“Alright girl, I will get on it. Haavveee fuuunnnnn! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! HA!” Ari said as she started to laugh.

“Bye Ari…..”

Just as I was about to hop in the shower I realized I had forgotten my razor….if I was wearing a skirt I was doing a quick once over on my legs. I grabbed the towel off the rack and wrapped it around my body. I opened the door just a tad. Gunner’s door was shut and it sounded like he was on the phone. Should be safe to make a quick run and grab my razor. I bolted out the door and into Jefferson’s bedroom. I grabbed my razor out of my bag and turned back to run back into the bathroom. Gunner’s bedroom door was literally almost directly across from Jefferson’s bathroom. As soon as I made it out the door, Gunner came walking out his door, still on the phone and still in his f**king towel! I slammed right into him. I don’t know who was more surprised or more embarrassed because he turned the shade of the red towel that was, thank God, still wrapped around me and I am pretty damn sure my face was just as red if not more.

Gunner dropped his phone and I dropped my razor. Unfortunately we both bent down at the same time to pick up our stuff.

“FUCK!” We both shouted as our heads hit.

“HOLY FUCK Ellie….I thought you were in the shower!” Gunner said as his eyes took a sweep from the top of my body to the bottom. I was pretty sure he liked what he saw because he started to lick his lips and there went his goddamn hand through his hair! Oh holy shit…….now his hair was wet and it was even hotter.

Oh lord…I think my legs are about to go out from underneath me. I started to sway a little bit. Gunner reached out and grabbed me.

“Ellie, are you okay sweetheart? Does your head hurt? Do you need to sit down? Dammit did I hurt your hand?” Gunner eyes were filled with so much worry and………love? No….he was just worried that he hurt me that was all. I mean my God look at him. What could he possible see in me?

“Um….Oh Shit! Shit! Shit!….Gunner I’m SO sorry. I thought it would be safe if I ran out and grabbed something I’m so so sorry. Um, no my head and my hand…they are fine really.” I said as I looked down to where his hands were still holding onto both my arms. He followed my eyes and immediately dropped his hands.

“Good, good, I um, I’m glad you are not hurt.” He said as he smiled down at me. Fuck. A. Duck.

I smiled and started to walk into the bathroom. As I was shutting the door Gunner was just standing there….frozen. Once the bathroom door was all the way shut I had to lean against it for support. Damn….if only his towel had dropped. I had to giggle that I even thought that. Hey, I was human after all. The dull ache in-between my legs was starting to become a familiar thing when I was around this guy.

I jumped in the shower and tried to go as fast as I could. Just the thought of spending more time alone with Gunner gave me butterflies. I had to remember though; we could be nothing more than friends. A guy who was that good looking and had that much of a rockin’ body, yeah, he would never waste his time on someone like me. I need to just keep telling myself that. Now if only my body would listen.

CHAPTER TEN

GUNNER……

I shut the door to my bedroom and leaned against it. Holy shit….down boy! I cannot believe I just f**king ran into Ellie and she was wearing nothing but a f**king towel.

Good lord I cannot catch my breath...breathe……in….out…..shit!

Mother f**ker! I cannot believe how much I wanted to just pull that damn thing off of her and take her right there against the wall. Yeah, Jefferson would sure as shit beat the f**k out of me for even thinking that. SHIT! I hope I can look at her today and not picture her nak*d.

I wish I had time for a cold shower but that was out of the question. I needed to get dressed and make a few more phone calls for tomorrow night. First thing was to call back Jake, the guy who was DJ’ing for Ellie’s graduation party. Then I needed to order some food. Jeff had his last day at work today and then after that he was going to get some stuff for the party.

I quickly threw on a pair of shorts and a shirt. My dick was still somewhat hard from seeing Ellie in that towel. Christ the things that girls does to me. I couldn’t believe how excited I was to just spend the day with her. Spending time with Ellie was now on my list of favorite things to do. Before the only two things I cared about were football and the ranch. Now there were three; Ellie, the ranch and football and they were in that order.

I heard the shower turn off and knew I only had a few minutes to get this shit taken care of. I picked up my phone and called Jake back. He was not too pleased I just hung up on his ass but what was I going to say. Sorry dude…the girl who makes me hard just by walking into a room was standing in front of me with nothing but a towel on. The next call was to order some food. The third call was to Grams. What the hell was I going to get Ellie? I had never in my life bought a girl a gift, let alone a girl who is this special to me.

Wait…where the f**k did that come from?

I knew I could honestly say I would do anything for Ellie. Anything to make her smile, hear her laugh or feel her touch. She was special to me.

Fuck…..I’m so f**ked……

“Gunner?” I heard Ellie call from outside my door. I had just hung with Grams and had the perfect gift in mind. Just the sound of her voice made my stomach do flips. Man….can I make it through this day without wanting to kiss her? I took a deep breath and opened the door.

FUCK ME….

Nope…I was never going to be able to make it through this day without kissing those sweet soft lips. She stood there staring up at me with such a sweet innocent smile that my heart just melted. I was ready to drop to my knees and tell her I would do whatever she wanted. My god ….was it possible she was getting more and more beautiful every time I looked at her?

She had on a short, but not too short, mini denim skirt along with a blue shirt that made her blue eyes just jump out at you. Her hair was pulled up in a pony tail and she had on just a hint of makeup on. Her lips were tinted a light pink and I could not stop staring at them. I wanted to know how soft they felt against my lips so f**king bad.

“Hey um, I’m ready if you are? I mean I’m not in any kind of hurry or anything I just……” She trailed off as she looked me up and down. She started chewing on her bottom lip. I reached over and tilted her head up towards me and pulled her lip out from her teeth.

“That lip is too soft and beautiful to be abused like that sweetheart.” I said as I smiled down at her. I was pretty sure I saw her whole body shake. A blush started to creep into her cheeks. Damn, it was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen.

“Right….um…so are you ready to go? I just need a bag or something to clean out my locker.” Ellie said as she looked around at everything but me.

“WOW…your room is so…….clean.”

“Why thank you sweetheart. I’m sure my mom would appreciate knowing that all those years of bitching at me to keep my room neat paid off.” I said with a laugh.

Ellie let out a giggle and looked up me.

Jesus….the moment her eyes met mine I swear I forgot how to breathe. I leaned down towards her only to have her look away and take a step back.

Shit.

“Um, okay well let’s find you a bag or something shall we?” I said as I moved passed her and headed down the hall to the kitchen. FUCK. I need to remember what Jeff said…..She needed time and here I was trying to f**king kiss her every chance I could. What the f**k was wrong with me? Christ….I need to think about something else…..football….nope that won’t work…. f**king football gives me a hard on…..puppies……dogs….I think I would like to get a dog…..what kind of dog? I wonder what kind of dogs Ellie likes.

Okay…I will think of dogs every time I have the urge to kiss her.

Oh what the hell Gunner you are losing your goddamn mind.

“You sure seem lost in thought.”

I was now standing in the middle of the kitchen…just standing there thinking about f**king dogs. I shrugged my shoulders and started digging through the drawer where Jeff keeps all the extra bags.

“How big of a bag do you need?” Silence…….

”Ellie?” I stood up and she was standing there just staring at me.

“Ellie what’s wrong? Hey….can you tell me what is wrong sweetheart?” I squatted down so I could look in her face. She seemed so lost…what I would not do to crawl in that brain and figure shit out for her.

“I….I don’t know what is wrong Gunner!!I just had this panic come over me! What if I can’t do this? What if I fail at this too? I mean….I’m soooo not sure that I’m ready to go to college, my mother keeps telling me….” Ellie turned and looked away the moment she mentioned her mother.

I placed my hands on her shoulders and turned her around to look at me. Oh Jesus H. Christ she was crying. My heart just took a nose dive right into my stomach. I reached up and wiped away the tears that were streaming down her beautiful face. She gave me a weak smile.

“Oh god I’m so sorry. You must thing I’m a nut case….I’m so sorry Gunner.” Then she just lost it. The sobs where taking over her whole body. I pulled her close to me and ran my hand through her soft hair.

She smelt like Daisies again. I felt my dick getting hard just from having her up against my body.

Holy fuck…….what am I suppose to be thinking about again?

DOGS!…..Golden retrievers, Labs….yellow, black or brown? Big dog or little dog, German Shorthair Pointer??

“Ellie it’s going to be okay sweetheart I promise you it will be okay. I know this is a scary time but you are smart and you can do anything you put your mind to. Please don’t let something your mother tells you to ever let you doubt yourself. I know what it feels like to have someone tell you that all you will ever do is fail.” I said as I took a deep breath and buried my nose in her hair. My god….daisies….all I could smell where daisies.

Ellie looked up at me confused. “What do you mean you know what it feels like to have someone tell you all you will do is fail? Gunner you are amazing! The most amazing person I’ve ever met. I can’t….I can’t even believe anyone would think that about you.”

I just laughed and gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Come on Ells, let’s get this show on the road….we have a locker to clean out and a coffee shop to hit up!”

I reached down and grabbed a couple plastic grocery bags. Ellie walked back into Jeff’s room and came out carrying her overnight bag and her backpack.

“Here, let’s switch.” I said as I took her bags from her and gave her the plastic bags.

“I got off pretty easy on this exchange!” Ellie said with a light laugh. Thank god…she was no longer upset. Gesh, how I would like to just knock some sense into that mother of hers, but from experience I knew it would do no good.

We headed out the door and made our way to my truck. I’m not sure why I was so excited to see her sitting next to me in my truck. I’ve had plenty of girls in my truck in the last three years but no girl was or would ever be like Ellie.