“Don’t ask?” she says as she looks at me, and I drag my fingers across my lips, pretend to lock them shut and proceed to throw away the key.
“Just one little curiosity, nothing big but I’d love to ask it,” I say as I exaggeratedly flutter my lashes.
“Go for it, but it doesn’t mean you’ll get an answer,” she replies on a sigh.
“Why a horse? Out of all the things you could have told him to get jiggy with, why that?” I don’t know why I want to know but it’s intriguing and hilarious. In my opinion anyway.
“I never said a horse, what I said is a lot worse and we agreed to never mention it again,” she looks riddled with shame as she looks at Noah and I see his jaw has clenched and his hands are pulled into tight fists.
“I took creative liberties with my choice of words, Ivy thought she may have lost Noah after what she said but he forgave her. That’s all we’ll tell you, we don’t know you well enough to get into the nitty gritty stuff” says Amias, and I feel his hand travel onto my thigh just above my knee.
I refuse to wiggle in my seat and I love the way he gives me a gentle squeeze, it's almost as if he’s trying to say that he wants to get to know me and that makes me feel cold with dread. He won’t like me then, will he?
“You okay brown eyed beauty?” asks Elijah as he places his hands on my shoulders.
That boy needs to wear a bell, I’m so caught up in my own mind that I don’t think as I send a backfist into his jaw, and that mother hurts.
“Bloody hell little Hen, that smarts a bit,” he says as he crouches down at the end of the table and looks at me.
“That was an accident, keep calling me that name and it won’t be next time,” I grit out, I can’t have anyone else calling me that, and he doesn’t deserve to know the reason why.
He’s putting his hands up in a placating gesture and wisely backing away but he’s still smiling, does he ever turn off the charm?
“Do you like any nicknames?” asks Amias, his grin almost a smile now. I think he likes that I punched him.
“Finley called me brownie, but that’s ruined because he said it. Some call me Leigh but honestly the less reminders of home the better. You want to use one on me, find something that doesn’t make me want to punch you,” I say with my own grin.
“I wouldn’t mind you punching me,” he says in return, which makes Ivy choke on her drink.
We spend the rest of lunch with the guys throwing weird arse nicknames at me which I veto except from Noah’s. He only suggests one and I love it instantly and that is solely his to use. Leighbear, how could I refuse.
Noah and Ivy walked me back, it’s sweet they want to look after me but I don’t feel comfortable with all of this attention. Once I get inside my room I pull my boots off and the envelope falls out, I forgot all about it.
“What’s this Leighbear?” Noah asks as he retrieves it from the floor and passes it to me, his eyebrows drawn down into a slight frown.
“I’m not sure, it was taped to my door when I got back from my run,” I reply just as a knock sounds on my door and Ivy lets Amias and Elijah in.
Neither of them are happy that Noah has a nickname for me and I love it, I’m not here to make them happy.
“Well then, open it already,” says Ivy bouncing on the balls of her feet.
I can’t help rolling my eyes as I rip open the envelope and pull out a folded-up piece of paper.
You really believe you can strut around as though you are better than everyone else, that you won’t be held responsible for past deeds. You think you’ve suffered, but you don’t know what true suffering is. Watch this space Henleigh, once I’m done, you’ll never feel joy again.
For RS, why should you get to be happy when they can’t?
“Henleigh, who’s RS?” asks Elijah, I didn’t even realise he was looking over my shoulder the whole time.
“I haven’t got the foggiest, why would someone tape this to my door? Could this be Harrison?” I ask, to anyone who may have the slightest inclination.
“It doesn’t feel direct enough if you ask me, he likes to ensure a huge splash when he rocks the boat.”
“What past deeds do you think it could mean? It could help to narrow down who the culprit could be,” says Ivy, but I can’t think of anything I’ve done that would cause this reaction.
“I don’t really know, I pretty much keep to myself. I have for most of my life, it doesn’t make any sense that someone would want to target me.” I need to get out of my own head, just do something fun. “You know what, I think I need to do something, got any suggestions?”
Elijah puts his arm around my shoulders and pulls me into him, “I have an idea foxy lady.” and now he’s leading me out of my room, I only get a split second to grab my boots, I haven’t even got them on yet!
He leads me outside and the others are keeping up, but I think he wants them to go away. He keeps doing the shoo gesture at them all and he’s not happy that they’re ignoring him.
“Come on guys, I can’t take all of us and she needs to clear her pretty little head,” he says and moves when I try to pinch his side.
“Don’t muck around Lija, she’s not used to you,” comes from Amias, and he’s rewarded with a mock salute before I’m once again being dragged away from a mixture of worried and annoyed faces.
“Hang on there big guy, where are you taking me?” There’s laughter in my voice and little bit of worry. But that’s because of the way the other two looked as we left.
“I have a dirt bike stashed just outside the wall, and we know a way to get out without the required pass.” He’s waggling his brows up and down and he’s got this mischievous look on his face.
He leads me over to an old looking shed before he climbs up on top of the roof and offers me a hand so I can follow him up. The next thing I know, his big hands are on my waist and he’s lifting me up to sit on the wall. I’m well aware that his hands are slowly sliding down my waist and over my thighs. And I’m filled with the urge to either grab him or kick him, even though I know following out either of the urges would be wrong.
His eyes are on mine, but I see every time they dart down to my lips. Don’t kiss me, please kiss me. I’m feeling so confused, I can’t help it as my tongue darts out to wet my bottom lip and he groans, just before he moves away and hoists himself up to sit beside me on the wall.
“Up to you, foxy lady, we can stay here or I can take you for a spin on the back of my bike.”
“The bike ride sounds fun,” I reply quietly, I don’t take risks, but I want to, maybe I need to as well.
He swings his legs over the wall before flipping himself over and climbing down a conveniently placed ladder.
“Amias and I set this up so we could come and go as we need, eventually they’ll remember the shed and get rid of it but hopefully it won’t be whilst we’re still here.”
I follow him down and lose my footing on the third from the top rung, my body slipping and slamming into the ladder. My hands slip and I’m suddenly falling, right into Elijah’s waiting arms.
“If I knew that was all it would take for you to fall for me, I would have brought you here sooner,” he says with a wink and I can’t help but laugh, he’s a fool but he’s kind of fun.