Wingless Book Series (book 1) (5 page)

“
What is going on with you two?”
He looked at each of us. Gray didn’t say anything.

“
I don’t do it all the time,” I
said, slinking down in my seat. My mother closed her eyes,
clutching her head.

“
You don’t do it at all!” he
yelled, spit flying from his mouth. “You are eighteen. It’s illegal
to drink any time. What has gotten into you Eve?!”

I blinked, looking at Gray.
This was his entire fault. I didn’t try to explain myself, there
was no point. My dad
didn’t get it, I
wasn’t doing anything crazy, but he would never understand anything
I said to him.

“
I do not want to ever hear about
you doing anything like that again. And what about this guy?” he
said, his voice dying down.

“
I don’t know what the big deal
is. I met him in the woods the other day and he came by the next
day to say hello.”

“
In the woods. What, when you were
drinking? Do you think that is appropriate?” he asked me with a
serious look on his face.

“
He was just
there; I don’t know what you want me to say,” I said. My mother
stayed quiet; she let my dad
do all the
talking.

“
You need to be careful about
where you hang around. What if this guy had hurt you or lord knows
what?”

“
It won’t happen
again, that’s all I can say.” I got up from the table lingering in
the kitchen to hear what the punishment for Gray would be. Or what
they would say to him to hurt his ego. My dad
was good at that because Gray always wanted to seem good to
him.

“
I hope you’re not having girls
here all night. And if you are, you know …” he trailed
off.

“
We were studying. It wasn’t
anything like that, dad. I have a dorm room, um, well, you know
what I mean. I wouldn’t-“Gray bit his lip. I didn’t think that was
much of a lecture.

“
You know how I
feel about that,” my dad
said, going into
the kitchen.

“
I know, Dad. It really was
nothing though.” Gray looked at me, shaking his head. Someone
tapped on the door.

“
Eve, get that will you?” my
mother said, looking flustered.

I sighed, walking to the door. I
was starting to feel like a maid who got no pay. It took me by
surprise to see Ace; he looked at me with an inquisitively. He’d
probably overheard the feud. I opened the door letting him pass
through.

“
What are you doing
here?”

“
Work. Your dad asked
me.”

I nodded, suddenly realizing
it was Ace he had
been referring to all
this time. My dad
came quickly into the
room greeting him graciously.

“
Thanks for coming. And on time,
that’s always a good quality to have.” He headed out the door with
Ace.

I stared off at them as my dad
began talking, scratching his head and pointing at things. Ace
calmly listened, nodding his head every once in a while or
grinning.

My dad
got Ace started on the roof and went back inside. I came out
onto the porch. Ace was hammering away on the
roof.

He looked over. “Hey
there.”

“
Hey,” I said, sitting down on the
steps.

“
Everything alright?” he asked me,
putting a nail in his mouth holding it between his lips; he raised
an eyebrow at me waiting for a reply.

“
My brother has a big mouth. My
dad got mad about my drinking in the woods.”

“
This is what normal parents would
do,” he said, hammering away.

“
Yeah to be expected right?” I
asked sarcastically.

Ace shook his head. “You’re
definitely something else.”

“
You seem to think so,” I said
under my breath.

“
I do. I don’t think it’s a bad
thing. I never said that did I?” he asked.

“
No, you never said
that.”

“
Well good, just so you
know.”

“
I know. So what made you agree to
do work for my dad? And how did Mark get a hold of you?”

“
Your brother is in my class.
Maybe he paid enough attention to find my phone number, I don’t
know. And why did I agree? Two reasons.” He moved over on the roof
dragging the roofing with him.

I waited for his answer
but
he didn’t say anything
else.

“
Well?”

“
Well what?”

“
What are the two reasons?” He
clearly knew what he was doing;

“
One: to be polite. Two: to see
you again.” He hopped down from the roof. He clearly was hot- his
hair was sweaty his face red. I was sort of glad and sort of
embarrassed he had said that.

I was also flattered. He was a
good looking guy. Oh what was I saying. I was putting my cart
before the horse. He may have just been trying to be friendly, I
didn’t know.

“
To see me? Why would you want to
see me?”

“
You’re interesting to talk to,
you amuse me, and you’re attractive,” he rattled off the
compliments as he went about his business. I was stunned that he
was being so honest.

“
Well, thanks, I
think.”

“
You think? What does that even
mean?” He was smiling as he headed back up to the roof.

He tossed his shirt down. It
barely missed my head.

“
I don’t know.”

“
Are you unable to accept
compliments or something? Because that’s what it was. Or do I
repulse you?”

I stared at his body. Clearly
nothing about a guy with such a fit physique was repulsing. And he
was extremely good looking. He had amazing blue eyes and messy
hair. Awesome lips. I could go on and on.

“
No I don’t think that,” I
stumbled for words; I didn’t want to sound like a moron.

“
What do you think?” he asked as
he worked.

“
I think you seem nice, a little
mysterious, and you’re definitely not repulsive,” I
laughed.

“
Come out with me sometime. We can
hang out, talk some more. Maybe I can pick at your brain and find
out what really is going on in there.”

I was thrilled.

“
Yeah,” I said,
watching him as he moved quickly from one end to the other on the
roof. His body glistened in the sun from sweating. My dad
came out onto the porch with his paper; he sat
down next to me.

“
What we got going on here?” he
asked, nearly sitting on me. I moved over in disgust. He always had
a way of ruining the mood.

“
Nothing much, just sitting
outside.” I scratched a mosquito bite on my leg. “Trying to enjoy
the nice weather.”

“
You should
really get out some,” he said, opening his paper, elbowing me in
the side as he read. If I could think of one thing my dad
wasn’t, it was subtle.

When it came to us children,
he was overpowering in everything he said and did. I scooted over,
sneaking a peek at Ace on the roof. He stood up surveying his work,
then hopped down. My dad
tossed the paper
on the steps and stood up as Ace came walking up, wiping his head
on his shirt.

“
All set?” my
dad
asked.

“
Oh yeah, got all of it patched.
It really wasn’t as bad as we thought. You should be good for quite
some time now.”

I couldn’t keep my mind off
of his invitation. Or his rippling muscles. Or how he had that
little happy trail that most guys had. I was starting to think I
had gone crazy considering
the amount of
energy I was using thinking about him.

It was a sudden interest. I
wanted to know everything about him; I was drawn to his whole
being. Ace looked at me as my dad
went on
chattering. He gave a small grin as if he knew what I was thinking.
I darted my eyes away looking out into the woods by the
house.

My dad
turned looking at me as well. He stared at me funny and then
back at Ace. I think he was getting the vibe there was something
going on.

“
Well, thank you once again Ace. I
hope this is enough for a job well done.” He handed him some cash
then headed up the porch steps and into the house, the door making
a soft screech as it thudded shut.

Ace gathered his things from the
ground. “When would be a good time for you to come hang out?” he
asked me, throwing his shirt over his shoulder.

“
Whenever,” I shrugged.

“
How about now then?”

“
Now? Uh, okay, where’re we
going?” I hopped up from the porch steps dusting my pants
off.

He headed to a black pick up, all
nice and shiny and new looking. I was impressed that he drove such
a nice vehicle; it fit his personality: powerful, looming, and
mysterious. He opened his door hopping in and popped mine open from
the inside.

He wasn’t much of a gentleman but
that didn’t bother me at all- I wasn’t for all the mushy emotional
behavior.

“
I want to head back to my place
and get changed if you don’t mind waiting,” he asked, barreling out
of the driveway.

I wasn’t too worried if my
dad
saw me leave; he probably had his nose
in his paper anyway.

“
Sounds good.”

Pulling up to his house, I noticed
that the house was nothing like I expected it to be. It was a
rather large new age type home- one of those retro chic styled
homes with skylights and a landscaped lawn. As I walked up I
noticed how well maintained the lawn was, how clean the windows
were, and how it didn’t look like a younger guy could possibly live
there.

“
Is this really your house?” I
asked as he unlocked the door.

“
Uh yeah,” he said, letting me
walk into the foyer first.

The foyer was well lit with one
small table against the wall. The wall held two pictures -more art
than anything, really- black and red streaks of paint with gold
flecks throughout. Abstract. It all matched and seemed very well
coordinated. I gazed at them wanting to touch them, to see what
they felt like, but I almost felt like I was in a museum and
shouldn’t.

Ace set his keys on the
table heading out of the foyer and into a room that opened into a
great room with an open floor plan, the living room, kitchen, and
dining room all rolled into one but still separated by their
different styles. The vaulted
ceiling was
so tall and slanted there was no way you were ever touching it
unless you had a tall ladder.

“
This is really nice; I haven’t
seen anything like this before,” I said, my eyes wandering from one
thing to another.

Ace nodded his head turning on a
lamp next to the couch. It was all white leather, sleek with a
curvy back. A clear glass table rested on a huge area rug with
black and white circles and squares all over it. Everything was so
neat and clean and orderly.

“
Do you live here
alone?”

“
I have a roommate.” He hurried
off into a room that was across the way.

I didn’t know what to do so I just
sat at the very edge of the couch. I was afraid to get it
dirty.

This was so insightful as to what
kind of person he could be: a young guy with a completely neat,
nice home. It wasn’t a trashy sports filled frat type house. And it
looked very expensive. Where would he get the money for such a nice
place when he was in college? There was a great deal to find out
about him. And judging from the bare walls that only sported
artwork, I wasn’t getting the vibe he was close to his family or
that he even liked having pictures of loved ones up on his walls.
It didn’t seem like he liked clutter, either. There was nothing
lying out that didn’t have its place, and there was no clutter. My
bedroom was chaotic like my life.

I noticed a small leather book
tucked underneath the table. It sparked my curiosity. Why was it
there, what did it say? I slipped it out looking up to make sure
Ace wasn’t coming before cracking it open. There wasn’t that much
writing, just a few sentences.

It said, “I have once given
up. I thought I would be done with it all and just move on, until
this happened, I don’t know what to do, can’t let it be.” I turned
the page, it said, “I don’t have it in me to just give in anymore,
I’m confused.” I ran my fingers down to the bottom of the page.
“What is normal?” it asked. The paper screamed something by
the way the writing was scrawled; I touched the
words. What is normal?

It pained my heart. If this was
Ace who wrote this it was quite alarming to think he had all this
going on in his mind, and why?

“
Definitely mysterious,” I
muttered to myself.