Page 7 of When Ellie Falls in Love

“Love you too, Mama.” Ellie took a piece of candy out of the bowl on the counter. “Is Mom home? I want to tell her.”

“No, she’s working late,” she said with a sigh. “Hey, how about you go check with Brayden and Everleigh and see if they want to go to the bar for dinner at six.”

“Okay.”

“Oh,” Vera added, “Bridget is upstairs too. Can you make sure Brayden’s door is open, and if not, remind him it’s supposed to be?”

Ellie chuckled. “Of course.”

Bounding up the stairs, Ellie made her way to the second floor where their bedrooms were. Her parents were generally chill about them having people over, even significant others. Granted, it had only been Brayden who had brought home a girlfriend. But so far, they hadn’t been caught doing anything they shouldn’t be doing.

Arriving at Everleigh’s slightly closed door, Ellie knocked and waited for her to tell her to come in before entering.

“Hey, sis.”

“Hey, Evie.” Ellie sat down on the floor beside Everleigh, who was watching a movie. Her service dog, Willow, lay on the floor beside her, and Ellie patted the dog on the head. Everleigh had type 1 diabetes, so Willow alerted her to high or low blood sugar.

“Guess what?”

“You got Ariel?” Everleigh’s excitement was palpable, and it made Ellie beyond thankful she had such great relationships with all her siblings. Well, she was still working on her relationship with Blake but it would happen in time. “Yay!”

“Will you help me practice my lines?”

“Duh,” Everleigh laughed.

“Oh, hey, Mama wants to know if we wanna go to the bar for dinner. Is that okay with you?”

“Yep.”

Ellie knew it felt weird to ask her twelve-year-old sister to the bar, but Straight to Ale had been her mother’s restaurant since before they were born. They had probably eaten more meals there than at their kitchen table over the years. It was a major hub of the Cove, and Ellie loved eating there.

“I’m going to go check with Brayden. Mama said dinner at six, so we’ll probably leave here at fifteen till.”

“Okay!”

Making her way to Brayden’s room, Ellie knocked and waited for permission to enter. Years ago, she had learnednotto enter her brother’s room without his approval. It only took being scarred one time for her to learn that lesson.

“Yeah?” Brayden called out behind the closed door.

“Can I come in?”

“Um,” there was the sound of scrambling on the other side of the door, “hang on.”

A few seconds later, Brayden opened the bedroom door. Ellie arched her eyebrow at him, and he instantly knew she was about to call him out to their mom. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the bedroom before closing the door behind them.

“You know you’re not supposed to have the door closed. Hi, Bridget,” Ellie waved at her, sitting on the bed.

“Hey.”

Ellie playfully pinched his arm. “What are you doing with the door closed?”

“Nothing.”

“I’m sure.”

“We were just doing homework.”

“Mmm,” she jokingly narrowed her eyes at him. “Biology?”

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