Elaine walked out of Tasha’s house with the guys across the street to her own. Just like the other houses on the street her home had a spacious, open floor plan that according to Ellie was great for entertaining. Elaine had scoffed at that. Who would she be ‘entertaining’? And this beautiful family she had adopted were very informal. So she took entertaining to mean great space for a party. There was a fireplace in the living room that stretched to a glass-walled sunroom that opened into the back yard. Terrible security wise, but at least she could see the danger coming. The bullet proof glassing helped keep intruders out. The family room also had a fireplace but just like Tasha and Ellie she had that walled up and placed her TV above it. One temptation of danger for the kids was enough. Right opposite the corridor that leads down the family room was a hallway that led to the kitchen with an adjoining dining room. She’d installed a French door that led to the wrapped around porch on the right side of the house with another door from the guest room. On the left side, there was a two car garage with a door leading into the kitchen. There were five more rooms upstairs; the masters an ensuite with a walk-in closet and the other four shared Jack and Jill bathrooms. And last but not least, the huge basement and attic. She had big plans for both.
Even though the house made her apprehensive security wise, she loved it. It was a great home to start over, to birth new memories, and it was a great investment for Katya’s future. She just hoped all the security installations she wanted to be done would be finished by tonight. She knew a guy who owed her a favor who knew a guy great for what she had in mind. She just hoped that they don’t arouse unnecessary attention or suspicions from her neighbors.
Neighbors. Elaine had grown to be able to live next to a bunch of strangers without running background checks, breaking into their houses to investigate and being suspicious of their every move. In other words, she didn’t do neighbors.
No, Katarina didn’t do neighbors. I Elaine Smith… don’t mind neighbors… much.
She ran up the steps to her porch to the door and opened it. “Welcome to my humble aboard,” she announced stepping into her messy house.
“Ah ah, you’re just going to have to hire a crew for this,” Damien howled from the door. He hadn’t even stepped into the house.
“What?” she looked at the cluttered entryway. She even had boxes on the stairs, and it only got worse in every direction. She winced. Maybe it was more than a little messy. “Just move the heavy stuff and put up the boards in the library—that’s the guest room.”
Dale whistled spying into the living room, “And you were going to move in tonight? If you are going to turn the guest room into a library, where will your guests sleep, aka Derek’s parents?”
Yeah, there was that. She never used to do guests either. “Damien, are you coming in?”
He shrugged his big shoulders turning his head side to side, “Still deciding.”
Elaine just rolled her eyes, “Okay. I don’t have that many books yet so we’ll just move the library shelves to one of the other rooms.”
“Which are upstairs. Let me guess, the shelves are down here, somewhere, right?” Damien whined finally coming into the house and closing the door behind him.
“Damien, do you whine so much because you just had two babies? Or is this a side of yourself you keep hidden because let me tell you, it is not attractive.”
Damien made a face at her, and Dale laughed, “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“What if I had beer and pizza delivered, would that make it better?”
He gave her a wide grin, “Now you’re talking.”
Elaine laughed as she ran up to her room. She’d done hers and Katya’s rooms up the night before. Though she had a small bed for Katya in her room. She didn’t like the fact that the master room was ten meters away from the rest of the rooms. She was contemplating moving to one of the smaller rooms once Katya was bigger to be closer to her. She grabbed a little black number, a pair of silver heels, her makeup, a clutch bag and as hard as she tried not to, a pocket knife—baby steps—and made her way out of the house, promising to make the call for the beer and pizza.
In three hours, after feeding the kids their dinner at six in the evening and the guys were in the back room moving furniture around Elaine’s house, they were out of the house and driving to a club Ellie used to frequent. The anticipation of going out on the town and having fun, filled her belly with butterflies. The only time she’d been to a club all dressed up was to hunt and trap targets, never to have fun. She liked going through old experiences with new eyes. It was exciting.
They walked in, and the club’s speakers blared some techno-pop that Ellie was immediately into. Elaine was more of a classical music girl, but she was expanding her horizons. Ellie and Tasha danced right up to the bar and Elaine followed close behind admiring how at ease the two of them were in such a crowded room with bodies bumping into each other. She, on the other hand, was fighting her instincts to search the room for threats and to establish the quickest exit in case they needed to leave in a hurry. It was frustrating.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Take it one day at a time Elaine.
Once at the bar, it was quieter, but Ellie and Tasha were having a hard time flagging down the bartender. He was stuck in the corner where some blondes with huge fake boobs in their twelve-year-old sisters’ dresses were flirting outrageously with him.
Tasha pouted, “I’m trying to get a drink for the first time in a club, and the ass is stuck making goo-goo eyes at double D silicones.”
Tasha, when she was Ellsa was a sweet red wine fanatic. She could break down a single sip right down to how old it was. She was a true connoisseur but like a lot of other things, she and Ellie had decided to let Tasha, discover herself. Not that Ellie wouldn’t forget their agreement—sentiments, Elaine was struggling with that one—and sometimes ended up telling Tasha what she used to love and didn’t, her hobbies and other stuff. Like at that very moment.
Ellie chuckled, “I’m surprised you haven’t jumped over the bar yet and served your own drink. That’s what you did in college when the bartender wouldn’t serve you, because you were a week shy of twenty-one.”
Tasha shook her head no, wide-eyed, “I couldn’t! I’m not that brave.”
“It had nothing to do with bravery. You just hated being ignored.”
She glared as she followed the bartender’s movements with her eyes, “That I’m very familiar with.”
Elaine was glad she’d opted to wear her black mini shorts jumpsuit with a spaghetti strapped hanging neckline top that exposed the curve of her breasts and ample cleavage. She held her red purse out to Ellie, “Here, hold this.”
Immediately after Ellie took the purse, Elaine used the foot bar of the stool next to her to push herself up and over the bar counter. She landed like a cat, steady on her feet even in her five-inch heels. Ellie and Tasha cheered, and so did some other ignored patrons.
The bartender turned around then, spotting her. His surprised look quickly gave way to outrage, “Hey!”
One hand on her hip, the other on a bottle of Patron she stared him down, “What?” She pulled several shot glasses from under the counter and lined them up on the bar and started pouring.
He marched up to her then and grabbed her serving arm, “You can’t do that!”
“I wouldn’t have to if you did your job.” She yanked her hand away and placed the bottle down, “I’m done anyway.” she lifted herself up and sat on the counter. She pushed six shot glasses toward Ellie and Tasha and then slide down to stand beside them. Addressing the other patrons, she said, “Grab a glass while you still can. The shots are on the bartender.”
Cheers went up as people grabbed for the glasses returning them empty of the Patron. The bartender stood staring mouth open at the empty glasses.
“Come on. Let’s find a table, then a waitress. There is no way he’ll serve us now,” Ellie said laughingly.