"Oh, yeah. What am I thinking right now?" I challenge her with a glare.
She closes her eyes and puts her fingers to her temple. "You’re thinking that you want to make your best friend some bacon because she is wonderful and funny. And then you want to do all of the dishes." She opens her eyes and slaps her hands together. "Oh, that’s so sweet, El. I'll go make some orange juice while you cook."
She jumps from her seat and skips off into the kitchen with a grin plastered on her smug face. I can't help but smile at her antics and happiness. I shake my head, grateful that I have someone like her in my life to keep me entertained.
12
Chapter 2
Kassy ran off with Liam again after classes today, so while I sat on the brick edge of the school sign, I decided to get a jump on my training and give Alexa a call. I could tell how giddy she was on the phone when I asked her to be my trainer. And even more so by the fact that I am sitting in her car only forty minutes after we talked and she offered to pick me up.
Alexa’s brand-new cherry red Audi isn’t as classic as Gavin’s car, but it is still way nicer than anything I could ever afford. The interior of the car practically sparkles just as much as the exterior. It’s amazing to me how much money their family has. My adoptive mom has enough money to enjoy life, but she has one little home in a decent neighborhood, and a twelve-year-old oldsmobile. I have some money that I saved up from my one part-time job as a Starbucks Barista in high school to live off of until I find a job here. If I ever have the time for that.
Alexa turns down the wide dirt road that leads to her mother’s home, but splits off at a fork, toward the opposite direction. I turn to her in the ridiculously comfy passenger seat. “We’re not going to your house to train?” I ask, confused.
She shakes her head. “Gavin put the most amazing gym behind his home when he built it.
It will be the best place for you to train for sure.”
I cringe at her words and want to bail out the passenger door. “Gavin’s house? I don’t know if that is such a good idea.”
She just waves her free hand at me. “It will be fine, El. He’s out working, so he won’t even be there to bug us. No worries, sweetie.” She turns the wheel onto another road, this one paved, instead of dirt like all the rest. My eyes go wide when I see what sits at the end of the long driveway.
The most beautiful yet rustic house I have ever seen comes into view. There are large rocks surrounding the home, framing its gardens that wrap around both sides. The roof has a high peak in between two lower ones with a large, rounded window under each peak. The top ridges of the home are probably three stories up from the ground, making the dark shingles reach up to the sky in a dramatic contrast. The majority of the home is made of a dark wood, causing it to 13
almost blend in with the trees surrounding it. There are smooth gray rock pillars holding up the covered porch and matching the stone steps up to the glass front door. A wooden deck lines the whole front of the home, curving around each of the three large windows on the main floor. The whole house looks like it just rose up from the ground.
A part of the driveway leads to an attached underground garage, which opens when Alexa pushes a button on her visor. She parks inside, next to a large white SUV. “Here we are.”
She chimes, hopping out of her seat.
I follow her up a short flight of stairs at the back of the garage and through a door that opens into a large modern-looking kitchen. There are granite countertops and all stainless-steel appliances. Alexa opens the fridge and pulls out two bottles of water, handing one to me. I just stand amazed, watching her.
She notices how still I am while I stare at her and lifts a hand to her cheek. “What? Is there something on my face?”
I gesture all around us and scoff. “There is absolutely no way this is Gavin’s home!” I say, louder than I intend. My voice bounces off the high ceilings in an echo.
She raises an eyebrow to me in question. “Why do you think that?”
She continues leading me through a high archway into a huge living room with a fireplace that has an opening taller than my head. The furniture is all dark and very masculine with little feminine touches here and there, a few vases of flowers on the tables and cream-colored curtains that block our view of the outside world. There are beautiful paintings on the walls of waterfalls and mountain ranges, bringing the surrounding wooded area into the home.
“I guess I just don’t understand how a twenty-year-old guy could create something this magnificent. Where did he even get the money for it at his age?” I ask, astonished at how cozy Gavin’s home is as I plop into a plush sofa.
She shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know how he came up with a lot of the design part of it, but as for the money, when our dad passed away, he left us each a large sum. Gavin wanted to put the money toward a home that he could take care of forever and have a family in some day.”
I sink into the couch, praying for it to just swallow me whole. I feel like
