Page 8 of Hogging the Hunk
“My friend said if you ever need to talk to anyone, she’d be happy to help answer questions.” I stood up and shook my coveralls off my ankles. Picking up the soiled clothing from the floor, I shot it into the washing machine, using the open lid as a backboard.
“Wait a minute. She?”
“Well, yeah. That’s how she could give a thumbs up to all this stuff. I don’t know a lot of guys who would have much helpful insight on these products.”
In my head, imaginary Beckett shot me a cheesy grin and gave an enthusiastic double thumbs up. She was so realistic, I could visualize her down to the spray of freckles across her nose so small they looked like they’d been painted on with the tip of a pin.
Why am I capable of so acutely remembering Beckett?
“A girl? Who’s a friend?” Ellie folded her arms, and I braced myself for a lecture from a teenager. “She’s not your actual girlfriend, is she? You won’t spring on me that you’re in a committed relationship and—surprise!—she’s going to be my stepmother, who I’ll learn to adore as much as you do, are you?”
I let out a bountiful laugh. “Wow. That’s quite the imagination you have in that head of yours. Been watching too many princess movies lately?”
“No. Those are for babies.”
Picking up the rest of the groceries, I hauled them to the kitchen. Digging the ice cream out of their bags, I put them away first. They were already feeling squishy and melty. “I can’t guarantee that I won’t ever fall for someone, though I won’t make any major life changes without your approval, alright?”
“You promise?”
“Right now, it’s you and me against the world, kid.”
Worry etched lines into Ellie’s face. It pained me to see them there. She was too young to have permanent evidence of anxiety. A hard rock landed in my stomach, knowing that the person I was before her existence changed me, had been a contributing factor to the turbulence in her childhood. For that, I would do everything in my power to see that nothing would concern her, including any unpredictable emotions that might catch me unaware.
Not even Beckett could tempt me. Not that she was interested. Beckett still hadn’t severed her ties with Greg. Therefore, there was nothing between Beckett and I to even suppress.
“Alright.” The stiffness in Ellie’s shoulders receded, and she took her bags upstairs to her bathroom while I put things away, leaving out the ingredients for shish kabobs. With the winding down of summer and cooler nights already sneaking up on Button Blossom, I was going to take advantage of grilling for as long as the weather would allow.
Who was I kidding? I’d grilled in a blizzard before. It was merely more pleasant to grill when snow wasn’t lashing my face.
When Ellie reappeared, she slid onto a bar-height stool at the island and watched me cut up a bell pepper. “What are we having?”
“Shish kabobs. Ever had them before?”
“Nope.”
“It’s meat and veggies on a skewer, and then I grill them all together. Oh, and pineapple. Can’t forget the pineapple.”
Ellie wrinkled her nose like I’d just told her I’d be feeding her dog food for supper. “Pineapple?”
“Trust me. Grilled pineapple is key to kicking this meal up a notch.”
“If you say so.” Her sigh was less than enthusiastic.
Ellie watched me work and when I invited her to help me assemble everything onto the skewers, she hopped off her stool and walked around the counter to join me. With her hands occupied, every thought that came into her head tumbled right out of her mouth and though I had little to contribute to her one-sided, stream-of-consciousness conversation, I immensely enjoyed the life Ellie brought into my once-empty home. Even as a staunch introvert, there was only so much alone time I needed.
“It sounds like your grandma got you all signed up for school,” I said, washing off my hands and wiping our mess off the counter. “Did you meet anyone at orientation?”
“There were tons of kids crowding me.”
“Oh, yeah?”
She played it off like the thought of being popular bored her, though I could tell it meant a lot that she had been noticed. “It’s because I’m the new girl. If all the other kids were crows, and I was a shiny scrap of aluminum foil, they’d rip me to shreds all trying to get a piece of me.”
“Your analogy is very descriptive.” Laughing, I walked through the back door, which Ellie held open for me. “It’s hard being in high demand, huh?”
“It’s fine. This school doesn’t seem like it’s as bad as I thought it would be.” She leaned against the deck railing while I lit the grill.
“It can be an adjustment moving to a small town. Button Blossom is as cute as they come, though.” Stealing a glance at her, I tried to mind read so I wouldn’t have to ask the questions I wanted to know the answers to. Would Ellie be happy here? Did she want to stay with me? Since my courage was on a temporary hiatus, I took a roundabout way to find out. “Is everything else going alright?”