Page 61 of When Ellie Falls in Love

Ellie waved as she headed toward Sadie’s car. Sadie kept yelling at her legs to move; to get out of the damn car. But Sadie was stuck in a daze watching Eleanor Mackenzie walk toward her in black pants, a green shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbow, and her perfectly straight hair hanging down past her shoulders. An untied bow tie set off the look exquisitely and Sadie wondered how on earth someone could be as beautiful as Ellie.

“Hey,” Ellie leaned into the passenger-side window that Sadie had mindlessly rolled down as she approached. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“You look amazing.”

Ellie blushed.

Omg. I made her blush.

“Thanks. So do you.” Ellie waved her out of the car and Sadie did. Walking around the car, she was pleasantly surprised when Ellie took her hand. “You won’tbelievehow long we’ve been taking pictures.”

“That bad, hmm?”

“We’ve been out here since ten.”

As it was going on noon, Sadie felt sorry for Ellie. “Ouch,” she grimaced. “That’s rough.”

“Apparently my parents want every single picture possible from their Pinterest boards. At least it’s Brayden’s turn now.”

“Aww, I hate that I missed yours.”

“Yeah?” Ellie arched an eyebrow as she grinned at Sadie. “I’ll have to show you the pictures tonight, then. Molly said she’d send them to me as soon as possible.”

“That’s awesome.”

As they arrived with the group of people, Ellie let go of Sadie’s hand. Sadie tried not to overthink it—easier said than done—as she greeted Ellie’s family and friends and found her way over to where Chase was sitting on the front porch steps.

“You look like your mom,” Chase joked with a smirk.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No, just an observation.”

Sadie sat beside Chase and watched as Brayden posed for pictures while the rest of the family chatted away in smaller groups. They were all dressed for the ceremony, and Sadie realized why the ceremony was at the local college’s football field. The Mackenzies alone could fill up half of it.

At times, Sadie wondered what it would be like to have a big family like Ellie’s. She only had her mom and Charlie and Chase. And, well, Mason by marriage. Which meant technically the Mackenzies were all family by marriage. In a very roundabout way.

“Sadie,” Delaney’s voice pulled Sadie’s attention away. She motioned for Sadie to join them by Molly.

“Ha ha, your turn,” Brayden chuckled as he walked over to them, loosening his tie. Sadie stuck her tongue out at him as she walked past him.

It was nearly a half hour of awkwardly posing for pictures as Ellie’s family stood nearby. At least most of them were lost in conversations about who knows what. Sadie tried to only focus on Molly Jaymes, the photographer. Molly took a ton of Sadie by herself before bringing in Charlie and Delaney as well for several.

“Ellie, you want to get a few together?” Molly asked, and Sadie snapped her head toward Ellie.

Not that she knew where Ellie was standing. It wasn’t like she’d been watching her out of the corner of her eye or anything.

Take a breath. It’s fine.

Ellie walked over to her, slower than it probably was in real time. But Sadie felt it tookforeverfor her to join her by the side of the garage where someone had assembled a balloon arch in the school’s colors as well as aclass of 2024banner.

Molly wasted no time coaching them into different poses as Ellie and Sadie giggled. Their parents were watching—Sadie was keenly aware of that—but they didn’t care. They seemed to be perfectly content in their own not-so-private photoshoot.

After it was over, everyone started to divide up into who was riding with who to the ceremony. Sadie bumped her hip into Ellie’s and smirked.

“I got a getaway car if we wanna have some time to ourselves.”

Oh, my god. Did I really just say that??? Who?? Am?? I??

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