marry her one day.”
“Fuck off.” I snorted out a laugh. “No way I said that when I was eight.”
“Oh yes you did. And you must have had it bad, because you’d carried that torch for her for two years.”
She had a smirk twitching her lips, which still looked kiss swollen to me. I really wanted to lean over the console and take her mouth again. Unfortunately, we had the argument over a Disney Princess to finish.
“You’re such a liar.”
“I’m honestly not,” she retorted. “I can’t believe you’ve forgotten it.”
“I was obviously so traumatized I wiped it clean from my brain. I’m still going to check with Carter though.”
Ellie shrugged and giggled. “Whatever, but he’ll tell you I’m being honest. He still has the brochure that you both bought. I think he still likes to throw one out over the picture of Aurora doing a spiral.”
I eyed her warily, not at all sure whether she was telling the truth or not, but damn sure my best friend would be getting a call in the morning. As we fell into silence, with me contemplating that Ellie looked a little like Belle—something else, like a tool, I’d failed to notice before—we pulled up outside the house. As soon as we had, the door was flung open and my two aunts came rushing out. Auntie J holding a thick checkered shearling jacket and Auntie L a pair of jeans and boots.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re back.” Auntie L was breathless as she ran down the porch steps. “Your pop is really struggling.”
“Has he called Lance?” I asked, toeing off my sneakers and pulling the jeans on.
Lance was Carter’s boss at the veterinarian clinic, and as grouchy as a bear with a boil on its ass, but he was a damn good vet. There was no secret he was going to hand everything over to Carter when he finally retired, despite the fact that at twenty-six Carter had only been qualified a couple of years – the clever bastard had fast-tracked his last year at Veterinary School. However, Lance was currently making my best friend wait by still working, even though he was almost seventy.
“Yes, but he’s doing an emergency operation on Muriel Steiner’s dog, Booboo because he’s swallowed a pair of her pantyhose.” Aunt J offered me the jacket as I pushed my feet into the boots. “You might be out there a while,” she added when she saw me roll my eyes.
Zipping up the jeans, I looked over to Ellie who’d rolled her car window down.
“Thanks for the lift, Ellie. Appreciate it.”
“No problem. Hope you manage to save the…” she shuddered. “The thing and its baby.”
God she was cute.
Fuck. What the hell was going on in my head at the minute?
“Oh, Ellie, honey,” Auntie J said, walking up to the car and laying a hand on Ellie’s arm. “You can’t ride back to the party without something warm to drink. Come on in and we’ll make you some cocoa.”
“Oh, I’m not going back to the party,” she replied. “I’m going to get home and have an early night.”
I looked at my watch; only just gone nine. It seemed like hours since I’d scared the shit out of her and then kissed the shit out of her.
“Now you know your momma and daddy will be fooling around,” Auntie L added, sidling up next to her twin. “You don’t want to walk in on that, do you? No, you do as Janice-Ann says, come inside and let us make you some cocoa.”
Lynn-Ann peered inside the car and then pulled back out, her eyes blinking rapidly.
“I mean, you’re practically naked. You must be perished child.”