"I can't believe it!" Ellie threw up both hands in the air while her feet stomped in an aimless path around our bedroom. "They're screwing around again!"
With feigned ignorance because this conversation only went in one direction, a downward spiral into drama that none of us needed right now, I asked, "Who?"
"Them! Those two!" Ellie's voice squeaked higher with each word and thrust both hands down towards the floor beneath us. "Harper and Jake!"
"Are you..." I paused since by the way her shoulders hunched up near her ears, eyes practically blazed lasers into the carpet, and steam nearly pumped out her ears, I knew she wasn't okay that her brother and best friend had slept together.
Putting it mildly, downstairs looks more like a sex marathon.
We should - No, no. Fix the upset girlfriend first.
"I don't even care if they're together but behind my back!? Again!? The fuck is wrong with them!?" Ellie's hands balled into tight fists, a near manic look crept into her eyes, and she groaned, "Ahhh!"
"Maybe it's not -" I stopped my 'not a big deal' phrase with one glare from Ellie and changed it to a doubtful, "...Our business?"
"Other than doing it within the same cabin?" Her eyebrows creased her forehead with how high they lived and she gestured one hand at the floor. "Do you want to sit on the sofa anymore?"
"Well, no." I chuckled and crossed my arms over my chest.
Fair point. Probably don't want to sit on the floor either, if I'm honest.
"And it just wasn't once, I saw at least four used condoms, ugh!! And Harper must think I'm completely stupid to believe bears did that." Ellie's entire face was bright red, so I grabbed her wrists and guided her down to the bed, where she cupped her hands over her eyes. "I can't unsee that... or unsmell."
Again, I can't disagree. The whole room did smell like sex.
"Ellie -" I started to ask how long she planned our bedroom's fake bear-damage inspection when a heavy knock sounded on the door.
"Uhh, Ellie?" The guilt and sheepishness in Jake's voice soaked through the door. "Can we talk? Please."
"Only if you put on some proper pants!" she yelled back but her lower lip trembled. "And a freaking shirt! And tell Harper to put her nipples away, I just can't!"
"Noted," Jake replied in a flat voice, followed by a muffled, "Put your nipples away."
Since the purplish-red shade of Ellie's face concerned me, I gently clutched both of her shoulders and redirected her attention to me. "Deep breaths."
"Right..." Ellie rolled her eyes but the redness in her face spread down her neck and over her chest like a rash. While for once I had nothing to do with Ellie's stress levels, I felt bad that her relaxed state after the spa massage had been completely ruined.
The appointment Jake reserved... This could get ugly.
"I'll send them away so we can have a little breathing space," I spoke in a low, even tone that hadn't pacified Ellie at all. "Let's discuss at dinner... Probably best we go out though."
Who knows what those two did in the kitchen.
"Fine," she gritted out between tightly clenched teeth.
"I'll have a Molson."
Ellie's request snapped all our heads to her attention, mine at not just the fact she ordered a beer but that brand in particular.
"ID please," Brad, our blonde man bun-wearing server understandably lifted his thick eyebrows, then checked Ellie's license and nodded.
"Water," I said in a dry voice and frowned at how my twenty-year old girlfriend just ordered a beer.
That might affect Brad's tip.
"Nineteen here," our server's blue eyes flashed in my direction. "Not twenty-one."
"Right," I muttered and sat back against the black metal seat in our booth.
"I'll have a Molson and feel free to add any extra alcohol into it if possible," Harper groaned.
When Brad looked up from his order slip, Jake quickly cut in, "She's kidding. Water for me too."
The four of us sat around an outside table at The Rockwater Grill and Bar in Golden, where a local rock band played inside. A portable heater behind Ellie and my seat roared waves of heat at the back of my neck and a black iron railing separated our table from a wide river that the restaurant was located next to. While both Jake and Harper preferred we sat inside, where it was so loud none of us even thought straight, Ellie insisted we sat outside.
Maybe it's easier to clear the air out here.
Ellie clasped her hands, leaned forwards, rested her elbows on the table, and got right to the point, "Spill it."
"Choose your words carefully or you're getting an ice bath." Harper pointed at the river but kept her eyes sideways on Jake.
After a few moments of silence, Jake rubbed one hand over the back of his neck, then slipped it behind Harper's chair. I gave him credit when he started, "Harper and I -"
"Woah woah, hold the HPV, ten second Tim," Harper interrupted with a scowl. "There is no Harper and Jake. And if you want that hand intact for your next football game, kindly withdraw it."
"I might've said the same about you at one point," Ellie muttered quietly at me. "In a pretty similar tone of denial."
"What?" My head turned at her admission but the smile she wore relaxed me back into my seat.
"Let's just say you weren't exactly on your best behavior at the time," Ellie teased, patted my closest thigh with her palm, then clasped her hands again and frowned at Harper. "I know better than to ask if it's a relationship but clearly you're sleeping together, so... What are you?"
After a moment of silence, Jake and Harper answered at the same time.
"Situationship." "Nothing."
"The hell is a situationship?" I frowned at Jake.
"A relationship when the situation arises," he explained as a grin tugged across his mouth but a silent emotional slow burn in Harper's eyes.
"So basically I'm just another one of your jersey-chasing fuck girls," she cursed and shook her head. "For you to screw whenever your itch needs a scratch."
I'm not the most emotional guy but any idiot can see that Jake has some feelings for Harper.
Sounds like she described herself though... ouch.
Jake's grin dissolved on the spot and he retorted, "If that's what I thought of you, then I wouldn't have slept with you more than once."
"Jake!" Ellie palmed her forehead. "Not helping."
"What?" He shrugged his shoulders with obviously no clue about the storm that brewed in the seat next to his. "It's the truth. Harper means more to me than a random hook up."
And that's a compliment?
Harper's hands clenched into tight fists and a murderous look stormed in her eyes but Jake turned to her and repeated, "I care about you more than a random hookup, okay? Is that what you want to hear because I figured you didn't."
By the pink on Ellie's cheeks and the way she chewed on her lower lip like an appetizer, she wanted to crawl under the table. Before any of us responded, Jake whipped out his phone and shoved the screen in Harper's face.
"And is this what you're talking about!?" His voice laced with irritation, lines of tension were clearly visible in his clenched jaw, and he hit a button on his phone. "I don't know who messaged me but I'll gladly delete messages from an unknown number. I'll delete every fucking -"
"I stand by my answer," Harper's voice sounded colder than the frozen river as she stared straight at Ellie. "It was just random sex and meant absolutely nothing."
Big ouch. Even I felt that.
Harper's answer omitted one obvious factor and I stupidly asked, "So, why even -"
Two sky-blue daggers glared at me. "To fuck him out of my system so I can forget him."
Oh. Mountain-sized ouch.
Ellie groaned beside me then stared straight at Harper. "Your list."
Harper confirmed with a nod, glanced over my shoulder, and muttered, "Thank fuck it's done."
With a quick glance in the same direction, I saw Brad approached with our tray of drinks. He set down four glasses of ice water and two beer bottles at our now uncomfortably quiet table. Ellie hugged her elbows into her stomach, Jake's eyes turned a shade darker and his hand clutched his water glass so tight I was surprised the glass hadn't shattered, and Harper...
Harper sat back with a completely bored, impassive look on her face.
Canada-sized ouch.
In a position I never thought I'd find myself in, I actually felt sorry for Jake. His shoulders were scrunched up, eyes narrowed into thin slits, and nostrils flared.
"I'd say fuck you but we all know you'll just find a way to insult me." He glared at Harper, grabbed both the beers by the bottle necks, and stood up.
"Jake, wait, please," Ellie pleaded with her brother as he stepped away from our table. "Where are you going?"
"To find some random jersey-chasing fuck girl," he called over his shoulder and slammed the restaurant door behind him.
The three of us sat in a thick, awkward silence and refused to look at each other until Ellie sighed. My chest swelled up with pride when she narrowed her eyes at Harper. Her voice was full of disappointment when she stuck up for her brother, "Harper, that was really mean."
"What? No different than what dickhead said," Harper snipped back. "He's probably already found someone else to bury himself inside tonight."
Ellie's eyes rolled at what I assumed was a defense mechanism, the insulting nicknames. "No, he went to go drink himself drunk because you hurt him. You'd better go apologize before he does that, for all our sakes."
"Apologize? Apologize!?" Harper's voice raised with her eyebrows. "The only thing I'm sorry for is ever getting involved with that asshole."
"Don't need to tell me twice," Jake's deep voice muttered behind us.
Ellie and I turned around but Jake had already retreated inside the bar again. The worried look in Ellie's eyes mirrored the concern I felt that this time, he wouldn't have returned even if Harper apologized.
"I'll..." I swallowed my own words since I had no idea what I offered, other than stood up and patted one hand on Ellie's shoulder. "Check on him."
With a sharp exhale that sounded halfway between a huff and sigh, Ellie looked straight at Harper. Pride and admiration swelled up in my chest when she said, "We're in the middle of nowhere mountains in the Canadian Rockies, end of December, at night, and know what? Coldest thing here is you."
I squeezed her shoulder once, then stepped towards the bar entrance. Right before the door shut behind me, I barely caught Harper's mumbled response.
"You're not wrong."
Once I palmed open the door, waves of warmth rushed over my skin, hard rock music throbbed into my ears, and I breathed in a mix of beer, sweat, and fried foods. I weaved through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd near the band's stage and found my wide-framed target hunched over the end of the bar.
Sympathy ran through me at how Jake stared down at both beers tightly grabbed in his hands like they offered him something he wanted but couldn't have. At this point, I was pretty sure the entire bar knew the particular someone he couldn't have.
"Hey." I slapped one palm into the middle of his back but he didn't budge. "Listen Jake, I'm -"
"Fuck off, Hightower," he growled out, tipped his head back, and chugged half of one beer straight down.
"She was out of line." I narrowed my eyes at the direction he headed. "And for what it's worth, I think -"
My 'she didn't actually mean it' was cut off with one middle finger raised in my direction. Once I stopped talking, Jake lowered his hand and grunted quietly. After a few silent moments, his dark eyes lifted to mine and stared straight at me for a few silent, tense moments.
Finally, Jake slumped slightly backwards on his barstool. "Marry her."
My mouth parted because that's the last thing I expected, and initially thought he referred to Harper, but he clarified, "Marry Ellie. I've seen enough since we've been here."
Sympathy tugged further through me at his currently fucked up situation, but I just nodded in appreciation. "Th-"
One of his index fingers cut me off, flashed up in my face, and he added, "One condition."
My arms crossed over my chest as I braced myself. "Name it."
Jake chugged down the second half of his beer, slammed the empty bottle down, and eyed it while he wiped off the outline of his mouth with his thumb. The longer he sat, the more his shoulders slumped forwards, mouth turned down, and his eyes glossed over.
Right when my mouth opened, he stated his condition, "I walk her down the aisle."
With a grin on my face so fast the facial movement barely registered because of how much his condition meant to Ellie, I nodded. "Wouldn't have it any other way."
Jake and Harper's argument put a definite damper on the last two days of our trip. Thankfully, Jake silently downed only the two beers, called it an early night, and was in bed by the time we got back. Ellie checked up on him and sighed in relief when she'd found him alone while Harper slammed her bedroom door shut.
For the next two days, both Harper and Jake acted like the other ceased to exist, which left Ellie and I awkwardly torn between them. Since Ellie wasn't on a ski level anywhere near black diamond, I became the de facto ski partner. I skied with Jake while Harper and Ellie went back to the spa, where thankfully both girls returned relaxed.
My tired legs went again with Harper while Ellie and Jake went out to a dinner that unfortunately ended with Ellie in tears after they discussed their dad. I soaked my aching, tired muscles with my arms wrapped around her in the bathtub until her shivers and tears subsided.
One day at a time.
Skiing with Jake or Harper bothered me less than I first assumed it would because very few conversations were needed while we blasted down a mountainside essentially alone until our group reassembled at the bottom. The only awkward moments were the gondola rides up the mountain, where shockingly Jake was easier to talk to than Harper.
While Harper and I had Ellie in common, that was it. I had no desire that we talked about my Mom and her Dad and, if asked, I leaned towards Jake's side in terms of their argument. Thankfully, I wasn't asked and we stuck to casual, neutral topics like school and resort activities.
Still, on one particular lift ride, Harper's hand squeezed my bicep tightly. In a low tone that sounded more like a promise than a warning, she said, "I get that Ellie's your everything but if you hurt her then I'll - "
"Disassemble my man parts, got it." I grinned at her and patted her hand with my other one.
"Right..." she replied dryly but withdrew her hand's contact.
My shoulders dropped when Harper's eyes and voice softened. "I hear everything at night. You're... helping her, so thanks."
Her words, along with how they'd come from Harper and hinted at how I assumed that Jake came to his decision about me marrying his sister, pulled a tightness in my chest.
While the trip had provided a much-needed diversion, Ellie had silent sporadic moments where her eyes weighed down with emotion and broke down during longer periods of down time. Harper indirected referred to the moments before we went to bed, where Ellie cried uncontrollably in my arms.
Thankfully, Ellie confessed to me that she felt guilty for being happy and taking a vacation less than a month after her Dad left her life. Once her tears subsided, I reminded her gently how both her parents wanted her to be happy.
"She'll get through it," I mumbled and stared at nothing but the expansive white-tipped mountains out the window.
For Ellie's sake, I felt bad about Harper and Jake's fallout but the complete removal of our normal daily grind had been nice. Even though Ellie and I hadn't spent much time together I was very glad she had connected with Jake and Harper, even if just one-on-one.
Our last night in Kicking Horse, Ellie and Harper shopped for some souvenirs and ate dinner together in Golden while Jake and I chilled out back at the cabin and packed our suitcases for the return flight. We made a makeshift dinner of whatever food was left in the fridge, ate mostly in silence except for a bet on the PAC-12 Championship game's score, then we both were in bed by the time the girls got back.
"I got this for your Mom, hope that's okay." Ellie held up a 'Canada' T-shirt with a maple leaf on it before she packed it into her suitcase which, compared to Harper's, looked like the size of a shoebox. "I got one for Brody too."
"If it's from you, I'm sure she'll love it," I assured her and eyed the color. "That red matches Brody's face sometimes, so good call."
"You're terrible! He's so sweet." Ellie zipped her suitcase closed and left it by the door. "So, when do you go to Nevada?"
"The team flies in two days before the game." I stripped off my clothes, packed them away, and sighed at the giant pile of football-related work that awaited me once Ellie and I returned to UW. In addition to studying every USC game this season, our offensive coordinator Coach Donovan warned us before the break that he wanted us going through last season's games, particularly last year's PAC-12 Championship.
"Mom texted me she got three rooms at the Four Seasons, said it's closer to the stadium." Ellie shook her head. "I didn't know Paradise was basically Vegas."
"Three rooms?" My eyebrows drew together.
"Yep." Ellie counted off on her fingers. "One for me and her, another for your mom and Brody, and the third Harper and her Dad. Charlie's got a room with the PT staff with you guys and Monique's with her family and Darrius' at Caesar's Palace."
My frown disappeared at that plan. Since UW's team had blocked off most of the Luxor hotel, with a strict 'no outside influences' mandate, and USC similarly holed up at MGM Grand, I was glad Ellie had a group around her.
Maybe she'll reconnect with her Mom a little too.
At the thought of Ellie's Mom, I asked her, "Hey, did you thank your Mom?"
"A few times over text already, when I sent some pictures." Ellie nodded, climbed into bed, and tucked the blankets over her lap. "Want me to call her now?"
"Sure." I crawled in next to her while Ellie grabbed her phone off the bedside table.
After a few moments, Ellie's Mom answered, "Ellie?"
"Hey Mom," Ellie replied. "Can I put you on video?"
"Sure, give me a second... Oh, hi Logan!" Mrs. Harrison's face appeared on Ellie's screen and gave us a fast wave from what looked like her sitting at their kitchen table.
See, easy. Why can't my Mom work her phone?
"Hi Mrs. Harrison." I lifted one hand up in return, then took Ellie's phone in my arm since it was longer. We both relaxed back into the bed's headboard and Ellie leaned against my side.
"Did you have a good time?" Ellie's Mom's eyes squinted at us for a moment. "You look relaxed."
"We are," Ellie answered while I nodded silently. "Thank you. We really needed this break."
"I'm so glad." Mrs. Harrison smiled brightly. "And Jake? Harper?"
"You know them." In a very diplomatic move, Ellie just shook her head then leaned against my shoulder. "They got in a small... disagreement and aren't speaking to each other."
"Those two," Mrs. Harrison clicked her tongue and her smile faded. "I had hoped they could've worked out their... differences. I'll never forget the look on his face when you brought Harper home and introduced us to her. It was like you'd dragged an angel straight out of Heaven."
"Until she speaks, Mom." I pressed my mouth tightly shut as Ellie laughed quietly. "They're back to their hating phase right now."
"Different relationship dynamics." Mrs. Harrison shrugged like Ellie had told her nothing she hadn't already known and confirmed my suspicion with, "I always appreciated how Harper never fell under Jake's charms and put his ego in place where it belongs."
"She definitely did that," Ellie deadpanned before her mouth stretched into a wide yawn. "We need to get to bed for our flights back. We'll see you in Nevada soon though."
"See you soon." Ellie's Mom waved again. "Thanks for calling, love you."
"If only she knew," Ellie murmured to her shut off phone screen for a few moments. By the time she set it down, a coy smile played on her lips.
"About Jake and Harper? I definitely don't understand what they are," I admitted with a small laugh.
"No..." Ellie's smile widened, her eyes shifted one shade darker, and her palm found my bare thigh under the blankets. "If only she knew the dirty thoughts that popped in my head towards the end of our call. It is our last night here..."
My insides flamed warm at her forwardness, so I grabbed Ellie's small frame and pulled her up onto my lap. She landed with a soft squeak that quickly turned into a soft "Mmmph" sound from how my hands massaged over her ass. A slow heat of ache built up from where she sat on my pelvis, which I rocked up into her and pitched a few strands of her long hair over her shoulders.
With a quick lean forward, I swept her hair back, pressed my lips into the side of Ellie's neck, traced the shell of her ear with my nose, and whispered, "Better tell me so I can make it happen."
I pulled back, Ellie's coy smile widened, and her eyes sparkled at me. "I'd rather show you."
____________________________
Q: How do you get reads on your story?
A: This is hard... 95-97% of the reads on my stories are silent.
The biggest contribution to number of reads, and most out of an author's control, are the story rankings. IHFP1 had 9k reads when I finished it, then 22k reads a month later at #1 in quarterback, then got ranked #2 romance, then #8 once IHFP2 was done. That's probably where most people found it.
In my opinion, readers are more important than silent reads but the following can help:
- reply to every comment, thank people for finding your story
- update regularly and on schedule, 1-3x/week if you can. And finish it!
- reach out to new authors for R4R's (a lot harder without the community boards, which is how I started).
- spread your story across as many taglines as you can.
- submit your story to awards - even if it doesn't win, ask for the reviewer feedback (and contact the other authors for R4R's afterwards).
- contact a Wattpad ambassador. One contacted me, encouraged me a lot, and even was a book 1 beta reader for me.
Number of reads are unfortunately a double-edged sword. It's mind-blowingly awesome when wonderfully nice, amazing people find your story but negatively comes along with it. I tend to just silently delete but I'd rather have 1-2k reads/day from nice people who want to read my stories than 10k silent reads or negativity.