Beyond Us: The Hutton Family Book 4 Read online

  Two

  Eli

  I had the audience in the palm of my hand. Each new hip thrust brought them deeper under my spell. They wanted me, their desire radiating onto the stage, egging me on to push my body harder. To really explore the boundaries of the music.

  Every move was perfect.

  Every look was fire, melting their inhibitions more than the fruity drinks in their hands.

  I’d be fuel for their fantasies for the next month. Husbands, boyfriends, and vibrators everywhere would owe a debt of gratitude to this nearly naked Viking, thanks to one of the best performances of my life.

  When the show ended, I drank in the applause with the rest of the guys before we retreated to the dressing room, riding high on adrenaline. Knowing hundreds of women just spent the last hour and a half soaking in a cloud of me-induced hormones was my drug of choice.

  “Did you see that table down front?” Neil Woods—another dancer and one of my closest friends—slapped me on the shoulder. “I couldn’t tell who they wanted more. The Viking or the mob boss. But we sure had their attention.”

  I returned his wide grin through the mirror. “We’d be doing something wrong if we didn’t.”

  I draped my kilt over the back of a chair while he did the same with his suitcoat and fedora before we hit the showers and packed up, then made our way into the main part of the club. Waitresses meandered between tables, wiping them down, putting the chairs up, and preparing everything for the next day.

  As usual, Hope Maxwell was the most memorable girl in the room.

  And also as usual, she didn’t have a clue.

  She danced as she worked, shaking her butt and nodding along to whatever song she liked best from the performance that night. She closed her eyes and smiled, a faraway look crossing her face as she got down to music no one else could hear. It was her energy that pulled me to her right around the time I started dating the She-Bitch. Our friendship was inevitable, and so was moving in together after we both found ourselves single.

  Neil widened his eyes as Hope got extra involved in whatever was going on in her head. “Your roommate’s kind of an odd duck, isn’t she?”

  Anger flared. After her relationship with He Who Can Burn In Hell, it took her too long to remember how to be herself, and no one would ruin that. Not if I had anything to say about it. I stopped in my tracks and glared. “What the hell, man?”

  He immediately backpedaled, holding up his hands in surprise. “I just meant…I mean…” He nodded at Hope, who held a ketchup bottle to her mouth, lip-syncing like her life depended on it.

  “I’m just messin’ with you.” I grinned and slapped Neil on the back. “She’s different from the other girls. Just don’t ever make her feel bad about it. Not while I’m in the picture.”

  I loved all the things that made Hope different. She had a great sense of humor. A unique way of looking at life. When she was happy, the whole world knew it because her smile was brighter than the sun, moon, and stars combined. Moving in with her after things with the She-Bitch crashed and burned had been one of the best decisions of my life. Things had only gotten better since.

  “Believe it or not, I’m a big fan of odd ducks. I’m gonna ask her out tonight.” Neil gave me a nod of his head and a crooked smile. “Just letting you know as a courtesy.”

  I felt my eyes go wide with the gut reaction of hell no. But, in a world full of douchebags, Neil was actually a decent guy. He could be good for Hope…if it wasn’t for the fact that we made a pact vowing a life of celibacy—promising we’d help each other keep that vow when things got hard.

  He chuckled as she refilled salt and pepper shakers with a cute little wiggle of her hips. “Yep. Dinner and drinks. Tonight. So, you know, get ready to watch the magic happen.” Confident in his magic making ability, Neil started toward her.

  I hung back, wondering how far I should let him get, then decided the answer was not far at all. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  “Why not?” Neil grinned over his shoulder. “You finally ready to admit you guys are a thing?”

  I laughed, thoroughly entertained by the idea. Hope and I were great together. As friends. The end. “Not even a little bit. Just giving you fair warning that she’s sworn off men.”

  “She hasn’t met a man like me yet, now has she?” Neil waggled his eyebrows then burst out laughing. “In all seriousness, you really don’t expect her to spend the rest of her life alone, do you? Because of one asshole?”

  “She won’t be alone. She’ll be with me.”

  “Okay, fine. Because of two assholes?” He elbowed me in the ribs, then turned his attention back to Hope.

  She looked up and caught us staring. That famous smile of hers did that thing where it turned up the colors in the room. Neil and I started into motion, drawn to her like her grin had gravity.

  “Hey good lookin’!” she chirped when we got close.

  “Hey, Max.” I bumped her shoulder with mine, pulling out the nickname I gave her the night we’d made The Pact. I swore to treat her like one of the guys and shortened her last name to Max to make it official. “How many times did you have to hide behind company policy to save my ass?”

  Excitement lit up her face as she pulled out her notepad and counted up the hashmarks marching across the top of the page. “Only seventeen tonight.”

  Beside me, Neil huffed. “Only seventeen.” He shook his head as his eyes took in the lack of personal space between Hope and me. “This is such a strange thing you guys do.”

  “What? Counting up how many women tried to get my number? Come on, it’s good for the ego. And when the ego is fed, the tips go up, if you know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, Neil.” Hope slapped his arm and gave him a playful grin. “You should get with the program.”

  He sucked in his lips and stepped forward, a merry twinkle lighting his eyes. I knew which program he was about to get with, just as much as I knew it was my duty to shut said program down. Stepping between them, I gave Neil a face that said ‘not now’ and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  “Come on, Max. Time for me and you to make like the grass and go.” Ever since discovering it was one of her pet peeves, I made it a habit to mess up at least one cliché a day, and boy did she love pointing it out when I got them wrong.

  “You do realize that’s not how the saying goes.” She laughed, looking at me with so much affection I couldn’t help but laugh with her. “What you mean is ‘let’s make like the trees and leave.’”

  I leaned in close enough to catch the sweet scent of her shampoo. Hope always smelled like cookies, which was probably why I liked being around her so much. “Yeah but, you know what I mean.”

  “No one knows what you mean!” Incredulity sparkled in her eyes as she shook her head. “What you said doesn’t even make sense! Make like the grass and go. Since when does grass go anywhere?”

  Still laughing, we said goodbye to Neil and ambled out of the club, content in our friendship and safety from members of the opposite sex.

  Three

  Eli

  “Honey! I’m home!” The scent of warm chocolate wafted through the air and set my stomach rumbling as I stepped into the apartment after a long day of rehearsal. “Good God, woman. Don’t tell me you’re making brownies.” I dropped my bag near the door and slid my keys on the counter as I rounded the corner into the kitchen.

  Hope had her hair piled high on her head as she peered into a pot on the stove. Baggy sweats—a gray pair that looked suspiciously like mine—hung from her hips and a tank top hugged her curvy frame. When we were out in public, she tended to dress in clothes that hid her figure. In my opinion, it was a crime against humanity. Her curves were incredible and it was my mission to make her feel comfortable in her skin.

  “Fine.” She shrugged, stirring slowly as she worked her magic on the contents. “I won’t.”

  I sighed in mock relief as I leaned on the counter. “And here I thought I was in the runni
ng for the luckiest man ever. Which, between you and me, is the last thing my ego needs.”

  “I’m making salted caramel…” With a grin, she pulled the spoon from the pot to show off the rich, golden stream. “To go on the brownies.”

  “Hot damn, Max. I am the luckiest man in the world.” Watching Hope in the kitchen was one of my favorite pastimes, mostly because if she was baking, I was on the way to happy. My existence proved the old cliché. The way to my heart—assuming it was still open for business—was through my stomach.

  She was good at what she did, and a gentle peace surrounded her when she was covered in flour and working with dough. I crossed the kitchen and leaned over her shoulder, peeking into the pot and hoping to get a taste.

  She swatted my hand as I made my move. “Don’t you dare. For one, this stuff is molten. And for two, don’t you need to worry about your dancer’s figure?” She indicated my body with a broad sweep of her hand.

  “Don’t worry about me or my figure. I know what I’m doing.” Hope always gave me a hard time about eating too many sweets, but not only had I been blessed with a killer metabolism, but dancing every day burned serious calories. Combine that with my gym time and I was good to go. I said as much and she gave me a stern look.

  “No one likes a showoff. How many times do I need to remind you?” With one swift twitch of her hips, she bumped me out of the way. “Out of my kitchen, Eli. Or I swear, I won’t share.” She lifted the spoon again, letting the caramel drizzle back into the pot, purposefully tantalizing me with its gooey goodness.

  “Fine,” I said as I retreated back to my spot at the counter. “But I feel like it’s my duty to remind you about Karma. You get out of the world what you put into it, my friend. And you are putting out a very selfish vibe right now.”

  “Sometimes I think you talk just to hear the sound of your voice.” She shook her head as she smiled, her attention more on her work than on me.

  “I’m just saying. The world is a mirror. It reflects your attitude right back to you. If you’re keeping things to yourself, then so am I. Which means I won’t tell you who almost asked you out the other night.” I hadn’t planned on dropping that bomb, but I needed a way to get her attention and that definitely did the job.

  Hope spun, her full lips forming a surprised O. “Someone wanted to ask me out?”

  “Yeah, but since we aren’t sharing…” I shrugged.

  A wicked gleam settled into her eyes and one corner of her mouth twitched into a grin. I knew that look, and it meant she thought she had me—and she was usually right. “Fine. We’re not sharing. Which means I won’t be telling you who asked me about a certain Viking. Plus, I’ll have an entire tray of brownies to myself…”

  “It was Neil,” I blurted out, completely at the mercy of her brownies.

  “Neil?” Hope’s jaw dropped. “Neil was thinking about asking me out?” She didn’t look as turned off by the idea as I thought she’d be, which surprised me, though my own reaction surprised me more.

  A single twinge of jealousy squirmed in my stomach. I pushed the feeling away as she beckoned me over, carefully blowing on the spoon of caramel before holding it out for me to taste.

  “Oh, Max.” I placed a hand over my heart and closed my eyes with a moan. “The things you do with sugar should be illegal.”

  She watched me expectantly as I went in for another spoonful. “So…what did Neil say about me?”

  “According to our pact, it shouldn’t matter one little bit what he said.” I pointed to the contract, framed and hanging in its place of honor on the wall next to a canvas print that said “Life without Hope is no life at all.” Butterflies flitted near flowers that grew around the words. I’d given her such a hard time when she hung it up in her room, she’d moved it out to the kitchen where I’d have to look at it every day.

  “Obviously it doesn’t matter.” She rolled her eyes and tried to look like she didn’t care. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know what he said.”

  “He said you were an odd duck, but he liked that about you.”

  Hope frowned into her brownies. She hated being thought of as weird, even though her personality was the best thing about her. “An odd duck, huh?”

  “I, of course, defended your honor and told him you were off limits.”

  Digesting the information she nodded slowly, then glanced over her shoulder. “As I did for you when Tasha asked me to set you two up.”

  “Tasha?” I scoured my memory for anyone with that name. “You mean Tanya? The waitress who wears too much makeup?”

  “No, I definitely mean Tasha,” Hope relied, laughing.

  “Well, huh. I’ve been calling her Tanya forever now.” I grimaced. “Hope I never did that to her face.” Tasha was pretty-ish, but in a HEY LOOK AT ME I NEED ATTENTION kind of way. “What did she say about me?” I asked as I pushed off the counter, drawn to the oven like a moth to a flame.

  Unable to keep what she was thinking off her face, Hope grinned to herself. “She said you looked like you thought you were something special.”

  I grabbed the spoon from her and sank it back into the caramel. “That sounds more like something you would say.”

  “Fine.” She leaned on the counter and watched me eat. “You got me. She said you were special and I said you sure seemed to think so.”

  “It’s so nice to know I can always count on you,” I replied around a mouthful of sugary goodness. “You always say the nicest things about me.”

  “Just like you always stand up for me when your friends call me weird.” She tilted her head, looking quizzical. “Oh wait…that didn’t happen, did it?”

  The conversation moved on as Hope reclaimed her caramel and buzzed around the kitchen. We talked about school and work, but my mind couldn’t put down what Neil had said the other night.

  Hope was a great person. Funny. Warm. Intelligent. She could bake like a suburban housewife with a lifetime PTO appointment and looked like a 1950s pinup model. She understood that men didn’t always think like women and didn’t make me feel like a Neanderthal because of it. Maybe cutting herself off from the world was a bad idea. And if there was anyone I trusted to treat her the way she deserved, Neil was the guy.

  As she put the finishing touches on her brownies and slid one in front of me, I spoke up before I could think better of it. “Maybe you should take Neil up on his offer…if he ever finds the balls to ask you.”

  Hope’s eyebrows hit her hairline. “What is this nonsense?” She narrowed her eyes. “You’re trying to get me to break our pact so you can have the apartment all to yourself, aren’t you?”

  I burst out laughing. I loved living with Hope…and not just because of the brownies. She was one cool chick and a great person. I couldn’t imagine life without her. “No, it’s nothing like that. Neil said something that got into my head. That’s all. Forget I ever said anything about it.”

  “You know I can’t just forget something after you brought it up.” She picked at her brownie and gave me a withering look. If she’d said it once, she’d said it a thousand times: her curiosity would be the death of her.

  “It’s not a big deal. He just questioned whether it was healthy for you to lock your heart away because of one experience. You know, don’t let a bad egg spoil the bunch.”

  “Apple. Don’t let one bad apple spoil the bunch.” She sucked her finger clean and I found myself oddly transfixed. Since when did Hope doing…that…have any effect on me whatsoever?

  “No,” I said, without missing a beat. “I’m pretty sure it’s egg.”

  “You’re something else.” She rolled her eyes, fighting back a smile. “I’m willing to bet that when Neil mentioned me locking away my heart, he was probably talking about a different part of my body.” She gave me a look that said ‘men are pigs and I’m sorry to lump you into that category, but you can’t help it because you have a penis and they do most of your thinking for you.’

  “I don’t know, Max. Nei
l’s a pretty good guy. But you’re right. You and me? We’re so much better off like this. We have something pretty stellar here.” I said it and I meant it, but Hope started gnawing on her bottom lip, which meant she was working on a big thought.

  “He might have a point, you know? Like, not for me because my heart is cold and dead. But you? Eli, you’re such a great person. You’re doing the world a disservice by taking yourself off the market just because of one run in with a She-Bitch.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I think you mean the She-Bitch.” From going unhinged with jealousy to thinking she could dictate how, when, and where I could do anything, that woman had devoured my life—all in the name of love. Which was exactly why I’d sworn off that particular emotion. Nothing good came of it.

  Hope held out her hands. “I’m not downplaying how terrible she was. Not at all. I’m just saying there are a lot of good people out there. Maybe even more than bad people.”

  “There are.” I picked at the crumbs left on my plate. “You’re a good people. And I’m a good people. And we’re completely happy the way things are.”

  Hope smiled. “I just wonder, you know. As happy as we are now, will you stay this happy with just silly little me to keep you company?”

  Yes. The answer was pure and simple. Hope made me happier than I had ever been, and she came with zero expectations. Zero complications. I could just be myself around her and not worry about breaking her heart, or ruining us, because there wasn’t an us. It was her and me, two totally separate people, who just happened to live together and know each other better than anyone. Friends without benefits and that was that.

  “God. Maybe Neil’s right.” She paced the small kitchen, looking more worried with each step.

  I regretted bringing the topic up. Damn her brownies and their brainwashing capabilities! “We have a good thing going here, Max. Let’s not ruin it. You know I don’t do love.”