One Night Stand(20)

“Alice, you are family.” I said softly. “You’re my best friend and my parents look at you like a third daughter and my brothers look at you as another sister.” Shit, why did I say they looked at her as a sister? I knew Alice had a crush on one of them, but I wasn’t sure which one.

“Well, thanks, I guess.” She sounded sad. “I’ll be there at 9am.”

“Great, I can’t wait to see you.”

“Now don’t do anything I wouldn’t do tonight.”

“I’m not going to do anything.” I said lightly and looked at my bedroom door. “I’m going to bed and I’m not leaving my room until you get here.”

“You’re silly.”

“That’s why you love me.”

“I’m going to go and pack now. I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

“Okay, bye Alice.” I hung up and lay back down on my bed and groaned as I stared at the ceiling. Images of Xander popped into my mind as I lay there. Where was he right now? What was he thinking? Was he thinking about me? I rolled over and buried my head in my pillow. I needed to stop thinking about him or I was going to drive myself crazy. I sat up in bed and decided to leave my bedroom. I wasn’t tired as yet and being in my bedroom was making me think of things I could do in my bed; naughty things that I shouldn’t be thinking about. I decided to go down to grab a coke from the kitchen and then go into the backyard and rock in the rocking chair that my grandmother had given us when I was a kid. I loved the rocking chair, it made me think of my childhood and how happy I’d been rocking on my dad’s leg, or even one of my big brothers, when they had time for me. I’d had a happy childhood, asides from the fact that my sister had driven me up the wall for most of my teenage years. I wasn’t sure if we’d ever have the kind of relationship that Alice and I had and that made me sad.

***

“Turn around and I’ll be the one you want to boom boom boom.” I made up words to the catchy song that was playing on the radio as I swung on the rocking chair on the back porch of my parents’ house. The night air was cool and I was grateful that it wasn’t another humid balmy Florida night. “Take me away and we’ll boom boom boom on the moon moon moon.” I giggled as I sang along to some girl crying out about not having a candy pop or boyfriend. I felt that my lyrics were far superior to hers. “You’ll boom boom boom before you com com com.” I sang out and then screamed as I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Argh.”

“Liv, it’s just me.” Xander’s voice was smooth behind me as he spoke and my body tensed up immediately.

“Oh, hello.” I turned around and offered him a weak smile, ignoring his eyes and his chest. I stared at a spot on his ear and focused on that.

“I didn’t know you were a singer.”

“Huh? What?” I said stupidly.

“Have you hit any charts?”

“Charts?”

“Billboard? International? iTunes?”

“What?” I was so confused that my eyes left his ear and found his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about your singing career.” He asked with a small smirk. “Have you hit any bestselling charts or won any Grammys or anything?”

“You’re an asshole.” My eyes shot daggers into his as he tried not to laugh.

“It was an honest question. You did seem to be into that song you were making up.” He grinned and I shook my head.

“Whatever.” I couldn’t stop myself from responding to his smile. “I know I can’t carry a tune, but that doesn’t mean I can’t sing.”

“I didn’t say you should stop.” He nodded in agreement. “It was quite pleasant to listen to.”

“Sure it was.” I laughed. “My brothers pay me to stop singing.” I smiled at the memories. “In fact my brother Scott once gave me twenty dollars.”

“Twenty dollars? Wow.” Xander tilted his face. “He must really hate your singing.”

“I think it was the song and the occasion.” I giggled. “He was eighteen and had brought home his first proper girlfriend for Thanksgiving.” I thought back to the holiday. “They were sitting out here talking about some class they were taking and I came out and started singing, “Love is a truly splendid thing.” I started laughing harder. “You should have seen the look on his face when I burst into the chorus and started throwing ripped up pieces of paper on them.”

“Ripped up pieces of paper?” Xander asked with a look of surprise.