Chapter Twenty-Six
Shock, betrayal, hurt, anger—these are just some of the emotions I see crossing Arden’s face as I peer past Ellie, her legs still wrapped around me, while I hold her up by her ass.
Arden’s eyes snap down to my hands.
He swallows hard.
This can’t be good.
I instantly move my hands away from Ellie’s ass and up to her waist.
That’s better, but still not great.
It doesn’t matter. It’s too late. Arden’s already seen and heard it all—me kissing his sister, my hands on her ass, her fingers in my hair, and our hot-and-heavy breathing and sexy groans.
He knows what’s up.
And, man, do I ever feel like the biggest, most betraying dick on earth.
Ellie slides down my body, and, standing up straight, she adjusts her short skirt.
Turning to her brother, she says casually, like we were just in here doing nothing, “Oh, hey, Arden.”
He’s not playing around, though.
His eyes trail down her body, assessing her outfit in a very clinical sort of way. “Do you work here?” he asks.
“Yes.” She sighs. “I do.”
There he goes, swallowing hard again, before he asks, “I thought you worked at Applebee’s?”
Ellie nods once. “I work there too.”
His tone dripping with sarcasm, Arden says, “My, haven’t you been the busy girl.” His eyes snap briefly to me, and I see a grimace of disgust, but then he’s back focusing on his sister. “Why didn’t you tell me about this job?” he asks.
Ellie makes a face. “Um, probably because of the reaction you’re having right now.”
Whoa.
One thing about this woman, she certainly stands her ground.
And it works. Arden’s expression softens ever so slightly.
Blowing out a breath, he says, “Okay, fair enough.”
I’m relieved that he’s addressing her lack of telling him about working at Boots as opposed to the compromising position he just found us in.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling that’s about to come up real soon. He’s probably just covering the least important omission of the truth first.
Sure enough, his eyes slide back to me as he says, “Clearly, you knew all along that she works here. Yet you never thought to mention it to me.”
I hold up my hand. “Hey, it wasn’t my place to say anything. And Ellie asked me to keep it a secret. I knew she’d tell you in her own time.”
Scoffing, he says, “Seems you two have quite a few little secrets you’re keeping.”
Here we go.
“Arden…,” Ellie begins, her tone even as she takes a step toward him.
He holds up his hand and shakes his head, like he doesn’t want her coming to him.
She stops, and he asks her, “How long has this been going on? I mean with you two, not this job.”
“A while,” she replies. “We were friends first, though, if that makes any difference.” Arden scoffs, but she goes on. “Look, we really, really tried to keep it just friendship. But things just…happened.”
“Obviously,” he says disgustedly. He looks over at me, and fuck, the betrayal in his gaze. I feel like two inches tall.
Make that one inch when he shakes his head and says, “I trusted you, man.”
Mustering all the sincerity I feel right now, because the truth finally needs to be told, I tell him, “Hey, I fell in love with her, Arden. I didn’t plan to, and believe me, I fought it every step of the way. But sometimes fate or whatever the fuck you want to call it has other plans.”
Leaning his head back and looking up at the ceiling, Arden mutters, “Fuck.”
“Hey,” Ellie says, jumping in. “This isn’t some meaningless fling. What Nils just told you is true—we’re in love. And, Arden, you have no room to judge. You fell in love with Hayden’s sister, Willow. He’s a teammate, just like you and Nils are. Sometimes life just throws curveballs, you know?”
She has him there, on all counts.
Arden lowers his head, and then his eyes meet hers…then mine.
I can see he’s capitulating and maybe slowly accepting we’re a couple.
Still, there’s hurt in his tone when he asks, “Why didn’t one, or both of you, just fucking tell me? It’d have been better than me walking in on you dry-humping each other.”
“Okay,” Ellie interjects, “first of all, it wasn’t that bad.” When Arden gives her an “are you serious?” look, she amends, “It wasn’t great either.”
Now he’s just talking to her when he asks quietly, “Why didn’t you tell me, El?”
“We were going to,” she replies exasperatedly.
“When?” he snaps.
She lets out a long sigh, and then she says, “At dinner that night with you and Willow, we thought about telling you. We went back and forth on the way there and were going to hold off, but at one point, I almost just freaking laid it on the line. But then you guys told us you were getting engaged, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to take away from your moment.”
“But that was weeks ago, Ellie,” Arden protests.
“I know, I know.” She runs her hands down her face. “We were still just waiting for the right time. Or, really, I was. I can’t put this on Nils. He was only respecting that I told him I wanted to wait. But now I realize I should have just told you everything sooner.” She swishes her hand around. “I should have told you about working here at Boots, and about me and Nils. I was just procrastinating, and it bit me in the ass.”
Arden blows out a breath, and then, brow creasing, he asks, “Are there any other secrets I need to know about?”
“No.” Ellie shakes her head adamantly. “I promise you there’s nothing else.”
“Thank fuck for that!” he exclaims. Sighing, he goes on. “For the record, I’m not mad about you working here at Boots. That’s your decision, Ellie.”
Hands on her hips, she asks, “What about me and Nils?”
He doesn’t outright answer, he just asks, “Does anyone know about you two?”
Now it’s my turn to jump in. “Finn does,” I say. “But only because he guessed and was obviously right.”
Arden nods knowingly. “Ahh, so that was why he was trying to keep me talking when you left the table.”
“Yeah,” I say, “what happened with that, anyway? How did you end up back here in the break room?”
“Finn got a phone call and had to go out to the lobby so he could hear. I figured I’d hit the men’s room before we all left the restaurant. That’s how I ended up coming through this door.”
He gestures behind him, and it all makes sense now.
“You saw me come in here?” I ask.
“Yeah.” He nods. “I thought the restrooms were somewhere back here.”
Things are loosening up. I can feel it. I think Arden accepts that we’re a couple.
Ellie must feel this, too, since she snarks, “Wow, I bet you were surprised when you stepped through the door and saw us.”
Arden snorts. “That’s putting it mildly.”
Softly and much more seriously, she asks, “Do you forgive me for keeping not one but two secrets? And can you please forgive Nils too? We can’t help it that we fell in love.”
“Ahh, man, Ellie.” Arden rakes his fingers through his raven-black hair. “I just wish you both would have come to me right away. I would have understood.”
She laughs. “Would you have, though?”
He thinks it over, then shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe not. You may have been right that I would have been pissed.” He sighs. “But it’s only because I love you so much, El. You’re my baby sister, and even when we’re in our eighties, I’ll always feel like I need to protect you.”
“I understand that,” she says. “But I have to live my life.”
Jerking his chin to me, but with a smartass smirk tugging at his lips, he says, “And you want to do that with this fucker, eh?”
“Heyyy,” I say, pretending to be offended.
I’m not. I’m happy that he’s joking around about us. I’ll gladly bear the brunt of his sarcastic humor if it means we can all get past this and he accepts that his sister and I are in love.
Stepping back to stand united with me, Ellie takes my hand and says proudly, “As a matter of fact, I do want him in my life.”
Arden shakes his head, but he’s chuckling, so that’s good. “Man, you two. Just next time you’re keeping a secret, share it with me right away, okay?”
“You’ll be the first to know,” I say.
Ellie nods. “Yes. In fact, I’m going to start sharing everything with you, big brother. Like, how ’bout this one… My damn period started earlier, and I didn’t have a tampon in my bag. Thank God for Sammie. She’s a lifesaver, because she had lots of extras.” She shrugs. “Turns out, it’s her time of the month too. Anyway, that’s when we realized we’re synchronized! It’s so cool when that hap—”
I’m laughing my ass off, but Arden is wincing.
Holding up his hand, he cuts her off. “Okay, okay, okay. You made your point. That’s not the kind of stuff I need to know. Feel free to keep those details to yourself.”
I’m still chuckling, filled with relief. I’m beyond thrilled that Arden and Ellie are back to getting along and bantering.
There are no more secrets, and Arden isn’t going to murder me after all.
Yeah, you could say things are looking up.