Page 77 of Arden and the Girl Downstairs

Yasmin and I move away as Ally steps in between Rhys’s legs and tilts his head up so he’s looking at her.

“You should have said something,” she whispers.

“I’m sorry. I just didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t want to involve everyone in this.”

“Rhys, there will be plenty of time to apologise later. Is Ashley still here?”

He confirms with a nod.

“Can you message to ask her to come in here, please?”

“Why, so you can yell at her?” he snarks.

“No, Rhys, so we can hear her side of the story and figure out a plan of action to get you both out of this mess.”

“We can’t get out of the mess,” he argues.

I give Ally credit—she doesn’t bat an eyelash at his tone.

“We can, and we will.”

“I’m not the one that needs protecting—”

“We know, and we will protect her as well.” Ally looks scary as hell. Her tears are gone, replaced with sheer determination.

“Why? You hate her.”

“I may not like her, but she means something to you, and you are family. We do whatever we can for family.” Her tone is laced with an edge of finality. She isn’t taking his shit.

Rhys takes his phone out of his pocket to text Ashley as Arden walks back into the room.

“I have a plan. It may not work, but we need to try. It’ll take some time to get all the pieces in place. But I promise I’ll get you out of this mess, and we’ll protect Ashley from her family.”

Arden

“Ella, where the hell are all my bow ties?” I yell as I come down the stairs into the kitchen.

I can hear the giggles before I see the girls. Ella takes my breath away. Still. It’s been months and I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to call her my wife. Her hair still has pink in the ends, and she still lives in slogan tees and unicorn slippers, and as much as it drives me fucking mental, I wouldn’t change a thing.

This is the girl I love, and she is unapologetically herself.

Julia, Yasmin, Ally, Mady, and Millie all sit at the table with Ella. The girls have been helping Martha get things ready for Chase and Yasmin’s engagement party this afternoon.

“I threw them out,” Ella taunts from across the room.

“You can’t keep throwing out my bow ties. Shamus is getting sick of going to pick up new ones.” Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time she’s thrown them out.

“Oi, I never said that.” Shamus throws a box at me—he likes shopping and spending my money.

I open it and find a hot pink bow tie with unicorns on it. I glance over at Ella and notice she’s wearing her dress that matches this bow tie. When we are in private, she wears slogan tees with nothing underneath, and she still wears her usual attire when she is in the shop, but I love that she’s started wearing more dresses. Even if they are bright and awful.

Shamus thought it would be funny to get custom ties and vests made so I could match her, and as much as I hate it, I wear them with pride because I love matching my girl.

“You realise you’re supposed to be a big, scary Irish security guy, right?”

“I’m also averygayman who loves to shop.” His thick Irish accent makes me laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” I roll my eyes at Shamus and walk around the table, giving each of the girls a hug before pulling Ella up from her seat and enveloping her in my arms.

---