Twelve Weeks Read online

  Even when I am in the same city, I’m working. Over the next week, I have to plan something big, some sort of a grand gesture to show her I’m not all talk and do value everything she brings into my life. Jamie is my breath of fresh air, and I need her to know that.

  Chapter Three

  JAMIE

  “And here’s to Jamie finally being a little spontaneous!” Aaron yells as we all raise our shot glasses before drinking the vodka.

  “My God! How do you guys drink this every weekend?” I sneer, reaching for the glass of cranberry juice I’ve gotten as a chaser.

  Because of my rigorous martial arts training, I rarely ever drink, but my bandmates are big party animals, so when I go out with them, I try to indulge in their vices, so they don’t get on me for being so uptight.

  “Let’s dance!” Jennifer yells, pulling my wrist to the dancefloor.

  I still can’t believe I’ve allowed them to drag me out, but I guess it’s better to miss Sam from the bar surrounded by friends than in the lonely confines of my apartment. Even here, with the music blaring, and the alcohol pumping through my system, he’s all I can think about.

  The irony is not lost on me that he is out of state and unavailable to me because of a deal I set up for the company. If I had allowed them to stay with their outdated distributor, he might be here with me or at least cuddled up under me at home.

  Now, I was out with my single bandmates, surrounded by cliché beach jocks circling Jennifer and me like we were fresh meat. The neighborhood bar was such a drag to me, but it was their hangout spot, and I agreed to go where they wanted.

  A giggle falls from my lips when I imagine Sam in a place like this. He would be so out of place in his plaid shorts and a polo shirt, surrounded by these guys. While he’s not the usual type of stuck up guy from Sutton Hill, I doubt he would be able to handle this level of mediocrity.

  Sutton Hill was all about country clubs and yacht parties. I would bet my savings account that no one in this bar even owned a boat. We were drinking shots of Vodka that cost two dollars a glass, in Sutton Hill, they drink champagne imported from France. The differences between our worlds were so vast, I sometimes wondered how we were even able to entertain each other.

  “Damn! You’re working it!” I hear from behind me just before I feel a hand on my hip, and a crotch shoved against my backside.

  Spinning around, I see a muscular guy in a low cut tank top. His arms are covered in tribal tattoos, and his dark hair is spiked so stiff I honestly want to ask what kind of gel he uses.

  “What are you doing?” I ask him, trying to hide the disgust in my voice.

  “I’m dancing, sweet thang. Don’t stop,” he smirks, and I use every ounce of willpower not to roll my eyes.

  “I’m done dancing for now,” I force a smile at the muscle head before turning to Jennifer. “I’m going back to the table,” I tell her before walking off, frustration fuming from me.

  “What was that about?” She asks once I’m back at the table with the rest of our bandmates.

  “I’m not into the ‘beach bro,' with their tattoos and spiked hair. How much do you think those kids work out?” I joke, and the entire table laughs, looking back at the muscle head who is watching our table like a hawk.

  “Well, you’re not going to find much else over here, you know,” Aaron shrugs before taking a chug of beer and calling the bartender to order another round of drinks.

  “Oh no! Not another one!” I object, waving my hand in the air.

  “Oh, come on! You never spend any time with us anymore. At least one more!” Jennifer pleads, and after looking at her poor excuse for puppy dog eyes, I agree, to the applause of the table.

  After the second shot, I loosen up a bit, feeling relaxed and a bit horny. I wish Sam was going to be home tonight. If he weren't in that meeting, I’d text him to tell him how much I want him, something I never do.

  Sam is the kind of guy you have to gauge and go along with. I match his intensity. What he gives me, I reciprocate, but I don’t suffocate him with affection because that’s the worst thing you can do with someone like him.

  “You know what? I’m gonna hook you up!” Jennifer proclaims loudly, standing up on her chair to look out over the dancefloor.

  “No! Get down!” I yell, tugging at her arm until she settles back into her seat, laughing hysterically.

  “What’s so wrong with that? You don’t trust Jenn’s taste? It could be fun to get set up,” Aaron reasons, but I’m not going for it.

  “I don’t like anyone here. Plus, I’m kinda seeing someone already,” the words fall out of my mouth before I can stop them, and from the looks on all of their faces, I know they won’t be letting me backtrack.

  “What! Oh, we need another drink!” Jennifer signals to the bartender.

  “Not another!” I yell, serious this time.

  “Jamie. You have a boyfriend and haven’t even told us. You owe us another drink,” Aaron explains, his eyebrows furrowed together as he pretends to be offended.

  Truthfully, we rarely ever tell each other who we’re dating, so they shouldn’t have expected to know anyway.

  “Okay, one more,” I relent, rolling my eyes.

  “Oh! You didn’t deny he’s your boyfriend! So this is serious! Who is he?” Jennifer chimes in again, and I scowl at Aaron, realizing how he set me up.

  “You guys know him from those gigs in Sutton Hill last year. Sam Ellis. He runs the foundation I work for,” I say just as the waitress arrives with our drinks, and I’m ecstatic for the pause.

  “Sam Ellis?! He is fine, Jamie! I wish that was my man!” Jamie yells, and my head falls back as I laugh loudly.

  “How did this happen?” Aaron asks.

  “Yes! We need deets!” Jennifer adds.

  “Okay,” I sigh, raising my shot glass in the air as they both do the same before we chug another ounce of Vodka.

  “Get to it,” Aaron pushes on as I struggle to ride my mouth of the awful taste of the alcohol.

  “Well, I met him at my martial arts class, and thought he was cute, but didn’t make a thing of it. Then when I saw him at our gigs, we kind of flirted, but it wasn’t anything serious. When I started working with him, the tension between us grew to be too much, which was why I quit. But then I was chasing his dog, which was how I got in the accident last year. After that we kind of realized we wanted to try to be together, so we decided to take things slow,” it all flows out like a story as the alcohol works as liquid courage.

  Besides my best friend, I haven’t told anyone about Sam, but letting my bandmates in on my little secret lifts a weight off of my shoulders. While we don’t share every part of our lives, we don’t really keep secrets. I’ve been avoiding them a little since I began dating Sam, not wanting to spill the beans. It feels good for them to know what’s going on.

  “I’m happy for you,” Aaron smiles from across the table.

  “Me too. Now, I see why you don’t want any of these Jersey Shore rejects. I’d be turning them down left and right if I had a Sam Ellis in my back pocket!” Jennifer teases, and we all laugh together.

  The rest of the night we have a fun time together, and I feel much more relaxed with them knowing about Sam. My thoughts are still dominated by him, wondering what he’s doing and if he’ll have any free time to hang out when he gets back in town.

  Looking at my phone every two minutes, constantly disappointed he hasn’t called or texted, I wonder if he even misses me. Sam is the kind of guy that is out of sight, out of mind. I could completely imagine him not thinking of me at all while he’s away.

  We’re so different in that way because he’s all I ever think of whether he is sitting across from me or thousands of miles away. My feelings for him seem to multiply every day, and a lot of times I wonder if I’m on this emotional train alone.

  I haven’t even met any of his family, which makes me think he might be embarrassed by me, although he woul
d never say that. He’s a good guy, and I know that. Hell, I love him. But whether he’s enough for me or not is still debatable, because he barely has any time for me, despite what he says about prioritizing me so high. As the liquor wears off, I wonder if I should begin wearing off of Sam.

  Chapter Four

  Sam

  “Would you like me to get your luggage for you, Mr. Ellis?” The flight attendant asks as we taxi down the runway in the company’s private jet.

  “Yes, please. Just put it in the back of the car, I’m in a bit of a rush,” I lie.

  Well, it’s part truth. I don’t have anywhere too important to be, but I am definitely in a rush to get my weekend started after such a coring work trip. Thankfully all is well at NSK, so I guess that makes the trip a success, but I’m looking forward to unwinding a bit now that I’m home.

  I’m settled in the backseat of the Bentley before I know it, heading to Sutton Hills. Taking a deep breath, I relax into the soft leather, happy to be home. There’s a lot of bad things I can say about Sutton Hill, but it’s still my home, and regardless of where I go in the world, I’m always happy to return.

  Fortunately, a lot of people in the community own private jets, so we have a clear port not far from the city limits. It doesn’t take the driver fifteen minutes until we’re pulling up to my family home. The circular driveway is filled with luxury cars, as everyone gathers for the weekly barbeque my mom has every summer.

  After instructing my driver to just park before coming on out back to enjoy a hotdog while he waits, I head to the front door. To my surprise, it’s locked, so I ring the doorbell rather than walking in as I usually would. No one locks their doors in Sutton Hill.

  “Sam! What’s up, bro?” Mark answers the door, his eyes brightening up when he sees me. He’s my oldest brother, and as the youngest of us, I tend to be everyone’s favorite.

  “Why is the door locked?” I ask after giving him a big hug.

  “One of the kids must have been playing around. It’s a madhouse in here. Come on, let’s get a beer,” he pulls me inside, his arm draped around me as we walk through the living room.

  “How’s everything?” I ask, looking up to my big brother.

  “Oh, it’s good. Jeffrey and Anna are getting bigger, they’re somewhere around here,” he turns his head left to right looking for his two young children.

  “I’ll find them somewhere,” I assure him.

  “Yeah, they’re probably just outside. So, mom tells me you were on a business trip. How’d that go?” He asks.

  “Oh, it was fine. Boring as hell, but fine.” I smirk

  “I do not miss that,” he pats my back.

  Mark was in charge of both Jerry Ellis Foundation and Jerry Ellis Enterprises before stepping down to support his wife’s culinary career. She was one of the premiere chefs in Sutton Hills, and Mark now helped her on the financial side.

  “Look who’s here, everybody!” Mark yells as we enter the great room. Everyone erupts in applause and loud calls at once, so I can barely make out what any of them are saying.

  “What’s up!” I yell, waving my hand as my sisters come over together.

  “Sam! I thought you might not make it!” Alyssa smiles, hugging me.

  “Do you think I can take the jet to Cabo? Me and the girls wanted to go down, just for a weekend,” Nikki asks. She’s the younger of my two older sisters, and she is the poster child for what people hate about Sutton Hills.

  Nikki is my older sister, and I love her to death, but my God is she pretentious and materialistic. She’s never worked a day in her life, so the concept of earning anything is entirely foreign. She has no grip on reality and thinks everything revolves around her. She’s been that way her whole life, so I’m used to it, but I could never date a woman anything like her.

  “Hello to you too, Nikki,” I say before giving her a hug.

  “Well, you know I missed you. I just didn’t want to forget to talk to you about the jet,” she explains, flipping her hair as she talks.

  “Why don’t you just fly commercial? The jet is so expensive,” I shrug.

  “Commercial? Are you being funny, Sam?” She places her hand on her hip while squinting her eyes at me.

  “No, I think you’d look good in coach,” I joke while winking at Alyssa.

  “I’ll just ask mom,” Nikki sneers before storming off in her high heels.

  “Who wears stilettos to a barbeque?” I ask Alyssa once Nikki is out of earshot.

  “Don’t ask me. I can’t even find my flip-flops,” she giggles, looking down at her bare feet.

  Alyssa is more like me, down to earth and not defined by where we grew up. Sure, we have access to things most people can’t really imagine, but it’s not what makes u who we are. Her husband isn’t from Sutton Hills, and when she first started dating him, she made a big announcement at dinner that she would be bringing him by, and if anyone so much as made him feel uncomfortable, they’d have to answer to her. Needless to say, we were all on our best behavior with Don, and he was now like an extra brother to me.

  “Come on, bro! We’ve got to get you a beer an loosen you up from the office,” Mark wraps his arm around my neck, as I mouth to Alyssa I’ll see her later.

  Throwing get-togethers are a hobby for my mom, and she doesn’t miss an opportunity to call up her event planner. The entire backyard is decorated like she’s throwing a party, although she does this every weekend, inviting all of her children, siblings, nieces, and nephews.

  Reaching into one of the large aluminum containers filled with ice, Mark grabs two beer bottles, and a man in a white shirt and black slacks appears out of nowhere with a bottle opener. Shaking my head at the absurd lengths my mom goes to for a weekend barbeque, I take the bottle from my brother, chugging as fast as I can.

  “She’s a bit over the top, but what do you expect? She’s got nothing else to do,” Mark remarks, reading my mind about my mom and her outlandish parties.

  “Yeah, I guess this is the best vice she could have,” I smirk, taking another swig of my beer.

  “Daddy! Daddy! Can I have juice?” Anna runs up, tugging at Mark’s shorts.

  “Did you say hi to your Uncle Sam?” He asks, looking over at me.

  “Hey, Uncle Sammy! Can I have some juice?” She smiles up at me with her bright blue eyes.

  “Of course. Go ask grandma,” I wink at her.

  “Okay!” She yells before running off, still wearing her arm floaties from the pool.

  “The kids are having a blast. I’m just glad someone uses the damn pool,” Mark motions towards the loud commotion of kids splashing and yelling from the huge pool my dad had installed when we were kids.

  We loved playing in the pool growing up, but after we moved out, it was a bit deserted. My mom thought of getting rid of it when my father passed away, claiming it was more hassle than it was worth, but we all begged her to keep it, and now it was the center of every party she threw.

  “Yeah, they remind me of us,” I smile watching them.

  “It’s about time you add some little yous to the mix, don’t you think?” He nudges me with his elbow while talking.

  “You’re getting a little ahead of yourself, big bro!” I joke, patting him on the back.

  “Oh come on. I barely talk to you these days. I know you’re not that busy with the businesses. You’ve got to be out here with the ladies, and you know it’s only a matter of time,” he warns me with raised eyebrows.

  “There won’t be any Sam Jrs until there’s a Mrs. Ellis,” I assure him.

  “Well, are you seeing someone?” He asks, and I look around, debating if I want to tell my brother about Jamie.

  I’ve been pretty secretive about our relationship, not telling any of my family members. I’m not at all ashamed of Jamie. I think she’s beautiful and brilliant, but there are reasons I want to keep our love under wraps.

  “Oh shit! You are seeing someone, aren’t y
ou?” He yells.

  “Yeah, well, kinda.”

  “I’m happy for you. It’s only so long you can go around with different girls every night, baby bro. It’s good you’ve found someone that can be here for you when you get home from those work trips,” he nods while speaking as if what he’s saying is extremely wise.

  “Yeah, I really think she’s special, but I don’t want you to tell anyone. This is between me and you, okay?” I look up to ensure his secrecy, but the look of shock on his face bothers me.

  Without saying a word, I know he’s uncomfortable about something, and Mark isn’t the type to bite his tongue. His eyes squint together, remaining glued to me as he drinks the last swig of his beer, and I know he’s about to explain his unpleasant reaction to my request.

  Chapter Five

  SAM

  “Baby bro, is there something you’re not telling me about this girl?” Mark asks, nodding to one of the hired waiters to bring us another set of beers.

  “What do you mean?” I ask confused.

  “Is there already a Sam, Jr. in the making or something?” He whispers.

  “Mark! You’ve had too many beers. I just told you there will be a Mrs. first!” I chuckle, accepting the cold beer from the waiter before thanking him.

  “I know, I know. I thought the secrecy was because you intended some type of eloping ceremony or something,” he shrugs.

  “No, nothing like that,” I shake my head at his absurdity.

  “So, then what’s the secrecy about?” He quizzes me.

  “Well, Jamie – that’s her name, Jamie. She’s not from around here?” I explain subtly.

  “So she lives out of state?” He furrows his eyebrows trying to understand.

  “No, she doesn’t live far, but she doesn’t live in Sutton Hills,” I blurt out.