She’s perfect.
I flicked my head in the direction of my truck. “She’s in the truck. We’re all just waiting on you Ells.”
“What, who?” A grin spread across her face. “Lawson Pierce, what are you up to?” I pulled her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head lightly.
God this feels right.
I released her and took her hand instead. “Why don’t you come and find out?” She looked like she wanted to argue, but instead let me lead her around to the passenger door. I swung it open and nodded at her. “Up you go.”
She gracefully climbed into the truck and gave a surprised gasp when she turned and saw who was waiting. “What the hell is going on in here?” She squeaked with excitement.
“I wanted to surprise you. These guys were kind enough to help me kidnap you for a couple of days.”
Her eyes widened. “A couple of days?”
Quinn piped up from the back seat. “We’re not coming back till Monday night, I’ve had West clear your schedule and everything else is all taken care of.”
“I can’t believe you guys did all this.” El looked back and forwards between us all. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you.” She beamed her breathtaking smile at me.
I moved to shut her door. “Shit! Wait, I need to go pack. Wait, where are we going?” She tried to climb back out of the truck.
I pushed her gently back in by her shoulders. “Oh no you don’t. It’s all done. We’ll buy you anything Quinn didn’t remember to pack.”
I saw her gape again and took advantage of her moment of surprise to shut the door and move around the truck to my door. I gave myself a mental fist pump for pulling this off in less than 12 hours – climbed in the truck and got ready to start what just might turn out to be the best weekend of my life.
***
I glanced over at El again and she smiled the same beautiful smile she had been giving me the whole trip.
That damn smile.
We had been on the road for a little over an hour and Ellerslie was starting to run out of guesses about our destination. I had shaken my head and laughed as they had become more and more ridiculous. Quinn and Colt had taken up a game of I spy in the back, and Reeve and Lisa were both asleep in the middle row – there were no prizes for guessing why the two of them were so tired today.
“Holy shit, I know where we’re going.” I quickly glanced over at Ellerslie. Her jaw was hanging open and she was looking at me with what could only be described as complete shock.
“And?” I prompted her.
“Do you listen to every little thing that I say?” She half whispered.
I looked at her with a frown. “Of course I do… I wouldn’t ask you questions if I wasn’t going to listen to the answers Ells. Trust me, you’re worth listening too.” I didn’t know how long it was going to take for me to get it through her head that she was worth it, but I was willing to put in the time.
“We’re going snowboarding aren’t we?”
I grinned. “You got it pretty girl. Took you long enough.”
“Lawson are you serious?” She squeaked. “I can’t believe you organised all of this. We only talked about this last night, and it was barely a passing comment… I just… I can’t believe you did all this.” Now I was getting worried that I had gotten it wrong. She looked completely bewildered, and when I risked another look at her face, I saw tears building in her eyes.
Oh hell no.
I reached over and laid my hand on her knee. “Ells, what’s wrong honey? I’m sorry if I got it wrong, I thought you’d enjoy -”
She squeezed my hand and interrupted my rambling. “No, Lawson. God no. It’s amazing. I just can’t believe you did all this for me, I’ve never had a man listen to me the way that you obviously do. It’s just… it’s really overwhelming that you would go to all this effort to include me in something you love doing. I really appreciate this… you have no idea.”
I blew out a shaky breath. God her tears had the ability to completely fuck me over. I was usually so sure of my ideas and plans – then again, I hardly ever did things in the spur of the moment as I was doing now.
Ellerslie Rush had me throwing all of my rules out the window.
I flipped my hand in hers and intertwined our fingers. It was an intimate gesture – much too intimate for two friends. She didn’t seem to mind and I sure as hell didn’t either. If I had things my way, I would be getting intimate with every single part of her.
“You don’t need to thank me Ells. I love that I’m getting your company for the weekend. As long as you have a good time, that’ll be all the thanks that I need. Besides, I’m really looking forward to seeing you on a board.”
She began slowly running her thumb up and down the side of my hand. “You know I’m probably not going to be any good right? You can just stick me on the baby slope with an instructor. I don’t want to ruin your trip.” She crinkled up her nose in that sweet little way she was so good at.
No way in hell.
I could already imagine the vultures getting their hands on Ellerslie. I had seen the way some of the male instructors interacted with women learning how to board and ski. Hands lingered a little too long… words were whispered a little too closely.
Yip, no way in fucking hell.
“There is no way I’m dumping you and going off Ells – you can lose that thought from that pretty little head of yours right now.” I think I managed to keep the protective edge from my voice, but the words came out in a panicked rush.
Get a grip man.
“Can I be honest?” She asked.
“Always.”
“I was really hoping you’d say that.” She gave me a huge smile and did a little excited jiggle in her seat. “Eeeeek I’m so excited.” I knew in that moment that I would do whatever it took to see that look in her eyes, for as long as she’d let me.
“So you finally figured it out huh?” Quinn called from the back.
“It didn’t take me that long bitch.” El threw back, loosening the hold she had on my hand as she turned to look at Q – I took that as my cue to put both hands back on the steering wheel.
I thought I heard Quinn mutter something about me jumping through hoops for El, but I choose to ignore her.
She’ll keep.
“Holy hell Q, I’m so excited! I can’t wait to see you tear it up.”
Quinn’s laughter filled the car. “Don’t put me on a pedestal too early girl, I haven’t skied in a looooong ass time.”
I snorted. “Are you still pushing that speech Q?” I nudged Ellerslie so she would look back at me again. “You should have seen her when we were younger, she’d hang around the chair lift, looking like a lost little puppy. Some poor young mug would take pity on her and offer to buy her a drink and offer some ski tips. Next thing they knew she would ski off like a pro, throwing a thank you over her shoulder.” I laughed at the memory. “That’s if she wasn’t hustling some stuck up preppy kid out of their lunch money.”
El busted out laughing and Quinn yelled at me. “Fuck you Lawson. That is not even what happened.” I caught Quinn’s eye in the rear view mirror and we both erupted into laughter.
My little sister the hustler.
***
“Ten more minutes according to the GPS.” El called back to the others. Everyone was getting a bit restless. It was still pretty early, but I knew everyone was itching to get on the slopes. We were planning to make a quick stop in at the house we were borrowing from Tyler, one of my architects. He was a top guy, and he hadn’t hesitated to let me use the place his family owned for the next couple of days.
A few minutes later we pulled up to the large white front gates. “This is it.”
I lowered my window and punched in the code Tyler had given me – we pulled in as the gate swung open. The driveway was long and winding, and the lawn was covered in snow. The huge white two-story house came into view as we cleared the line of snow-coated trees alongside the driveway.
> “Holy. Fucking. Shit.”
I snorted at Ellerslie’s statement. “You kiss your momma with that mouth?”
El huffed out a laugh. “Sorry. But shit that’s a nice place.”
I had to agree with her. I actually knew just how nice it was, considering my company had built it about three years ago. I decided a little bragging might be called for. “It really is. It’s actually one of my favourite builds so far.”
I couldn’t help the smug smirk on my face as I watched her jaw drop. “Shut up. You built that?”
“Well… Not single-handed. But yeah, my company built this beauty.”
She turned to face me as I pulled the truck to a stop outside the front door. Her face was lit up and her eyes danced with excitement. “I think I’ve severely underestimated exactly what you’re capable of cowboy.” She gave me a flirty smile before Quinn interrupted the moment with her usual no bullshit attitude.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s fantastic, blah, blah. Let’s go inside.”
27. Ellerslie
This whole morning was a whirlwind. I don’t think it was so much the day, as it was Lawson.
He was a whirlwind.
He had turned my world completely upside down and I found myself fumbling around, trying to remember which way was up. It was exciting, nerve-wracking and exactly what I needed. I had no idea how I would be able to return the favour to him for doing all of this for me, but I was determined to try.
“Holy crap.”
“Ah. Yeah.” Lisa replied. “Please tell me you don’t all own mansions like this.”
I shook my head. “Na ah.”
“Well, not all of us.” Quinn muttered under her breath.
Lisa, Quinn and I stood staring at the massive entrance. The boys had insisted that they would get the bags from the truck, and I wasn’t going to argue. It was freezing out there. This place must have had staff here at some point, as the lights were all on and the heating had been switched on too, making the space toasty and warm. I was incredibly grateful to whoever had organised that for us.
A cold blast of air slapped me in the face as the boys barged through the door, carrying two cases each.
“There’s four bedrooms so Lisa and Reeve, you guys are together. And if Ells and Quinn want to share too?” Lawson turned to us in question.
“Just show us the way.” Quinn replied.
I hadn’t even had a chance to think about sleeping arrangements for the trip, but I was relieved to hear that I was sharing with Q. And if I was being honest, I was also glad that Colt and Lawson would both have their own rooms. It would make things a lot less awkward if Quinn decided to spend the night in Colt’s bed.
Or if I end up in Lawson’s.
I tried to push the thought away as quickly as it had come. That was definitely not what I needed to be thinking about. But watching his huge shoulders and arms flex with the weight of both mine and Quinn’s suitcases was making it difficult as hell.
Once we were all settled into our huge bedrooms – which of course all had their own bathrooms, we headed back down to the kitchen to make a plan for the day. It was approaching 10.00am and we were all getting hungry.
“Oh my god.” I moaned as I looked around. “This kitchen is perfect.”
“And even more importantly it’s full of food.” Quinn called as she rummaged in the giant pantry.
Marble tops? High-end appliances? Flawless style? Check.
This house was perfection. It was effortlessly elegant and timeless. It was a match of modern and antique – completely my style. I knew if I ever were to build a home, it would look a lot like the beautiful house I stood in right now.
Lawson threw an arm casually around my shoulders. Just like the other times he touched me, my skin tingled and my stomach fluttered. I looked up at him and found him smiling down at me. “I thought you might like this place.”
I found myself grinning back at him like a fool. On the one hand, I was thrilled that he was so close to me, touching me. But on the other hand, the casual contact felt a lot like I was entering the friend zone.
“Like it? Lawson it is perfect.” I replied. “I would love to have a home like this one day.” I added in a whisper so low he probably didn’t even hear. I watched as something passed over his facial features, but it was too quick for me to catch the meaning.
“Let’s hit the slopes already. I’m dying to see if I still have it.” Quinn called from inside the pantry.
Lawson turned my body towards his. “Are you ready Ells? I’m gonna work you hard.” He said with a wink.
I spat out a laugh at his blatant innuendo and decided to have a little fun. I stepped forward into him so I was just ever so slightly pressed up against his body. I bit down on my lip in what I hoped was a sexy way. “I’m counting on it cowboy. God knows I like it hard.”
28. Lawson
Damn Ellerslie.
Here I was thinking I had the upper hand – she was in love with the house, I could tell by the gaga eyes she kept making at everything. She was so excited that I’d planned this all for her to experience. And hearing her talk about wanting a house like this one day… I’d be more than willing to give her whatever she wanted.
I’d had the upper hand.
Then all it took were a few whispered words and a brush of her body against mine… and bam – upper hand relinquished to Ellerslie Rush.
I am so fucked.
“It is a frightening thought, that in one fraction of a moment you can fall in the kind of love that takes a lifetime to get over.”
- Beau Taplin
29. Quinn
“You little hussy.” I whispered to El as I pinched her ass – it was the first moment we’d had alone since we had left the house.
“Ah! Bitch!” She swatted my hand away. “What’d I do?”
I laughed again at what I’d witnessed in the kitchen – El didn’t know I’d seen, but that little boob brush had got my brother all screwed up. It was hilarious. He needed taking down a few pegs, and it seemed my best friend was going to be the one to do it.
“I saw you pull that move in the kitchen. Lawson looked like he wanted to tap your sexy ass right then and there.”
El laughed at my teasing. “What can I say?” She shrugged. “I learnt from the best.” She winked at me and bumped her elbow against mine.
She wasn’t wrong. She’d been watching me for years. I was a flirt and a bloody good one – I freaking loved it.
A girl needs to have a little fun every now and then.
I looked around the snowy slope and a burst of excitement shot through me. I really had missed being here. It had been way to long since I’d dusted off the skis and ripped up some fresh powder. I was good – I knew I was. I’d considered training and competing professionally, but I’d eventually decided that other parts of my life were more important. It was the best decision I ever made, it led me to my job, and that led me to El – the best friend I’d ever had. She was my person. The person I call when I have news, heartbreak, or when I need a shopping and ice cream fix. She’s always there, three in the morning, or the middle of the day.
She’s always there.
El was nervous, she was all twitchy and her eyes were constantly darting around, taking everything in.
“So are you freaking out over the boarding? Or is it my brother that has you all tied up in knots?” I smirked.
“I forget you see right through me.” Ellerslie grumbled. “I’m not sure. I mean, it’s totally the boarding. I’m gonna fall on my face Q. But holy shit… I know he’s your brother, but god he is something else.” She sighed in a dreamy kind of way. “This whole weekend? Who does that for a person they barely know? I’m just so out of my league here.”
“This isn’t like him, you know that right? I haven’t seen him make an effort in a whole lot of years. He never, and I mean never, chases women. He just doesn’t give a fuck. I think they see it as part of his charm, you know? Like they might be the one to ch
ange him.” I rolled my eyes.
Stupid women.
“But he’s different since he met you.” I looked over and met her big blue eyes. “He’s obsessive with you. He just drinks it all in when you speak. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could remember everything you’ve ever said to him.” I nudged her arm lightly. “ And you’re not out of your league El. I don’t think that would even be possible.” I wanted to tell her to stop being so bloody stupid, but the scared, insecure expression she wore stopped me from being too hard on her.
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