Page 42

Their parents were definitely up to something, but Ellie wasn’t going to question it since it worked out perfectly for her. “No problem. Take your time.”

“Yeah, we can do it. That’s fine.” Sierra’s tone wasn’t nearly as convincing as Ellie’s, but it must have been good enough for their moms, because they all walked away without another word.

Once they were gone, Ellie turned toward Sierra. “It looks like we’ve got some work to do.”

“Um, yeah.” Sierra pointed toward the stairs. “I just need to get changed into something warmer. Meet you back down here in five?”

Sienna, who Ellie had almost forgotten was still standing there, chuckled and began to hobble down the hallway. “You two have fun with that. Don’t call if you need me, because I can’t help anyway.”

Less than ten minutes later, both Ellie and Sierra were dressed in full snow gear and headed outside with shovels. Seeing as how they could barely even get the front door open, this definitely wasn’t going to be an easy task. Sierra immediately got to work shoveling out a small path, so Ellie followed her lead. The whole time they worked, her mind was running through all of the things she could say to try to break the ice, but nothing seemed good enough.

Much to Ellie’s surprise, Sierra was the one to finally break the silence after almost an hour of work. “What the fuck are they doing in there? This fucking sucks.”

“Does it suck because it’s hard or because you’re stuck out here with me?” Ellie wasn’t sure if that was the right way to start this conversation, but it was the first thing to come to her mind, so she decided to go with it.

Sierra dropped her shovel and turned to look at Ellie. “Why would you ask that? I obviously meant because of how hard this is. We had a fucking blizzard and the two of us are out here alone with below average shovels trying to move mounds of snow.”

Ellie dropped her shovel too and took a step closer to Sierra. “Is the process taking too long? Do you wish we could get it done faster so you could leave here? It would make it a lot easier to avoid me, right?” Ellie meant for it to be a tease, but the pain she felt over spending the last twenty-four hours wondering where things had gone wrong kept it from coming out that way.

Sierra shook her head vehemently. “I wasn’t avoiding you.”

Ellie closed the remaining distance between them, leaving Sierra with nowhere to go because of the high pile of snow behind her. Ellie rested her hands against the snow on either side of Sierra’s body. “Oh yeah? Then what were you doing?”

Sierra stared down at the ground. “Okay, I was, but not because I don’t actually want to spend time with you. The problem is, I want to spend all my time with you.”

Ellie brought a finger underneath Sierra’s chin to force their eyes to meet. “Why is that a problem?”

This time, Sierra didn’t look away when she spoke. “You scare the shit out of me.”

Ellie understood that feeling all too well. “Honestly, the feeling is mutual.”

Sierra shook her head. “I don’t want to get hurt.”

“All I’m asking is for you to talk to me. I don’t need any more than that.” Her words felt like a lie with how her body was thrumming from their close proximity, but she would take something with Sierra over nothing.

“Okay.” Sierra took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she blew it out. When she opened them back up, they were an even darker shade of blue. “You’re right. I can do that. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Ellie put her hand on Sierra’s hip, because she couldn’t help herself. She needed to touch her. “Don’t run away from me again, okay?”

For the first time since coming outside, a genuine smile came onto Sierra’s face. “Only on the track.”

Ellie let out a boisterous laugh, because she couldn’t help herself. She squeezed Sierra’s side before dropping her hand and backing away. “You wish, rookie.”

Chapter 20

Sierra

After a long day of shoveling, the moms forced all three girls to have a game night with them. Halfway through the night, Sienna announced she was too tired to keep going and went up to bed. When everyone else decided they’d had enough, Ellie asked Sierra if she wanted to stay up to watch a movie with her, but Sierra was exhausted. The day had been emotionally and physically taxing, and she could barely keep her eyes open.

“Tomorrow?” Sierra asked when she saw the disappointment on Ellie’s face.

The disappointment immediately faded away when Ellie broke into a wide grin. “Really? Yes. That would be great.”

The whole next day, Sierra tried to be present, but it was hard with thoughts of her impending movie night running through her head. It was almost as if her body hadn’t gotten the memo that thiswasn’ta date. Because ittotallywasn’t. I mean, come on, Sienna would probably be there too.

Except… she wasn’t. When Ellie asked her about watching the movie with them, she made up an obvious lie about how tired she was.

That was exactly why Sierra and Ellie were sitting in Ellie’s bed, much closer to each other than was necessary for them to be.Thisisn’ta date,she reminded herself again.