Page 124 of When Ellie Falls in Love

“Eden,” Ellie groaned as she buried her face in her hands.

“Come on, you told them I’m sure.”

“They’re my parents and they love me.”

Eden dramatically put her hand to her heart. “Are you insinuating I don’tloveyou? My precious, favorite niece?”

“You tell all of us that,”

“Not Brayden,” Eden added with a wink. “But I get it. Your parents are way cooler than me.” Another wink. Eden picked up her coffee mug and stood. “I’ll leave you all to it.”

As Eden shuffled back into the bedroom, Ellie was thankful to be alone with her parents again. She looked at each of them as she smiled happily.

“Thank you both for always being there for me. And for not treating this as something bad.”

“It’s not anything bad.” Vera placed her hand on Ellie’s arm. “It’s natural and a part of life. We’re just glad you know you can come to us with anything, always.”

“I do,” Ellie yawned as Isla patted her leg under the table.

“Why don’t you and Mama go take a nap and I’ll go pick up Carlson’s for all of us, okay?”

Ellie’s stomach growled in response as they all laughed. As Ellie and Vera headed into the living room, she watched as Vera sat on the recliner and popped out the footrest. Neither of them had to say a word before Ellie crawled up into her mama’s lap and let her wrap a blanket around them. She rested her head on Vera’s shoulder as she yawned again.

Best birthday ever.

Chapter 40

Sadie

Sadie was in desperate need to find a way to slow down time. It had been almost a week since Ellie’s party and in a matter of days, Sadie would be in her car heading to Tennessee. That thought left a pit in her stomach that she wasn’t sure how she could fix. Granted, aside from blowing up her college plans or finding a DeLorean, Sadie was stuck.

Ugh.

If only she’d fall in love with Elliebeforeaccepting the scholarship at UT. Then she could have chosen any of the closer colleges that had tried to recruit her. Heck, she could have given up her softball dreams completely and gone to Moonflower Cove campus of the University of Maine. And for Ellie, she would have.

The idea of living hundreds of miles away from Ellie was harder each day for Sadie to swallow. She’d been handling the subject the best she knew how: avoiding thinking about it. But with meredaysbefore she had to go off to college, Sadie suddenly felt no desire to pack up her stuff. Instead, she wanted to spend all the time she could with Ellie.

Ellie had offered to help her pack, which of course Sadie agreed to. Granted, they’d done more kissing and touching than packing. Not that Sadie cared. She’d let Ellie love her body every last second they could.

Even if every single noise made them think Delaney or Charlie had arrived home. While Delaney was off showing a house to a client, Charlie had headed into Portland with Oakley Cooper. Oakley was Charlie’s lumberjack—lumberjane?—friend and the two apparently were in search of new equipment before winter. Sadie wasn’t expecting her parents home for a while, but anything could happen.

Especially with Ellie’s hand down Sadie’s pants.

“I’m gonna miss this,” Sadie whispered in Ellie’s ear before kissing it.

“Me, too.”

As Ellie’s fingers teased Sadie, one thought kept running around in Sadie’s mind. And it wasn’t how the feel of Ellie touching her turned her on or how she was worried any minute the bedroom door would swing open. Instead, it was something that Sadie had never said aloud before.

Until now, apparently.

“Tell me not to go.”

Sadie wasn’t even sure she’d said the words out loud until Ellie stopped kissing her and pulled her hand out of Sadie’s pants. Ellie looked down at Sadie, confused.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Trying to play it off, Sadie buttoned up her shorts as she got out of bed. Ellie, who was wearing a low-cut tank top and ripped jean shorts, sat on the edge of the bed as she watched Sadie. “Sorry.”

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