Page 75 of The Triple Threat

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

The post slammer went down on the new post with a thud and reverberated around us.

“That post has done something wrong then.” Pop shook his head and with a swing of his axe split the broken one in half. “Something happen yesterday at Henry and Melinda’s?”

I breathed out deep, through my nose. “Pop, I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Fine but stop acting like a teenage girl who lost her ticket to a Bieber concert.”

“Bieber isn’t relevant any longer,” I replied, lifting the slammer again.

“Whatever, you know what I mean.”

We continued to work in silence, but everything that had gone on with Ellie the day before had turned me into a brooding dark cloud. I didn’t want to talk about it, but it was also all I wanted to talk about. She was driving me fucking crazy with her hot and cold attitude. We’d been intimate twice and both times she’d passed it off like it was nothing. Wasn’t that what I was supposed to do? I’d tried to laugh it off, make her think I was okay with the fun of it all, but once I got home and thought about things, I was pretty pissed.

“It’s Ellie,” I blurted out and threw the slammer to the ground. “She’s driving me crazy.”

The grin on Pop’s face said it all. Ellie had been right; he did already know about us.

“You knew?”

He shrugged. “Not the full story but then you’ve had a thing for that girl most of your damn life. She’s grown into a beautiful woman, so why would you have different feelings now.”

“What? What the hell are you talking about? I haven’t had a thing for her all my life.”

“Most of it you have, son. I’d say since you were about ten or eleven and you realized she looked like Belle from Beauty and the Beast.” Pop threw his head back and laughed. “I remember you almost walked into the side of that big old tree in their back yard because you couldn’t take your eyes off her. She came outside in a cute little yellow sundress and a pair of flower shaped shades, with a book under her arm. Then she plonked her sassy little ass on a sun lounger, pushed her shades up her nose, crossed her legs and started to read. You watched her from the minute she set foot outside, to the moment she picked up that book and you’ve been watching her ever since.”

“Huh,” I scoffed. “As if.”

Pop smiled and nodded. “Truth. Your mom noticed too.”

“She did?”

“Yep,” he sighed at the memory. “She grabbed my hand and said, ‘he’s found his one, baby’.”

I started to laugh. “My one. I don’t think so, Pop. I mean I like her and all, but my one? Nope we’re nothing like that.”

“So, tell me, son,” he said as he took his work gloves off and shoved them into the back pocket of his jeans. “What are you like?”

Pinching the bridge of my nose I thought about his question. “We just had sex and… well other stuff.”

“Don’t let Henry hear you say that you’ve just had sex with his girl, but she ain’t your one.”

“Why not? You have a sex with lots of women and none of them are your one.”

“I had my one,” he replied, a shadow passing over his face. “And I treated her like a queen from the moment I knew she was it for me.”

“It’s kind of difficult to treat someone like a queen when they act like a bitchy princess most of the time.” I kicked at some stones on the floor and sighed before looking up at him. “Truth be told, Pop I have no idea how I feel about her.”

He leaned back against the truck and folded his arms over his chest. The tattoos on his arms peeked out from under the cuffs of his rolled back shirt sleeves, both our jackets were thrown to one side when the work got sweaty.

“So, what’s got you so hot headed. If you don’t know how you feel, how come you’re in such a shitty mood?”

“She just shut me down afterward; both times.”

“And that’s hurt your sweet little heart, right?” He quirked a brow and crossed his feet at the ankle, looking every inch the damn man who knew exactly what he was doing with his life; no regrets.

“No… yes… fuck, Pop I don’t know. I just know I’m pissed about it.”