Never Far Away (27 page)

 
Chapter Eighteen

Ella

 
  Ella was pretty impressed with the culinary skills she had pulled out of her back pocket in the last two days.  It wasn’t complicated French cuisine, but the spread her and Megan had prepared for this cookout was no small feat either.  Her and Megan had just finished setting up outside and Ella stood back to admire their hard work.

 
  Picnic tables that, of course, Porter had built stood proudly in the middle of his large front lawn, draped with red checkered table cloths.  Atop the tables were different varieties of red, white and blue foods.  Strawberries, blueberries, and sliced bananas, cups with layered jello in them topped with whipped cream, deviled eggs dyed with food coloring, sugar cookies. They even had blue tortilla chips with salsa poured over a brick of cream cheese.  They had basically prepared enough appetizers to feed an army and were leaving the main course of hot dogs and burgers to the men who insisted on running the grill.  Patrick and Porter could stand in front of the hot grill all they wanted and she was fine with that.  She wanted to sit in a lounge chair drinking the red sangria that Megan had found a recipe for.

 
  “Well, Fella, I think we did pretty well.  This is my first themed party and I am really impressed with our skills at the moment.”

 
  “I agree. It looks great.  Just don’t forget that we’ve got a lot more skills that are useful outside of the kitchen,” Ella said, trying to sound like the older and wiser sister she was.

 
  “Oh really?”  Megan said while waggling her eyebrows.  “What skills are we talking about and which room are they useful in?”

 
  Ella rolled her eyes at her little sister.  “Megan, you just single handedly set the women’s movement back twenty years.”

 
  “Oh, Ella, on the contrary.  The women’s movement involves many theories of women taking back their sexual prowess in the bedroom as a way to challenge the dominant alpha male in the relationship.  Seeing women as sexual equals is a very relevant and useful tool for the advancement of the equality for women in all realms of society.”

 
  Ella felt her mouth gaping wide open but couldn’t help the astonished look that had taken over her face.

 
  “That’s right, Ella.  I know you see me as just some silly twenty-something who might be getting married young, but I am not a delicate flower looking to stand in the shadows of her husband.  I use my femininity and sexuality to assess my power, not to diminish it.  You do too. You just haven’t realized it yet.  Patrick knows I get to be the boss when I want to.  In fact, he rather likes it when I become the dominant,” she said as she winked at Ella.

 
  Ella closed her mouth finally and had a moment where she realized that, indeed, her baby sister was not as little, small, or fragile as she might have ever pictured her.  She actually kind of admired her sister, and was possibly a little jealous of her and Patrick’s life behind their bedroom doors.

 
  Ella cleared her throat and let out a breath.  “Well, Megan, you’ve left me speechless.”

 
  “Come on, Fella,” she laughed, “Let’s go set up the volleyball net.”

 
  As they were finishing with the volleyball net, she noticed cars pulling up the long driveway to the house.  She felt the tiny rumble of nerves in her stomach as the thought of meeting Porter’s friends and co-workers. She looked around hoping to spot him so that he could make introductions.  As if he could read her thoughts, he stepped out of the front door onto the porch and Ella was, once again, overcome with the image of him and all the rugged sexiness that seemed to emanate from him.  He was wearing khaki-colored cargo shorts that came down just to his knee making the large muscles of his calves stand out like boulders.  And for the love of all that was holy he was wearing a baseball shirt, white chest with blue sleeves that came down to his elbows.  His biceps were straining against the blue cotton and the simple image of him was wreaking all kinds of havoc on Ella’s nervous system.  Her lungs weren’t working properly, her legs – useless, even her eyelids had forgotten their purpose so she just stood there – gawking.  He continued towards her and she just lost herself watching him.  The closer he got, the more rapidly her heart beat and when he was finally standing right in front of her, she noticed the smug grin the was plastered on his face. 

 
  His hand came up to cup the side of her face, always making her feel so small with his large hand against her.  “You’re staring, Babe.”

 
  She reached up and gripped his shirt in her fists, pulling him closer to her.  “You knew exactly what you were doing when you put that shirt on,” she grumbled as she looked up at him.

 
  “Maybe,” he said as he tugged on her ponytail, forcing her to look up at him.  “If you’re going to walk around in those shorts, showing off your long and sexy legs, I’m going to wear this shirt.  Maybe,” he said as he flipped his nose against hers, “after everyone leaves tonight, I can wrap my arms around you and you can wrap your legs around me.”  Electricity shot through her body and concentrated between her legs.

 
  “You’re terrible,” she said as she rested her head against his chest.

 
  “Get it together, Babe.  Company is here,” he said, smiling at her, obviously really pleased with himself and the effect he was having on her.  She took a deep breath to steady herself and tried to think of really unsexy things and was interrupted by the sound of an angelic voice happily shouting from across the lawn.

 
  “Uncle Porter!”

 
  Ella watched as a little girl ran towards Porter, arms spread wide open, giggling and smiling.  When she made it to him he picked her up under her arms and swung her in wide circles, her feet floating out behind her, her stick-straight brown hair flying in the wind created by their twirling.  He must have spun her around twenty or more times and all Ella could see or hear was the smiles on their faces and the laughter coming from the little girl.  When he finally put her down he was obviously dizzy, but she was anxious for more.

 
  “Do it again!” she sweetly demanded.

 
  “Maybe in a few minutes, Joy.  I’m dizzy.”

 
  “Joy, if you break Uncle Porter your sister is going to be very angry with you.”  Ella turned and saw a couple approaching she assumed were the sweet girls’ parents.  The woman, who looked to be roughly the same age as Ella, held against her hip the most precious cherub-faced baby she'd ever seen.  The baby girl gripped her mother’s shirt looking around anxiously, but the tension faded from her face as soon as she laid eyes on Porter.  She began reaching for him, opening and closing her fists, asking for him to hold her.  He reached over and took the baby with ease, tossed her up in the air, making Ella’s eyes go wide with worry.  The baby, however, was having the time of her life, giggling as she flew up in the air and was caught in his strong hands.  Ella looked over at the mother, expecting her to be having some sort of panic attack.

 
  “Don’t worry, he won’t drop her,” she said to Ella with a confident smile.  “I’m Brook,” she said as she reached a hand out to her.  Ella took her hand and noticed that Brook had the softest looking ringlet curls framing her face.  She looked fresh, happy, and exuded friendliness.  Ella liked her instantly.

 
  “Hi, Brook, I’m Ella.”

 
  “It’s nice to finally meet you.  My husband and I have been waiting for a while for this.  We were starting to think that maybe you didn’t really exist,” she said laughing.

 
  “Are you kidding?”  She heard Porter say from behind her.  “I couldn’t imagine this perfection,” he said eyeing her.  Ella rolled her eyes and saw that Brook was doing the same thing.

 
 “Ella, this is Brook, Matt’s wife. Matt works on my team. I've told you about him. He’s my second in command, so to speak.  Ah, here he comes.” 

 
  Ella looked to where Porter’s eyes led her and saw a man walking towards them holding lawn chairs in both of his hands, somewhat struggling with the awkwardness of the large chairs, but with a determined look on his face.

 
  “Leave it to Porter to invite us over for a cookout but require manual labor in exchange for food,” the man said once he had put the chairs down at their feet.

 
 “Matt, this is Ella,” Brook said.

 
  “Nice to finally meet you,” he said shooting Porter a grin, as if he knew something she didn’t.

 
  “Likewise,” Ella answered hesitantly.

 
  “Uncle Porter,” Joy said softly while pulling on the hem of his shirt.

 
  “Yes?”

 
  “Is this the girl my mom says you’re gonna marry?”  Brook immediately grabbed her daughter and placed a hand over her mouth as the girl smiled, knowing she’d said something she shouldn’t have.

 
  “You.” Porter said pointing at Matt.  “Keep your women in line,” he said with a smile.

 
  “Hey,” Matt said holding up his hands as if in surrender.  “I’m outnumbered three-to-one.  Even the little one holds more rank than me.”

 
  Porter knelt down next to Joy, still holding on to the baby who looked right at home in his arms, and pinched her nose.  “Joy, this is my girlfriend, Ella.  She is very special to me and if you don’t behave I might have to throw away the cake we made for you.” 

 
  Joy’s eyes went wide and a smile spread across her face.  “I’ll be good,” she said excitedly and then ran away to play with the volleyball net.

 
  “I swear, eight-year-olds have the biggest mouths and no filters.  I’m sorry if she embarrassed you,” Brook said to Ella.

 
  “She’s fine,” Ella answered.  Her eyes were still drawn to the chubby-faced beauty clinging to Porter’s arms, obviously a baby after Ella’s own heart.  “Who is this little girl?”  Ella asked motioning towards the baby with the perfect blonde curls coming down the nape of her neck.

 
  “This is Faith,” Porter answered before anyone else could, his eyes shining with obvious love for the baby.  In that moment, Ella definitely felt her ovaries start to work overtime.  The ache that seems to form in some mythical place in her body where babies lay waiting to be made squeezed her heart.  Who would have thought that this strong man, who had no siblings, and seemed to lead such a solitary life, loved children?  And they seemed to love him back.  “I’ve worked with Matt since I started my business. I watched these two get married and have these beautiful girls.  I’m their honorary uncle,” he said with pride that radiated outwards, her ovaries clenching again.  She hadn’t been prepared to watch him sweetly interact with babies all day.

 
  “Your family is beautiful,” Ella said to Brook.

 
  “Thanks, we like them enough,” Brook joked as Matt laughed.  It was obvious she was in love with her children and Ella enjoyed the laid-back attitude she exuded, hoping one day to get some parenting pointers from her.  She had a feeling they could be great friends.

 
  Another car pulled into the driveway and Porter handed the baby back to her mother, much to Faith’s dismay.  He kissed her curly hair as he handed her off and then took Ella by the hand to meet his mother at her car.

 
  “Hey, Mom.  We’re so glad you could make it,” Porter said as he took some bags from his mother’s hands.

 
  “It’s the nation’s birthday.  I’ll be damned if I’ll sit behind a bar and serve drinks all day.”  Ella laughed, constantly entertained by Tilly’s antics.

 
  “Here, Ella, you might want to put this in the fridge.”

 
  “Ok, sure.  What is it?”  Tilly turned to her placing a round dish in her hands.

 
  “My cheesecake,” she said, smiling up at her. Memories flooded Ella’s mind, bringing her right back to her and Porter’s very first date.  Tilly’s cheesecake.  Ella could feel the flush coming over her face as she tried to push away the images of Porter nearly taking her on the couch in his living room.  Ella cleared her throat and tried to act nonchalant as she took the dessert from Tilly.

 
  “No problem,” she squeaked.  “I’ll just go put this away.”

 
  Ella hurried into the house, walking past the very couch that was being featured in her memory, set the cheesecake down on the counter, and tried to remain cool.  She startled when she felt hands wrap around her waist from behind.

 
  “Whatcha thinking about?”  Porter asked right into her ear, doing nothing but stoking the flames she was trying to extinguish.  The teasing tone of his voice made it obvious he knew exactly what was on her mind.

 
  She cleared her throat.  “Your mom brought cheesecake,” she said, trying to sound like she was talking about the weather.  “She wanted me to put it in the fridge.”

 
  “Hmm,” he said as he nuzzled into her neck.  “My mom makes the best cheesecake.”