Taking Shots
Page 90

 Toni Aleo

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When the computer finished loading, she checked her appointment book. When the page came up for the day, she saw that Harper’s name was listed in the client column. Just then, Harper came into the studio, calling her name. Elli was confused as she headed toward the front door.
“Harper, why are you in my appointment book, taking up my whole-”
She stopped talking when she saw Harper had her two sisters with her. Reese and Piper had always been close with Elli; all four girls had grown up together, and they would always say that Elli was the fourth sister. Elli squealed and grinned, running towards her old friends.
“Oh, my God! When did y’all get in!? I thought you weren’t coming in until the end of the month!” she gushed, as they grinned back at her.
“We finished exams early and rolled out,” Reese said.
Reese looked a lot more like Harper than Piper did. She had the same dark brown hair down to the middle of her back, moss green eyes, and pouty lips, while Piper had blondish brown hair, cute little sparkly blue eyes, and pouty lips. Piper was just as beautiful as Harper and Reese, but in a small, soft kind of way, while Harper and Reese had a more defined look about them.
“Yup, they are home early. I brought them along, since you know Reese is bad ass at makeup and Piper does some mean ass hair, huh sis?” Harper said, wrapping her arms around her little sisters. They both beamed up at her, nodding back at Elli.
“Why? What’s going on? Why did you shut out my whole morning?” Elli asked as all three girls just grinned at her.
“Because Eleanor, dear, we are doing a photo shoot, and we’re the models.”
“Excuse me?” Elli asked as Harper threw the bag she was holding down to the ground and unzipped it. She pulled out a sexy little purple number.
“We are doing a shoot for the boys. They will love it!” Harper gushed, bouncing up and down. Elli started giggling, but there was no way in hell she was putting on a damn bra and panties set and taking pictures of herself for Shea.
“No f**king way.”
“Yes!” all three girls yelled at her.
“Elli, you’ve lost so much weight, this will be awesome,” Reese gushed.
“You’re so stinkin’ beautiful! We have matching heels to go with each outfit, and we even made sure to get some with lace that will cover your belly if you don’t want to show it!” Piper added with a huge smile.
“Yeah, and Shea would love it, you know he would.”
“No.”
“Yes,” Harper said with a little more force, “You’re doing this, because if you don’t I’m breaking up with you!”
“Excuse me?!” Elli said, “What are we, six?”
“I mean it, Eleanor Ray. I worked all week on this. I paid for my sisters to come in early, so you are taking damn pictures with me for our boyfriends, and you’re going to f**king love it!”
Elli smiled, glancing over at Reese and Piper, before looking at Harper, “Did you just say that Jakob is your boyfriend?”
Harper froze. She had yet to admit that they were together. She told him she loved him, but she still had not admitted to anyone else that there was a relationship.
“If I say yes, will you take pictures with me?”
“Yes, but you have to change your Facebook relationship status, too.”
Harper narrowed her eyes. Elli thought she had called her bluff, until Harper pulled her phone out and changed her status right then and there.
“I am Jakob Titov’s girlfriend.”
“You suck, I swore you were gonna crack,” Elli complained, smacking her arm as everyone giggled.
“Let's get started!” Reese said with a clap of her hands, and that was just the beginning of a crazy day.
Shea skated around the practice rink in Los Angeles 29 times before stopping for a drink. He found that if he worked himself to the point of exhaustion, he was able to sleep better. Ever since he left Elli five days ago, he couldn’t fall asleep because he was thinking about her nonstop. Shea didn’t know he could miss someone so much. He had never missed anyone in his family as much as he missed Elli.
It was crazy, really. Shea hated not being around her, not being able to feel her body against his, hold her soft small hands, kiss her beautiful naughty mouth, kiss that sweet neck of hers, or shit, just be with her! At night he would toss and turn, wondering who she was with or if some guy had talked or flirted with her that day. He knew he was crazy for thinking those things, but it still messed with his head. He was so worried that while he was gone she would find someone else that he would drive himself mad, texting and calling just to see what she was doing and who she was with. He hated that he was doing it, but he couldn’t help it.
Shea had called Grace about it the day before, and she just told him that it happens. She said when you love someone that sometimes your mind can mess with you, even when you know in your heart that the person will be waiting for you. He knew Elli wasn’t the type to cheat, or be deceiving, but for some reason he just kept thinking that some hot successful business man that didn’t travel would approach her, and she would forget about him.
Shea shook his head at the thought. He was going mad, and it wasn’t fair to Elli to think that way. He trusted her, he did. He just didn’t trust Bill, the imaginary, successful business man who didn’t travel who was going to steal his sunshine away.
Yup, the Assassins’ captain was going bat shit crazy, as Elli would say.