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She didn’t even bother changing before lying down in bed and letting herself drift to sleep. When she woke up a few hours later, the only text message she had was one from Juniperasking if she was still alive. She assured Juniper that Sierra hadn’t killed her then sighed as she sat her phone back down.

She was pretty positive Sierra wasn’t actually sick and that the avoidance had more to do with their almost-kiss than anything else, but no matter what, it definitely seemed like she could use some comfort. She might not want to get it from Ellie right now, but Ellie knew someone else who could give it to her.

She walked over to her closet and searched high and low until she found what she was looking for. She walked across the hall, knocked on Sierra's door, and waited for a response.

“Come in!” Sienna’s voice called from the other side.

Ellie walked into the room to find Sierra lying in bed reading a new book, and Sienna in the process of trying to stand up.

Sienna pointed toward the doorway. “I’m going to go downstairs and make sure the moms are behaving.” She looked over at Ellie and smirked. “I’ll be gone for a while so take your time.”

Ellie waited for Sienna to leave, then walked over to the side of the bed where Sierra was lying. “I brought you something to help you feel better.” She pulled the ratty, old stuffed bear out from behind her back and held it in front of Sierra. “His name is Boo Bear. He always makes me feel better whenever I’m feeling sick or scared or sad. As you can probably tell, I’ve had him since I was little.”

Sierra didn’t say anything, but the cutest smile came onto her face as she took the bear from Ellie’s hands.

Ellie stuck her hands in her pockets and rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. “Well, I just came here to give you that, but I’ll leave you be.” She waited a few seconds in the hopes that Sierra would ask her to stay, but when the request never came, she took that as her cue to leave.

She was almost at the door when Sierra finally said her name. When she turned around, Sierra was holding Boo Bear tight up against her chest. “Thank you so much for this. Seriously.”

“Of course.”

Even though Sierra hadn’t asked her to stay, Ellie couldn’t stop herself from smiling as she left the room. It wasn’t much, but it was something, and that something was enough to fill her with hope that maybe things weren’t completely ruined.

She held onto that hope for the rest of the day, as the hours passed without any sign of Sierra. She continued to grasp onto that hope when Sienna informed everyone that Sierra wouldn’t be joining them for dinner. Her hope only started to dwindle when she crawled into bed that night without another word from Sierra, but at least tomorrow was a new day.

***

“Attention! Can I have everyone’s attention?”

Ellie was startled awake the next day by the sound of her mom’s voice. Even though all she wanted to do was cover her ears and roll over, she listened to what her mom had to say.

“All women with two working ankles need to meet downstairs in fifteen minutes. I repeat — all women with two working ankles should be downstairs in fifteen minutes. Not a minute later.”

Ellie groaned, but stood up out of bed and got herself dressed. By the time she got downstairs, everyone else was already down there, including Sienna, who didn’t need to be.

“What’s the big emergency, Mom?” Ellie asked before letting out a long yawn.

“The snow is finally slowing down, so we need to start the process of getting it removed. I just remembered I never gotthe snowblower fixed last year, so it’s just the six of us and some shovels.”

This was actual torture. Maybe Ellie was still asleep and she was having a nightmare. “But that’ll take days!”

Her mama smiled and lifted her eyebrows. “Exactly. That’s why we need to start now. As much as we love having the Finnegans here, we can’t hold them hostage forever.”

Ellie’s stomach dropped. She had kind of forgotten this arrangement was only temporary until it was safe for Sierra’s family to get home. She looked out the window and found the snow coming down much slower now. This sucked. Sierra wasn’t talking to her and the weather was taking a turn for the better. If she didn’t figure out a way to break the wall that had come up between them, she might never get the chance.

Then again, maybe shoveling was the perfect way to do that. There was no way Sierra was going to say no to Ellie’s moms, so this was the perfect way for them to have time together. Sure, they wouldn’t be alone exactly, but she would worry about that detail later.

“Let’s do it!” She realized she probably sounded much more cheerful than she should, but whatever. Her moms probably wouldn’t think anything of it since they were just thankful to have the extra help.

Her mom snapped her fingers. “Oh, you know what? I just remembered something I have to do for work.”

Her mom’s tone immediately gave away the fact that she was lying, but Ellie had no idea why she would be. Did she really want to get out of shoveling that badly? Wasn’t itheridea? She was the one who woke Ellie up, for god’s sake. “Your work is closed. What could you possibly have to do?” Ellie asked.

“Oh, you know, I have to…” Her mom’s voice trailed off as she looked over at her mama.

“Call the patients to let them know we’re still closed,” her mama answered for her. “And I should probably help her with that.”

Brooke pointed between herself and Tiffany. “We actually have some work to do before we can come out too. Sorry, girls.”