Page 22 of Loving the Sinner
“Maybe I’ll come in for a minute and see if Elli needs any help.” Luke gives me a tired look and rolls his eyes, but ultimately keeps his mouth shut, thank god. I don’t need another lecture from him.
The closer we get to the door, the more my heart starts to race. Maybe Elli won’t want to see me, and she’ll ask me to leave.
Izzy answers the door with a squeal, jumping into Luke’s arms as he hurriedly shoves the box of donuts into my arms. “Hi Wes.” She smirks over his shoulder.
“Izzy.” I nod.
“Elli’s in her room. Go on in.”
I was going to protest, pretend I wasn’t here to see Elli, but no one would have believed that, and apparently they don’t really care. So instead, I take the box of donuts and place them on the kitchen counter before going down the hall to her room. Elli is clad in tight biker shorts that hug her delicious thighs, a light pink t-shirt, with her hair piled messily on top of her. She has on big purple headphones and is swaying her hips to whatever she’s listening to. I lean against the doorframe, feeling a little bad about creeping, but I can’t help it. She’s so fucking cute.
When Elli turns and sees me, she freezes. She’s not wearing any makeup today, not that she wears much anyway, but she looks so stunning, I can’t help but stare. Her cheeks are sun kissed and pink, and the pink color deepens as she slowly removes her headphones, her surprised, wide-eyed gaze never leaving mine.
Chapter 10
Elli
“Good morning, Elli.” Wes smirks, brown eyes lit up with amusement. He looks good today.Obviously.He has his hair pulled back into a bun, which is something I didn’t realize could be so attractive, butdamn.
“What are you doing here?”
“Luke needed a ride to deliver donuts.” He nods towards the kitchen.
He’s not here because he wants to see you.The mean girl voice in my head unhelpfully supplies.
“Oh. That’s nice of you.” I turn back to the shelf I was putting together, hoping to hide the disappointment on my face.
“I also came to help you, if you don’t mind an interruption to your dance party.”
I whip around so fast that I lose my balance and crash into the shelf, causing it to topple over. Wes, apparently blessed with superhuman speed, is in front of me, grabbing the shelf on either side to stop it from crushing me and crashing to the floor. His chest is an inch from my face and it’s taking all my willpower not to lean in and take a big sniff of him. He smells like coffee and something woodsy and ohhhh my goodness does he smell good.
Once the shelf is stabilized, he steps back a bit, spinning around and surveying the room.
Izzy pops her head into the door, a mischievous grin on her face as she says. “Now, remember, Elli. The door stays open and no boys on the bed. Luke and I will be in the living room, so no funny business.” Just as quickly as she came, she’s gone.
“You have a habit of bringing boys into your room?” Wes teases.
I give an awkward half laugh, half sigh. “Not really. You’re kind of the first non-related boy I’ve ever had in my bedroom- here or in Utah.”
His mouth hangs open in shock and disbelief. “Didn’t you go to college? You never had a date in your dorm room? Make out session, study session, anything?”
I shake my head. “I lived at home in college to save money, so I never got the chance.”
He has a smug grin on his face as he closes the door and walks over to the stack of boxes.
“Where should we start?”
After a few hours we’ve managed to put together the two bookshelves, the nightstand, and the dresser. Izzy and I put together the bedframe Saturday night, so we’re making good progress. Wes put on some music beforewe got started, so we worked in comfortable silence listening to a lot of Indie artists I’d never heard of. Wes would occasionally pipe up to give some backstory on some of the artists or want me to listen to a specific guitar part. His eyes lit up when he would talk, and I always made sure to give my full attention.
Once we had the shelves where I wanted them placed on either side of my desk, I gave Wes the go ahead to start unpacking my books.
“Any specific way you want them organized?” He asks, plopping on the floor and opening the first box.
“I usually do it alphabetically, with all the series staying together. You can do it however you’d like, though. If I don’t like it, I’ll just rearrange them later.” I say playfully, earning an eye roll from Wes.
Wes makes a lot of comments about my choice in reading material, but not in a negative way. He comments on what he’s read, praising my choices and we talk about our favorite parts of the books.
He’s a bigLord of the Ringsfan, apparently. He even had “the ring” that he wore on a chain around his neck in elementary school.
