Chapter 11 #2
Before Hudson could respond, the front door opened.
Ellory shoved the Moleskine into her bag and zipped it shut while Hudson scooted his barstool away from her and opened his laptop.
Her cheeks were burning, though they had been doing nothing more illicit than talking about ghosts. She chalked it up to the hot kitchen.
Ellory heard the duo before they actually appeared in the doorway.
The first to enter was Liam Blackwood, today wearing an aquamarine polo and black jeans.
Though he wore long sleeves, Ellory could see that his ringed hands were also tattooed and that more ink inched under the fabric.
Bird wings, she thought from a quick glance.
Behind him was another man, with almond skin, thick black hair, and tattoos on his neck that disappeared beneath his black shirt.
The man dressed in black was the first to react to the scene. “I fucking told you he wanted us out of the house for a reason.”
“Don’t be rude,” said Liam, beaming. “This is Ellory Morgan. She was at our last party. Ellory, this is my other roommate, Boone Priestley.”
“What’re you two up to?” asked Boone, whose onyx eyes had not shifted from the scene in front of him. “Study date?”
“It’s not a date, but yes,” said Hudson. “I thought you were going to see a movie.”
“It sucked ass. We left early.” Boone seemed to sense that Hudson didn’t want them here and found this amusing.
He grabbed one of the other two barstools, dragged it around to their side of the kitchen island, and perched beside Ellory with his head propped up on his arm.
His sleeve slunk down enough for her to see that another one of his tattoos was a sun with a random line through the center. “What’d you say your name was? Emory?”
“Ellory.”
“Hud’s never brought a woman home before. How long have you two been together?”
“Never?” Ellory asked with feigned shock. Hudson looked like he would have tried to strangle them both if there weren’t a witness in the room, and that made Ellory add an exaggerated gasp. “What a nerd.”
“Don’t encourage him, Morgan,” Hudson grumbled. “You’ll regret it.”
“Not that long, then,” said Boone, “if I’ve never come up before now.”
“Like the rest of the world, I don’t think of you when you’re not actively annoying me.”
Boone blew Hudson a kiss that served only to make Hudson even more murderous.
Ellory had to bite her lip to keep from smiling.
Usually, when Hudson was spewing poison at someone other than her, it was cold and short and made her uncomfortable to even be in the room.
But he and Boone acted like belligerent siblings, bickering without blades.
There was something endearing about seeing him like this, dressed down and unguarded, fond and fighting a smile.
He was so different here, in the heart of his home—or perhaps he was different in public, surrounded by strangers and sycophants.
Liam grabbed Boone by the back of his shirt and yanked him off the barstool. Ellory half expected Boone to fight, but it seemed this was more normalcy. He let Liam manhandle him out of the room and toward the stairs, laughing all the while at a joke only he seemed to get.
The kitchen was too quiet with them gone.
Hudson’s softness had left with them. When she looked at him now, the wall he erected between himself and other people was firmly back in place, with her on the outside.
His expression was as distant as the Talcott Mountain peaks, his eyes as hard as winter soil.
It was again like looking at a different person, but in a worse way.
Hudson’s previous openness no longer felt like a sign that he was capable of being tender.
Instead, it was further proof that he would never be that way with her.
That he chose not to be that way with her.
“I should probably leave, too,” Ellory said into the silence. “I don’t think we’re going to get anything else done with everyone here.”
“We need an action plan,” Hudson pointed out. “Unless you’re hoping that you stumble upon more books.”
“You have my number.” Ellory hopped down from the barstool and grabbed her bag. “Learn how to use it.”
She made it out of the kitchen before being stopped, this time by crashing nose first into a firm chest and a sea of aquamarine. Liam Blackwood blinked down at her. “Leaving so soon? I was hoping we could hang out a little.”
“I’m going to the bus stop,” Ellory said, sidestepping him. Her shoes were still arranged neatly on the shoe rack, but they’d been half buried in other shoes: combat boots and white sneakers. “It was nice to see you again.”
“Do you want a ride back to campus?”
“You have a car?”
“Of course I have a car.” Liam laughed. “How else would I get to class?”
Ellory decided to let that one go and put on her shoes instead. She’d been spending too much money on travel lately anyway. “If you’re not busy, I’d love a ride.”
Liam’s smile was warm and cozy, like a campfire on a crisp autumn night. “I’m never too busy for you, Ellory. I’ll meet you outside.”