Lying With Temptation (17 page)

“Gabby I…”

Right then Mary sticks her head out the door and asks me to come in there to say my goodbyes.  I look at my mother with a cold stare and then back to Mary, “Yes Ma’am.”

They lead me through a set of double doors and into her room, where they’ve unhooked everything and her monitors are beeping slower and slower.  I walk over to the bed and grab her hand, “So Elle…this is it huh…”  I wipe a tear from my eye, “So I hope you are somewhere that you aren’t feeling pain right now.  You hurt me Elle in so many ways, but I still don’t think this was karma.”  I lean over and kiss her forehead, “I’m sorry this happened to you and I wish we could go back to being ten in a tree house, but that all ended…I loved you like a sister and I really do hope that you are in a better place.”

I walk back out into the waiting room where everyone looks at me, I calmly walk over to where my friends are sitting and grab Linc’s hand and they all stand up and follow me out of the room. 

No one asks any questions as we drive back to Cade’s house, when we get out of the car I go straight inside Cade’s and up to my room there.  I crawl into the bed and a few minutes later I feel the bed dip down and I look up to see Linc crawling into bed with me.

“Hey how are you doing?”

I rub my eyes, “I’m fine, just mentally worn out.  My mother doesn’t help matters any.”

“Yeah I kinda got the vibe she didn’t like us being there.”

“Yeah, she was kinda a bitch to me about it…she still thinks this place is my life and that all of these people are my life.  She kinda thought Elle and I would work things out…or that I would be the one to give in the way I always had in our friendship.”

He reaches and brushes the hair from my face and put my hand around his neck and pull him to me.  The kiss starts out slow, but the longer it goes the needier and demanding we get of each other.  His hands run down my sides and I pull him over on top of me and he settles between my legs.  I can feel just how much he wants me and I really want him.  I tug his shirt up over his head and run my hands down his chest.  He pushes my shirt up and tugs the cups of my bra down.  He puts his mouth on my breast and start teasing me.  A moan escapes my mouth.

Knock knock knock!

“
Shit!” I whisper.
He tries not to laugh.

I speak up, “Who is it?”

“It’s Anna.  Hey Mom is down stairs and she needs to talk to you.”

I keep pushing
Linc’s mouth away, so I don’t giggle.  “I’ll be down in a minute, I was napping.”  Linc has this huge grin on his face.

“Okay I’ll let her know.”

I look at Linc, “As much as I would
LOVE
to continue what we were just doing, I need to go see what my mother wants.”   I stand up and adjust my clothes, “Are you coming down with me?”

He gives me that one sided grin, “Um no, I’ve ugh got something I need to take care of…in the bathroom.”

I giggle, “Sorry…I wish I could help you with that.”

He pulls me to him, “We’ll see about you helping
me out later.”

I give him a quick kiss on the lips and go down stairs.  As I reach the bottom step I see my Mother in the foyer.  I walk in there with her, “Hey let’s go to the kitchen.”

She follows me into the kitchen, “So Gabriella, are you planning on coming home this visit or are you going to stay holed up over here?”

“I planned on staying in my room here.”

“Look young lady, I was always understanding of your relationship with Cade and Lydia was always nice enough to let you stay over here, but you and your sister need to come home.”

“Okay, maybe later.”

“Um no now, and you’ve been asked to sing at Elle’s funeral.”

“I’m not singing at her funeral.”

“Yes, you are I said you would.”

“Well then you can tell them that you spoke too quickly.  Because I haven’t sang in front of anyone in a long time and I am not singing at a funeral.”

Chapter 23

Linc

I felt guilty coming down the stairs; I could hear Gabby and her mother before I made it down there.  As I reach the bottom of the stairs, I see Anna walk into the kitchen.  Then I hear more of the argument.

“No Mother I am not singing at a funeral.  Like I said I haven’t sang in a long time.”

“Mom, Gabby, chill out everyone can hear.”

I hear their Mom, “Well everyone wouldn’t hear if she wasn’t over here hiding out.”

“Mom I’m not over here hiding out. We stayed here last night because you guys weren’t home and Anna didn’t want to stay by herself.”

Her mom pipes in again, “Well will you be staying at home tonight since they are doing
the funerals day after tomorrow?”

“No, I have to get back to school.”

“Gabriella Lewis, you will stay for the funeral.”

“No I’m not.”

Anna breaks in, “Mom, Gabby stop. Gabby just stay until the funeral and then leave right after.  Just stay over here until then.  Mom leave her alone; she doesn’t want to sing at her ex-best friends funeral you can’t make her….and for what it’s worth I don’t blame her.”

Her Mom storms past me and out the front door
, slamming it.

Gabby and Anna walk into the living room and flop down on the couch.

Cade is the first one to chime in, “What the fuck was that all about Gabby?  Why is she acting like you’ve never stayed here before and…?”

Gabby stops him, “You know she’s always thought the
sun rose and set on Elle’s ass. Even after everything that happened she still thought we would sort it all out.”  Gabby throws her hands in the air.

I walk over and sit down beside Gabby I
lean over and whisper to her, “Hey lets go for a ride somewhere.  Just you and me…you need some time to think and process all of this.”

She smiles
and nods.  I speak up, “Guys, I’m going to take Gabby for a ride.  She needs a little bit of time to process and all.”

Daria looks up, “Yeah get her out of here for a little bit, she needs to breathe.”

Anna nods and Cade gets up and pulls her off the couch into a hug, “Look Gab we gotta get through the next few days, so go get some peace and quiet.  We’ll be fine.”

Anna looks up, “Hey Russ and I are gonna go grab some pizza and wings to bring back here in a little bit.  I’m sure Mom will be over at Mary’s house and Dad is still with Leslie’s Dad.  That way
Lydia won’t try to cook for us again, these guys eat like horses.”

The three of us all balk about how much we eat. Cade laughs, “Shit Anna she’s used to feeding growing boys.”

~*~

I look over at her as we pull out of the drive way, “So where to?”

She looks over at me, “Um just take this street to the main highway that we came in on and go south. You’ll see a sign for McLarron Lake, turn there follow it to the end.”

Once I pull up to the lake I have to wonder if this is the lake she’s told me about.  “Gab, hey is this where you guys hung out in school?”

“No, we past that lake on the way in yesterday.  I like to come here alone and think, not many people come here.  You can’t put boats and stuff in here so not that many people come here.”  She walks over to a little dock and sits down.

I walk over and sit beside her
hanging my legs off the dock. 

She looks over at me with tears in her eyes, “Thanks again for coming here and being with me.  Just everything.”  She lets out a breath that sounds like she’s been holding it in forever.  She reaches and brushes her hand across my face
, “Hey you wanna go swimming?”

I laugh, “Swimming?”

She hops up, “Yeah, it’s getting close to dark and it’s still pretty warm.”

“Um Gab, have you forgotten we didn’t bring suits?”

“Come on, don’t tell me you’ve never been skinny dipping before?” She runs to the back of the Tahoe and finds a blanket that one of the girls threw back there.  “Are you shy Linc?”

I laugh, “No, but…are you sure.”

“Hey I just said we were going swimming get your head out of the gutter mister.”  She walks over behind a tree and I see her taking her clothes off and hanging them over a branch.  “Okay turn around until you hear me hit the water and then I’ll do the same for you.  See I won’t look at your goodies.”

I turn around and when I hear the splash, I spin back around, “Okay missy turn around.” She does and I strip down and run and jump in.

When I come up she’s laughing, “I didn’t know you had tattoos?”

I splash water at her, “I thought you weren’t gonna look.”

“What is that a kitty cat or something?”

“No it’s a tiger…my high school mascot…the whole team got them…it was really
dumb…Hey Russ has one too.”

She still laughing, “Oh really, that’s funny little tigers on your butts…that’s um cute.”

“Oh really, it’s not cute he’s ferocious!”

Now she’s really laughing, I splash her again and then a war breaks out between us, finally I get over to her and pin her arms down. “So missy do you have any tattoos I should know about?”

She giggles, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

I grab her around the waist, “Yes I would.”
  Her legs go around my waist almost instinctively.  Her arms are around my neck and her heaving breasts are planted against my chest.  Almost like its second nature she kisses me on my lips, which quickly gets intense considering we are both naked and her legs are wrapped around my waist.  Then I feel wetness dropping on my face, first I thought it was from my hair, but it gets heavier and I realize it’s started raining and we haven’t even noticed. 

She busts out laughing, “Well, I guess the skies thought we needed cooling off.”

About that time we hear thunder, she squeals and unwraps herself from me and takes off running to the hill with me right behind her, she really has a glorious body.  She snatches up the blanket and our clothes as she runs to the Tahoe.  I try to as gracefully as possible cover my junk with my hands and run to the SUV.  I jump inside and she is laughing so hard she can hardly breathe, “I’m glad that I bring such laughter to your life.”

She’s trying to breathe, “No it’s just the look on your face running across here with your hands over yourself….it was just too funny.  Oh and just for the record… you passed being able to cover your goodies with your hands…a long time ago I’m guessing.”

“Oh really, well thank you for noticing I’m glad my little show gave you a thrill considering you had all of our clothes and the blanket.”

She looks at me, “Oh you mean this blanket?”  She holds it close to her body.

I make a motion to grab it, “Yeah that one.”

She keeps a death grip on it, “I’ve got to get dressed,
and I’m trying to dry off.”

I chuckle, “Oh really and what I don’t need to get dressed?  Can you at least hand me my boxers?”

She chuckles, “I suppose.”  She hands them to me and looks out the windows, “Jeez it’s really coming down out there.”

“Yeah it is. So are you ready to head back?”

She looks at me with almost desperation, “Not really, I have to face everyone when I get back.  I’m just tired of people staring at me.”

I know what she needs, “Hey is
Lydia working tonight?”

“Yeah I think she’s doing 24 on 48 off thing.  Why?”

“Do you think my ID will work here?  I know yours won’t.”

“Yeah, probably.  I ask again
why?”

“Well I think we all need just a night to relax just the six of us.”

She laughs, “Sounds like a plan to me.  Wait you know what I have an awesome idea.”

“Why does that scare me?”

“It shouldn’t I just don’t want to risk running into my mother.”

Chapter 24

Gabby

              I grab my phone and call Cade.

             
“Hey Cade.” “What’s up?” “Hey Linc and I were talking about grabbing some beer and having a night for just the six of us.”  “Sounds great to me.”  “Well, you guys load up grab the pizza and wings.  Linc and I will grab beer tell everyone to grab some comfy clothes and meet us at the shack…Sound like a plan?”  “Sounds like an awesome plan, see you in an hour or so.”

             
Linc looks at me, “Okay so are you going to fill me in?”

             
“Well first we have to get dressed, so here’s your clothes.  Second we need to go get beer so I hope your ID works here.  Then we are going up around the other lake to an old fishing shack that Cade’s grandparents used to have.”

             
He looks over at me, “Awesome.”

We both dress and try to put ourselves back together.
I can’t help but notice he still tries to respect my privacy even though he’s pretty much seen and felt my goodies.  We pull up to a little gas station on the outside edge of town, “Ok I can’t go in because as you well know everyone in this god forsaken place knows who I am.  So grab us a couple of cases of Coors Light, some chips…oh and some lighters in case we need them.”