Chapter Ten_Huntleigh

Hello and welcome or welcome back to another stormy night in the shire! Tonight we have another stroll in the Obsidian Forest. I know usually I don’t pop in before the stories but tonight I figured I would just for the simple fact that I was planning to have a different story ready for tonight’s post – but as you can tell by the title. We’re onto chapter ten of The Road to Redemption. Which I’m not mad about, I’m actually ecstatic about hitting double digits after a year. But I also want to let you know that I do still have other short stories in the works to continue filling the forest. It’s just those that take a little more time to perfect and make sure they’re all together : ) Okay, that’s all, happy reading. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more though, we are trying to reach 50 subscribers on the site by the end of the year!

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Wednesday night is blur and so is Thursday, thankfully McKinnley got me up in time, so I didn’t miss my first meeting with the Home Health Aid and he helped me clean up, well he and Drew both did. Apparently, he gave Connor my invitation so I wouldn’t forget to. Friday, everyone got back into town, and our friends came home. We all hung out at my place and listened to music while playing cards and talking about the party that they all helped me plan. Ironic I know the party planner/control freak of the group had help planning her housewarming. It’s because my friends wanted to surprise me, but I told them know way in hell that was happening. They could help.

Well, there was still some of it that they told me to stay out of because it was supposed to be a combination of a housewarming, anniversary of my blog, and a book launch private celebration. So duh, I couldn’t be involved in that (according to them). I love my friends. When things get rough, they make it happen. After a good night’s sleep, with every one of us in my bed – we fell asleep watching a movie. We all woke up, staggered, with the boys both waking up earlier and taking care of the animals before going and getting us all breakfast, then Bell woke up, leaving Amy and I to wake up closer to ten when the other three were giggling over us and taking a video of me and Amy while we slept.

At least they brought us coffee too. To be fair we have countless videos of various combinations of us all cuddling or just videos of the whole friend group laying in blanket forts together. Things like that. After waking up we all enjoyed our breakfast and talked about how we were planning to set things up. As well as discussing who was going to be here and when.

“So, when’s that cute neighbor of yours supposed to come?” Milo asks with a smirk.

“Micky says he gets off work around five today.”

“You don’t have his number?” Amy asks in disbelief.

“No not yet.”

“Girl…” They all say in unison.

“Well, you know it probably is better we make sure he’s cool before she does that.” Bell says with a long judgmental sip of her coffee.

“Hey, he’s cool, Micky likes him.” I smile.

“If Micky likes him, he might be okay.” They all agree.

“Yeah, plus you should have seen how sweet they were together.” Drew teases. “Lookin like they were meant for each other.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Milo and Bell say at the same time as she punches him. “I have more pull, I’m a woman.”

“Sexist much?”

“No! I just know when Le’s lying to be polite to a guy.”

“Oh, she’s not lying. She likes him.” Drew laughs. “She REALLY likes him. That’s why he’s coming tonight.”

~

After getting everything set up and getting changed and ready for the evening ahead, I was excited for Jacob to get there a bit early. He was bringing his grill and a few other things. He was in charge of that, well him and Harry when they got here.

“Climb up there and get it for me.” Jake teases. “Scared you’ll break a nail or something?”

“I’m not scared.” I laughed, climbing into the bed of his truck. I’ll be it, awkwardly. “But breaking a nail does hurt.”

“You’re spoiled.” He laughs. “Uh you and your music.” He teases.

“My house, my music. Are our friends coming?” I ask as I hand the firewood over the side to Milo and Drew.

“Drew, I will throw this at you.” Jake laughs as Drew whistles at me. “Also, yes they’re coming and I invited someone else too.”

“Who?”

“You’ll see.”

“Mhm okay.” I laugh following the boys back to set up.

The whole house and backyard had decorations, roses and orchids, with black, gold, and lilac streamers. Cute little center pieces with “eight years” and “first book” and “new/first house” on each table. The food and snacks were all set up on the island in the kitchen, while the party favors sat neatly on my small dining table. The boys set up the cornhole toss and were playing frisbee with Ghaston. There was an area for ping pong, and the pool was cleaned and Amy was working on blowing the floats up with the pump. The speakers were already set up and connected to my phone. We had a table for us to all eat at, a small fire pit area and the stuff for smores, Harry and Lorren, were bringing that with drinks.

Basically, everything was set up and we were ready. Just waiting on everyone else. The place looked amazing, but I couldn’t help but dread cleaning all of this shit up tomorrow. Parties are always a blast until the cleanup.

“Don’t worry about it, Huntleigh.” Micky says as he brings a cooler and sets it down on the ground by the sliding glass door. “We’re going to help clean it up too. Me and Jake for sure will be here.”

“What’s Jake doing?” Jake asks, turning towards me with a beer in his hand already. “Fuck why is your music so sad?” He asks as Overdose by Eddie and the Getaway plays.

“Helping our sister clean up tomorrow.” Micky laughs.

“It’s just a related to my playlist thing. I let my music play out last night, though I do love this song. I have a post inspired by it on my site.”

“She should just put sponsored by madammariesblogs all over this party.” Jake teases.

“It’s not a content thing. This is meant just for us.” I say with a smile.

“I know, I’m just teasing. We can’t have you being doxxed right out the gate.”

“For real.” I sigh. “Okay, the time?”

“Time for you to go start welcoming guests probably.” Amy smiles.

“Oh, take the speaker out front!”

“No, you can hear the music just fine. Go stand in Jacob’s truck, you’ll get plenty of attention.” Drew laughs. “Come on!”

“I can’t run! You know that!” I laugh as he gently pushes me running through my house and jumps into Jake’s truck. “Not fair!”

“Here, take my hand.” Drew offers me his hand, pulling me up. “This might be my last chance to dance in a truck bed with you and your daisy dukes to Max McNown.”

“Awe you’re going to make me sad talking like that.”

“It’s not sad if you find someone that makes you happy.” He laughs. “He is handsome though. Y’all had chemistry.”

“I don’t remember a lot of that night. I feel like an idiot. I don’t even know why I started drinking so heavily.” I sigh, laying my head on his chest.

“Well, you didn’t say anything incriminating, if that’s what you’re worried about. It’ll be okay. Y’all can talk tonight.”

“If he comes.”

“He’ll come.” He sighs, kissing my forehead as Harry and Lorren pull up. “Look who’s here.” Drew points to the jeep, Lorren’s jeep, right behind her was Abby, my editor and a good friend, with her cherry red corvette. She’s got style.

“Hi guys!” I say as they all get out of their respective vehicles.

“Oh my god, what are you doing up there Huntleigh?!?” Harry gasps teasing me.

“This is where the queen is greeting her guests!” Drew laughs jumping down and shutting the tailgate behind him.

“Drew!”

“Just until your Cowboy gets here! BRB!” He runs to help Harry and Lorren with the supplies. “I love you!” He yells from across the lawn.

“Do you want me to let you down- never mind, this tailgate is weird…” Abby sighs. “Hi Hunt.”

“Hi Abby.” I smile. “You look fabulous as always.” Her green eyes and fiery red hair, she reminded me a lot of Merida from brave, well if you put Merida’s independence and stubborn nature in a city girl. “I love your outfit.”

“I love yours too. Also, I know you love that boy, but I don’t understand the humor. He’s cute though.”

“He is. Drew is something.” I smile. “What do you think of the outside?”

“I love it, honey. It could use some color, but I love it.”

“I’ll give you a tour as soon as they free me.”

“Okay, I look forward to it.” She smiles. “Do I just?”

“Follow us. We’re leaving her trapped.” Drew says mischievously. “Have fun princess!”

“HAHA. I will ban you when I get untrapped!”

“No, you won’t!”

 Midways through my greeting of my guests Connor got home. Honestly, I was enjoying my little break from the overstimulation of everyone talking and music and everyone asking where things were. Let Drew and Micky handle that for a bit. Though Micky took off to go grab a few more things. By the time that Connor was walking over with a bouquet of flowers in hand and a bottle of wine in the other, I was planning to make my escape as my legs were tired and I was convinced they forgot about me. It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Do you need help?” He asks as I was attempting to straddle the tailgate without burning my ass or my thighs.

“Yes! Oh my god! Thank you, the tailgate is fucked up and I can’t get it, can you –

“Yeah, here do you want to hold these for a second.”

“Yes of course. They’re pretty.” I smile as I take it. “Oh, the seven sisters, that’s a good wine.”

“I’m glad you like the flowers and yeah, I asked Kinnley. Kind of cheated but it’s housewarming so I brought a gift?”

“Thank you.” I smile.

“Here I’ll help you down.”

“Thank you.” I smile as I set the gifts on the tailgate and he helps me off without me jumping. He had no idea how much that meant. I wouldn’t accidentally sprain my ankle just from getting down.

“Oh good, those fucking doofuses, I told them not to shut the tailgate on you.” Bell huffs as she runs out. “Are you okay? I told them we only needed an hour after fricken Seth and Maddy got here with the surprise.” Her eyes trace down to Connor’s hands on my hips still. “Is this him? Also, I’m interrupting something aren’t I?”

I glance at him, then look at her as she looks at the flowers and back at us. He backs away a look of confusion likely mirroring my own as Bell smiled. His cheeks were flushed and I could feel the heat in my own. And it wasn’t just the sun.

“Right. I’m Bell, and you must be Connor?” She offered her hand.

“It’s nice to meet you.” He smiles. “I was just helping her out of the truck bed.”

“Yeah, he was just helping.” I nod.

“That’s very kind.” She smiles.

“What’s the surprise?”

“You’ll see come, come. But put this on.” Bell hands me my sleep mask, taking my hat from me.

“Oh god. What did you guys do? They brought the camaro, they couldn’t fit much in it?”

“Just play along. You get to bring joy to lots of people, let us make you happy for once, okay? Stop arguing with me.” Bell smiles as I put the sleep mask on. “Don’t worry I’ll make sure his gift goes in water and in the fridge labeled strongly not to be touched as its special.”

“Bell…” I sigh as she leads me into the house.

“Come along handsome, don’t worry I mean that strictly platonically you aren’t my type at all.” She assures him and I laugh.

“Kinnley warned me you were the one to be wary of.” Connor says with a laugh.

“Oh, he did?” She laughs. “Good then he knows that I have the strongest chance of anyone here to marry Huntleigh and have her take my name.”

“Bell, behave please.” I smile. “I’m sorry Connor, please don’t take my friends too seriously also I don’t know what I said the other night. So my formal apologies.”

“No apology necessary.”

“Exactly.” Bell agrees with him. “Now, stand still, you watch her make sure she doesn’t peak, I’ll be right back.”

“She’s interesting.” He laughs.

“She’s something, what is happening?” I ask, doing my best to sound normal. “I should not have let these menaces have any control at all over this party…” I sigh.

“We are standing in your kitchen; she stepped outside for a minute. Your house looks nice, chic, very decorated…”

“Thanks.”

“Do you not like surprises? Not a fan of giving control up either, huh?” He sounds amused.

“Not really to either of them. I get stressed out when I don’t know everything about my environment.”

“That tracks. With the whole event planner thing.”

“Yeah, I guess. At least I have control over something.” I sigh.

“Okay, walk her out here, please, Connor.” Bell says through the hall, and I can tell she’s being a menace. “Perfect. Okay, Huntleigh, I need you to remember how much we love you. We know you hate big, big things. That take up space and we also know you’re already freaking out about clean up, but we’re not going to leave you stranded. Just enjoy the fun parts.”

“Oh god. What did you do? You saying all of that scares me more, Bell…”

“Just listen, okay?”

“Why’s he laughing? Connor? What do you see?” My chest felt tight. “You guys know I hate surprises. Like genuinely despise them.”

“Just breathe okay, you’ll love it. We swear.”

“Swear on that big, magnificent brain of yours that you’re going to love it.” Milo laughs and now I know I’m in for it.

“Just remember it was all on your friends not us.” Jake and Kaden laugh.

“Shut up, you pitched in dumbass.” Amy snickers. “Okay, three, two, one. Take it off.”

I push my sleep mask off my eyes and grab my glasses as Amy hands them to me. I was speechless trying to process what I was seeing? My brain was going faster, and my eyes were kind of glitching as I stared in confusion around my backyard. I knew what I was looking at but my brain wasn’t, well, you remember that episode of Sponge Bob where they let Squidward turn the place into a fine dining place and make Sponge Bob ‘forget” everything and then when that customer asks his name? Yeah, that’s my brain right now.