I shut the door to my bedroom and leaned against it. Holy shit . . . down boy! I couldn’t believe I just ran into Ellie, and she was wearing nothing but a fucking towel.

Good Lord, I can’t catch my breath . . . breathe . . . in . . . out . . . shit!

Motherfucker! I couldn’t believe how much I wanted to just pull that damn thing off her and take her right there against the wall. Yeah, Jefferson would sure as shit beat the fuck out of me for even thinking that. Shit! I hoped I could look at her today and not picture her naked.

I wished I had time for a cold shower, but that was out of the question. I needed to get dressed and make a few more phone calls for tomorrow night. First thing was to call back Jake, the guy who was DJing for Ellie’s graduation party. Then I needed to order some food. Jeff had his last day of work today, and then after that he was going to get some stuff for the party.

I quickly threw on a pair of shorts and a shirt. My dick was still somewhat hard from seeing Ellie in that towel. Christ, the things that girl did to me. I couldn’t believe how excited I was to just spend the day with her. Spending time with Ellie was now on my list of favorite things to do. Before the only two things I cared about were football and the ranch. Now there were three: Ellie, the ranch, and football, in that order.

I heard the shower turn off and knew I only had a few minutes to get this shit taken care of. I picked up my phone and called Jake back. He was not too pleased I just hung up on his ass, but what was I going to say? Sorry, dude . . . the girl who makes me hard just by walking into a room was standing in front of me with nothing on but a towel? The next call was to order some food. The third call was to Grams. What the hell was I going to get Ellie? I had never in my life bought a girl a gift, let alone a girl who is this special to me.

Wait . . . where the fuck did that come from?

I knew I could honestly say I would do anything for Ellie. Anything to make her smile, hear her laugh, or feel her touch. She was special to me.

I was so fucked.

“Gunner?” I heard Ellie call from outside my door. I had just hung up with Grams and had the perfect gift in mind. Just the sound of her voice made my stomach do flips. Man, could I make it through this day without wanting to kiss her? I took a deep breath and opened the door.

Fuck me.

Nope. I was never going to be able to make it through this day without kissing those sweet, soft lips. She stood there staring up at me with such a sweet, innocent smile that my heart just melted. I was ready to drop to my knees and tell her I would do whatever she wanted. My God, was it possible she was getting more and more beautiful every time I looked at her?

She had on a short, but not too short, denim miniskirt along with a blue shirt that made her blue eyes just jump out at you. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail and she had just a hint of makeup on. Her lips were tinted a light pink, and I couldn’t stop staring at them. I wanted to know how soft they felt against my lips so fucking bad.

“Hey, um, I’m ready if you are? I mean, I’m not in any kind of hurry or anything, I just . . .” She trailed off as she looked me up and down and started chewing on her bottom lip. I reached over and tilted her head up toward me and pulled her lip out from her teeth.

“That lip is too soft and beautiful to be abused like that, sweetheart,” I said as I smiled down at her. I was pretty sure I saw her whole body shake. A blush started to creep onto her cheeks. Damn, it was one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen.

“Right . . . um . . . so are you ready to go? I just need a bag or something to clean out my locker,” Ellie said as she looked around at everything but me. “Wow, your room is so . . . clean.”

“Why, thank you, sweetheart. I’m sure my mom would appreciate knowing that all those years of bitching at me to keep my room neat paid off,” I said with a laugh.

Ellie let out a giggle and looked up me.

Jesus . . . the moment her eyes met mine, I swear I forgot how to breathe. I leaned down toward her only to have her look away and take a step back.

Shit.

“Um, okay, well let’s find you a bag or something shall we?” I said as I moved past her and headed down the hall to the kitchen. Fuck. I need to remember what Jeff said: she needed time and here I was trying to fucking kiss her every chance I could. What the fuck was wrong with me? Christ, I need to think about something else. Football? Nope, that won’t work—football gave me a hard-on. Puppies? Dogs? I think I would like to get a dog. What kind of dog? I wonder what kind of dogs Ellie likes.

Okay, I’d think of dogs every time I had the urge to kiss her.

Oh, what the hell, Gunner, you’re losing your goddamn mind.

“You sure seem lost in thought.”

I was now standing in the middle of the kitchen . . . just standing there thinking about fucking dogs. I shrugged my shoulders and started digging through the drawer where Jeff keeps all the extra bags.

“How big of a bag do you need?” Silence.

“Ellie?” I stood up and she was standing there just staring at me.

“Ellie, what’s wrong? Hey, can you tell me what is wrong, sweetheart?” I squatted down so I could look in her face. She seemed so lost. What I wouldn’t do to crawl in that brain and figure shit out for her.

“I . . . I don’t know what’s wrong, Gunner. I just had this panic come over me! What if I can’t do this? What if I fail at this too? I mean . . . I’m so not sure that I’m ready to go to college. My mother keeps telling me . . .” Ellie turned and looked away the moment she mentioned her mother.

I placed my hands on her shoulders and turned her around to look at me. Oh, Jesus H. Christ, she was crying. My heart took a nosedive right into my stomach. I reached up and wiped away the tears that were streaming down her beautiful face. She gave me a weak smile.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry. You must think I’m a nutcase. I’m so sorry, Gunner.” Then she just lost it. The sobs were taking over her whole body. I pulled her close to me and ran my hand through her soft hair.

She smelled like daisies again. I felt my dick getting hard just from having her up against my body.

Holy fuck, what am I supposed to be thinking about again?

Dogs! Golden retrievers? Labs—yellow, black, or brown? Big dog or little dog? German shorthair pointer?

“Ellie, it’s going to be okay, sweetheart. I promise you it will be okay. I know this is a scary time, but you are smart girl and you can do anything you put your mind to. Please don’t ever doubt yourself just because of something your mother said to you. I know what it feels like to have someone tell you that all you’ll ever do is fail,” I said as I took a deep breath and buried my nose in her hair. My God . . . daisies. All I could smell was daisies.

Ellie looked up at me confused. “What do you mean you know what it feels like to have someone tell you all you’ll ever do is fail? Gunner, you’re amazing! The most amazing person I’ve ever met. I can’t . . . I can’t even believe anyone would think that about you.”

I just laughed and gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Come on, Ells, let’s get this show on the road. We have a locker to clean out and a coffee shop to hit up!”

I reached down and grabbed a couple of plastic grocery bags. Ellie walked back into Jeff’s room and came out carrying her overnight bag and her backpack.

“Here, let’s switch,” I said as I took her bags from her and gave her the plastic bags.

“I got off pretty easy on this exchange!” Ellie said with a light laugh. Thank God, she was no longer upset. Jeez, how I would like to just knock some sense into that mother of hers, but from experience I knew it would do no good.

We headed out the door and made our way to my truck. I’m not sure why I was so excited to see her sitting next to me in my truck. I’ve had plenty of girls in my truck in the last three years, but no girl was or would ever be like Ellie.