Taking Shots (Assassins) Read online

“What? What happened?”

  “She came over Sunday, and we had a great time, until we started making out and then-“

  “Unky Shea, what’s making out?” Ryan asked. Both he and Grace looked over at Ryan; he was looking up at them with his big, blue, innocent eyes.

  “Um,” Shea stuttered.

  “I’ll tell you when you’re fourteen,” Grace said, and she looked up at Shea. “Keep going, but spell the words that we don’t want young ears to hear.”

  “Okay,” he laughed, “Well, I went to put my hand up her s-h-i-r-t,” Grace nodding approvingly, “and she freaked. Ran out crying. I don’t know what to do, she won’t answer my calls, only my texts and they are like ‘I’ll call you,’ but she never does. It’s been two days, Grace. Tomorrow is opening night, and I’m freaking out! And I never freak out!”

  “Okay, so you were f-o-o-l-i-n-g around and then when you tried to c-o-p a feel, she ran out like a bat out of h-e-l-l?”

  “Yes, and she was crying.”

  “Hm, I don’t know why she would do that?”

  “I don’t either! That’s why I came to you!”

  “Jeez, calm down, let me think,” Grace pleaded as she put her chin on her hand and thought. “Has she had any kids?” Shea thought for a moment.

  “Um, no I don’t think so; she says she wants kids in the future.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, has she been married?”

  “I don’t know, it hasn’t come up.”

  “What the h-e-l-l do you all talk about?”

  “Whatever comes up.”

  “Don’t you think you should have the exes talk?”

  “Yeah, but it just hasn’t came up.”

  “You’re hopeless. If she won’t answer your calls, then go to her. If you’re in her face, where can she to go?”

  This was a bad idea. Shea should have thought this out more instead of acting on impulse. It was close to eight and Elli still wasn’t home. Shea had called Jakob to ask Harper what Elli’s schedule was like and with his luck she should have been home by seven, since all she had was a birthday party at three, but she still wasn’t home. He was sitting in his truck because when he was sitting on the porch, Elli’s dog was barking it’s ass off and he felt bad, so he went back to his truck. He felt like he was already in hot water with Elli and he didn’t want to piss her off anymore.

  Shea leaned back in his seat, moving his arm around. Jakob had slammed him into the boards earlier that day and he was feeling it now. He checked his phone seeing that it was almost 8:30, and decided to give her until nine. If she wasn’t there, he would leave the roses he had gotten for her on the doorstep and drive home. He had to get up early for practice, and he had all kinds of PR before the game tomorrow.

  So he waited.

  And waited and waited.

  At nine, he couldn’t bring himself to leave, even when ten rolled around, he stayed where he was playing Angry Birds on his phone. He missed her a lot and if him being a little tired at practice would be the outcome of him waiting, then that’s what was going to happen.

  Shea was soon becoming angrier with every minute that passed. Where the hell was she? It was close to eleven and she still wasn’t home, was she out with another guy? Did she replace him that fast? He tried to distract himself with his game, but it wasn’t working. He found himself looking up, then to the clock, back to the road, then her driveway, just in case he missed the truck driving by him. He finally spotted her truck at eleven. She pulled into the driveway and he jumped out, roses in hand.

  Shea didn’t think she saw him; she was fully out the car, camera in hand, and still didn’t say anything as he walked up towards her. She looked beautiful. Her hair was up in a twist looking thing, she had on a pretty little blue dress that had yellow flowers all over it. She wore some sexy little heels and his mouth watered at the sight. Elli let out a little scream covering her heart with her hand when she turned.

  “Shea!”

  “Hey, Elli,” he answered shyly. He didn’t know why he was shy, shy wasn’t in his vocabulary, but there he was. It was disgusting , really. “These are for you,” he said quietly as he held out the roses. She looked down at them, then back at him, before taking them.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “I haven’t heard from you.”

  “I told you I was really busy, you didn’t have to drive all the way out here.”

  “I wanted to see you,” he answered, looking down at her. But she wouldn’t look at him, and it was driving him crazy being this close to her and not kissing her. He took a step closer to her and she looked up at him.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t called. I’ve been so busy,” she said, looking back down at the ground.

  “Well, I’m here now.”

  “You are, how long have you been waiting?”

  “Not long,” he lied. She smiled.

  “The party I was doing ran over, and then there was traffic on I-24.” Shea nodded, still looking at the top of her head since she wouldn’t look at him. They stood there for what seemed like forever, her looking down at the roses, while he stared at the top of her head.

  “So, are you blowing me off?” he finally asked. She looked up at him quickly and then shook her head. The breath that he was holding came out in a whoosh. That was reassuring.

  “I’m just embarrassed, Shea. I don’t know where to go from here.”

  He shrugged his shoulders, “Elli, I just want to see you, talk to you, be with you. I’m sorry if I did something wrong. I was caught up in the moment, I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry, Shea, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Then why did you run? Why haven’t I heard your voice in two days?” She shrugged her shoulders, turning to look at the house.

  “Would you like to go sit down? I gotta let my dog out.”

  “Sure.”

  Shea followed Elli up the little cobblestone path to her porch. She climbed up, opening the door to let her dog out. Shea tried not to laugh when he saw the porker of a dog running on four little legs, but it was hard and soon couldn’t contain himself.

  “I know you’re not laughing at my dog,” Elli warned, Shea smiled sweetly, bending down to pet to oversized pup.

  “Of course not,” he lied, running his big hand down the dog’s back. The dog had a goofy look on its face as he licked Shea’s hand. “How you doing, bud?” The dog let out a little bark and took off for the field by the house. He watched the dog for a moment and then looked up to where Elli was sitting on the steps. He gave her a small smile as he went and sat next to her. He tried to give her space, but he missed her so much, so he sat right beside her, his knee touching hers.

  “It’s late, Shea. I know you have practice in the morning,” she said as she watched her dog, not looking at him.

  “I don’t care. Like I said, I wanted to see you.”

  “You’re gonna be hurtin’ in the morning,” she mumbled just as the dog came barreling up the stairs to sit between her legs.

  “I know, but you’re worth it.” She looked over at him surprised. Had no one ever told her that? Why was it every time he said something nice to her, she looked at him like he was from a different planet?

  “Okay,” she said, kissing the dog’s head.

  “You still haven’t told me your dog’s name,” he pointed out; she looked back up at him.

  “Adler.”

  Shea just stared at her. Adler was his last name. Did she name the dog after him?

  “Adler?”

  “Yup,” she said nonchalantly as she kissed Adler’s head. She looked back over at him. “I’m gonna show you something. I think it will explain some of why I ran out the other day.” She reached into the sweater she had put on after going inside and pulled out a photo. She looked at him nervously before handing it to him. He took the photo from her, and looked at it.

  It was a younger picture of her, maybe eighteen or nineteen