Page 46

Leave?No, they couldn’t be leaving. Not after such a perfect night. Not when things had finally clicked into place for her and Sierra.

Sierra stirred beside her and slowly opened her eyes. “Did they say we were leaving?”

Ellie’s heart dropped. It appeared she hadn’t misheard what was said. “I think so. I guess we shouldn’t have done such a good job of shoveling the driveway.”

Sierra grabbed onto Ellie’s shirt and wrinkled it in her hands, as if she was holding on to her for dear life. “What if I’m not ready to leave?”

Ellie smiled despite her sadness. This was a far cry from the girl who was begging to go home not that long ago. “I’m not ready for you to leave either.”

“Hey, where’s your sister?” Brooke’s voice floated into the room from out in the hallway and Sierra’s eyes went wide.

“Shit. What the hell am I supposed to do? If I walk out of your room, they’re gonna know… well, I don’t know what they’ll know exactly, but they could make some assumptions. I don’t—”

Ellie stopped Sierra’s rambling by putting a hand on each cheek and placing a soft, quick kiss on her lips. She still couldn’t believe that was something she could do. “It’s okay. We’ll say we fell asleep watching a movie. They have no reason not to believe that.”

Sierra nodded a bunch of times as if she was an anxious bobble head doll. “Yeah, that could work. I think that’ll work.”

Ellie tried not to smile at Sierra's internal crisis, but she looked so damn cute, she couldn’t help it. “It’ll work.” Ellie kissed Sierra once again, because why not? Her lips were perfect. “Maybe let me do the talking, though.”

Her joke finally made Sierra crack a smile. “Probably a good plan.”

Ellie squeezed Sierra’s hand and forced herself to get out of bed as Sierra did the same. They walked to the door together, and when Ellie opened it, she found both of her moms, Sierra’s moms, and Sienna all standing in the hall. Sienna was very passionately speaking about something, but Ellie only caught the tail-end of it. “We can’t. Trust me, now is not the time.”

“Now is not the time for what?” Ellie asked.

Sienna looked at Ellie and gave her a knowing smile and subtle wink. “It’s not the right time to go home. I mean, really, who wants to spend over four hours in the car on Christmas Eve? Not me!”

Tiffany rubbed her temples as if her daughter was giving her a headache. “So, you’d rather drive four hours on ChristmasDay?”

Sienna put her hands on her hips as if to show she meant business, but the shit-eating grin on her face said she was simply up to something. “No. I think we should wait until the day after.”

Brooke shook her head. “But what about your brother and Mel? If we’re not home, we won’t be able to spend Christmas with them.”

Sienna sighed. “They live in the same town as us. We can spend the day after Christmas with them.”

“I don’t know,” Brooke said, but it sounded like her resolve might be breaking. “This isn’t only your decision. Your sister really wanted to get home, and the Finnegans probably have plans with their family.”

“We don’t,” Ellie answered quickly. “My brother and his girlfriend aren’t coming until the weekend after New Year’s, so that’s when we’re celebrating with the rest of our family. It’s just the three of us.”

Brooke put her focus on Sierra, who immediately got the deer-in-the-headlights look back. “I fell asleep in Ellie’s room watching a movie, and I was so tired I didn’t wake up until just now,” Sierra blurted out without her mom even saying anything.

Sienna chuckled, but Brooke just furrowed her eyebrows and continued to stare at Sierra. “Okay. But what do you think about staying through Christmas?”

Sierra nodded multiple times, doing the complete opposite of playing it cool. “Yes. I think we should.”

Tiffany clapped her hands together. “It looks like it’s settled then. Let’s make the Yuletide gay.”

Excitement bubbled inside Ellie, and it wasn’t just because Sierra was staying (even if that was a big part of it). Ellie really liked Sierra’s whole family, and she was excited to have more time with them. She looked over at her moms, who looked weirdly just as excited as her. “After Sierra and I do our workout, we’ll run out to the store since it’s safe to drive now. Text me what we need.”

*

After doing a workout that turned out to be much more fun when kisses were added in as rewards, Ellie and Sierra both took showers before meeting downstairs to go to the store. Sierra was wearing a pair of jeans and a West End Track and Field hoodie that she looked unfairly cute in.

Ellie had chosen wide leg pants and an ugly Christmas sweater that said “All I want for Christmas is a new PR.”

Sierra pointed to the sweater and chuckled. “I fucking love that.”

“You can borrow it sometime if you want.” Honestly, Ellie loved the idea of Sierra wrapped up in something that belonged to her.