Distraction (33 page)

The next time Eric and I kissed, my mind drifted. His lips,
once sweet and soft, now dulled compared to the gentle, scorching sensation of
Tristan
'
s slow, deliberate kiss. I planned to block the memory out,
or at least try to.

A week had somehow drifted by, but my lips still carried a
phantom tingle, as if Tristan’s kiss were yesterday.

In an attempt to busy myself, I
'
d called my mom.
She said she
'
d talked to my sister, and told me she sounded better. I
asked if she
'
d talked to Dad, but she evaded my question. She didn
'
t like to hear
his name, which made my sister furious. Our dad tried to call once the divorce
finalized, but Mom hung up before we got to talk with him. He gave up for a
while and during that time, Heather ran away.

I wanted to believe my mom, but she had a terrible habit of
keeping important information from me. I guessed tuning the situation out was
her way of ignoring reality. Even though I tried not to worry, I did. I loved
my sister, but I also knew I couldn't save her.

After a bit, I pulled my thoughts away from my messed-up
family and read a book.

“Elle, are you ready?" I heard Alyssa yelling from the
living room and frowned, wondering what she'd meant.

Crap, the “dollars for date’s" thing. It was how Eric
'
s frat raised
philanthropy money. Alyssa and I were scheduled to help get their show
together. Of course, we
'
d also be bidding for dates, and now Tristan had included
himself. We hadn
'
t talked since that night. The night we shared the most
wonderful…okay so I sucked at forgetting.

"Yeah, give me just a sec," I hollered back. With
no time left, I fixed my hair in a messy ponytail, glossed my lips, and we both
hurried out the door.

"So, you ready to see him?" Alyssa smiled, though I
refused to meet her inquiring blue eyes and looked out the side window.

"No, I
'
m not sure what I
'
m going to say. I mean, I haven
'
t seen Tristan
since…since…" I clenched my fists, frustrated with my inability to forget.
"I haven
'
t seen Tristan since that night, okay?" I turned to her
then, greeted by a sinister grin splitting her face. "What?"

"I was talking about Eric, not Tristan." Alyssa
turned her attention back to the road. "You
'
re the one
thinking of Tristan. And since you brought him up." She cut her eyes
toward me for a brief second. "Any idea how that
'
s going?"

My opinion of Alyssa and our long friendship, well, I was
seriously rethinking the whole thing at that moment.

"
I don'
t want to talk about it," I said, deflated.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun," she said,
pulling behind Ginger
'
s sports car. As soon as Alyssa and I stepped out of her car,
Ginger hurried over to us.

"Since Tristan isn
'
t with that freshman anymore, any
advice for when I bid on him? My dad
'
s cut my usual cash flow, so I don
'
t have as much
to spend as I would like."

I really hated her.

"Nope," I said, and walked past her. Alyssa
followed on my heels, laughing.

This was going to be a rotten day. I could feel it. Alyssa
and I walked in, with Ginger not far behind. The new pledges were in charge
once the auction started, but some of us agreed to help them out until then.

"You
'
ve gotta give her a little credit. At least she waited until
he was free. Besides, it
'
ll help the cause, ya know."

I gawked at Alyssa, but she shrugged me off and headed to the
stage. With a sigh, I went to help my so-called best friend.

"
Hey, beautiful.
" Eric found me setting up lights.

"Hey, yourself. So, you ready for the show?" I
worked to keep my eyes from roaming, searching for him.

"I am as long as you
'
re the highest
bidder." Eric pulled me to him, and then kissed me. When my eyes closed,
for a second I was kissing Eric and not the repeated vision of Tristan, until I
heard Ginger in the background talking to him.

"You okay?" Eric pulled away from my rigid body.

"Yeah. I just hope I have enough money to keep all those
girls away from such a great catch like you." It was a lousy lie, but Eric
didn
'
t seem to notice, which made me feel like an ass.

"I wouldn
'
t worry about that if I were you." He finished with a
wink and a quick peck on my lips.

A slow rush of heat rose to my cheeks. A second later, Alyssa
waved me over and I left Eric to finish getting ready for the auction. My
stomach felt jittery. Just before Brandi took the stage, I grabbed her arm.

"You okay, Elle?" She looked at me like I'd lost my
mind. Thanks to Tristan, I had.

"Yeah, I just have a favor to ask."

"Uh, sure. Ask away."

"When I shout out my bid, could you….um, make sure
I–"

Brandi held her hand up. "No worries," she winked,
"I got ya covered."

With a sigh, I walked to the back to stand with Alyssa.

Doing a fabulous job, each guy was given a sultry welcome by
Brandi. Only, the song choice, LMFAO
'
s, “I
'
m Sexy and I
Know it," did not help my situation. Because hot damn, they–one in
particular–screamed…perfection.

On stage, each guy stood with a number and the auction took
off. Girls in the audience quickly spouted their bids. Quietly I repeated Eric
'
s number over
and over in my head, so when I heard the magic number, I shouted, "Three
hundred."

"Sold," Brandi said, slamming her hammer down. I
smiled, and my shoulders relaxed knowing I didn
'
t have anything
to worry about anymore. Alyssa cleared her throat.

"Um, Elle, you do realize who you won a date with?"

I stared at Alyssa like she
'
d lost her mind.
Of course I knew who I won a date with.

"Duh, I wrote Eric
'
s number down."

She cocked her head to the side. "Look again,
sweetheart."

I glanced down at my number, and then jerked my head up and
stared at the stage in shock. Eric stood next to Tristan. They had switched
numbers. Holy shit. The world tilted and my head felt dizzy.

“Breathe, Elle." Alyssa's words seemed far away.

For the first time I couldn’t understand her, the words
sounded like a jumbled mess.

Alyssa grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "Breath.
You're scaring me."

I coughed then took deep breaths until the dizziness stopped.
Alyssa stayed close while I recovered from my panic attack. I looked up at the
stage.

They stood side by side, which inexplicably made it that much
harder to ignore Tristan
'
s tanned, muscular chest. Had I somehow subconsciously
written Tristan
'
s number down over Eric
'
s? I didn
'
t know what to
do, and when I saw Eric
'
s wounded expression as he walked toward me I felt ill again.

I turned to Alyssa and begged. "Alyssa, please. You
'
ve gotta help me
out here. I swear, I didn
'
t mean to bid on Tristan. It was an honest mistake." My
eyes pleaded with her, and then being the best, best friend a girl could ask
for, she lied.

"Oh, Eric, I
'
m such an idiot. Elle gave me her
card and I wrote the wrong number down by mistake. I asked her to grab me a
drink and her last words were ‘don
'
t screw this up.
'"

Okay, she was good, really good. I guessed all those years of
drama class really paid off, because Eric
'
s expression transformed from
wounded to forgiving in seconds.

"At least I won
'
t worry about him trying to steal
you away from me."

I laughed; a little hysteria mixed with guilt, but I couldn't
have been more thankful he hadn
'
t figured me out. "So, who got you?" I realized
with all the worry of Eric finding out, I hadn
'
t noticed who
bid on him.

"Me," Ginger announced, in a semi-sweet yet
irritated tone.

"Uh, well..." I didn
'
t know what to
say.

"No worries, Elle. I don
'
t like baseball
players." Ginger turned to go, and then followed with, "M
uch.
"

"She
'
s a piece of work,"
Tristan said,
still shirtless.
My cheeks burned. Swallowing hard, I trained my eyes from
looking any farther than below his neck.

"Be good to my girl," Eric said, wrapping his arm
around my shoulder.

"Always," Tristan said, and our eyes locked. I
couldn't look away and the slightest hint of a smile touched the corners of his
sexy lips. It wasn't until Alyssa cleared her throat that we both tore our eyes
away.

"So, date night is tonight. We better get going. I
'
ve got tons of
preparations before I pick Bret up. I need to look my best, or worst, if you
know what I mean." Alyssa winked.

I turned to Eric. "I
'
m sorry you have
to go out with Ginger."

"Don
'
t worry, beautiful.
It'
ll be the worst date she
'
s ever been on."
And then he kissed me. In front of Tristan.

"I
'
ll pick you up around nine o
'
clock, Spud."

I pulled away from Eric. "I
'
m supposed to
pick you up. Remember?"

"I think it
'
s best if I do the picking
up. I don'
t want you to
break down on the side of the road." He grinned.

"Fine, but why so late?" I frowned.

"You
'
ll see." He shrugged his shoulder then left without
explaining.

Chapter
22

Tristan

Elle bidding on me had to be a sign or some shit. We were
meant to be together, but she refused to see things my way. Didn't surprise me.
I needed to prove to her how much she meant to me…how far I'd go to demonstrate
my feelings. So, my plan had better be worth the emotional sucker punch I no
doubt would endure. If it blew up in my face, it
'
d kill me, but
I’d deal. I'd gone this long without her being mine.

As soon as Elle took off, I waved Green down. Before I lost
my resolve, I jogged over. "Hey, Green. Wait up."

"Something wrong?" He looked at me with suspicion.

Yeah, you
'
re with the girl I love.

"So, I know Elle didn
'
t mean to bid on
me, and I have a plan." He looked at me quizzically. I pressed on. "I
was thinking." I paused to swallow my stupid-ass nerves. "My dad owns
some buildings downtown, and I thought I could set the place up. Lights,
candles, and shit, with dinner."

Green
'
s face grew dark. Admittedly, I enjoyed watching him squirm
but continued with my details. "I figured I could pick Elle up, drive her
there, and you could take my place." My stomach turned hollow after I laid
out my plans.

Green
'
s face perked up. "Really? You
'
d do that...for
me?"

"Yeah, no big deal. This is all for Elle, right?"

"What about Ginger? Have you talked to her yet?"

"Nah, but I think she
'
d trade you for
me." I smiled, knowing she
'
d be putty in my hands.

“All right, what do I need to do?"

"Dress nice and meet me at this address around eight."
I handed him the address on a piece of paper. "I
'
ll head over to
pick Elle up after I let you in."