The Last Thing She Wants (Chestnut Hills #1)

31

ellie

Wild Cider bustled with activity, just like every weekend. The casual brewery was always a given to be crowded, patrons packed to the brim. Especially when live music was playing. Brian, Louis, and Kara stood on top of the wooden platform, each lost in their own tuning and hook-ups. Reid was missing, though his drum set sat pieced together.

“Hey sexy!” a deep voice called from near the front corner of the stage. My eyes scanned the growing crowd to find Jake waving, his other arm slung around his fiancé’s shoulder. Theo gave a smoldering nod. His smirk grew as the couples’ gaze fell on our joined hands, and they began to clap slowly in a dramatic fashion.

Movement caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Daisy was frantic, her hands moving wildly. She looked pissed and my best friend was, like, never pissed. I watched as she heard the clapping from us, pulling her from her moment of anger. Craning my neck, I tried to catch a glimpse of who she was talking with. In resignation, she turned, jogging towards us. The unknown person disappeared before I could catch a look.

“Hey, what’re we clapping—ah, the royal couple making their first public appearance.” Daisy realized as she followed Jake and Penny’s eyesight. Before joining in on the clapping, she gave a facetious bow.

“Technically, yesterday was our first public appearance,” Theo drew me in closer, lazily but possessively putting his arm around my shoulders. “She met my family yesterday.”

“Oh, serious,” Penny said, wiggling her brows as Jake whistled.

“As serious as it gets,” he placed a kiss on my head just as Brian called my name from the stage.

“That’s my cue!” I said to Theo, giving the group an apologetic smile.

Theo’s hand traveled to the small of my back. I followed his direction as he pressed our hips together and placed his lips on mine. We both paused a moment after pulling away and searched each other’s eyes intimately. There was so much there I had yet to discover, and I was a fool to not see it sooner.

“’Save it for the bedroom, horn dogs,” Daisy said, jokingly throwing a fried pickle at us. We broke apart with shy smiles and I made my way to the stage with the band. Reid had finally joined them, warming up with slight movements. His frown seemed deeper than usual; he may have been a grumpy man but playing always put him in a jovial mood.

After the coffee house conversation with Brian a few weeks ago, I had taken time to think about the validity of what he was saying. At that time, I already knew in my heart that Theo and I were inevitable. Despite knowing he was ultimately what I wanted, I still reinforced my promise to myself to do things that made me happy. The most major of those things was making music .

When not distracting myself by helping Daisy at Slay and perhaps from the blow job I’d given him before we left the apartment, but that was no one else’s business.

Brushing off the comment and avoiding the conversation, I shrugged. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little concerned with Brian’s perspective after his enlightening conversation with me.

He was standing a foot from me now when he spoke in a hushed tone. “Ellie, listen, I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” he looked around. “I wanted to apologize for the other day. I overstepped. I was ahead of myself and, I guess, a little concerned. I can see now that this is different, though.” He tugged at the back of his neck as he paused to think.

“You’re an incredible singer, Ellie. You give the music emotion, and we just love having you with us. We see how special you are. I was scared someone was going to ruin that for you again.” He looked away to assess Theo and returned his gaze to me. “I can tell you’re genuinely happy. You two seem good together and I’ve seen it come through in recent practices. I’m happy for you.”

It took a moment for the words to seep in, but then I started nodding in affirmation. “I really appreciate that. And no need to apologize. I understand it was coming from a good place. How about we forget it and rock out tonight?”

“You bet,” he agreed with a fist bump before returning to his mic stand. He brought his guitar strap over his shoulder with purpose. Taking that as my cue, I stood in front of my mic stand and adjusted the height.

Brian gave a signaling nod and within thirty seconds Louis was strumming the opening chords to Heart’s “Barracuda.” The crowd cheered as Reid joined in on the drums. Electricity formed at my fingertips as the music vibrated the stage.

Brian was right. I was an incredible singer, and I had been given more and more confirmation of that. With a confidence I hadn’t felt in a long time, I started the vocals. Time both flew and stood still. Seconds became minutes long as the crowd moved in slow motion, and yet the song was over before I could blink.

Before I could count the number of songs we’d gone through, Brian called out to the crowd.

“Thank you for being here tonight. We’re going to take a quick break, but we’ll be back before you know it. We’re the Assets!” He held up his guitar in acknowledgement of the crowd before placing it on the guitar stand.

“Hey, I’m going to grab a drink. Want anything?” he asked me over the hum of the crowd. Scanning for Theo, I found him next to Daisy and only wanted to beeline to his side.

“Sure,” I offered a small smile, “um, I’ll have whatever the cider of the day is.”

He nodded before walking off.

Mid-beeline, my bladder started waging a war in me and I realized how badly I had to use the bathroom. Rushing through the group, I gave Daisy, Jake, and Penny big hugs and planted a big wet kiss on Theo’s mouth before speedwalking to the bathroom.

My speedwalk back almost rivaled the one on the way to the surprisingly clean brewery bathroom. Surely, my stride was even quick enough to rival the Speedwalking Gang at the apartments .

With a gasp, I caught a glimpse of Shane directly in my path. I’d notice his big stupid head anywhere. Especially as he stood next to the tall and lean blonde who brought my world crashing down. Huffing a breath of relief, I changed course and made a hard turn with the agility of a cheetah. Or so I thought.

Looking back as I wove my way to my friends, I lost all my aforementioned agility in a split second. A moment too late, I realized someone else was in my path.

“Shit,” a man threw up his hands in shock as he assessed his beer-soaked shirt.

“I am so sorry,” I said, embarrassed at causing a scene. Silently, I hoped I didn’t draw any attention to myself from Shane. At least before I could get back to my friends, or on stage.

“Shit,” the man said again, but in a different tone. This was a tone I recognized as someone being in a predicament.

Looking up, I found the one person I probably wanted to see less than Shane. Graham. It confirmed, yet again, that I had the worst luck in the world. He looked around, surveying the people surrounding us, searching for whom I assumed was his girlfriend.

“Ellie,” he laughed awkwardly, “what are you doing here?”

I rolled my eyes at his obvious discomfort, as if I was the one at fault. “I’ve literally been on stage for the last hour.”

“We just got here; I didn’t realize the Assets were playing tonight. I forgot you were in the band.” He scratched his head at his lapse in memory.

“I’m not, I just guest sing sometimes. They’re my friends from work.” Using the tips of my toes for assistance, I tried to gain visibility above the crowd. Just behind Graham, my friends were looking in our direction. “I’d say nice to see you, but it hasn’t really been. Have a goodnight. ”

While I was trying to step around him, he unexpectedly reached out and placed his hand on my arm, effectively stopping me in my tracks before I had the chance to walk away.

“Hey, Ellie, I’m sorry about the other day,” he said in a hushed tone, trying to keep his secret.

“Okay.” I said, pulling my lips into a tight smile and yanking my arm away.

He scoffed at me and shook his head. Willing my patience, I walked away, ignoring it. “I knew it wasn’t worth it,” I heard him said under his breath.

I whipped back around in a fury. Man, I’d been getting angry a lot lately. I made a mental note to join Daisy at more yoga sessions. “What was that?”

He looked at me up and down with a look of disgust. Savoring being mean to me, he took a sip of his beer. “I knew this,” he used his pointer finger to gesture between us, “wasn’t worth it.”

“And exactly why is that?”

“Come on,” he spat with a laugh. “I thought you’d be an easy lay. Self-conscious enough to seek validation, and lacking enough sense of worth that you wouldn’t mind being a side piece. I just didn’t take you for a bitch, too.”

What was it with these men and their fucking audacity?

Red crept into my peripheral as rage boiled my blood. A balled-up fist struck his jaw as I took a step forward. Looking down, I realized it wasn’t either of my hands that struck him. Instead, the hand that had hit him now grabbed mine, pulling me away as the crowd parted around Graham. The struck man laid on the ground rubbing his face.

“Are you okay?” Theo pulled me to the side and looked me in the eye. “I’m so sorry. I should have been there sooner. I only caught the last word.”

Looking over my shoulder, I took in the man still on the ground. A woman who I assumed was his girlfriend was tending to his now bloody nose. “You punched him?” I asked in bewilderment.

“He’s lucky I didn’t do worse after what he called you,” he spoke into my hair as he pulled me into a hug. “Do you want to leave? We can get some ice cream and stay in the rest of the night.”

Assessing the man in front of me, I wondered how I wound up in this situation.

Clearly, it seemed to be a running theme that men didn’t respect me. Rather, they seemed to see me as disposable and unworthy of prioritization. Yet, this handsome, orgasm gifting, smart, kind man was asking to whisk me away.

Without realization, I nodded, not speaking a word. Protectively, he placed his arm around me and led me back to our friends.

“What the fuck, man? What happened?” Jake asked, motioning to the scene we’d left behind.

“He was disrespectful,” Theo answered matter-of-factly.

“Damn, okay. Good shot,” Jake laughed and offered a fist bump.

“We’re going to head out-” Theo started when Brian approached, interrupting him.

“Here’s your cider,” Brian returned to the group, catching the end of Theo’s departure announcement. “We still have an hour left.” His grin melted into a frown.

“Not after that,” Daisy motioned towards the now fading commotion.

“Oh shit, what happened? Are you okay?” Brian asked, scanning me for any obvious injuries.

“Yeah, yeah,” Daisy waved her hand, “mister ‘no one disrespects my lady’ over here handled it.” I smiled at her uptight impression of Theo, and Jake and Penny suppressed their laughter. “I’ll take that.” Daisy swiped the cider from Brian and leaned into me. “Love you, babe.”

Before I stepped away, Daisy pulled me back and whispered so only I could hear. “We are so going to talk about this later. That was fucking hot.”

I gave my best friend a knowing smile and eagerly nudged Theo to leave. As he led me through the crowd and to his car, I felt protected, safe, and desired, but I couldn’t quiet the nagging voice in the back of my head.

The voice repeated back to me the words of both Shane and Graham.

The voice reminded me of my place.

The voice let me know that this peace I felt would soon end, because I didn’t deserve it.