“What’s this?”she questioned.
“Just trust me,” I said, waiting while she stared at the drink.
“Oh god, I don’t think so.”Ella giggled.
“Come on, just trust me.I would let nothing happen to you,” I assured her, handing her the drink.
She cautiously accepted it and took a sip.Her eyes lit up as she smiled.“Oh, that is yummy.”
“I told you.Stick with me, babe, I won’t steer you wrong.”
“Keep feeding me these drinks and you don’t have to worry about me going anywhere,” she said, sucking down more of the drink.
“Whoa, Ella, slow down.Those are strong.You’ll be on your face if you don’t.”
She looked up at me with those gorgeous brown eyes and smiled.“Would you catch me?”
I couldn’t do anything but shake my head as she placed her empty glass down on the table.Those drinks had been a disaster for Dylan the first time he’d had them right after he’d broken up with Carlie.It had taken him almost three days to recover.There was no way I could allow her to have any more.
“Would you like another drink?”I heard someone ask, and I looked over to the edge of the table to see the server standing there and Ella shaking her glass.
“I think we are gonna pass on another one of those,” I said, catching the nasty look Ella was giving me for cutting her off before she’d gotten started.“Perhaps just a gin and tonic for her.”
“I don’t want a gin and tonic.I want another one of those,” she told the server, completely ignoring what I’d said.
If she wanted a hangover from hell, who the hell was I to stop it?The server glanced at me, and I simply nodded and watched as she walked away.When I turned back to Ella, she sat there watching me strangely.
“Why don’t you want me to have another one of those?”she questioned.
“It’s not that I don’t want you to.I just don’t want to see you in pain tomorrow for shopping with my sisters and mother, remember?Those drinks, they have a kick to them, best enjoyed one per night.Just ask Hayes.”I chuckled, remembering how much of a damn baby he’d been the next day.
“Oh, I sense a story,” she said, clapping her hands together.“You know I love a story.”
“Oh, there is one, but it’s best to ask him.I wouldn’t want to ruin his opportunity to relive that night.”I chuckled.
“Do you guys like to torture each other?”
“Damn straight.Don’t bet for a single second that if I did something stupid they wouldn’t be all over me to relive it.The worst part is, they’d make shit up to go with it if given the opportunity.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Nah, not horrible.Its just guys being guys.”I winked.“Can’t take it personally.I know in a heartbeat I could go to any one of them if I needed something, and they’d be there.”
“Wow, so almost like brothers.”
“You got it.Which, as you know, I wasn’t lucky enough to have.”
“Yeah, but it seems like your sisters still really care about you.”
I nodded.“But you saw how they reacted tonight at first.”
“Yeah, but I think that was because they’d caught onto your game of avoidance and figured you were lying about being with someone.Either that or they were just shocked to see me there with you.”
“Well, I need to thank you for being such a good sport.You really helped make it believable.”
“Not a problem.It was fun.I just don’t know what we are going to do about Christmas and New Year’s now.”She laughed as she took a sip of the fresh drink the server had placed on the table.
She met my eyes as the music got louder.
