Page 48 of Make Her Mine
The vivid dream of making love to Ella was still in the forefront of my mind. “You guys won’t believe the lucid dream I had. I thought Ella was in my bed.”
Clayton put his hand over his mouth as he gasped, “What if she was, Brandon?”
“Nah, she’d never do a thing like that. She has no idea how I feel about her anyway. She never responded to the flowers... Maybe she doesn’t like me the same way I like her?”
Dyllan seemed taken aback. “Are you serious? Brandon Gentry thinks a woman isn’t as into him as he is into her? What’s the world coming to?” He laughed as if he thought it was hilarious.
“She’s different, Dyllan. She’s had some rough stuff in her life. You’d never understand her.” I smiled thinking about her. “She’s not transparent by any means. You never know what’s going to come out of her mouth. It’s interesting just to be with her. It’s never clear if you’re going to be smiling or frowning or wanting to yell at her.”
“Sounds rather tragic, Brandon,” Clayton opined. “I like knowing if you’re going to have a great time with a girl or not. If the answer is no, I’d be the guy who thinks of something else to do, anything other than spending time in her company. But that’s just me.”
“I’m the youngest and closest to Ella’s age, but she’s extremely adolescent, Brandon.” Dyllan got up and went to look in the minifridge. “All you got in here is bottles of water?”
I nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“I figured it would be full of beer.” He got out a couple of bottles, tossing one to Clayton.
With no recollection of the night before, it’s best I slow down on the drinking. “I’ll leave the bar alone for a while. You see, Ella is a exceptional young lady. Everything I do with her will be her first time. I’d like to remember those firsts.”
Clayton nodded. “Oh, I see now. She’s a virgin.”
Dyllan laughed. “Duh.”
With a shrug, Clayton went on, “I hadn’t realized that. I suppose you two have been observing her more.”
What’s wrong with that? “You’re sweet on Bobbi Jo, right?”
“Very sweet,” he said with a grin.
“So why have you noticed this much about Ella?”
“You’re my big brother. She’s a year younger than me.” Where is he going with this? “If a woman your age was after me or vice versa, you’d size her up, wouldn’t you? You know, watch out for me?”
“Perhaps.” I still didn’t like that he had so much interest in her. “Have you noticed how she puts her hands on her hips a lot? The way her nose crinkles when she believes something’s not good?”
“Um, no,” he informed me. “None of that. Just that she’s less mature than other girls her age. That alone told me she was a virgin. Girls who’ve already been around the block a time or two don’t act the way she does.”
He was right. “Yeah. Seems I’m insecure about her. I’ve never been apprehensive about anyone in my entire life, but I keep asking myself if petite Ella Finley really likes me or not?”
Clayton shrugged. “The other night at the bar should’ve demonstrated enough, Brandon.”
“You’d think so. But after that night, we had lunch together and she went quiet on me when I asked her to be my friend. Then I sent her flowers and still nothing.” She had to let me know if we were on the same page.
Dyllan came over to tap me on the back. “At least now you have Kyle’s approval to see his sister, so the family won’t be in your way. Now to just find out what Ella thinks about you.”
“You know what?” I got up and headed to the shower. “I’ll clean myself up and do just that. She has to let me know one way or the other. I’m tired of pussyfooting around. Virgin or not, some things are considered plain rude.”
My brothers left, and I got myself cleaned up, then went to find Ella. She works today, so I began my search downstairs. “Ella? Where are you at?”
I should’ve had her cell number, but instead I had to hunt her down.
After walking about and calling her name for some time, I decided to check the kitchen. Or her mother’s office? Someone in there should know of her whereabouts. Her mom was walking out of her office as I rounded the corner.
“Oh, Brandon. My, don’t you look dashing this afternoon. But I suppose sleeping until noon would have you getting plenty of beauty sleep.”
Long and hard sleep makes me look dashing? “Thanks. And I won’t be doing much sleeping in anymore. At least not because of overindulging in the booze.” Ella’s mother needed to know I wasn’t a drunk. “Do you happen to know where I can find Ella, Mrs. Finley? I’d like to talk to her about something.”
“She went to Dallas.” What?!
