Chapter 19
Ellie
A s the party was wrapping up, Ellie searched in the dwindling crowd for her parents. She found them standing by the snack table, mindlessly munching on chips as they talked to each other. Ellie would forever love watching her parents together. They so easily got lost in each other’s eyes and made it seem like the rest of the world had fallen away.
Ellie wanted that someday.
Isla noticed her first and smiled at her.
“Hey, angel.” Holding her arm out, Ellie went to her mom for a hug. “Have I told you tonight that you look beautiful?”
“Not nearly as beautiful as you two.” Ellie smiled up at her mom, then over at Vera. “You’re both stunning. I hope I look that good when I’m your age.”
Vera dramatically winced. “Ouch. Your age. That makes me feel so old.”
“And we’re not old,” Isla added with a laugh.
“I never said you were!” Ellie protested, joining in the laughter. “In fact, I was just watching you two look madly in love with each other and hoping I can have that one day.”
“Aww, Care Bear.” Vera’s lip quivered as she pulled Ellie away from Isla and into her own embrace. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she mumbled against her mama’s chest. Vera had a tight hold on her, but Ellie didn’t care. It made her feel safe and loved.
“Maybe you’ll have that with Sadie.”
Isla’s singsong voice made Ellie whip her head around to look at her.
“What?” She held up her hands in defense. “I’m just making an observation.”
“You two looked awfully adorable out on the dance floor tonight.”
“Oh, geez.” Ellie pretended to be annoyed, but knew her smile was giving her away. “You two are annoying. I’m going to bed.”
“Not before kissing.” Vera kissed Ellie’s cheek before framing her face. “I love you, Ellie.”
“I love you, too, Mama. Happy anniversary!”
“Thanks, my love.” After another kiss, Vera released her hug as Ellie went to Isla.
“Happy anniversary, Mom!”
“Thanks, Angel.” Isla kissed the top of her head. “And thank you for helping put this together. It means the world to me and Mama.”
“Well, you and Mama mean the world to us.” Ellie kissed Isla’s cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you too, baby.”
After wishing her parents a good night, Ellie headed to the garage apartment. Ellie wasn’t tired, but the day had drained her. They had been working all day to get everything ready and her feet were killing her in the heels she’d deemed a good idea seven hours ago. But now, as she kicked them off and plopped down onto the couch, Ellie was ready to relax.
And think about Sadie.
And how Sadie’s lips felt on hers.
And how they’d danced on the dance floor together without caring who saw them.
Ugh.
Ellie had it bad; there was no denying it. Her crush on Sadie had grown so much over the last few hours that she couldn’t stop smiling each time she thought about her. Grabbing a nearby throw pillow, Ellie buried her face in it and happily screamed. She couldn’t remember ever feeling as happy as she currently did.
Maybe the first time she led a musical, but that would be it.
All she knew was that Sadie was definitely taking the top spot for Ellie’s happiness tonight.
The alarm over the garage door dinged, indicating someone had come inside. Ellie waited as she heard the footsteps climb the stairs and knew by their sound it was Mason. Her older sister sat beside her, a giddy grin on her face.
“So,” Mason held out the word longer than necessary, “do you want to talk about anything before I head home with my wife ?”
Mason’s eyes sparkled as she said the word wife . Her sister was hopelessly in love with Chase, and Ellie hoped she could find what they had someday.
Never one to keep her thoughts to herself, Ellie spilled her innermost thoughts about kissing Sadie to Mason.
“What if I did it wrong?”
“Did what wrong?
“Kissing Sadie.”
“You mean you didn’t want to kiss her?”
Ellie busted out laughing, which made Mason laugh too. “No, I wanted to kiss her. But what if I’m not really a good kisser? What if I did it wrong?”
“Well,” there was a playful gleam in Mason’s eyes, “judging by the look on Sadie’s face, you were doing it right.”
Blushing under Mason’s comment, Ellie covered her face with the pillow. She couldn’t stop smiling, nor could she understand why she was suddenly embarrassed in front of her sister. The two had been close since Ellie was born. Mason always looked out for her and loved her more than any other older sister Ellie knew. Mason always knew everything about Ellie, either from Ellie willingly telling her or Mason prying it out of her.
But Sadie was Ellie’s first real crush. Sure, there had been celebrity crushes before and the briefest stint where she had a crush on someone she was in community theater with. However, none of them made Ellie feel the way Sadie did. Ellie had it bad. There was no denying it.
Mason put her hand on top of the pillow and slowly pulled it down to see Ellie’s face. Her eyes held the same compassionate look their moms did, and it made Ellie feel so safe and loved.
“Talk to me, sis,” she gently said as Ellie dropped the pillow to her lap.
“I like her. A lot.”
“I know.”
“And I don’t want to mess it up.”
“You won’t.”
Ellie narrowed her eyes at Mason. “But how do you know that?”
“Because you have my mistakes to learn from. You’re gonna be better than me in every way because you watched me flail around until I realized how much I truly love Chase. You won’t waste your time sleeping with people you don’t care about because you know now that doesn’t work. And you won’t be scared to admit your feelings for your friend.” Mason winked. “So, what I’m here to say is you’re welcome.”
“Okay, Maui,” Ellie joked, referring to the Moana character.
“I’m just saying, let me be your guide. Don’t make my mistakes and you’ll be golden.” Mason shrugged, laughing. “For the most part.”
Ellie knew how lucky she was to have a sister like Mason. None of their friends had siblings they could talk to like Ellie could with Mason. She knew how lucky she was, and wouldn’t let Mason’s experience go to waste. Because Mason was right; Ellie had learned a lot from her. Whether she wanted to or not.
“And hey,” Mason’s voice grew a tad more serious, “I’m sorry for interrupting your kiss with Sadie earlier. I legit didn’t think I’d find you two like that.”
“What were you expecting then?”
“Doing pot?”
Ellie snorted a laugh. “Remember that time the parents ate the whole bag of gummies?”
“Mama was so paranoid,” Mason couldn’t stop laughing at the memory from a few months ago.
“And Mom thought it was yours.”
“Which it wasn’t!”
“Aunt Cam really did a number on them with that.”
Although their Aunt Cameron wasn’t biologically their aunt, they had all grown up with her being their adoptive aunt. She loved them as much as their Aunt Eden did and was still great friends with their parents. Even if she did give them CBD gummies as a joke and they didn’t read the bag before eating them all.
The alarm over the garage door went off again, signaling someone else had come inside. Ellie couldn’t decipher their footsteps up the stairs but smiled when Blake entered the apartment.
“Of course you two would be up here goofing off while the rest of us clean up outside.”
With her hands on her hips, she looked more like their mother than Ellie realized. It was still odd getting to know her oldest sister at times, but Ellie was thankful she at least had the opportunity to connect with Blake.
“I thought we were cleaning up tomorrow?”
“Yeah, because I thought you’d be taking your bride home to…” Blake smirked, “ celebrate tonight. Your poor wife is down there looking for you, so I offered to come up here and check on you.”
Mason giggled. “My wife is ready to start our wedding night and so am I.”
“Ew,” Ellie teased, sticking her tongue out at Mason who did the same.
Standing, Mason put one hand on her hip as she pointed at Ellie with the other. “Hey, never forget I made time to apologize to you on my wedding night because I love you.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Ellie stood and hugged Mason tightly. “I love you, too. Now, go get laid.”
“I’ll see you both tomorrow.” Mason kissed Ellie's cheek before giving Blake a quick hug goodbye.
When she was gone, Blake and Ellie awkwardly stood smiling at each other. Ellie knew one day, hopefully, she’d be able to read Blake as she could Mason. But Blake still had walls up that Ellie couldn’t decipher. She knew they weren’t because of her; that much had at least been established. However, Ellie wished to have a better relationship with Blake.
One day.
“I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t know you all were,” Blake paused, shrugging, “well, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Closing the gap between them, Ellie wrapped her arms around Blake. It took her a moment to reciprocate, but when she did, she held onto Ellie tightly. “Thanks for looking out for me, sis. I love you.”
“Anytime, Ellie. I love you, too.” Blake kissed the top of her head, an easy accomplishment given her height.
“What time are you all coming over tomorrow to clean up?”
“Whenever the kids get up.” Walking back toward the stairs, Blake put her hands into the pocket of her pants. “Probably by eight.”
“Cool. I’ll see you there.”
“See you, Ellie. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Blake.”
Ellie waited until she heard the garage door shut before heading to the bathroom. She took a quick shower, brushed her teeth, and changed into her favorite pajamas. As she curled up in bed, she pulled up Sadie’s text thread on her phone and smiled at the missed text. Not because she had missed it, but because of what it said.
I meant what I said earlier. You’re a great kisser. We should def do it again sometime.
She couldn’t explain why, but Sadie’s use of correct punctuation in texts made her smile. Ellie hated when people simply wrote a stream of conscious texts. Putting her fingers over the keyboard, she typed out a message back.
Um yes! Totally! The sooner the better in my book.
With graduation looming large in only a few days, Ellie knew her schedule was packed with end-of-year activities, and she knew Sadie’s would be as well. But there was one place they’d have ample time together if Sadie was interested.
And you should totally come to the Cape with us this summer. If you’re interested. It’s totally okay if not.
Sadie didn’t take long to respond.
I’ll check with my parents tomorrow, but I’m totally in if they’re cool with it!
Unable to control her smile, Ellie buried her face into her pillow. Why that was becoming a happy habit she didn’t know. All she knew was that she’d possibly get to spend two weeks of the summer with Sadie on the Cape.
Which was probably exactly why her dreams were filled with Sadie on the beach.
Not that Ellie was complaining.
She was only anxious for the real thing.