Back To You (10 page)

“How was dinner?”
Mom patted the seat next to her on the sofa.

“It was great.
Olivia and I ate sushi and chatted about her wedding.”

Dad grunted from
his armchair.

“Oh, dad, knock it
off. They’ve been together a long time,” I defended my friends. My father had
already expressed that he didn’t understand why Olivia and Matt needed to get
married so young. My parents had been out of college and almost thirty when
they had gotten married and settled down. I was sure my father didn’t want me
getting any crazy ideas.

“I didn’t say
anything,” he mumbled, without looking up from his papers.

Mom cleared her
throat. “Anyway, darling, I’m sure it’s wonderful for you to have a friend like
Olivia. It must help that you can bond over your boyfriends being away from
home.”

“Mom!” I exhaled
sharply. “How many times do I have to tell everyone that my relationship with
Spencer isn’t like that?”

Dad looked up from
his papers and met Mom’s eyes, then looked at me. “Ellie, I think your mother
was referring to
Tim
. Remember him?
He’s away at college right now...”

My cheeks flamed
in embarrassment.

“Well,” Mom
started, picking up her book again, “I’m glad you had fun, dear.”

Chapter
Ten

Spencer

I took in the
scene in front of me using only my eyes. I was trying to be as inconspicuous as
possible. We were standing in formation and were supposed to be looking
straight ahead. In a matter of moments, I would be getting released for a
weekend of
libo
. We had already had two
libo
weekends since we’d been there, but this one was
special. Not only was it the last weekend before I graduated from combat training,
but Ellie would be there to spend the weekend with me.

It was getting
harder and harder to keep myself from thinking about her throughout the day. I
still held my resolve about not being right for her in the long run, but in a
masochistic way, that didn’t mean I wasn’t still thinking about how I felt
about her. Ever since I had her pinned against that wall, I had been torturing
myself by wondering what would have happened if I had kissed her. Maybe she
wouldn’t have been as opposed to it as I first thought. I knew it was wrong,
but that didn’t make it sound any less appealing.

Lost in thought, I
cringed slightly when I heard everyone around me sound off. I hadn’t even heard
the command. Mills was at my side as usual, so when we broke from the formation
I nudged him in the arm.

“What’d they say?”

Mills chuckled.
“Daydreaming or
somethin
’?”

“Or
somethin
,’” I confirmed.

“They just told us
not to drink, or do drugs, or get hookers, and be back by 1600 on Sunday.”

I sulked. “Shit.
There go my plans for the weekend.”

Mills laughed, but
his step faltered when he looked up. I raised my eyebrow and followed Mills’
line of sight, finding Ellie, Olivia, and Tim standing on the sidewalk nearby.
I could tell that Olivia had put more than the usual effort into her
appearance. I figured that probably explained why Mills was so dumbstruck.
Ellie, on the other hand, took my breath away in just jeans and a sweater. She
was standing there, chatting with the other two, laughing and running her
fingers through her hair.
 
I had the
sudden urge to run up and lift her off her feet. Then I saw Tim drape an arm
possessively around her shoulders, giving me the urge to punch him in the face
instead.

As we got closer,
the three of them began walking toward us. Olivia ran into Mills’ waiting arms
and I sidestepped to avoid getting smacked with her swinging purse as she ran
by. Shaking my head ruefully, I approached Ellie and Tim with a wide smile
plastered on my face.

“How’s it going,
man?” Tim extended his hand for me to shake.

“Can’t complain,”
I replied.

“Hey,” Ellie
grinned at me, moving in for a hug. “Good to see you, best friend.”

Thanks for reminding me. I was about to kiss
you.

I returned her
hug. “It’s good to see you guys, too. Are you hungry? I’m starving.”

“I am,” Tim piped
up. “What’s around here?”

“There’s a Dominos
Pizza right over there,” Mills said, as he and Olivia joined our group.
“There’s also Mexican food and a burger place.”

Ellie shrugged.
“I’m down for whatever. Why don’t you guys pick since I’m sure you don’t get
the opportunity to eat crap like that very often.”

“I want pizza,” I
announced, smiling appreciatively at Ellie. “Mills, you want pizza?”

***

“Wow,” Ellie said
from the driver’s seat. I could see her eyes glance back at me in the rear view
mirror. She looked concerned for me. “Is it really that bad, Spence?”

We were headed to
our hotel on the opposite side of the large base. It took about twenty minutes
to drive through the rolling hills of Camp Pendleton. Mills and I passed the
time by fielding countless questions about the combat training we were doing.
Olivia was hanging on Mills’ every word, and I rolled my eyes more than once as
he tried to make our hikes sound longer and harder than they actually were. In
truth, the hikes
were
awful, but
Mills was taking it to the extreme to impress his girl.

I glanced at Tim
sitting in the passenger seat of the car and noted his left hand resting
casually on Ellie’s thigh. His thumb was moving back and forth on her jeans.
His hands looked almost manicured, and for all I knew, maybe they were. I
looked down at my own hands and examined the permanent dirt stains that had
formed in the creases.

In the last month,
I had slept in dirt, crawled around in dirt, ate my food in dirt, and washed my
hands with just water and more dirt. Even if I scrubbed for hours they would
still look terrible. Mills may be exaggerating a bit about some of the horrors
of combat training, but it was definitely worse than boot camp. I would
normally downplay something like that, but there was something about Tim’s smug
attitude and pretty-boy hands that made me want to play it up.

“Yeah, I mean, not
everyone would be able to do this,” I answered her, staring at the back of
Tim’s head, hoping he got my message.

Olivia smiled
lovingly at her soon-to-be husband. “That’s why I’m so proud of you, baby.”

I met Ellie’s eyes
in the mirror again. She smiled when she said, “Yes, that’s definitely
something to be proud of.”

***

Later that night,
I took a long pull from a bottle of vodka. The five of us were pre-gaming in
the room before we headed out to the 18-and-over club. Since Mills was the
designated driver last time we all went out, Ellie volunteered to do it
tonight. Secretly, I was glad for this. If Ellie was drinking, she might do
something stupid and attract the wrong guy’s attention again.

I internally
scolded myself. I blamed Ellie for that night, but I should really blame
myself. If I hadn’t left her to fend for herself so I could go hook up with
that girl, it probably wouldn’t have happened.

Olivia handed me
the extra blanket from the closet. “You’re sure you don’t mind sleeping on the
floor, Spencer?”

“If all goes well
tonight, I won’t need to.” I winked at Olivia with a smirk.

“You really
are
a slut!” She teased, making the
other three laugh.

I snickered at the
mock insult and took another sip of the vodka, followed by a few large gulps of
orange juice. I paced to the window and stared out at the dark night. I knew
why I had that slutty reputation. I used to embrace it. But now it was like I
clung to it, needing it to remind me that I wasn’t the right guy for Ellie. Tim
and his perfectly manicured hands would be able to give her everything that she
wanted, minus the baggage that I carried with my dead mom and asshole of a dad.
Not to mention the fact that I was nothing like Ellie’s father. I knew that was
the kind of guy she was going for.

Mills joined me at
the window. “This is awesome. I’m glad they decided to come up for our last
weekend here.”

“Yeah, it should
be fun,” I agreed.

“Ellie has to be
back at work on Monday so she and Tim are leaving Sunday night.”

My brow furrowed.
“I thought they got the room until Tuesday.”

“Olivia is staying
until then to see the graduation.”

“But then how is
Olivia getting home from base?”

Mills looked at
the ceiling, obviously trying to remember. “I think Ellie is coming back up to
get her…”

“Oh. Well, I’m
glad Olivia will be here for you, bro.”

Mills crossed his
arms over his chest. “Listen, man, I can tell something’s up with you. Can you
just give me the Cliff Note’s version so I don’t have to ask about your
feelings
?”

I chuckled and
clapped Mills on the shoulder. “I’m fine, man. Just trying to figure out my
shit.”

“Well, the Marine
Corps owns you now, buddy. I’m not sure what you’re trying to figure out, but
the next four years aren’t really yours to figure out.”

“How does that
make you feel about marrying Olivia?”

Mills grinned and
glanced behind him at his bride. “That’s
why
I’m marrying Olivia. We already talked about this, man. I don’t care if
they control my life. At least I know I’ll always have her.”

I was genuinely
happy for my friend. With the lack of permanence in the Marine Corps, knowing
that Mills will have his girl no matter where or how many times they’d move him
must be really comforting.

I turned from the
window to look at Ellie. She had put on cowboy boots and a long sleeved shirt
with her jeans. The shirt was dark purple and low cut, exposing just the right
amount of cleavage to torture me. She looked like the perfect combination of spicy
and sweet, with her long blonde hair falling in loose curls over her shoulders.

“Ellie,” Mills
said, drawing me away from my thoughts, “thanks again for offering to drive.”

Ellie smiled and
looked down. “No problem, I’m happy to return the favor.”

“Yeah, at least
this way we won’t have a repeat of last time. Right, E?” I jabbed
good-naturedly.

Ellie flushed as
Tim asked, “What do you mean? What happened last time?”

I immediately felt
bad for bringing it up. The vodka must be getting to me. I had no idea that
Ellie hadn’t told her boyfriend about the incident with John at the party,
though I could see why she wouldn’t want to. It certainly wasn’t something that
I would handle well if I were in Tim’s shoes. Hell, I didn’t handle it well
either way.

“Tim, it was no
big deal. Last time we all went out, this guy got a little weird.” Ellie
crossed the room to sit next to Tim on one of the two queen-sized beds. She
took his hand in hers reassuringly, but his posture was defensive.

“A little weird?”
Tim questioned suspiciously.

I cut in, raising
my hand. “Don’t worry, Timmy. It was handled.”

“Ellie just danced
with him and he read too much into it,” Olivia added. “It’s so dumb how guys
can’t just dance and then move on.”

Mills turned to me
and mouthed the word, “Awkward.”

“I don’t
understand. You danced with this guy and then what? He made a move on you or
something?” Tim was looking between Ellie and the other faces in the room,
obviously annoyed by our vague retelling of the night.

“Yeah, pretty
much.” Ellie shrugged. “Spencer took care of it, and then everything was fine.”

I watched Tim
stare at Ellie with an accusatory look on his face. When Tim turned to me, his
eyes full of challenge, I held his gaze. The tension in the room was palpable.
Tim appeared to be trying to figure out if we were lying about what had
happened. It was as if he thought this was some big cover-up of Ellie cheating
on him or something. Paranoid much?

“Tim,” Ellie put
her hand on his cheek to turn his face to look at her. “I promise I would have
told you if it was a big deal. Spencer put the guy in his place, and we left.”

Just as I started
to turn my back to the room again, I noticed the look that Tim gave Ellie. It
seemed to scream that the conversation wasn’t over, but he just didn’t like the
audience. Ellie’s shoulders kind of slumped in response.

“Well, I guess I’m
just glad my girlfriend has such a good
friend
to take care of her.”

***

Mills and Olivia
headed straight for the dance floor when we reached the club. I knew Mills had
promised her that he would make an effort to dance, so I laughed as I watched
her attempt to teach him how to two-step. I looked around at all the girls
nearby, scoping out the ones that didn’t already have a guy hanging on them. My
eyes landed on Ellie and Tim, and I could tell that she was trying to get him
to dance with her. He still looked pissed about what had happened earlier. I
frowned as he brushed her off.

Screw it.
I walked up to them and held
out my hand to Ellie. “May I have this dance?”

She grinned and
looked at Tim. Before he had a chance to reply, I tugged her by the hand toward
the dance floor. We cruised into the throng of dancers, all moving in sync to
the upbeat country song. Two-stepping was one of my favorite dances. I loved
doing complicated turns with my dance partner, and Ellie was great at
following. She kept up with the pace and let me lead her around the floor,
nailing the spins. We’d practiced a lot over the years.

I was a lot taller
than Ellie in her cowboy boots, so I kept my eyes on the room over her head. I
glanced down briefly, and noticed that she was watching her feet. She used to
do that when she first learned this dance, but her confidence had grown so much
since then that I wondered why she was doing it now.

“Hey,” I winked at
her when she looked up at me. “If you’re looking at your feet, you’re not
having fun.”

She flushed,
looking guilty. “Sorry.”

“You don’t need to
apologize, just loosen up. You’re doing great.”

She didn’t look
back down at her feet, but I silently wished that she would. She was looking at
me now, and I couldn’t look away. She was beautiful.

The music changed
to a faster tempo, so I gratefully picked up the pace and added a complicated
move. She laughed as I twisted our hands together over her head and quickly
lowered her body to the ground, snapping her back up and switching to the other
side. When she was upright again, I looked over her head and saw Tim scowling
at us with his arms folded across his chest.

I tossed my head
in his direction as we two-stepped along the floor. “Is he pissed at you?”

She raised an
eyebrow when she caught sight of his expression. “Looks like it.”

“About what
happened with John at the party?”

Ellie nodded and
sighed. “Yeah, he’s probably going to give me the standard talk about not
dancing with other guys.”

“But you’re doing
that right now.” I spun her three times and then yanked her close again,
knowing how much Tim would love that.