Back To You (7 page)

Chapter Seven

Ellie

“Thanks again for
inviting us to come out with you guys!” Olivia said as she and Matt climbed
into the backseat of my car.

“No problem. It’s
great that we’re all from San Diego so we can hang out.” I glanced back at my
new friends, excited at the prospect of hanging out with Olivia more often. I
didn’t have very many girlfriends. It wasn’t because I didn’t want girlfriends,
but all of the girls I hung out with from high school were catty and always
finding some way to cause drama. I hoped Olivia wouldn’t be like that.

“So whose party is
it?” Matt asked, settling into the seat next to his new fiancé.

“It’s just this
guy we went to high school with,” Spencer answered him. “I thought Ellie was
going to throw me a welcome home party, but apparently she couldn’t be
bothered.”

I playfully
swatted his arm. “Hey! I put a lot of effort into your going away party; so don’t
act like I don’t care.”

“Yeah, yeah,
yeah,” Spencer rolled his eyes with a smile. “I’m just glad to have ten whole
days before we have to go to combat training.”

“I hear that,
bro.” Matt said.

“So, Ellie, is
your boyfriend going to be in town anytime soon?” Olivia asked, leaning
forward.

I shook my head.
“Not for a while. I think he’s coming down for Thanksgiving though, so I’m
excited for that.”

I really had been
missing Tim. More than I thought I would. It seemed like only yesterday that I
was questioning the future of our relationship, but as soon as I watched him
drive away I realized that the old adage about not realizing what you had until
it was gone started to ring true. I had never put much faith in long-distance
relationships, though. Now that I was in one, I knew it was going to take a lot
of work on both sides to make it last. The important thing was that I really
did want it to work.

The night before
he left, as I was lying in his bed after we made love, he told me that when he
graduated he wanted to marry me. He wasn’t proposing. He was simply telling me
that he planned for us to be together. I had been surprised by how happy the
idea of marrying Tim had made me, and I knew that he would be a great husband
and father. He was just so, stable. I wanted stable. I was sure the feeling in
my stomach had been excitement, not unease.

“Well,” Olivia
continued, pulling me from my thoughts, “I’d love to meet him sometime. Maybe
he’ll be here at some point when Matt is here, too, so we can double date.”

“Yeah, and I’m
sure Hawk can find a girl to bring and we can make it six.” Matt added,
reaching forward to pat Spencer on the shoulder. “Right, buddy?”

Spencer grunted in
reply. He was scrolling through Facebook’s newsfeed on his phone, probably
trying to catch up on things that had happened while he was gone. I wondered if
it was weird for him to see that his social life had gone on without him while
he was so removed from it for three months.

“No, Matt,” I
chimed in, glancing at him in my rear view mirror, “Spencer doesn’t date like
that. Sure, he’ll take a girl to dinner, but bringing a girl on a date with
other couples isn’t really his thing.”

“Matt’s been
filling me in on your dating style, Spencer. He told me to ask about the car
thing. Apparently it’s a great example of your technique?” Olivia asked, as
Matt burst out laughing.

“I started to
explain it, but I didn’t want to get it wrong,” Matt explained through his
laughter.

Spencer pocketed
his phone and chuckled. “Well, Olivia, the car thing is just a little move I
started to perfect senior year. See, the way it works is, I set it up so that I
meet the girl at dinner so we have both of our cars.”

Olivia held up a
hand. “Wait, you don’t even pick the girl up for dinner? And I thought you
didn’t have a car.”

“I take my dad’s
car out. And as far as the picking her up thing, it doesn’t make sense to pick
her up because then I’d have to drop her off after dinner.”

Olivia made a
face. “As opposed to leaving her at the restaurant?”

“As opposed to
getting her back to his place after dinner,” I supplied.

“Oh,” Olivia
frowned, still confused. “But if she has her own car, she could just go home
after dinner.”

Matt put a hand on
his fiancé’s knee. “Let him tell the story, baby.”

“Anyway,” Spencer
went on with a laugh, “I have her meet me at the restaurant. We have a nice
time, and then we say goodnight and I walk her to her car. After that, I make
sure I’m behind her at a stoplight. When the light turns red, I get out and run
to her window, say some stuff about not wanting the night to end, and lean in
through the window to kiss her. That usually ends in her following me home.”

Matt chuckled from
the backseat, reaching forward to clap Spencer on the shoulder again. “And
that’s how it’s done.”

“Okay, very
smooth, but why bother with any of that? If you just picked her up and took her
to dinner, you could still ask her if she wanted to come back to your house
afterwards.”

I snorted. “Allow
me to jump in here. If he picks her up, she doesn’t have her own car, and that
means he’d have to get his lazy ass up and bring her home later.”

“Very true, but,”
Spencer held up a hand, “the key to all of this is making her feel comfortable.
I would rather her be in her own car, that way she can come and go as she
pleases. The kiss through the window may be my signature move, but she’s free
to drive away if she’s not into it. But ten times out of ten, she is.”

“Okay,
Hawk
, I’m impressed.” Olivia smiled at
Spencer, and then turned to Matt. “I’m just glad you put a ring on this finger
before he could corrupt you!”

Matt laughed and
kissed Olivia’s cheek. “Don’t worry baby, he tried to talk me out of proposing,
but it didn’t work.”

“Hey!” Spencer
said, pretending to be offended by Matt ratting him out.

“No, Spencer,”
Olivia giggled, lifting a hand, “it’s fine. I know people think we’re crazy for
getting married so young. But when you know, you know.”

It made me feel
good to hear that Olivia was so sure of her decision that she didn’t feel
threatened by what other people thought. I glanced over my shoulder at her.
“You guys are adorable. I was freaking out when I saw that proposal, and I’m
pretty sure every girl there was staring daggers at you after that.”

Olivia blushed.
“Yeah, it was pretty romantic. He was so cute! He had this whole speech about
how he knew that marrying a Marine was going to be different from just marrying
any guy, but that he was willing to do whatever it took to make it work if I
was.”

I noticed Spencer
frown slightly. I wondered what he was thinking about, since Olivia’s
recounting of the proposal was definitely worth something better than a frown.
Wasn’t he happy for them?

The rest of the
ride to the party was filled with good-humored ribbing, loud music, and lots of
laughter. I felt so at home in the car with Spencer and our new friends. I was
almost disappointed when we pulled onto the dark street lined with the parked
cars of partygoers. I drove around the block in search of an open parking spot.
I successfully managed to
parallel park
between two
large trucks, despite being harassed by Spencer the whole time about how close
I was to the bumper of the first truck.

We piled out of
the car and made our way toward the house where the party was. The host, Jesse,
was the quarterback of their high school football team, and I had always
thought of him as a huge teddy bear. I imagined that the average observer would
apply every teen movie stereotype to him, but I’d dated Jesse before Tim, so I
knew his sweet side. Our relationship had lasted all of about two months, but
neither one of us saw it going anywhere so we parted on good terms.

Jesse and his crew
were the epitome of the cliché jocks and cheerleaders crowd, but they sure knew
how to throw a good party. Fortunately for everyone, real life wasn’t as lame
as the movies with certain groups of people being excluded from the fun. There
would surely be a very diverse group of people at the house, and I was looking
forward to showing Olivia and Matt a good time.

“Spencer!” A group
of girls in bandage dresses and sky-high heels were sauntering up the driveway
behind us. They took turns hugging Spencer, tossing their hair and giggling. I
didn’t know them well enough to stick around, so I motioned for Olivia and Matt
to follow me up to the house.

“We can’t even
make it through the door with this guy,” I mused with a smile.

“It’s a good thing
you’re just friends, or I can see that being really annoying for you.” Olivia
didn’t even try to hide the sarcastic tone as she said this, and Matt chuckled
slightly behind her.

Just as our group made
it to the door, it swung open to reveal Jesse’s large frame filling the
doorway. “Ellie, baby! Why are you just standing there? Get that hot little ass
inside.”

“Hey, Jess,” I
responded, hugging him tightly as I entered the house. “These are my friends,
Olivia and Matt.”

Jesse shook Matt’s
hand and nodded at Olivia. “It’s nice to meet you. Grab a beer and make
yourself at home!”

Olivia and Matt
thanked him and we all stepped over to the keg that Jesse had gestured to. The
silver drum was in a bucket of ice right in the middle of the expansive foyer,
where I knew a large table with an abundant flower arrangement usually sat.
Various pieces of furniture were moved around when a football team was hosting
the party. They always had everything back in place by the end of the night, so
Jesse’s parents never complained about the parties. My straight-laced parents
would never allow parties like this in their home, mostly due to the illegal
nature of the underage drinking. I would never understand how Jesse was able to
get away with it.

Spencer entered
the house with the girls from the driveway and was immediately met with
congratulatory hugs and handshakes from other partygoers. I smiled as people
thanked him for what he was doing and peppered him with questions about the
experience. I poured an extra beer and brought it over to him.

“I didn’t think
you could break away long enough to get this yourself,” I told him as I handed
over the red cup.

“Thanks,” he
responded with a wink, and turned back to the guy he was talking to.

I hadn’t been to a
big party like this since Spencer’s going away bash. It wasn’t really my scene.
Spencer loved it – all the people, the music, and the keg beer. I
preferred a kickback with a much smaller guest list, but I knew how to have fun
in times like this, too. The music bumping from the living room changed to one
of my favorite songs, and I grabbed Olivia by the hand. We made our way to the
makeshift dance floor and wiggled into an open space to move. I saw Matt point
to a wall nearby and laughed when Olivia made a face at him for not wanting to
dance.

We danced like we
were on a mission to destroy our high-heel-clad feet, only pausing to get
refills on our beers. Spencer came over to dance at one point, with Matt in
tow, and Olivia lit up like a Christmas tree when she saw him. Matt grimaced as
Olivia put her hands on his hips to help him move to the rhythm. I thought he
was making a good effort and smiled broadly at him in encouragement. He really
was doing great, especially considering the fact that he was stone cold sober.
I felt two hands come around my own waist from behind, and glanced over my
shoulder expecting it to be Spencer.

“Hey,” a tall guy
I had never met before was suddenly behind me. Casually, he put his hands on my
hips and started moving with me to the beat of the song. He was gorgeous, in
that male-model sort of way. He had on a black polo shirt and the muscles of
his biceps strained against the cuffs of the short sleeves.

“Hey, back,” I
replied coyly, continuing to dance with him. I wondered what had suddenly
happened to Spencer, but there was no harm in dancing with another guy. I
wasn’t going to let it get further than the dance floor. Besides, I was
modestly dressed in jeans and a flowing top, so I figured there was a slim
chance of me getting pawed at like some of the other more provocatively dressed
girls on the dance floor.

After a few songs
with the handsome stranger, I made a motion with my hand to signal that I was
hot and wanted some air. I glanced around the dance floor, but my friends were
gone. Shrugging, I started toward the sliding glass door that led to the
backyard. I didn’t know how long we’d been there, but I was definitely drunk. I
wondered if that had contributed to the amount of time I had spent dancing with
the mystery guy. Resentfully, I wished that Tim were there to dance with me
instead of doing whatever he did on the weekends in Sacramento.

The cool October
air made me feel better instantly as I pushed my way outside. It was hot and
stuffy in the living room with all of the warm bodies pressed together and
moving to the music. My hair was sticking to my neck and I could feel beads of
sweat on my back from the dancing. I fanned myself and scanned the faces on the
patio. I didn’t see Spencer. He was probably in a room somewhere hooking up
with one of his many fans. Taking a few steps toward the pool, I could see
Olivia and Matt sitting on the edge with their feet in the water. I was tempted
to join them since the frigid water would probably feel amazing. Unfortunately
for my feet, they were kissing and talking in a way that suggested that they
were having an intimate moment. I didn’t want to disturb them.

Another keg sat at
the edge of the patio in a trough full of ice. I made my way over to it and poured
myself another beer. Olivia caught my eye, so I lifted my cup in salute. She
smiled before resuming her make-out session with Matt. Turning my attention
away from the couple, I was startled to find the guy from the dance floor
standing directly in front of me.