Page 95 of Loving the Sinner
“That would be amazing.” Hannah turns to Elli, “If he’s stopping in San Diego, make sure to tell Emma. I’m sure she’d love to come see him perform. Maybe you can fly out and see the show with her!”
Elli looks a little sheepish as she replies, “I’m actually going to be joining him on the tour. My job allows me to work from anywhere, so I’m going to follow him around and be his own personal groupie. So I’ll be at the show in Salt Lake and be able to keep you company.”
“Elliana,” Shelly gasps, “a musical tour is no place for a young lady. What does your mother think about this?”
“Mom doesn’t know yet. And I’m an adult who can make my own decision, Aunt Shelly. I don’t need anyone’s permission.” Elli looks to the back door. “It looks like Izzy needs some help with something. Come help, Wes?”
I nod, then look at Shelly and Mitch. “It was nice to meet you two. Hannah, I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.”
Hannah offers me a small, apologetic smile and a nod while her parents glare at me disapprovingly.
Elli leads me into the house, Izzy nowhere to be found, and takes me back up the stairs to Izzy’s bedroom. I got a good look at it when we were here earlier, but I didn’t get much of a chance to ask questions about things.
Elli doesn’t close the door, which must be a habit from her childhood, but plops down on the bed and groans.
“I’m so sorry, Wes. I thought Shelly of all people would be cool around you. She’s always seemed the least crazy. Guess I was wrong.”
“It’s okay baby, nothing I couldn’t handle.” I pause to look at some pictures on the wall, “This was your room too, right?” I ask.
“Yeah, why?”
“There doesn’t seem to be muchyouin here. It seems mostly Izzy.”
“Well, you’ve met Izzy. She’s got a big personality.” Elli sighs, coming to stand next to me and look at the pictures. “I never really had anything other than these pictures of my siblings and I. I used to keep everything important to me under my bed, and even then, it wasn’t a lot of things.”
I hum in acknowledgement.
“Elliana!” Elli’s mom’s voice cuts through the silence from down the hall. “I need your help cutting the cake!”
Elli huffs and rolls her eyes. “Coming, Mom.” Then she says quietly, “Come on. One more hour and then we can go back to the hotel, okay? I need to get out of this dress ASAP.”
“I can definitely help you out with that.” I purr in her ear and watch as a shiver runs down her spine.
“I don’t doubt it.” She trails a hand down my chest seductively, then leads me out of the room and back to the kitchen.
I stand out of the way while Elli helps Louise cut a big chocolate cake. Louise complains that Elli’s cutting the pieces too big, then too small when Elli tries to correct the error and I’m half a second from stepping in.
“Elli, go get the ice cream from the garage.” Louise barks.
“I’ve got it.” I say, already headed to the door.
“No-” Louise starts, but gets distracted by someone else coming to talk to her.
I walk through the kitchen to the garage and decide which of thethreefreezers to check first. The first one doesn’t have the ice cream, so I open the second and find a big gallon container of vanilla.
Bingo.
Chapter 44
Elli
Igo to follow Wes out into the garage because he’s going to have to look through all three freezers to find the ice cream, and I don’t want him to be gone that long. My mom’s being extra bitchy today because of the stress of the luncheon, and I just want to get out of her.
“Elli, I need you to go get the extra plastic spoons from the storage closet.” Mom instructs and I sigh and turn the opposite way to go to the storage closet down the hall by the bathroom.
Why she keeps them here instead of in the garage like a normal person, I’ll never know.
I can hear footsteps following behind me, and I assume it’s just someone wanting to use the restroom, so I step out of the way quickly, but the body follows me. I turn around and see Packer looking smugly at me, and I resist the urge to punch him in his face.
