by Natalie Ann
This time she laughed. “Would you really? I’ve never been much into violence, especially since my brothers seemed to always threaten any boys I liked growing up. But that statement makes me grin more than cringe.”
“When I date, I’m exclusive,” he said firmly.
“Don’t worry about me. Remember, I haven’t dated in years. I’m exclusive, or I’d have to do some rearranging of some faces myself.”
“Then I’ll leave it up to you on how to handle it with your family,” he said.
“Since it’s only been two dates, I think it’s safe to just let it go for now. Though I would like another date if you’re interested.”
“I am. Do we need to set a length of time or a number of dates before we officially go public?”
“That would be the smart thing to do, wouldn’t it?”
“I was joking,” he said, shaking his head. He was going to have to work on her sense of humor some more.
“Oh. Well then, let’s just play it by ear.”
“I can do that. You’ve got such cute ears I could play with too.”
Ella Fierce actually blushed.
Interfering Ways
They’d been dating for almost two weeks now and no one seemed to have a clue about it. Ella was kind of surprised about that and realized that no one was watching her life as much as she thought they were.
Of course it’s not like she and Travis were really dating all that much that there was even a change in her routine for anyone to notice.
They’d had those two dates, two days in a row, then the following Sunday he’d shown up to change the cameras around and she was there bright and early waiting for him.
She’d almost shown up in jeans but told herself that would be crazy. She was who she was and though he liked to see her dressed casually, she put nice pants and a cozy sweater on with heels. Not that anyone would have seen her if she did come in wearing yoga pants and a T-shirt, nor would anyone dare comment on it. But she liked to dress up and she was doing what she liked.
When he’d finished moving the cameras around, he’d made his way to her office and popped his head in, a big smile on his face making her send him one in return.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Morning.” Her eyes moved up and down the length of him. Blue jeans and a white shirt. “Guess you weren’t out late breaking and entering last night?”
He moved forward and sat in the chair in front of her desk, putting one foot up on his knee. “Nope. I don’t do that often, if you must know. Just a few times a year. No need to be worried about me.”
“I’m not worried at all,” she’d said. “You told me you can take care of yourself and I believe it.”
“Good to know. So, how about getting some lunch or dinner when you’re done working?”
“I can do that.” And they did. They went and had a late lunch when she’d known none of her family would wonder where she might be. She stayed at work long enough that Nic and Aiden came in together and saw her, talked to her, and then she left.
But another four days had gone by and they’d yet to even plan a fourth date. She was wondering what could be going on. It’s not like he didn’t kiss her senseless before he left her house after lunch.
Or that she didn’t yank him forward and do the same on more than one occasion, letting him know that she would have been okay with more than just a kiss.
Only he left and said he’d talk to her soon.
Guess his soon and hers weren’t the same and she’d repeatedly told herself to not get worked up over it. That though she was a planner, she had to let go of that right now. She had to stop trying to put everything in its place and getting frustrated when it didn’t go the way she’d assumed it would in her mind.
Except here she was, years without a man’s touch, and now that she was getting some mighty fine lip action she realized she wanted the rest of the cake to go with the frosting that she stole with her finger in the corner of the kitchen where no one would see what she was doing.
Everyone thought her mother was sneaky, but she had her mother beat.
There was a knock at her door just now, so she looked up expecting to see an employee there, only it was her father.
“Ella, darling, how’s my girl?”
She smiled wide. People thought she never smiled much, but she always did around her father.
Where the boys were close to her mother, she was by far the biggest daddy’s girl going.
“I’m doing good, Dad. What brings you by?”
“I heard what your mother did at the mall and I wanted to see how you were doing.”
She snorted out a laugh. “That was a few weeks ago. I’m just fine.”
She was more than fine. Thanks to her mother’s interfering ways and her brother’s comments, she finally worked up the courage to approach Travis.
To push aside the scars so deep from her past that she could almost taste them when it came time to talk to a man for anything other than business. Everyone had skeletons and hers were staying locked away in the closet where no one—no one—would ever know of her humiliation and mortification.
For years, just the thought of approaching a man made her bolt in the other direction. Or if one started talking to her, she brought out her ice-cold tone and stare and froze them like the wicked witch in Snow White.
“I told your mother that you don’t need a man in your life. You’re just great on your own.”
“That’s right, Dad. You taught me to be completely independent and not rely on anyone. Thanks for that.”
She was still smiling, but his dropped. She wondered what that was all about. “Well now, you don’t always have to be so independent though either. Your mother is a prime example of one of the strongest women I know and yet we’ve been happily married for over thirty-seven years.”
“I don’t need to lose my independence for a man, nor will I ever allow that to happen.”
“That’s my girl. So your mother hasn’t been bugging you since that one time?” he asked, walking forward and sitting across from her. She saved her work and leaned back in her chair. Looked like her father wanted to chat.
“She gave me the number of some guy a few days ago.”
“Did you call that person?” he asked, his head tilted, a smirk on his lips.
“Nope. I dropped it right in the trash after she walked out of the office.”
“Always were a feisty one. I’m surprised you didn’t do it while she was in your office.”
“I was te—” She looked down when she heard her phone ding. She’d recognized the tone. It was Travis asking about her day. Even though they hadn’t seen each other in days, they always had some form of communication. She looked back at her father and finished her sentence. “I was tempted, but she knows my feelings on this. Why throw it in her face so blatantly?”
He laughed. “She would have done that if she were in your shoes.”
“She would have and I think she expected that from me. Why give her what she wants either? I bet it frustrated her that I didn’t react the way she wanted.”
“You always were smarter than your mother gave you credit for.”
“Now you’re just being sweet on me like you always are. Keep it up, I like being complimented like that.”
“Ella, my dear. There is more to you than smarts and you know it.”
“You make sure you tell that to the man that steals my icicle of a heart someday,” she said, having fun with his conversation and knowing she had a man right now she was hoping would melt her heart to a puddle on the floor. One she was willing to allow that to happen with at some point.
Just not right yet. She wasn’t ready to even consider opening herself up this soon. The possibility was there and that was more than she’d given another man in a long time.
Rather than chastise her, her father laughed. “You like to play that up too, but we know you’re far from cold. Just shy with it.”
“I don’t
have a shy bone in my body,” she argued.
“Really? Then let’s say there is more going on, but you’ll never tell a soul. I’m here if you ever want to say it though.”
It was the first time one of her parents had ever made that comment to her. There wasn’t even an inch of her that would confide in them though. “It’s all good, Dad.”
He’d gotten up and left shortly after, so she took that time to text back to Travis that her day was just wonderful and would be even better if she could get her lips on his again.
Take that, Dad, for being shy. Ha. Never.
***
“Where have you been, Gavin?” Jolene asked him when he walked in the front door.
“Just running some errands. I stopped in to see Ella while I was out.”
“Did she say if she called Kyle?” she asked.
“Who is Kyle?” he asked, frowning.
“Kyle is Connie’s son. He’s a CPA. I thought he and Ella might hit it off.”
Gavin snorted. “Connie, as in our neighbor? Kyle is the most boring guy on the face of this earth. He even wears a pocket protector. What is wrong with you, Jolene?”
“What?” she said indignantly. “She’s a CPA too. They both love numbers and charts and graphs, whatever she does all day long. They’d get along famously and you know it.”
“You don’t know your daughter as well as you think you do. She’d chew him up and spit him out with one look.”
“Well, I’m running out of ideas. Who would have thought it’d be this hard to find someone for Ella?”
“Leave Ella alone,” he said again. It was on the tip of his tongue to say that Ella might have found someone on her own, but he was having too much fun watching his wife get all twisted. Besides, if Jolene knew Ella was interested in someone, she’d be all up in Ella’s face wanting details and giving advice.
He knew Ella was figuring it out on her own because he wasn’t stupid and saw her face light up when her phone went off and she lost her train of thought. Ella never lost her train of thought over anything.
Anything Personal
Travis pulled into the brewery’s parking lot at nine that night. There was only one vehicle there. A truck that he recognized as Mason’s. He was normally here by himself but had no problem with Mason being on site.
The front of the building was dark, so he swiped his keycard, shut the alarm off, and walked in, then made his way down the hall and up the stairs. When he passed Mason’s office, he turned his head to let him know who it was but knew he didn’t need to. Mason had the security cameras on his computer and phone now after the break-in almost a year ago and he most likely checked them out when he got an alert on his phone that someone was in the building.
“Hey, Travis. Sorry, the time got away from me. I won’t be in your way, will I?”
“Not at all.”
“Do you mind if I walk around with you in a bit? I’m just finishing up some research and didn’t realize it was so late. I’ll walk out with you when you’re done.”
“That works. You can let me know if there are any angles or areas that need more coverage. I’m going to swap out all the cameras while I move those in the brewery. I already programmed them all and since you’re here we can test to make sure the feed is working on your end too.”
Travis shifted the bag that was over his shoulder that he’d been carrying. “I’m just going to install these new ones first.”
“I’ll be down in the brewery in a few then,” Mason said, going back to his computer. “You know where the ladder is.”
“I do. I’m just going to pull those few off the floor, then I’ll be up on the bridge.”
“Is that where you put them?” Mason asked, looking up shocked. “I can never see them anywhere and the views are so close to be that high up.”
Travis laughed. “I’m good at what I do. You should never see the ones I rotate, just the ones I leave out in the open that I’m going to replace right now.”
Those cameras were big enough to be seen so no one thought to get any ideas. Nothing was so big that it stood out as tacky, but with all the tours and strangers in the building, he made sure they knew cameras were all along the tour path and that they moved. They didn’t move in any pattern, but they were programmed so that when one moved, another one also did to cover the area. There wasn’t one square foot of this building that wasn’t being watched and recorded even if Mason and Ella couldn’t see it live on their cameras in real time.
Travis had finished with three cameras and tested them on the tablet he had, knowing they were working and rotating the way they should, giving him the clear view he wanted. It’d only taken him twenty minutes to change those three out and he had three more to go in here. The rest of the cameras in the building didn’t need to be replaced since these were the ones fogging up. Then he’d just rotate out the rest in the facility.
By the time he was done in that large room, he moved back up the stairs and was making his way across the bridge that spanned the entire brewery from all angles. This sure did make it easier for camera placement. Not that he put them all here, but the bridge wasn’t just vertical, but horizontal in some spots, allowing him to get to high areas and places on walls and windows no one would expect.
“Sorry,” Mason said, walking out on the bridge with him. “That took longer to finish than I thought.”
“Not a problem. I’m used to being in here alone.”
“Everyone thinks I’m nuts,” Mason said. “I love being in here by myself. It’s not eerie at all.”
“Why would anyone think that when it’s what you built from scratch? There’s a peace in that alone.”
“There is,” Mason agreed.
“Did you get a chance to check out the cameras I changed out downstairs?” Travis asked.
“I did. I figured since I saw you up here, I could look quick and save you the trouble of going back to the office.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“I’m sorry if Ella gives you a hard time.”
Travis turned his head quickly from where he was squatting down and reaching for a camera under the metal walkway bridge. “What?”
As far as he knew none of her family were aware that he’d been on a few dates with Ella and they sure the hell didn’t know he’d had his lips on hers and that he was planning on doing it again tomorrow night.
“Ella. I know you deal with her more than anyone else. She can be a little...clipped at times, but she doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s just we boys are kind of bad in that we dump a lot of the miscellaneous stuff in her lap. She’s probably overworked but would never admit it.”
“She’s fine. We have an understanding,” he said and hoped Mason didn’t read more into that.
“You’re one of the few then. I know there are times she just hates doing certain things. Don’t take this the wrong way, but something about you just sets her off.”
“Really?” Travis asked, his face turned while he moved down the bridge to replace the camera he’d just disconnected. He lay down on his belly and reached his long arm under the bridge to place it under where people were walking.
“I’m not trying to insult you at all. Especially since I see the gun on your ankle,” Mason said, laughing.
He’d always been told Mason was the quiet one, but he seemed to want to chat right now for some reason. “No insult taken. I can rub people the wrong way. I get that.”
“It’s just Ella had it hard growing up with the four of us. She was obviously outnumbered to begin with. When we were younger she tried her damnedest to best us at everything. Such a little tomboy. It kind of got on our nerves.”
Travis had a hard time picturing Ella as anything other than the lady of the manor. “I bet she actually did beat you more often than you guys wanted.”
“Hell yeah,” Mason said, laughing. “Here, I’ll hold your tablet if you want while you switch out that camera.”
“Thanks,” Travis said. They we
re moving to another bridge right now. “So what is Ella so good at that she can best the four of you?” He figured if he didn’t show some interest, that might give the wrong idea too, but didn’t want to show too much either. Why couldn’t Mason have stayed in his office?
“Everything. It wasn’t just school, though she really couldn’t top me in math or science, but she got me in other subjects. It was sports too. Not only are there the four of us boys, but we’ve also got seven cousins. Six more boys and one girl, our cousin Jade.”
“Wow, I didn’t know that. Guess the women are outnumbered in your family.”
“Yeah. Jade embraced being a girl from day one. All dresses and fancy hairstyles. Ella wanted to be one of the boys. She’d get on the football field or basketball court with us. If we tried to take it easy on her, she blasted our ears about woman equality. It was a no win situation. If we tackled her, our parents would skin us alive.”
“As it should be,” Travis said, reaching for the tablet and checking the camera he’d just set up and trying to avoid Mason’s eyes. He was a master at disguising his features if he wanted to. He just hadn’t had a need for it in years until now.
“Then one morning she came downstairs in a dress and Brody and Cade were all over her about being girly. My mother blistered their ears and they stopped it. When we got to school and all the boys started making comments about how hot she looked, Brody and Cade shoved a few of them into lockers.”
Travis laughed. “Bet she loved that.”
Mason snorted. “That was just the start of it. I kind of feel bad about it now, but we all made a pact to watch out for her in school. Aiden and I tried to be discreet, but Brody and Cade were more vocal. Because of the way we were about any guy that made a comment about Ella and her competitive nature, she built some walls up around herself.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Travis asked, frowning.
Mason looked startled by the question. “I have no clue. I guess because you kind of intimidate me too and I’m rambling when I normally don’t. I just wanted to see how you set the cameras up, but the silence was getting to me.” He stopped and laughed. “I guess I could see where Ella might be a little more cool with you is all. I didn’t want you to think it was anything personal.”