Page 98 of The Triple Threat
My stomach bottomed out and I felt my face heat up. “Not sure I get you,” I lied.
Auntie L winked and laughed. “Hunter, you get me just fine. Before he left town, your Grandpa had a drink with Ethan at Stars & Stripes, and they got a little inebriated it seems.” Pausing she straightened the lapel of my suit jacket. “He told my daddy, in his drunken state, that while he loved his fiancée and was looking forward to their new life together, he’d always wonder what we might have been, if he’d just tried that little bit harder to get me to go to the dance with him.”
“You think I should find myself a girl?” I asked, being intentionally dumb.
“I think you should get yourself the girl,” she replied. “And you shouldn’t take no for an answer. Don’t be the man who grows old wondering what if.”
Before I could respond, my aunt patted my cheek and reached up on her tippy toes to kiss it.
“Now, come on before your pop and my sister drink the place dry.”
Nodding I held my arm out for her and proudly let her into the hall, all the time thinking about what she’d said.
* * *
The scene inside the ballroom of the Memorial building, was like something from a Christmas movie. Tall, white pine trees lined the edges of the room and strung across the ceiling were hundreds of fairy lights. On the stage, at the end of the Grand Ballroom was a snow scene with more white pines and fake snow with a real gingerbread house center stage. Miss Anderson owned the local cake shop, Cake Heaven, and she and Jennifer, my friend Alaska’s girl, had made the house themselves.
“Wow,” Auntie J gasped. “Jennifer and Miss Anderson sure did themselves proud with that.”
“I know,” Pop replied. “And I believe we all get a piece at the end of the night.”
That made my thoughts immediately go to Ellie, because I knew how much she loved gingerbread. Then as if I’d summoned her, my eyes caught sight of the beautiful brunette who invaded my head, day and night.
She looked stunning. More beautiful than any other woman I’d ever seen. Fucking spectacular in fact. She’d obviously found the perfect dress. It was floor length, deep violet in color, and the top half had a real deep v which I was pretty sure finished just above her navel. The silky fabric skimmed her hips into a full, flouncy skirt and with each step she made toward her mom, a long, tanned, leg was revealed with sparkly silver sandals on her feet.
“Shit,” I groaned and scrubbed a hand down my face.
“What’s up, son?” Pop asked as he snagged two glasses of champagne from a passing waitress and gave them to my aunts. “You seem a little concerned there.”
He was grinning at me as my eyes moved back to fixate on Ellie.
“She doesn’t make things easy for me, Pop,” I sighed.
“No one said the best things in life were easy. I take it she’s still being stubborn as a pack mule about going on a date with you.”
I nodded and ripped my gaze from her. “Yeah. She still says if it goes wrong then it’ll be awful for everyone and she doesn’t want to risk that.”
“You think it’ll go wrong?” he asked, now taking two bottles of beer from a young kid who looked like he might choke in his shirt and tie. “Or are you serious about her.”
I hesitated, but for no other reason than I was surprised that my response was right there on the tip of my tongue.
“I’m serious about her,” I replied, looking him direct in the eye. “I can’t think about anything else but her. I don’t just want to date her, Pop. I want to be something to her. Only so many times I can ask though, without coming across as a fool.”
He passed me a bottle of beer and then nodded over to where Ellie was talking to… damn Thor.
“I suggest you go and make sure that the sun-bleached surfing look doesn’t suddenly become appealing to her.
“Pop, she’s not interested. She’ll say no, again.”
“Come on, son,” he replied, looking at me with fire in his eyes. “Since when did a Delaney give up on something they really wanted?”
I didn’t need telling twice and started to make my way over to the girl of my dreams, but before I had even walked a couple of steps, damn Dylan had taken her hand and pulled her onto the empty dance floor. What a dick! Didn’t he know that she’d hate dancing when no one else was?
I was right. Ellie’s body was tense and her feet barely moving, as Dylan held her close and whispered something into her ear. I felt my blood start to boil, especially when she threw her head back and let out one of her deep belly laughs.
“You see,” Pop said, coming up beside me. “What did your mom always tell you about tardiness and never catching the first worm.”
“Ellie isn’t a worm, Pop.” I sighed. “But the douche holding her is.”