If at first you don't succeed, then level the playing field and take a second chance.
Two years ago, Ellie Harrison collapsed under the weight of her past and the fallout that caught up with her. Like a shell of her former self, she retreated away f...
"I can't believe it!" Ellie threw up both hands in the air while her feet stomped in an aimless path around our bedroom. "They're screwing around again!"
With feigned ignorance because this conversation only went in one direction, a downward spiral into drama that none of us needed right now, I asked, "Who?"
"Them! Those two!" Ellie's voice squeaked higher with each word and thrust both hands down towards the floor beneath us. "Harper and Jake!"
"Are you..." I paused since by the way her shoulders hunched up near her ears, eyes practically blazed lasers into the carpet, and steam nearly pumped out her ears, I knew she wasn't okay that her brother and best friend had slept together.
Putting it mildly, downstairs looks more like a sex marathon.
We should - No, no. Fix the upset girlfriend first.
"I don't even care if they're together but behind my back!? Again!? The fuck is wrong with them!?" Ellie's hands balled into tight fists, a near manic look crept into her eyes, and she groaned, "Ahhh!"
"Maybe it's not -" I stopped my 'not a big deal' phrase with one glare from Ellie and changed it to a doubtful, "...Our business?"
"Other than doing it within the same cabin?" Her eyebrows creased her forehead with how high they lived and she gestured one hand at the floor. "Do you want to sit on the sofa anymore?"
"Well, no." I chuckled and crossed my arms over my chest.
Fair point. Probably don't want to sit on the floor either, if I'm honest.
"And it just wasn't once, I saw at least four used condoms, ugh!! And Harper must think I'm completely stupid to believe bears did that." Ellie's entire face was bright red, so I grabbed her wrists and guided her down to the bed, where she cupped her hands over her eyes. "I can't unsee that... or unsmell."
Again, I can't disagree. The whole room did smell like sex.
"Ellie -" I started to ask how long she planned our bedroom's fake bear-damage inspection when a heavy knock sounded on the door.
"Uhh, Ellie?" The guilt and sheepishness in Jake's voice soaked through the door. "Can we talk? Please."
"Only if you put on some proper pants!" she yelled back but her lower lip trembled. "And a freaking shirt! And tell Harper to put her nipples away, I just can't!"
"Noted," Jake replied in a flat voice, followed by a muffled, "Put your nipples away."
Since the purplish-red shade of Ellie's face concerned me, I gently clutched both of her shoulders and redirected her attention to me. "Deep breaths."
"Right..." Ellie rolled her eyes but the redness in her face spread down her neck and over her chest like a rash. While for once I had nothing to do with Ellie's stress levels, I felt bad that her relaxed state after the spa massage had been completely ruined.
The appointment Jake reserved... This could get ugly.
"I'll send them away so we can have a little breathing space," I spoke in a low, even tone that hadn't pacified Ellie at all. "Let's discuss at dinner... Probably best we go out though."
Who knows what those two did in the kitchen.
"Fine," she gritted out between tightly clenched teeth.
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