Chapter 33
Wes
Seeing Jess hug Elli, and having everyone important in my life accept and welcome her with open arms makes my heart want to burst out of my fucking chest.
I know I need to stop comparing my relationship with Elli to my relationship with Shelby but the difference is night and day and I want to kick myself for ever wasting my time with a girl like Shelby.
Not that I ever imagined I’d have a girl like Elli.
Who would have thought that the sweet, good, Mormon girl would end up with a ruffian like me?
Jess comes into the kitchen where I’m drying the dishes, a smile on her face. She sidles up to me, nudging me with her hip.
“She’s a good one, Wes. I can see why you’ve fallen so fast for her.”
“Thanks Jess. I would’ve kept seeing her even if you didn’t like her, but knowing you do makes it better.” I say.
Jess puts her hand on my arm to stop my drying, and I look over and meet her gaze, which is a little glassy.
“Your grams and your mom would love her. She would have Joyce wrapped around her finger in an instant and if things ever ended, you know she’d bug you about Elli for the rest of her days.
” I laugh at that. It’s true, Grams was a hardass about me keeping good things in my life, and Elli is the best thing.
Jess clears her throat, then continues. “I was a little harsh with her back there, because I needed to know she wasn’t going to just play around with your heart. She didn’t even flinch. She reassured me that her intentions with you are pure, and that she loves you.”
My heart can’t take any more bursting or it’s just going to stop beating all together. I know Elli said she loved me earlier, but to hear her admit it to someone else makes me want to rip her away from everyone and show her just how much that means to me.
“I love her too, in case that wasn’t glaringly obvious.” I mumble.
Jess pats me lovingly, but condescendingly on the back, “I know you do. I could see it when you got your haircut. I could feel it in the song you wrote for her. You’re not subtle, son.”
I roll my eyes which makes her laugh.
“Now I know you don’t want to spend all day surrounded by us since you’re deep in the honeymoon phase. Go. Take your girl home and… ugh I don’t want to know what you do but just go be together.”
I lean over and give Jess a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks Jess. We’ll be over for pizza on Friday. Love you!”
“Love you too!” She shouts back as I speed walk through the kitchen doors and make a beeline for Elli, who’s laughing with Claudia and Ernie about something.
God, I love her laugh. Her smile. I love that she’s so effortlessly integrated into my family.
Elli turns her head and our eyes meet, and the amount of love I see there nearly brings me to my knees.
“Hi babe. How did the dishes go?” She asks.
“Good, uh, they’re done. We have that thing we need to get to, so we should probably get going.”
Her brow creases like it does when she’s confused, but she must decide not to question it because she looks at Ernie and Claudia. “Thank you so much for breakfast. It’s been wonderful getting to know you. I’ll have Wes reach out to you about dinner and we can finish talking about this.”
Elli, Claudia, and Ernie stand and they exchange embraces.
“Don’t be a stranger Miss Elli. It was lovely to meet you.” Ernie says, giving her a big ol’ kiss on the cheek.
“Watch it, old man. That’s my girl. And your girl is right there!” I say in jest.
“No one’s stealing your girl, and no way in hell I’m letting go of mine.” Ernie says playfully, nuzzling into Claudia’s neck.
“Alright you two. Get goin’.” Claudia says as she waves us out the door.
I grab Elli’s hand and instead of leisurely walking back to our- woah, I mean- my apartment, I drag her to the alley between the diner and the Japanese place next door.
“Wes, what are we-”
I cut Elli off by pushing her up against the brick wall and ravaging her mouth. She immediately matches my energy and wraps her arms around my neck as I press my body against hers. My dick goes from limp to hard as steel in a millisecond as our tongues clash and her fingers dig into my shoulders.
I tear our lips apart and kiss down her throat, biting where her neck and her shoulder meet, and immediately soothing the bite with my tongue.
The noise she makes when that happens almost makes me come in my pants.
“Wes,” she pants, “w-we can’t have sex in the alley.”
“I don’t know if I can make it back to my place, Elli.” I say as I grab her ass, grinding my erection into her.
“But-”
“AHHH. My eyes!” A voice yells down the alley.
Elli and I abruptly turn to see Luke holding to garbage bags, trying to cover his eyes.
“Get a room, you two! My God! I’m going to have to bleach my eyeballs.” He screeches.
“Sorry, Luke.” Elli squeaks, pulling me out of the alley and down the road.
I can’t help but laugh, because we weren’t even doing anything that inappropriate. In hindsight I should have thought about people bringing the trash out, but I was too focused on the goddess that I call mine to worry about anyone else.
Elli slows her pace once we’re halfway to my apartment, then stops completely and laughs so hard tears are forming in her eyes.
“Why are you laughing so hard?” I ask, laughing with her.
“Do you know the shit I had to sit through when I shared a room with Izzy? Luke watching us make out is nothing compared to the cringy shit I had to hear from them. I felt bad at first that Luke had to see that, but now I don’t.
That was just payback for making me sit through almost a year of their ickiness. ”
“Good. Now that your guilt is out of the way, can we please get back to my apartment? Even being caught didn’t dampen how much I want you. Right. Fucking. Now.” I growl the last three words.
Elli’s eyes meet mine, full of lust and love and desire and then she nods.