Giving It All (22 page)

Grant liked the sound of that. His Ellie. Now he needed to get his ass in gear so he could get back to her.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Those two look just as good going as they do coming,” Mary Ellen said, joining Nadya and Ellie as Grant and J.T. walked off. “There’s something about a man with a nice butt that makes me glad to be a woman.”

“Mary Ellen. What if Bill hears you?” Ellie asked, scandalized.

“He knows he has nothing to worry about. I like his skinny butt just fine. He might not have the muscles of your men, but he’s got a wiry strength. And lots of energy. I like that.”

Ellie felt as if her face were on fire, she was blushing so hard. Nadya just laughed and put her arm around Mary Ellen. “There’s such a thing as too much sharing, Mar, really. You’ve got poor Ellie so embarrassed she’s going to get a sunburn from that blush.”

“Oh, poo. You know you both agree with me. A man can be as good looking as a Greek god, but if he’s no good in bed, what’s the point?”

“Grant definitely doesn’t have that problem,” Ellie blurted out.

Mary Ellen whooped with laughter. “I
knew
it. He looks at you like you’re his favorite flavor of ice cream and he’s dying to lick you up.” She waved a hand in front of her face. “Lordy, when he planted that kiss on you, I about thought my panties were gonna catch fire. I just love it when a man lays claim. It’s so sexy, in a caveman sort of way. Remember when J.T. planted one on you at the park, Nad? It was like he was staking his territory for all and sundry.” She sighed gustily. “I need to go find Bill. My folks are taking the kids back to the house after the sack race and I want to make sure he and I find some alone time before I have to get back to work. Bye now.”

Neither Ellie nor Nadya could get a word out for at least a solid minute, they were laughing so hard. “Oh my God, she hasn’t changed a bit. I still find it hard to picture her with Bill, but I know he makes her happy and that’s all that matters.” Nadya wiped the tears from under her dark, slanted eyes. “When I first came back to town, I’d forgotten how outspoken she was. It didn’t take long for me to realize she might be a married woman, mother and business owner, but she was still the same Mary Ellen.”

“I imagine it must have been hard coming back to Dale after…everything,” Ellie said.

“It wasn’t easy, that’s the truth. I had a lot of bitterness about Dale and some of its townspeople, but it didn’t take long to realize there were more good memories than bad. And of course, there was J.T. and Mary Ellen and the Farleys. I’d missed them much more than I’d realized.”

“Do you miss New York City?”

“Not a bit. Sure, it was an exciting place to live. But I worked so many hours, I never did anything exciting myself. I enjoy going back occasionally and visiting some of my friends and doing some shopping, but I’m glad I made the decision to stay here in Dale.”

“I’m glad too.” Ellie took a deep breath. “There’s something I need to say to you. When we were in high school, I was in the cafeteria when Pansy dumped her iced tea on you, soaking your white shirt in front of everyone. I didn’t do anything to help as she and her friends picked on you. I’ve felt terrible about that since it happened.”

“Are you kidding me? Ellie, if I remember correctly, I was a senior then and you were what? A freshman? I didn’t need you to stick up for me.”

“I know you didn’t
need
me to, but the right thing to do would have been to at least offer you a sweatshirt or something. I just stood there.”

“If you had stepped in, you would have become Pansy’s next target. As it was, J.T. gave me his shirt and we started dating shortly after that, so it all worked out for the best. Don’t hold on to negative memories like that, nothing good comes from it. I really feel sorry for Pansy. She’s looking for love and acceptance so desperately that she doesn’t realize she has to find it within herself, not in some man’s pants.”

“Save your pity for someone who needs it,” Pansy said from behind them, looking mad enough to shoot laser beams out her eyes. “I have my own house, a Mercedes and don’t have to buy my clothes from someone else’s rag pile.”

“Yet you go after every man in town under the age of fifty.”

“Even older. Branson Taylor is fifty-five,” Ellie said, stepping up and slightly in front of Nadya. “You talk about the material possessions you have, but those won’t make you happy. Until you realize that, you’ll just be a bitter, nasty woman who has more silicon in her body than warmth.”

“You could use a little silicon, String Bean. It won’t be long before Grant gets tired of playing with you and goes looking for someone with a little more to hold on to.”

Ellie felt a jab of insecurity, but she pushed it aside. “That may be the case, but at least I’ll know Grant and I shared something a lot more special than a quickie against the back wall of the hardware store.”

“You disgusting whore, how dare you?”

“How dare she what? Tell the truth?” Mrs. Anderson said.

Ellie hadn’t realized Mrs. Anderson had moved close enough to hear the conversation. Frantically, Ellie replayed it in her head, trying to figure out if she’d said anything she’d regret. She stopped worrying about it though when Mrs. Anderson got right up in Pansy’s face.

“You know you’d trade all your clothes and your cars to have Grant look at you the way he looks at Ellie. Quit trying to step on others to feel better about yourself. It doesn’t work and it only makes you look bad.”

Pansy stepped back and finally looked around her at the people who’d stopped what they were doing to watch the drama unfolding in their midst. “I-I,” she stuttered to a stop and fled. A few of her cronies followed her out to the parking lot.

“Good riddance,” Mrs. Anderson said, rubbing her hands together. “Do you know she showed up at my house the other day looking for Grant? She was wearing that long trench coat and I can only guess what she had on under it. Her momma should have slapped some sense into her instead of filling her head with jealousy and entitlement.”

“Spoiled brat,” Mr. Anderson said from his wheelchair. “She can’t pick on our Ellie.”

Ellie hugged first Mrs. Anderson and then Mr. Anderson. She was so lucky to have such great people in her life. “Thanks for having my back.”

“Anytime, dear. Now you go freshen up and I’ll make sure Grant is back in two shakes.”

“Dance one for us,” Mr. Anderson said.

“You bet.”

Nadya moved next to Ellie and they watched the Andersons follow the path to the parking lot. “He’s come a long way since he’s been home from the rehab hospital. I visited him while he was in there and he couldn’t get a word out.” Nadya bent down and gathered up the picnic blanket.

“He still struggles with speaking. Sometimes he’ll say something that makes no sense. The words are understandable, but they don’t fit the context of the conversation. It gets him so frustrated. We’ve made up a sheet of words that somehow get mixed up between his brain and his mouth and he’ll point to them when he has trouble. It’s slow going, but it’s working. He’s talking more every day, and today I got to see him walk for the first time. I didn’t think I’d ever see him on his feet again.”

“That’s great. The Andersons are like the Farleys, just wonderful people. I don’t know what I would have done without them in my life growing up.”

“Tell me about it. My grandmother was in her sixties when I was born. Having a toddler at the age of sixty-five wasn’t part of her retirement plan. The Andersons taught me how to drive and helped take care of Grandma when I was in school. I owe them so much more than I can ever repay.”

“The nice thing about folks like the Andersons and Farleys is that they don’t need or want repayment.”

“True.” Ellie shook off the heavy mood with some effort. She’d gone from feeling euphoric when Grant had kissed her in front of the entire town, to angry when Pansy had verbally attacked Nadya, to humble when the Andersons had stepped in. It was like being on an emotional roller coaster, and she was ready to get off the ride. “It’s too nice of a day to get bogged down in drama. Let’s see if they need help setting up for the dance and then find Mary Ellen. I bet she has a bottle of wine hidden somewhere.”

“She was going to find Bill, remember? I don’t think I want to have the image of them going at it against a tree in my head for the rest of my life.”

“You’ve got a point.”

“Don’t worry, I know exactly where she put the wine.” Nadya smiled slyly. “And that she brought three bottles, not just one.”

After dropping his parents off and changing out of his uniform, Grant hitched a ride with a passing patrol car. The walk to the area they had roped off as a dance floor took forever as people stopped him every few feet to chat.

Finally, Grant reached Ellie, who was talking to Peter at the edge of the dance floor. There was a band set up in the gazebo playing country tunes and a group of people were line dancing on a plywood dance floor laid out on the green. The sun was only a few inches above the horizon and twilight was fast approaching. The soft, golden light painted a glow over Ellie and he felt his heart skip in his chest. She laughed out loud at something Peter said and he felt an answering smile on his face. He’d forgotten what it was like to laugh this much, to feel this lightness, this happiness at just the sight of a person.

He slid around behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her neck right below her ear, a spot he knew drove her nuts. “What’s so funny, beautiful?”

“Peter was regaling me with a tale about the first time he tried line dancing. I don’t believe half of it, but it was funny.”

“I still have the scars on my ankles from the cowboy boots. There’s a reason they call it boot scootin’, if you don’t scoot out of the way, those boots will kill you.”

“I had a buddy who could do the entire ‘Cotton Eyed Joe’ from start to finish without missing a beat. He tried to get us to do it when we went to a bar in San Antonio. It didn’t end well,” Grant said.

“Now there’s a mental picture. A team of Navy SEALs waving pretend lassos and shuffling across the dance floor.” Peter pretended to imagine it. “Nope, I just can’t see it.”

“It wasn’t pretty.”

The music changed tempo to something slow and romantic.

“I promised your folks I’d dance one for them, would you help me keep my word?” she asked.

Grant hesitated, feeling a touch of nerves at the thought of everyone looking at him, waiting for him to take a misstep with his fake foot. Ellie looked nervous herself, her eyes wide and vulnerable in her beautiful face.

“I probably won’t be able to do any fancy spins or turns, but I can definitely do that.” He pointed to a couple of teenagers who weren’t so much dancing as hanging on each other and swaying.

“I don’t know how to do anything fancy anyway, so that’s just my speed.”

“You two lovebirds go off and I’ll just see if I can score some of that whiskey Junior Miller was handing out behind the sandbox,” Peter said, winking at Ellie.

“Be careful, I’m not sure if it’s whiskey or moonshine,” Ellie said. “Remember what happened the last time you had ’shine, Peter.”

Grant found a spot on the rapidly filling dance floor and pulled her close. Her floral scent wrapped around him and made him think of cool sheets and warm bodies. “What happened last time?” he asked to distract himself from the hard-on he was getting holding Ellie against him.

“When Peter first moved to Dale to take over his uncle’s paper, some of the men welcomed him to town. Peter didn’t realize the kick of moonshine until too late. He ended up taking off his shirt and singing show tunes in the back of Tommy Peterson’s pickup. J.T. had to put him in a cell until he passed out just to get him to shut up.”

“I can’t believe anyone still makes moonshine. I remember drinking that once in high school. I thought it would burn a hole through my esophagus and it tasted twice as bad coming up as it did going down.”

“It’s trendy now. There are moonshine tastings and contests too. It’s becoming big business.”

“Sometimes I feel like I’ve landed in an alternate reality. It looks like Dale, but it’s not the Dale I remember.”

“Things change. Thank the good Lord. If this was the Dale you remember, I’d be sitting in the shadows being a wallflower and you’d be dancing with Chastity.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I do. I didn’t slow dance with anyone until Josh and I went to his brother’s wedding when I was twenty-three.”

“Why?”

“No one ever asked me to. No one ever saw me.”

“I’m seeing you now,” Grant said, getting lost in her beautiful hazel eyes. He lowered his head and kissed her. Just like today during the parade, the rest of the world disappeared and it was just the two of them. She tasted of tart wine, chocolate and Ellie. It was a heady combination that fogged his brain and drugged his senses.

The sound of applause and cat calls penetrated his lust-dulled brain and he lifted his head only to realize the music had stopped and he and Ellie were alone in the middle of the dance floor.

“Get a room,” someone called with a laugh.

Ellie’s face was bright red and she hid it against his shoulder.

Go big or go home.

“Sounds like a great idea,” he called back, scooping Ellie in his arms and taking her out of the crowd surrounding them.

“We can’t just leave, everyone will know what we’re doing,” Ellie squawked as he grabbed her purse from a laughing Nadya and headed for her car.

“So? It’s not like they wouldn’t guess if we waited for half an hour. Why waste the time when I could be peeling you out of that dress instead?”

“I’m sure there’s some reason a woman with more morals than I have would think of, but when you say things like that, I just don’t care.”

He let her legs slide down his body when they got to her car and pressed her against the car door, letting her feel what she did to him. She moaned and rubbed against the bulge in his pants, clutching his shirt in her fists.

“Here, you drive. My legs aren’t working right. And hurry.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He waited until she’d buckled herself in and then drove off like the hounds of hell were on his tail.