Chapter 2
Elle Sullivan
couldn’t hear anything except the driving heavy metal, and she loved it. Her
brother, Rich, and his wife, Mandy, had taken her to concerts before, but they’d
been three or four bands at the most, and always with assigned seats inside an
arena. Seeing bands on four different stages, often overlapping, was the
coolest. The three of them most often caught the beginning of one set and
wandered over to a different stage to catch part of another. Rich had a few
this weekend he needed to see all the
way through, his emphasis, not hers, but neither she nor Mandy minded. And both
nights they had backstage passes for the main stage, where tonight she hoped
she’d get to meet Crushed Edges, her absolute favorite band. She had a CD
booklet ready for them to sign. Anyway, she loved the almost constant musical
assault and backstage thoughts because it kept her from thinking about that
older guy earlier at the campground.
What the hell had
that been? He was way too old to affect her like he did. She couldn’t tell his
age, but he was at least a few years older than Rich, who, at 25, had six years
on her. So she shouldn’t, couldn’t, lust after an old guy. Could she? Ugh, like
she said, now wasn’t the time to think about it. Or maybe ever. Though the way
he stared at her made her tingly inside, a reaction guys never elicited from
her. Yes, she had a boyfriend in high school, had sex with him, even, but that
one look…
Snap out of it!
Oh, crap, and now
Mandy eyed her with curiosity. How did she always know? Everyone said how
mysterious Elle’s mind worked, but she never fooled Mandy. The only other
person who could read her so easy was Mom, and she was, well, Mom.
She gave her
sister-in-law an innocent grin and then started banging her head along with the
music. She accidentally, but sort of on purpose, whipped Rich with her hair,
and he grinned and gave her a nudge in time with the music, which she returned.
Their own private mosh pit.
Hehe. Mosh pit. The term always put a smile on her face. She could understand calling
it something like mash pit, as people mashed themselves together, but mosh pit?
A silly phrase for such a violent act. She glanced over at Mandy and saw her
attention had returned to the stage. Good.
The band, Sunken
Ships according to the banner hanging behind them, launched into their final
song, and the crowd went a little extra nuts. She didn’t know it, but liked its
catchy hook. She bobbed her head and watched the controlled mayhem. A mosh pit
roared in front of the stage, but the three of them stood well out of its
reach, so she had fun watching. Rich looked like he wanted to sprint into it,
but he wouldn’t. Mandy had issued a stern warning before they got here
yesterday that his pitting days were behind him, and he agreed. She still found
it funny to see how tight a grip Mandy had on his arm, though she bobbed her
head in time with the beats as she did.
Once the song
finished and the band said its goodbyes, a guy, close to her age by the looks
of him, stepped next to her. He wore tattered jean shorts, a Sunken Ships
t-shirt, and had a bunch of tattoos on his arms and neck. She groaned at what
she knew would come next. She’d put up with it more than once today. Most had
taken her brush off in stride, but Rich had to step in on one occasion. Would
this guy try to chat her up, or would he go for the porta-potty sex right away?
Her mind chose that moment to betray her with thoughts of the guy in the
campground this morning, wondering what she’d say if he offered. She couldn’t
help but flush, and, shit, it emboldened this douchebag.
“Hey, baby, did you
enjoy them? They’re my favorite band.”
“I never would have
guessed.” She nodded to his t-shirt. Double-shit. Why did she give him an
opening in the conversation?
His grin widened. “It’s
kind of noisy. You want to go somewhere a little more quiet?”
“No, I want to hang
out with my brother and sister-in-law and watch some bands.” She turned towards
Rich and Mandy, her wearing a slight grin at how she handled it, and Rich
scowling at the guy, like every time a dude hit on her. Not that she minded his
overbearing attitude; she wasn’t here for a boyfriend today. Or any day, to
tell the truth.
“I can come with
you. We can talk music. Or whatever you want.”
“Take a hint, dude.”
She emphasized dude in a not very polite way.
He grabbed her by
the elbow, and she readied herself to smack him, while Rich stepped forward,
murder in his eyes. Even Mandy, always so calm, cool, and collected, looked
ready to kick some ass. Before anything physical happened, people around them,
both men and women, shouted at the guy that she said no, and he needed to back
off. He let go, put his hands up in surrender, mumbled an apology, and took
off. Those around looked at her to make sure she was okay, and she smiled and
nodded at everyone, who went back to their own business. Mandy calmed Rich and
raised her eyebrows at her.
“I’m fine. The
asshole would have been in for a world of hurt if he hadn’t backed off. Make
sure the Hulk is calm enough to continue our afternoon.”
Mandy giggled and
rubbed Rich’s chest.
“I’ll hulk you,” he
said, and she stuck her tongue out at him.
“Maybe he’ll mosh
pit, and we’ll let you join that one.”
“Don’t give him any
ideas,” Mandy said, but Rich already had a gleam in his eyes.
“Let’s stay here,”
he said. “Shotgun Serenade starts in a couple of minutes and I want to see
their set. I need to get in some serious headbanging.”
Mandy kissed his
cheek. “Fine, but don't move. We’re going to get some drinks. Do you want
lemonade or a beer?”
“I think I need a
beer after that fucker tried to assault my baby sister.” No, they weren’t
related by blood, but Mom, her mom, had married Dad, his dad, when she was
four-years-old.
Elle rolled her
eyes. “You don’t need to protect me. I was about to smack the shit out of him.
Despite what you think, I can stand up for myself.”
He rolled his eyes
back at her, which got her giggling. It also got him to crack a smile, so she
and Mandy left to grab some drinks.
“Lemonade or water?”
Mandy asked.
Like she needed to
ask. Elle couldn’t get enough of the strawberry lemonade here. “I’ll give you
three guesses, and the first two don’t count.”
“Water it is.”
She scoffed. “You’re
bad at this game.”
Mandy laughed and
handed her a $10 bill. “I want a regular, not the strawberry one. I’ll go get
Rich his beer. If the guy comes back, kick him in the shins.”
“I’ll aim a little
higher,” she said, and Mandy gave her a grin and eyebrow wiggle.
As she waited in
the short line for lemonade, her attention drifted over to the BBQ stall a few
feet away, and her heart sprung into her throat. It was him. The hot older guy.
He couldn’t see her since he stood at the front of the line and focused on
ordering, but she had a good view of him. He was every bit as handsome as she
remembered, and she better judged his age to be late-20s or early-30s. She
guessed him to be about six-feet tall, taller, but not towering so, over her 5’5”
frame. He had dark brown hair, cut short, but shaggy in a stylish sense. She
remembered how his eyes matched his hair color. Now that she saw him standing,
she noticed how fit he looked. Not like a bodybuilder, but he definitely kept
himself in shape. God, how she’d like to see him without his shirt. Without his
pants would be nice, too, and then she gave herself a mental face-slap. Get it together, girl. Unless you want to go
introduce yourself. Ha, yeah, right. She sort of wished Brianna, her best
friend, was here; Bri would’ve pushed her towards the guy so she’d have no
choice but to say hi. Of course, Bri might have taken the Sunken Ships asshole
up on his alone-time offer, so she wouldn’t be in line with her anyway. He had
the tattooed look she liked in guys. Elle stifled a laugh, her eyes still on
her mystery older guy.
“Uh, miss, you
ready?” the guy behind asked. He pointed to the girl at the cash register.
“Yeah, yeah, sorry.
Keep your shirt on.”
She ordered the two
drinks, and by the time she collected them, her guy had gone. Shit-shit-shit. But it wasn’t like
anything would have happened. Besides, she saw nothing wrong with staring and
dreaming. Plus, she knew where his RV was. There were still two nights left in
the campground, after all. Because, sure, she’d go right up to him. He might
even be married and she simply hadn’t seen his wife. Though by the way he
stared back this morning, that didn’t ring true.
Elle sucked in a
deep breath to clear her mind. She couldn’t keep any of this on her face when
she saw Mandy, or her secret crush would be ferreted out. Mandy could do it,
and Elle hated that in a big, bad way. Yeah, it was fun to watch when she did
it to other people, but not her. When she saw Mandy walking towards her with
Rich’s beer, she put on a big smile to hide any of her mystery guy thoughts,
and went to meet her halfway.
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