“What?” I questioned innocently.
Crossing his tattooed arms over his chest, he asked, “Is there an ‘us’ you’d like to tell me about?”
“Get real, Jake,” I muttered, as I swung a now fussy Jules back and forth in my arms.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jake demanded.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “It means even if there was something between Eli and me, it’s none of your business.”
“Oh really?”
When I nodded, I caught Rhys’s intense gaze over Jake’s shoulder. He seemed just as interested as Jake was in what was going on between me and Eli. It infuriated me that he acted like he even cared considering the way he had been treating me lately. One minute he completely ignored me, and then the very next he hovered around as if I was his. It was so damn confusing.
As Eli continued with the second verse, Jake groaned. “Enough is enough.”
Choosing to ignore his tirade, I went back to the window and grinned down at Eli. Just as he was about to finish, he started up again. “Eli,” I giggled.
Before I realized what was happening, I saw a flicker of Jake’s black T-shirt out of the corner of my eyes. Then in a flash, he was beside me with a bucket of water. He then proceeded to dump it out the window, sending water crashing all over Eli. “W-What the f-fuck?” Eli sputtered.
“That’ll teach you to sing douche songs to my sister outside my bus window!” Jake replied, through this laughter. Leaning against the kitchen counter, Rhys snickered as well, and it took everything within me not to go over and slap his arrogant face.
Sweeping my free hand to my hip, I demanded, “You two think this is funny?”
Rhys shrugged. “He obviously needed cooling off to stop torturing us with singing.”
Jake nodded. “My man speaks the truth. The two of you should be glad he wasn’t plugged up to an amp.”
I glared at both of them. “You…assholes!” Kissing Jules on the cheek, I then thrust her into Jake’s arms. Without another word to them, I grabbed a towel out of the closet. Then I hustled down the aisle and pounded down the bus steps. After throwing open the door, I jumped off the steps onto the pavement.
Eli had propped his guitar against the side of the bus and was wringing out the bottom of his soaking T-shirt. “I’m sorry about Jake. That was a real ass**le thing to do.”
“It’s okay,” Eli replied, with a good-natured grin.
“That wasn’t your favorite guitar, was it?” I asked, already cringing at the thought.
“No, thankfully it wasn’t.”
“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that.” When I offered him the towel, he shook his head. Then in a flash, he had his sopping wet T-shirt over his head, leaving me to stare at his broad, tattooed, and very na**d chest. He dropped the shirt, and then he reached for the towel. Since I was still staring at his chest, he had to whistle at me to get me to hand over the towel.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
As he wiped off his chest, Eli grinned. “It’s all good. I like the fact you were ogling me.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I huffed, “I wasn’t ogling you. I was admiring your ink.”
“Riiiight,” he replied with a smirk.
I shook my head at him. “Well, for what it’s worth, thanks for the songs.”
Eli draped the towel over his neck. “You’re welcome. The performance was actually a lead-in for a question I wanted to ask you.”
My heartbeat kicked up a notch. “You wanted to ask me something?”
He bobbed his head. “Tomorrow night, Jake’s taking Abby to visit some of his mother’s family outside Boise, and they’re taking the twins with them.”
“Yes, Abby had mentioned something about it.”
“Since you had the night off, I thought you might like to come out with me and Gabe.”
“Out?” I questioned lamely.
“I’m sure Boise doesn’t have a whole lot of happening sites, but we’re going to try to find a club or two to hang out in.” Leaning closer to me, he asked, “You game?”
I blinked my eyes in disbelief. Was Eli asking me out, like out-out? Or was he just being nice and giving me something to do besides staying in my hotel room on my off night. And if he was asking me out, did I want him to? Was I ready to try dating someone new? My head spun so hard with all the crazy questions swimming in it that I brought my hand to my forehead to calm it.
“So, what do you think?” Eli asked.
“I think it sounds like fun,” I answered honestly.
He grinned. “Good, I’m glad to hear you think so.”
“Just drinks and some dancing, huh?”
“Yep. Unless the mood strikes for more,” he replied, wagging his eyebrows.
I couldn’t help laughing. “I’ll be sure to keep my mood under control then.”
“What a pity. We could have some real fun together.”
Cocking my head at him, I countered, “Oh yeah, I’m sure I know exactly what kind of fun you’re talking about, and I’ll have you know I’m not that kind of girl to hop from one guy to another for—“ I paused to make air quotes with my fingers, “Fun.”
He winked at me. “That’s good to know, Allison. You can keep me an honest man.”
“Sounds like a challenging job,” I replied, with a smile.
“It is. It might even be a full-time one.”
“We’ll just have to see about that.”
“Look, since it’s freezing out here, I gotta go get out of these wet clothes. But we’re on for tomorrow night, right?”
“Yes, we are.”
“Good.” He grabbed his wet shirt off the pavement and then picked up his guitar. “Bye, Allison.”
“Bye, Eli,” I said, waving my fingers at him.
Once he was out of sight, I walked back to the bus. When I came back up the stairs, I found Jake and Rhys had left, and it was just Abby and the twins. “It seems that Eli has a crush.”
I shook my head. “It’s not like that. We just like to joke around with each other.”
Abby gave me a pointed stare. “I know my brother, Allison. Deep down, he isn’t kidding.”
“Oh,” I murmured softly.
“He asked you out tomorrow night, huh?”
My brows shot up in surprise. “How did you know?”
Motioning to the window, Abby replied, “As much as I wanted to give you privacy, I was kind of held hostage with the twins.”