Chapter Five
Mike dropped Drew off at Gemma’s house thirty minutes later, and was relieved when Drew didn’t try to lighten the mood. He was so thoroughly pissed off, and he wanted to hit something.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t hit Ellie or Drew, so he would just have to use his punching bag.
Mike walked through the door of his home alone, an all-too-common occurrence lately. He had started to think Stacy Wittier was interested tonight when she’d been talking his ear off about what was going on at Idaho Fish and Game where she worked. She was cute as hell, smart, and sweet, and he had been looking forward to exploring the prospect of them together.
Then Ellie had dropped that STD bomb, triggering Stacy to run off before he could say a word. But that wasn’t even as bad as being called a slut-shaming sexist in the middle of Buck’s.
His jaw clenched as he remembered her standing at the bar with her little chin jutted out, accusing him of targeting her. He hadn’t even known she was there at first and he certainly hadn’t been trying to insult her…again. He’d been using one of the techniques in Drew’s book; compliment a woman on her individuality. Stacy was a jeans-and-T-shirt kind of girl—cute, but not into girly things like makeup and dressing sexy. And it had worked, at least, until Ellie had butted in.
The only thing she had going for her right now was that Gracie seemed to like her. It made him wonder if there was something good about her he’d missed.
Mike dropped his shirt on the floor as he prepared to take a shower, his mind flashing back to the way her eyes had sparked as she’d yelled at him, her hair swinging with every angry gesture. If he hadn’t been so pissed, he might have been distracted. Instead, he’d fought back and it had drained him, making him wish he could just crawl into bed and sleep off this day. But there was no way he was going to bed with the smell of stale smoke and beer all over him, no matter how tired he was.
He finished undressing and stepped into the hot stream, thinking about Ellie and that night at Buck’s. He’d been sitting at the bar, drinking too much and feeling sorry for himself. When Ellie had approached him, he hadn’t been thinking about anything except that women sucked.
Yeah, he said it. They sucked hard sometimes.
So, he was pissed and drunk, and she’d come up to him with her hair curling down over her shoulders. Her eyes had danced in the low bar lights and she’d smiled seductively at him as she’d leaned onto the bar.
“Wanna buy me a drink, Mike?”
He could have politely declined or even just bought her the drink and left it at that.
Instead, he’d humiliated her.
Mike paused with his hands in his sudsy hair. He’d hurt and embarrassed her by calling her a dumb kid; she’d just been returning the favor tonight.
They were even.
As he crawled into bed ten minutes later, he decided it was about time to bury the hatchet with Miss Ellie Willis. Maybe they could start over with a clean slate and no more drama.
For either of them.
Ellie walked into the entryway of her sister Val’s house, dropping her keys in the basket.
“I’m home!” she called out, waiting for Jenny to answer. There was only silence, though.
When Val had decided to move in with Justin over two years ago, she’d allowed Jenny and Ellie to rent her place. The women had been really happy in the two-bedroom, two-bath home. Jenny was shy and introverted, while Ellie enjoyed being social, although less so lately. Still, the two were good friends, probably besties, despite their three-year age difference.
Ellie made her way into the kitchen to find Jenny sound asleep on her laptop keyboard, snoring slightly. Her blonde hair was in a lopsided bun, with strands of hair escaping. Off to the side were a giant cup of coffee only half-drunk and an open package of powdered donuts.
She grinned and pulled out her cell, taking a video of her friend snoring with a white ring around her mouth. Perfect blackmail for the next time they rented a movie and Jenny wanted to watch something nerdy.
Stuffing her phone back into her pocket, she wiggled her friend’s shoulder gently. “Jen, hey, wake up.”
Jenny shot up, her blue eyes blurry and the indention of the keyboard marring her cheek.
“What? I’m awake.”
“Yeah, you looked it. Come on, honey, let’s go to bed.”
Jenny yawned and stretched. “I can’t. I’ve still got to finish this paper.”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, cause you were getting a lot done before I came in and woke you up. It’s due on Tuesday, right? That means you have tomorrow and Monday to finish.” Ellie hauled Jenny out of the chair and gently guided her out of the kitchen. “Better you get some sleep and start fresh tomorrow.”
“Okay, you’ve convinced me.” Jenny stopped in her doorway with a smile. “By the way, how was your night? Meet any hot guys?”
“Nope. Dale Ranney showed up to surprise me, but took off.”
“Why? I thought he was really into you.”
Ellie avoided her curious gaze and in a high, innocent voice said, “Reasons.”
Jenny’s face snapped into a scowl. “What did you do?”
“I may have gone off on Mike Stevens about being sexist in the middle of Buck’s, and Dale thought I was out of line.”
Actually, Dale had thought that there was something going on with her and Mike and when she’d denied it, he hadn’t believed her. Oh well, she wasn’t into him anyway.
Jenny leaned her face against the doorjamb with a groan. “Why are you so hung up on destroying Mike? He said one thing to you, and honestly, it isn’t even half as bad as some of the other insults people have hurled at you.”
“Gee, thanks. You’re such a good friend.”
“I’m serious. I feel like you took Mike’s rejection really hard considering you’re not even into the guy.”
Of course, she wasn’t into Mike Stevens. If she was going to moon over some guy it would be someone worthy, like Ian Somerhalder.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just not used to guys passing up all I have to offer,” Ellie said, teasingly.
Jenny laughed. “He probably didn’t want to take advantage of a drunk girl in a bar. He’s a really great guy. I know you two haven’t really clicked, but maybe if you called a truce, you could work out your issues and be friends. At least acquaintances who don’t want to slice each other up.”
“Yeah, I know, everyone loves Mike. Mike’s so great.”
“Okay, whatever cranky pants, I am going to bed,” Jenny said.
“I love you!” Ellie called.
“I love you, too.”
Ellie went into her bedroom and changed into a pair of plaid pajama shorts and a T-shirt, but she wasn’t quite ready for bed. Her brain kept turning over the events of the night and with a heavy sigh, she went into the kitchen.
As she pulled down the ingredients for white chocolate fudge cookies, she mulled over what it would mean to put aside her grudge against Mike. After embarrassing him at the bar, there was no way he’d make the first move.
He’d told her to pick up her computer tomorrow. Maybe she could convince him to forgive her with an apology and a plate of cookies.
He wouldn’t say no to that, right?
The sound of twisted metal crunched around him as the car flipped over and over, bouncing him with every impact. His leg cracked and he screamed in pain as the car hit the canal.
Only it was full of water.
This wasn’t right. There wasn’t supposed to be…
Water broke through the windows, rushing in and he couldn’t breathe. He opened his mouth to call for help and his mouth filled with liquid. He struggled with his seat belt but it was locked.
He was going to die.
Mike jolted up in bed, gasping for breath. His body was covered in perspiration and his left leg ached where he’d broken it a little over a year ago. In a car wreck similar to the one in the dream.
Only when he hit the canal in real life, it had been empty.
He didn’t know what the water meant, but it was the third time in a month he’d had this nightmare and he was done. There was no way he was going back to sleep now.
He climbed out of bed and headed to the kitchen. A middle-of-the-night snack was just what he needed.
Once he finished creating his double decker turkey sandwich on wheat, he sat down at the table. He snapped open the can of Coke he’d grabbed, and took a sip. His gaze strayed to Ellie’s laptop and contemplated it while he ate.
If he fixed the computer, it could be the perfect segue way for a truce between them. It took too much energy to fight with her, anyway.
Next to the laptop was the little notebook and he flipped it open, reading as he chewed.
Rule number one…
Mike grinned. A book with rules to follow? He could get behind that.