His End Game (MMG #1)
Read His End Game (MMG #1) Online
Authors: R B Hilliard
Copyright © 2013 R B Hilliard
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 0615918719
ISBN 13: 9780615918716
Getting married, giving birth and writing this book are among my biggest accomplishments….so far.
Susannah and Sarah ~ Thank you for being with Ellie and Max from conception to birth and loving them as much as I do. Thank you for your incredible feedback, patience and generosity with your time.
My Beta Babes ~ Susannah, Sarah, Laura, KC and Elizabeth – There aren’t enough words to express my thanks to you all for taking time out of your busy lives for Max and Ellie. I am forever grateful to you all for your invaluable input.
Elizabeth Clark ~Thank you for creating such an awesome cover! I absolutely love it and can’t wait for the next one!
Lisa Capps ~ Thank you for being my cover model and for allowing me to photograph you a million times. You make a hot Ellie!
Martha Ann Krisko ~ Thank you for designing my website, marketing Max and Ellie and putting up with me!
My husband and editor ~You may have blown past three deadlines, but you got.the.job.done! There are no words to express how grateful I am. You never doubted me for a second
and proved, once again, that we make a great team. I love you to pieces.
Stay tuned to
www.rbhilliard.com
. Piper and Gage are up next!
Max McLellan appeared on my radar the very first day of my freshman year in high-school. I was standing at my locker wondering how I was going to get all of my homework done
and
cook dinner for my aunt later that night, when I felt an elbow in my ribs.
“I’m ignoring you,” I told my best friend, Piper. She had been blatantly trolling the halls for cute boys for the past thirty minutes and I was having trouble organizing my locker while listening to her never ending commentary. Piper O’Connell and I had been best friends since fourth grade when she moved to Charlotte from Texas. With a head full of strawberry blonde hair and a smattering of freckles, she was extremely loud, very direct and the polar opposite of me. I loved her with all of my heart, but sometimes she was exhausting.
Like right now
.
“Oh my,” I heard her say. “Ellie, you are so gonna want to see this.”
Pulling my head out of my locker, I glanced at what held her attention. A group of guys were sauntering down the hall toward us. I rolled my eyes and was about to resume organizing when I spotted him. He had on black biker boots that were partially concealed under his faded denim jeans. A black t-shirt
hugged him in all the right places. From what I could see, he had collar length black hair but, since it was peeking out from under a baseball cap turned backwards, I wasn’t able to get the complete picture. Naturally tan, his slightly bearded face was flawless. I stood there drinking in all six plus feet of this man looking boy and was disappointed that I couldn’t see his eyes behind his reflective sunglasses.
What color are your eyes, beautiful boy? I really want to know…
He was flanked on all sides by crazy hot guys.
“It’s raining men, hallelujah” popped into my head and I tried not to laugh. Before breaking out into song and dance, which was way more Piper’s style than mine, the girl standing next to us chimed in.
“Beautiful, aren’t they? It’s a shame that they are off limits.”
“Nothing is off limits,” said Piper, her tone challenging.
“Those boys are,” the girl insisted. “They go for hot older girls who put out.”
“I put out,” Piper declared, clearly offended. This made me laugh.
“Trust me, you do not qualify. Those boys would eat you up and spit you out.”
Wow, she’s really serious. Maybe Piper should back off
.
Not at all interested in sharing my sexual status, I nodded my head in biker boy’s direction and asked, “Who’s the one in the middle?”
“
That
,” she stressed, “is Max McLellan. He’s tough, but fun to look at.”
I was about to ask what she meant when the first bell rang.
Crap!
I hadn’t finished my locker.
“I’ll call RJ tonight and get the scoop,” Piper said.
Richard James, better known as RJ, was one of Piper’s big brothers. He was a freshman in college, but since he didn’t go
away until his junior year in high-school, he knew everyone at our school and if he didn’t, he could find out. He was our go to guy for information.
The only thing RJ knew about Max was that he could kick some serious ass, was a chick magnet and liked older girls.
Thanks for nothing, RJ
.
Throughout ninth and tenth grade I would see Max and his friends in the halls. They were enjoyable to watch and provided hours of fodder for my daydreams. Day in and day out I watched him. He was always either surrounded by his friends or a mass of girls. Every now and then I would catch him looking my way, at least that’s what I told myself and, each time it happened, it made my day. Yes, I was pathetic.
The summer before my junior year everything changed. It was a Thursday and I had the day off from Providence, the café where I waited tables. I had my black polka dotted skimpy bikini on as I was going to lie out in my backyard. Carrying my iPod in one hand and my iced tea in the other, I was headed out the door when my phone rang. Seeing Piper’s name on the Caller ID, I hit the Talk button and said, “Put on your skimpiest bikini and come lay out with me.” I heard her sniff and instantly knew something was wrong.
“Honey, what’s wrong?”
“Mom and dad are making me go away to school next year,” she sobbed. “They just told me that we are leaving in a few days to visit schools and that I will be going off this coming year. They won’t listen to me El. They don’t care that I don’t want to leave. They just want me out of the house so that they can travel and party without the hassle of having to deal with me.”
Travel and party? Really
?
Richard and Marie O’Connell were two of the nicest people on the planet. They treated me like their own child and I dearly loved them. Coming from old money, they had both been raised in boarding school families where all of the kids went off to school in ninth grade. I was surprised that they let RJ, Rex and Piper stay at home through their sophomore year. I did not, however, voice this out loud. I was heartbroken. I was losing my best friend for the best two years of high-school.
Three days later, I said goodbye to a depressed Piper and a morose looking Richard and Marie. By the time she returned a week later, she had chosen a school in Virginia and it was a done deal.