Page 38 of Blindsided

Tilly hugs Natalie and shakes Tucker’s hand. “I remember you hanging out here when we were growing up,” she says to Natalie.

After Natalie’s dad died when she was a kid, she practically became another Ellis sibling, she was here so often.

“How are you, kiddo?” I ask Noah.

He shrugs. “Good. I’m getting a baby brother.”

My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline as I shoot a look at Natalie. “Seriously?”

Natalie laughs as she shakes her head. We found out she was pregnant after their wedding this winter, but I’m guessing they were going to wait to tell us if it was a boy or a girl. “We were going to make an announcement today that we found out the gender.”

“Congratulations, you guys! You’re going to be the best big brother,” I tell Noah.

“Who’s that?” Noah whispers into my ear, pointing at Tilly.

“That is my friend, Tilly.” I set Noah back on the ground, and Tilly squats to say hello.

Noah puts his hands on Tilly’s cheeks, and I glance at Natalie. She’s watching him with surprise and a gentle smile. He’s normally very shy around strangers, so seeing him act so familiar with Tilly is pretty amazing.

“You’re really pretty,” he says.

“Thank you, Noah.” Tilly grins. “Are you excited about having a baby brother?”

“Yeah, I’m going to teach him to read.”

“That sounds like a great idea.”

“Can I show you my favorite book?” He grabs Tilly’s hand without waiting for an answer, and Tilly passes her flowers over to me. Noah leads her to the couch and pats the cushion next to him, inviting Tilly to sit down so he can show her the book on the end table. Adam, Ellie, and Carter say hello to her while Noah finds the right page.

“I think your son just stole my girl,” I tease.

“Kid’s got game, I’ll give him that.” Tucker laughs.

“Tucker!” Natalie swats him on the stomach.

“What? He could’ve said something rude like he did to that woman in the grocery store.”

Natalie cringes. “That was awful.”

“To be fair, she was being annoying as fuck.” Tucker grimaces.

“An older woman kept asking Noah questions while we were shopping, and he asked her to stop talking,” Natalie tells me.

“He also said please,” Tucker adds, and I lose it. I can only imagine Noah’s little voice asking some woman to shut up. The image makes me laugh harder until Natalie is swatting my arm.

“Matthew Jacob Ellis!”

“Uh-oh, you’re in trouble,” Nolan singsongs as he comes over to hug me.

Cindy Ellis is a force to be reckoned with, and she still has the ability to make me feel like a little kid again.

I walk over to where she’s standing in the dining room and wrap her in my arms. Being a tiny slip of a thing never seemed to stop her from seeming larger than life. All it took was a look and the five of us would stop horsing around. “Hi, Momma.” I hand her the flowers Tilly brought.

She takes them from me and swats me on the arm with her other hand. “Don’tHi, Mommame. You should’ve brought Tilly in to see me as soon as you got here.”

“I didn’t have a chance! Your grandson stole her from me.” I wave my hand toward the living room, where Noah is reading his book to Tilly.

“Oh, that’s so cute.” Mom whips out her phone and snaps a photo before tucking it back into her pocket. “Is she okay? Janice called a few days ago and gave me all the disgusting details. I can’t believe there are people that depraved.”

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