Taking Shots (Assassins) (53 page)

So why didn’t she loved him?

“
Hey.” Elli looked over, pushing that question way to the back of her mind, to see Shea standing only halfway in the room, “Okay, so I’ve been working on something…for you. I was going to do it for your birthday but I think you could use it now.”

“
What is it? Come in here.” He looked down at the ground, clearing his throat, and for the first time he was acting shy. “Come on.”

He looked over at her, taking a deep breath, and then came into the room with his arms behind his back, but nothing could hide the beauty of the Gibson Hummingbird guitar that was peeking out from behind his legs. Her eyes lit up as he sat down, placing the beautiful guitar across his lap. He tapped his fingers against the base before looking up at her.

“
You have to promise you won’t tell anyone I did this, because I swear I’m like the biggest girl in the world for this, but when I heard this song after dating you, I had to learn it…for you.” Elli took in a breath, covering her mouth as her eyes became bright with excitement. He was gonna play for her! “And then I started singing along with it and knew I had to do both because hopefully it would express how I feel, but you can’t tell anyone!”

“
I won’t!” she gushed through her hands that still covered her mouth.

“
Especially not Grace. I swear you tell her, I’ll…I’ll call your daddy and tell him you’ve been sleeping with me, and you’re naughty as hell!”

Elli giggled uncontrollably as he grinned bashfully. She was falling for this guy. She knew it now, it was happening and damn it, she was gonna let it! Because he was wonderful, he was gonna sing to her! He shook his head, and then moved his hands to the strings of the guitar. He stayed there for a moment, not moving his fingers. Shea then looked up at her, and she smiled, hoping to encourage him to go ahead. He didn’t smile back, but he looked down at the guitar and slowly started moving his fingers against the cords.

Elli was so impressed to see his large hands move so easily over each cord, creating the most beautiful melody, but then he started to sing, “Oh, her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like they're not shining,” she recognized the song immediately, and she couldn’t help the little gasp or the “Oh, Shea” that left her lips. Bless his heart. He wasn’t the best singer, but it didn’t matter, he was singing for her. A song that every girl wants sang to them, because being told that “you’re amazing, just the way you are” would making any girl melt into a puddle of goo.

She couldn’t believe this was happening. Things like this didn’t happen in real life, only in books and movies. But there he was, playing the most romantic song in the world to her. He wouldn’t look at her as he sung, but a small smile would cross his beautiful mouth when he hit a note he knew he couldn’t, or when the lyrics really didn’t apply to her, because hello, her hair didn’t lay flat.

He came to the end of the song, and stopped, moving the guitar off his lap, he looked up at her, and said, “Okay now really, don’t laugh.” He had the sweetest, most adorable sheepish grin on his face as he took her hands in his, looking deep in her eyes as he sung the chorus again.

That’s when Elli started to cry.

The tears came quick, rolling down her cheeks, onto their hands. He stopped singing, laughing nervously as he moved his hand up to her cheek, catching some of her tears. “Elli, don’t cry!”

“
I’m sorry,” she said sniffing as she tried to stop crying, “You’re like a dream, Shea, no one does that anymore.”

“
Sure they do, come here.” She went into his arms willing, rubbing her nose against his shirt, taking in his heavenly scent. “I meant every word, Elli, you’re amazing.”

How in the world did she get so lucky?

And why couldn’t she believe him?

Elli was getting stronger and Shea hoped embarrassing himself for her was helping with her recovery. When he had first heard “Just the way you are” he was convinced it was for guys that needed to get laid, but then he met Elli and every single word in the song describe what he was feeling for her, what he thought, so he had to learn the cords, then he started singing as he played. Shea knew he wasn’t the best singer, but it seemed Elli loved it, hell she even started crying good tears, making his embarrassment worth it.

Since he hadn’t left in four days, he hadn’t been working out, which was the longest he had ever went without working out. He tried to get Adler to run with him the other day, but the damn dog made it to the mailbox then just laid down. It was as if he was saying “I’ll be here when you get back,” Damn lazy dog. So while Elli slept after lunch, Shea went into the living room, looking for the P90x DVD set she had mention having. He looked through the racks, but it wasn’t there, so he opened the drawers of the TV stand, seeing if they were in there.

They weren’t but there was a drawer full of DVDs, on was marked ‘Elli in: Funny Girl’ and then a lot of other musicals. He pulled them all out, forgetting about his workout and fumbling with the DVD case to get the DVD out. He put the disc in, then slowly back up, sitting on the couch as the DVD started. It started with a title screen and then went into the movie. It must have been one of her high school plays because the stage was big but not Broadway big. The curtains opened but the lights didn’t come on the four girls that sat at a table. The spot line came down on a girl sitting in the front row in a leopard outfit. When the camera zoomed in and Shea saw that it was Elli, he smiled.

She was a baby.

A girl came out on the stage and the show started. It was amazing, Elli was captivating, and that’s not because he knew her and loved her so much, it was because she was absolutely amazing. Her voice was angelic, just as her dad had said. When she would open her mouth, everyone looked at her, even the people on stage. It was breathtaking.

So breathtaking that when Elli came shuffling into the room, Shea didn’t even look up at her. He kept watching the show as she came over and cuddled up on the couch with him. Neither of them said anything as the DVD went black, then the spotlight came back on Elli in the middle of the stage in a black dress.

“
This is my favorite part,” she said beside him. On the DVD, Elli started singing again, the song was about the man she had lost, Shea guessed, but he didn’t care. Elli was compelling. She killed the performance, you believed she had just lost the love of her life, you believed she was hurting, but you didn’t care, all you wanted was more of her voice, more of her.

The show ended with her standing there, no music playing, just big, shiny tears falling down her cheeks. Shea wanted to get up and clap and scream like the people were doing in the video, but instead he wrapped his arms around Elli, holding her close to him as the credits ran.

“
I trained for a months to do that song, it was so hard.”

“
It was amazing, you’re fascinating Elli, truly.”

Elli shook her head against his, turning her head up to look at him, “I was, not no more. I couldn’t sing that song if my life depended on it.”

“
Sure you could and you still are, Elli. You fascinate me, every day.”

A dazzling smile came across her face, causing his heart to pound and his skin to tingle. This was the moment, the moment for her to say it. It was all over her face, she loved him, she had too, he saw it in her eyes.

“
I never loved myself until I met you,” she said before snuggling closer to him, rubbing her nose against his neck.

She didn’t love him, but she loved herself.

Great.

Now when the hell was she gonna love him!

Elli opened her eyes slowly. She felt like someone was staring at her, and not to her surprise, someone was.

Shea.

He gave her a cheeky grin, kissing her lips loudly. “Happy birthday, baby.”

“
Mmm…thanks,” she said as she stretched her arms above her head, “What time is it?”

“
Seven, we need to get back to Nashville.”

“
Why?” she asked rolling to her side to cuddle against his naked chest, “Why on earth would we leave this warm bed?”

Shea chuckled, “Baby, it’s your birthday; things are planned for today, you know.”

“
Like?”

He smacked her butt playfully, pushing her out of bed. “Not telling! Now get up, Harper will be at the condo by nine to pick you up.”

Elli moaned as Shea continued to push her out of bed, “Fine, fine, I’m going,” she complained as she threw the blankets off her and headed for the shower. “You’re mean,” she spat back at him as he just laughed.

“
I bet you won’t be saying that later!” he countered as she went into the bathroom. A grin covered her face, he was probably right. She was so excited for today, she could hardly contain it. It was weird for her to be excited about her birthday, but she was. Another thing Shea had made happen.

The man was a Godsend. He made her feel so good about herself, made her happy, made her excited about things that before she would never be excited for. He had taken care of her all week, making sure she recovered quickly, which she had. She had never bounced back from being sick so quickly, and when she said that to Shea, he laughed saying, “My mom always said that a lot of love will chase any sickness away.”

Mrs. Adler was completely right.

Elli took off her t-shirt and hopped into the shower, letting the hot water warm her body. She had been so happy staying at her house with Shea and was a little sad that they had to return to Nashville. It seemed that time stood still when she was in her house, that the outside world didn’t exist. Or maybe that was the sickness, because God knew she couldn’t do anything but lay in bed. Elli didn’t even know what was going on with the studio, she was sure it was okay, but she had no clue what the schedule or anything looked like.

After washing up, Elli got out and brushed her hair out before going back into the bedroom. Shea must have been out with Alder because he wasn’t in bed. Elli went to her closet, looking through her clothes for something to wear. She decided on a pair of worn wranglers and a Toy Story t-shirt that she had gotten when she went to Toy Story on Ice with the kids. She went back into her bathroom, getting ready for the day. She didn’t know if she should do her hair, so she just dried it, and put it up. After putting on some light makeup, she went to go pick some shoes. After taking twenty minutes to decide on boots or pumps, she went with her black cowboy boots that had red hearts all over them. They were her favorite, and her most broken in boots.

Elli made her way down the hall, through her living room to the kitchen, where Shea stood drinking his coffee. A grin went over his face as she wrapped her arms around his waist, placing her cheek in the middle of his chest. He was dressed in jeans and a sweater, with his trusty chucks. He was ready to go, apparently.

“
Ready, babe? Adler’s already in the car.”

“
Yup, you sure are in a hurry to leave my house,” she teased as she let him go, putting on her jacket that hung on the peg by the hall, “You don’t like my house?”

He shook his head, putting on his jacket as he stood in front of her. “Of course, I do, but we need to get back. Like I said, Harper is coming.”

She nodded as she locked up, heading towards her truck as he went to his. When she climbed into her truck, she saw that Adler wasn’t there. She looked in the rearview mirror and there sat her dog, in the passenger side of Shea’s car.

Damn dog.

Harper was already waiting when Elli pulled up. It was no surprise that Shea beat her home. He drove like a bat out of hell, so she wasn’t even surprised when she pulled up to see Harper and Shea talking beside the truck. Elli got out the truck, locking it as she walked towards the two most important people in her life right now. Harper smiled over at Elli, wrapping her arm around her shoulders.

“
Happy birthday!”

“
Why, thank you very much,” Elli said with a grin, “What brings you by?”

“
Part of the surprise of today, come on! Say bye to your boy toy, let’s roll!”

Elli shook her head as she giggled, wrapping her arms around Shea. “When will I see you, Mr. Secretive?”

Shea laughed as he kissed her cheek, “Later on tonight, have fun.”

“
Doing what?”

“
Shut up, stop trying to ruin the surprise,” he said before leaning down to capture her lips with his. He kissed her long and lavishly before pulling away and smiling down at her. “See you tonight.”

Elli narrowed her eyes at him, pouting her lips, “Bye.”

She listened to his laughter all the way to Harper’s Honda. They both waved at Shea as Harper backed up, heading south on West End. “You look great, babe, real good.”

“
Thanks, Harper, I feel a lot better.” Elli answered as she looked out the window. As much as she was excited for the surprise, she hated not knowing.

“
Shea took good care of you?”

“
He did,” Elli said beaming, “He bathed me, Harp, like actually stood in the shower and held me in his arms to wash me; he’s amazing.”

Harper nodded, “Hell, yeah he is, that’s great. I was hoping you wouldn’t be mad I called him.”

“
No, I wasn’t. I was actually glad. I didn’t like that he saw me so sick, but I needed help. Lord knows you can’t handle it.”