Taking Shots (Assassins)

by Toni Aleo

  The rest of the dinner was awesome; they talked about hockey, about the kids, and about Shea leaving tomorrow, which Elli really didn’t like talking about. Elli helped Grace with the dishes as Shea and James went to play with Ryan outside, hockey, of course. Elli was washing a dish and watching Shea slap shot a puck at his brother-in-law when Grace walked up beside her.

  “He likes you, you know.” Elli looked over at Grace. Every time she looked at Grace she saw how much she and Shea looked alike. They had the exact same eyes, and nose, except Grace’s didn’t have a bump, same hair, and same cheek bones, everything was the same. Grace was a beautiful woman, while Shea was a gorgeous man.

  “You think so?”

  “Oh, I know so. I’ve hear about you every time I call him.” Elli smiled, looking back down at the dishes, “I like you, too, Elli, a lot.”

  “Aw, thanks Grace. I just adore you and your family.”

  Grace smiled warmly, “I’m glad, but let me tell you, don’t hurt my brother.” Elli looked up quickly, shaking her head.

  “I never would think of it.”

  “Good, I didn’t think you would, but he seems smitten with you, and that scares me, considering he never has been, smitten, I mean.”

  “Grace, I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t been with anyone in six years, so for me to be with Shea is a huge step. I promise I will not hurt him.”

  “Good.”

  Just then the guys came in, and Grace put on a huge smile. “Have fun, big guy?” she asked, kissing Ryan’s cheek.

  “I did, momma! Unky gave daddy a bruise.”

  Grace shot Shea a look while he shrugged, “He got in the way.”

  “I did not! You aimed for me!” James complained, showing off a nasty bruise on his bicep.

  “Shea!”

  “What, Grace, he’s fine. Right, Ryan?”

  “Yup, no crying in hockey, daddy,” Ryan said simply, causing everyone to laugh.

  Having Elli at his sister’s house was amazing. Having all the people he cared for under one roof was awesome, and fulfilling all at the same time. Leaving tomorrow would suck, but at least he would have this moment to warm him at night when he was alone on the road. Grace and James walked them out, and when Grace wrapped her arms around Shea, she kissed his cheek before whispering in his ear.

  “I think so.”

  “Huh?” He asked pulling back, looking down at his best friend, his twin.

  “What we talked about earlier? I think so.”

  When it clicked in Shea’s head that Grace was basically telling him that he was in love with Elli, they were already on the road, going back to his house. It hit him like a ton of bricks, and he actually veered off the road a little, but regained control when Elli let out a screech.

  “Sorry, babe.” Elli just smiled shaking her head as they pulled into his driveway, beside her truck. They sat in the truck for a moment, not moving. “Can I ask you a favor, babe?” Elli looked over at Shea, with a small smile on her face.

  “Sure.”

  “Will you stay?”

  “My bag is in the truck.” He smiled, leaning over and kissing her before jumping out to help her out. She grabbed her bag and followed him upstairs.

  After showering, Elli laid in bed watching Shea pack.

  “I’m such a procrastinator,” he said with a grin, she smiled.

  “You just don’t want to go,” Elli teased. He smiled.

  “You are right,” he said with a wink as he closed up the last of his suitcases, he would only be gone for five days, but still it felt like a life time.

  “Where’s your bag?”

  “They already have it at the rink.” She nodded as he climbed into bed beside her.

  “Why does Ryan call you Unky?” Elli asked as she laid across Shea’s chest, looking down at him. He moved his hand through her hair, cupping her face.

  “This girl I was with last year told Ryan he had a Hunky Unky, and he’s been saying Unky ever since. Luckily he dropped the hunky, that would be awkward.” Elli giggled as he smiled, closing her eyes as she leaned her face in his hand. “You know we haven’t done that whole exes talk.”

  Her eyes flew open, “Do we need too?”

  “I would feel better if I knew some of your past.” She bit her lip, looking down at his shirt.

  “Okay.”

  “Have you ever been married?”

  “Nope, have you?”

  “You are the first girlfriend of my adult life, no.” Elli laughed.

  “True.”

  “Have you been with a lot of men?”

  Elli shook her head, “No, even when I was super skinny, I was really weird about who I dated. I’ve only had sex with four men.” Shea looked away, completely embarrassed, “I know you’ve been with more Shea; it’s okay.”

  “Yeah, so anyway, have you ever loved any of them?”

  “I thought I loved the last one, but I learned later that I didn’t.”

  “How?”

  “When we broke up, I didn’t cry. I didn’t even feel anything but relief.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah, have you loved anyone?”

  “Nope, never. In high school I had the puppy love, but I’ve never loved a woman. I just used them I guess.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’m not using you, though,” he said quickly since she made a face, but she smiled, smacking his chest.

  “I know,” she said with a shake of her head, “But I need to tell you something, Shea.”

  “What?”

  “I haven’t been with anyone since that last guy.”

  “Okay?”

  She bit her lip again, and messed with the bottom of his shirt. “That was six years ago.”

  “Say what?” Elli turned bright red; even her eyebrows were red. “You haven’t had sex in six years?”

  She shook her head, still not making eye contact. “I was really big Shea, and guys didn’t want me, so when I lost a lot of the weight, I figured guys still didn’t want me, until you.”

  “Come on, I know guys hit on you, babe, all the guys at the party said you were hot.”

  “Well, yeah, but I didn’t believe that they really liked me. You on the other hand, are very persistent.” He smiled, moving his fingers through her hair.

  “Well, good thing for me, huh?”

  “Yeah,” she said with a nod, “You think I’m a freak, huh?”

  “Not at all,” he pulled her closer to him, “So since we’re done with that, come here and kiss me.” She complied, bringing her lips to his for a long lusty kiss. He laid her back, his body of top of hers, her legs on either side of him, kissing down her neck, then back up. He kissed back up her jaw, letting their lips meet again for another long kiss. Her hands came up his sides, cupping his neck, then his face. He parted taking a deep breath, looking down at her beautiful round face, the puffy pink lips that were kissing the crap out of him.

  “Jesus, El, you drive me nuts.” She gave him a little half smile, pulling him back down for another kiss. He could feel the heat from between her thighs, so he knew she was hot, just like he was, but just like the last time, when he went to put his hand under her shirt, she freaked, moving out from underneath him.

  “Don’t you have to leave early tomorrow? Shouldn’t we go to sleep? Yeah, I think so,” she said so quickly his head spun. She went under the covers, and gave him a small smile. “Can you hold me again?” she asked in a small voice. Shea exhaled loudly, and ran his hands through his hair, but he nodded, wrapping his arms around her, holding her tight against him.

  “Sorry if I poke you,” he whispered in her ear with a chuckle. She giggled.

  “I like it,” she whispered after a few moments, he smiled, and pressed himself harder against her. Her soft curves felt great under his hands, and her butt cushioned his hard on perfectly. He was in heaven, so he closed his eyes, and the next thing he knew, he was out.

  Elli leaned against the truck, watching Shea load his truck u
p with his bags. Yeah, it sucked, and next month she would have to say bye for the whole month. Of course, she had to break her years of no dating to date a guy that would be gone a lot.

  Wonderful.

  “I don’t like that look on your face, baby,” he said. She didn’t even realize he was watching her, she smiled, and he returned it. “I like that better.” He pinned her against the truck, nuzzling her neck, causing her to giggle. Shea wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. She closed her eyes as she held on to him. Gosh, she didn’t want him to go.

  “I don’t want you to leave,” she whispered. He smiled against her neck, placing a soft kiss against it.

  “I wish I could take you with me, you can’t quit for a couple months?” She laughed, kissing his neck before he pulled back to look down at her.

  “I would never quit, I love my job, the same way you would never quit.”

  “True, so we’ll have to settle with Skype and phone calls?”

  “And texts,” Elli added with a grin, he grinned back, kissing her softly.

  “It’s just a week.”

  “But next month, it will be a month.”

  “True, but we’ll be fine. I promise.” Elli smiled at the grin on his face, then kissed him long and hard. He kissed her twice more before backing away, kissing her palms before walking away. She watched as he walked to his truck, got in, and started it. Without ‘goodbye’ leaving either their lips, he waved, and she waved back as he drove off. When she felt the single tear fall down her cheek, she became disgusted with herself and jumped in the truck. It wasn’t like he was crying, or anything. He was good, he was used to this. He was used to the goodbyes, but she wasn’t, and she didn’t know how she was going to deal with it.

  Chapter 12

  Elli missed Shea.

  She missed him a lot.

  Shea called every chance he got, but she was only four days in, and she was lonely. Elli tried to stay busy with the weddings she had and the baby showers, but nothing seemed to take her mind off the fact that Shea was not in the same state as her. He couldn’t just walk in with that goofy smile on his face, bringing her food or just to give her a kiss. Nope, he was in another state, kicking ass.

  The Assassins had won Tuesday’s night’s game. Elli had sat at the house, cheering them on, and she swore that Shea would look in the camera just for her, and when she told him that after the game, he laughed saying he had hoped she noticed. Things were so great between them, even with him gone; he was just as amazing as he was when he was home. Elli smiled at the thought of his grin as he laughed; it was always so big, so full of life. She missed seeing it.

  God, she was pathetic.

  She was sitting at her desk, returning phone calls for appointments, and to schedule consultations when her phone rang, she looked at the display seeing it was her daddy, Michael.

  “Daddy!” she gushed, moving some windows around on her computer, “How are you!”

  “Elli bug, I’m good darling, haven’t heard from you this week.”

  “I know, I’m sorry, I’ve been terribly busy.”

  “So I hear, the Adam’s wedding you just did, that was one of my old college friends’ daughter. She was the bride.”

  “Oh, really? Small world!”

  “It is. He had nothing but good to say about you. He went out of his way to call me.”

  “How nice, that makes my day brighter.” Michael chuckled as Elli finished with a couple of orders that were pending on her website.

  “So I was calling because your mother is on me like white on rice about this family dinner with this man you are dating.”

  “Oh God, really? I thought maybe she forgot,” Elli groaned.

  Daddy laughed, “No honey, the grandbabies came home saying you were open mouth kissing with Shea Adler. Even if it wasn’t him, I’m pretty sure your mother would be on a mission. We haven’t met anyone since Justin.”

  “There hasn’t been anyone,” Elli added, as she pulled up her email, glancing at a few things, “No big deal, Shea comes home Friday, I’ll ask him.”

  “So it is Shea Adler?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How did y’all meet?”

  “When I did the team-shoot for Uncle Bryan.”

  “That’s nice, is it serious?”

  “Yeah, it’s been almost three weeks, he’s amazing, daddy, just amazing.”

  “I’m happy for you, Elli bug. After Justin I didn’t think you would recover.”

  “Me neither, daddy, but Shea, he’s just…” Elli thought for a moment, a contiguous grin going across her face, “He makes me feel…..”

  “Wonderful, so, I will expect to meet him sometime this month?”

  “Yes, daddy,” Elli said with a groan. He laughed, telling her how much he loved her before hanging up. Elli smiled down at the phone after she hung up. Harper walked in, falling face first into the couch that sat in her office. Elli looked over at her, noticing Harper’s hair was her normal brown this week, before raising an eyebrow.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?’ Elli asked, hanging up the phone and clicking a few things on her computer.

  “I miss sex!” Elli rolled her eyes, moving some paperwork around, fixing the pictures of her nieces and nephews on her desk.

  “What do you mean? You can have sex with anyone.”

  Harper sat up quickly, looking over at Elli, her eyes looking crazed. Elli moved her chair back just a little, trying to put distance between them, “If you laugh, tell anyone, or even smile, I’ll throw something at you.”

  “Okay?”

  “I miss sex with Jakob, I miss….him.” Elli tried so hard not to smile, but her eyes lit up as she covered her mouth, trying to keep the “aw” in.

  “Oh,” she muttered through her hands.

  “I’ve never had this problem, but that damn Russian brought his big ole penis into bed with me and now no other man even measures up! I miss my Jakey!” And with that Harper started to cry. Elli pushed her chair back more, scared shitless. Was this for real? “I don’t know what my problem is. I never get like this with guys, but I just miss him, you know? Don’t you miss Shea?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Elli scoffed, “but I’m in a relationship with him.”

  “Well, yeah, but I mean, I don’t know! I just miss Jakob.”

  Elli had to smile. She was so sweet and clueless. She was hopelessly in love with Jakob and she didn’t even know it.

  “You’re smiling,” Harper said, putting her face in the pillow. Elli just grinned, leaning back in her chair. She watched Harper hit the pillow a few times before hearing her computer ding, signaling an email. She leaned back up to the computer, hitting her mail, to see the message was from Shea. She smiled big, opening the email titled “thinking of you.”

  Hey you,

  So I’ve been listening to that music you like…country…and well I don’t know if you’ve heard this song, but it made me think of you, so here is the video.

  I miss you, babe.

  Shea.

  Elli smiled, and clicked on the video, Lady Antebellum, ‘Just a Kiss’ video started playing. The song was about a kiss being enough, that they didn’t need anything else, they didn’t want to move too fast, keep things slow. She smiled as she watched the trio sing, she loved this song, but never thought of it in regard to their relationship. Gosh, he was amazing. She typed him back a little message, telling him thank you, then went to her phone carrier’s site, and downloaded the song for her ringtone when he called. She smiled as she thought that it was their song now.

  She had a song, with Shea.

  Elli debated with herself for over thirty minutes before just doing what she knew was best. That was going to Shea’s for the night, since Harper was at her moms, and it was almost Midnight. Elli just knew she couldn’t make it home. She pulled into Shea’s driveway and grabbed her bag from the back before locking the doors and heading up the stairs to his door. She dug his key out of her purse, and put it in the lo
ck, unlocking the door. She made sure to lock the door, and turned on some lights as she made her way through the living room.

  Elli headed back to his bedroom, where she laid her bag on the bench at the end of the bed. She looked around the large room as she undid the buckles on her heels. The room seemed so much bigger when Shea wasn’t there. Gosh, she missed him. She finished undressing before putting on her favorite shirt, his old AHL tee. After washing up in the bathroom, she went back out to the living room to get her movie so she could fall asleep. Since, apparently, the only time she didn’t need the movie was when she slept with Shea.

  Pathetic, she knows.

  Elli looked through his movie collection, which was massive, before grabbing the Pride and Prejudice movie she had gotten him. She shut the doors to the cabinet, and turned to go back to the Shea’s bedroom when she saw out the corner of her eye, some photo albums sitting under a wall table. She had never noticed the table before, so she stepped closer to see a picture of Shea and Grace when they were younger, then another when they had graduated high school, one of them at what appeared to be Grace’s wedding with James, and then the two of them, when the kids were born.

  Shea loved Grace so much, it was sweet. There was a picture of him and Grace with two older people that Elli assumed were his parents. They all had the same smile, big and beautiful. His father was just as handsome as his son; his mother was beautiful, with the exact same dimple on the right side of her face. Elli smiled, looking closer at the picture before she noticed another picture; it was the one of her at the park that he had taken on their first date. She picked it up, looking at herself sipping on her Starbucks. The picture was classy, so pretty, and it just blew her mind that he had it framed and it was in his house.

  Wow.

  Elli put the picture down and got a bottle of water before heading back into the room to go to sleep. After putting the DVD on and shutting the door, she crawled onto her side of the bed and cuddled in. The bed was huge without a 6’3” man beside her. Shea would be home the next day, but it wasn’t coming quick enough in her opinion. The Assassins had lost that night. He was a little bummed when she talked to him, and she tried to cheer him up, but he said nothing would cheer him up until he was able to kiss her again.