Wanted (64 page)

“I love you Jefferson
Michael
Johnson. Now, let’s get the hell back on our horses. I have goddamn race to win!”

CHAPTER FIFTY TWO

E
llie……

Emma, Ari and I spent most of the afternoon cleaning up and packing up food from our Thanksgiving Day feast. The guys all went out to the porch and I heard Garrett saying something about a Jess person brin
g
ing in a new horse. Ari’s eyes lit up at that. Anything to do with horses and she was on board.

“Girls
,
why don’t y’all head on down to the main stable and check out the new filly
that
just came in.
”

“How old
is she Emma?” Ari asked as she took off the apron she had tied around her. She had bee
n smiling from head to toe ever since
sh
e and Jefferson came back from their
ride yesterday.  I guess they worked things out because he could not keep his hands off h
er and
she was the same way
. Emma had to tell them
to mind their manners at least five
times during dinner.

“She’s three
and she’
s a beauty. Jeffer
son actually bought her for his
new place.” Ari and
I
both snapped our heads around and looked at Emma. She realized her mistake the moment it came out of her mouth.

“Wait, what new place Emma? Why is Jefferson buying a horse?” I asked Emma.

“You mean he has not told you yet?” Ari said in a stunned voice.

“No….I have no idea what either one of you is talking about!”

Emma shook her head and looked back to the sink where she was putting
away the last of the dishes. “I
t
ain’t
my place to tell you Jefferson’s new
s
Ellie.”

Ari started to laugh. “Well it sure is shit is m
ine now! Jeff is buying two hundred and fifty
acres of land
that butts up to the north side
of the Mathews ranch.”

WHAT? Why would he not tell me
this and more importantly HOW!?

“How in the hell, oh sorry Emma, how in th
e heck can he afford to buy a two hundred fifty
acre piece of land?”

Ari shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. I knew Jeff worked during the year after football season but that was only during the spring semester. Then
I remembered my car! How did he
afford to buy my car….with
cash.
Now he is buying horses? Something did not add up! No intern at an architectural firm could make that much money.
I know he said he
had
money left over from our grandmother and he was a good saver but come on.
I was getting to the bottom of this
right now
.

I spun on my heels and made a beeline for the stables. Ari was right on my heels. I didn’t talk the whole way
there;
I had
too
many things running through my mind.
OMG…what if he was selling drugs?!

“Stop thinking so much Ellie! Christ! I can hear your damn brain working in over time now. Just give Jeff a chance to tell you. Don’t go running in and start accusing him of selling drugs or something.”

Shit….how did she know that’s what I had been
thinking? Did I say it out loud by mistake? We turned the corner and I saw Drake, Aaron,
Jefferson,
Gunner
and……a girl?

She was probably my height and weight but sh
e was dressed in super tight ass
W
rangler jeans, cowboy boot
s and a tight
Navy Blue t-
shirt. What the fuck?

Gunner and Aaron were both talking to her and she was throwing her head back
laughing
at something Gunner had just said. I
immediately
didn’t like
her. I didn’t know who
she was
,
but I
knew I
did not like her one bit.

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph who the fuck is the tramp dressed as a cowgirl?” Ari said as she looked her up and down. Jefferson’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw Ari. He looked over at me an
d smiled as he walked up to me.

“Ells I wanted to wait until it was all final but it looks
like
this week it will be so….Um, yeah I bought some land out here. It butts up to the north pasture of the
Mathews ranch. It’s about two hundred and fifty
acres.” He then looked over to Ari and smiled even bigger. “I bought it hoping to turn it into a horse ranch, and I bo
ught my first filly today. She’s yours
baby
. Whatever you want to name
her
Ari,
she is all yours.”

Ari looked stunned. I had never in my life seen
Ari stunned into silence
….EVER…..in all the years I had known here. She just stared at Jeff and I notic
ed his smile
starting to falter. I looked back at Ari and she had a tear rolling down her face. Next thing I knew she was jumping into Jeff’s arms and wrapping her legs around his waist.

“OH MY GOD!!!
You bought me
a
horse?!
OH MY GOD!”
Jeff started laughing as he walked over to the filly while Ari was kissing him
all over
like mad.

“Jesus get a fucking hotel room would you!” Gunner called out as he looked over at me and winked.
He then turned his attention to miss bleach
ed
blonde tight ass
jeans
wearing fake ass tits cowgirl. She gave him a quick hug….HUH
?......
and then turned to hug Aaron.
Old friend?
Cousin?
Who was this girl?

“Hey sweetheart, want to see the filly
, she is a beauty.
”

“I’m pretty sure I already got a look at her
.
”
Gunner gave me a confused look and looked back toward the horse. Stupid ass…..

”Sure
, l
et’s go meet Ari’s new horse.”
I said as I just shook my head.

For the rest of the night no one brought up miss bleach
ed
blonde tight ass
jeans
wearing fake ass tits cowgirl so neither did I. It was almost like she was never there. I did corner Jeff about how in the hell he was able to buy all thi
s shit. Turns out he took a
part of the money we received from our grandmother and invested it. I gue
ss it has been doing pretty well
. H
e had some set aside for a car and
school
for me
and some left over if I ever
wanted to use it for a wedding.

A wedding?
Okay. I wasn’t planning on that for a
while. Gunner’s whole body tensed up when I laughed about needing the money for a wedding. I thought it was weird but I was still pissed about miss tight pants to care righ
t now what Gunner was thinking.

The next morning I got up to Ari already up and gone.
Gesh
, s
econd day in a row she had high
tailed it out first thing in the morning. I was beginning to think that she and Jeff were sneaking off to make
out
or
something. EEEWWW….I didn’t need that visua
l at all just now. Not firs
t damn thing in the morning. I s
hook my head to erase the image from my mind.

I threw on a pair of sweatp
ants and a UT football sweat shirt
. It felt like the cold front had moved through. I went down into the kitchen. 9:30? What the hell?! Why did everyon
e let me sleep in so late? And where the hell
was everyone?

I walked out onto the front porch to see Emma and Garrett in a deep conversation. They s
topped the moment I walked out.

“Oh excuse me I didn’t mean to interrupt you.” I said as I started to head back into the house.

“Nonsense Ellie darling, you could never interrup
t us. Are
you looking for Drew honey?”

I nodded my head and smiled.

“I believe he walked down to the barn a little bit ago. He was going to feed the horses.”

“Oh….okay great….um thanks I’
ll go um track him down.” Why was I stammering over my words?

I headed down to the main stable and I heard voices. I turned the corner to see her…..leaning up against the barn and Gunner was leaning next to her with his arm resting up against a stall. She was smiling and laughing at something he said. I instantly had the same feelings I had when I came across Ryan. I just stood there. Finally Gunner looked up. He gave me that drop my panties crooked smile of his and dropped his arm and started to walk towards me. I was frozen. Why was he down here alone with this girl? I looked over at her and she was giving me a dirty look and th
en smiled a
smirky
smile at me.

I don’t know why I did it but I turned and walked away.
“Ellie?”
Gunner called for me. As soo
n as I turned the corner out
of their view I took off running. I had no idea where
the hell I was going but I
was running as fast as I could.

“ELLIE STOP!”
Gunner shouted. I knew I would never be able to out run
him
. FUCK! He runs every damn day. I ran up to the tank and had to put my hands on my knees and lean over.

OH SHIT…I needed to start working out again. I was trying to suck in air but my lungs
felt like they were closed up.

“What the fuck Ellie? What are you doing running away like that?”

Have
.
To.
Catch.
My.
Breath
!

I stood up and tried to rub out the cramp I was now getting on my side. Holy fuck….I think I needed to start running…
…..
okay maybe walking and then work my way up to running. Oh my god I was rambling my
own
fucking thoughts now.

Gunner walked up and p
ulled me around to look at him.

“What was that about? Why did you run off?”

Once I got my breath back I just let go. I was tired, cranky, stressed out from school, never seeing Gunner enough, sitting and having to watch endless girls swoon all over his ass….and now this. He is down in the barn looking like he was about to kiss some bleach
ed
blonde tight…oh fuck it……BITCH cowgirl.

“Oh I’m sorry Gunner. It’s just that it looked like you two needed a private moment to finish
whatever it is you were about to start
!”

“What? Ellie what are you talking about.”

“Go fuck yourself ok. You let me sleep in this morning so you could spend some time with tight jean wearing who ever the fuck she is bleach
ed
blonde. You sure looked cozy with each other. I would say her name but funny thing is you never introduced
her to me
yesterday….especially after she gave you a nice long good bye hug…….Fuck this.”

I started to walk away but fuck…I still had
the cramp in my side. FUCK ME!

“Ellie don’t walk away from me. Stop for just one goddamn minute.”

“I’m going home.”

I watched as he threw his hands in his hair and then
pulled them down over his face.

“Baby please
stop
…..I can’t do this Ellie. All we do is
argue
anymore and you keep getting pissed at me and I have no fucking clue as to why. So you saw me talking to Jess, she is Drake’s daughter. We all grew up together. Fuck she is like a little sister to me Ellie. I was not about to kiss her or do anything else with her for that matter. I love you! Damn it Ellie
! W
hy can’t you see that I love you….I only want you.”

You wi
ll never be wanted by anyone…….

“
SHIT! When will
her voice get out of my fucking
head!
”

“Who’s voice Ellie?”

I did it again. I turned around and saw the hurt in Gunner’s eyes. Why was
I
having such a trust issue with him lately? I really didn’t think they look
ed like they were about to kiss so why did I run off like that?