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But Sadie was Ellie’s firstrealcrush. Sure, there had been celebrity crushes before and the briefest stint where she had a crush on someone she was in community theater with. However, none of them made Ellie feel the way Sadie did. Ellie had it bad. There was no denying it.

Mason put her hand on top of the pillow and slowly pulled it down to see Ellie’s face. Her eyes held the same compassionate look their moms did, and it made Ellie feel so safe and loved.

“Talk to me, sis,” she gently said as Ellie dropped the pillow to her lap.

“I like her. A lot.”

“I know.”

“And I don’t want to mess it up.”

“You won’t.”

Ellie narrowed her eyes at Mason. “But how do you know that?”

“Because you have my mistakes to learn from. You’re gonna be better than me in every way because you watched me flail around until I realized how much I truly love Chase. You won’t waste your time sleeping with people you don’t care about because you know now that doesn’t work. And you won’t be scared to admit your feelings for your friend.” Mason winked. “So, what I’m here to say is you’re welcome.”

“Okay, Maui,” Ellie joked, referring to theMoanacharacter.

“I’m just saying, let me be your guide. Don’t make my mistakes and you’ll be golden.” Mason shrugged, laughing. “For the most part.”

Ellie knew how lucky she was to have a sister like Mason. None of their friends had siblings they could talk to like Ellie could with Mason. She knew how lucky she was, and wouldn’t let Mason’s experience go to waste. Because Mason was right; Ellie had learned a lot from her. Whether she wanted to or not.

“And hey,” Mason’s voice grew a tad more serious, “I’m sorry for interrupting your kiss with Sadie earlier. I legit didn’t think I’d find you two like that.”

“What were you expecting then?”

“Doing pot?”

Ellie snorted a laugh. “Remember that time the parents ate the whole bag of gummies?”

“Mama was so paranoid,” Mason couldn’t stop laughing at the memory from a few months ago.

“And Mom thought it was yours.”

“Which it wasn’t!”

“Aunt Cam really did a number on them with that.”

Although their Aunt Cameron wasn’t biologically their aunt, they had all grown up with her being their adoptive aunt. She loved them as much as their Aunt Eden did and was still great friends with their parents. Even if she did give them CBD gummies as a joke and they didn’t read the bag before eating them all.

The alarm over the garage door went off again, signaling someone else had come inside. Ellie couldn’t decipher their footsteps up the stairs but smiled when Blake entered the apartment.

“Of course you two would be up here goofing off while the rest of us clean up outside.”

With her hands on her hips, she looked more like their mother than Ellie realized. It was still odd getting to know her oldest sister at times, but Ellie was thankful she at least had the opportunity to connect with Blake.

“I thought we were cleaning up tomorrow?”

“Yeah, because I thought you’d be taking your bride home to…” Blake smirked, “celebratetonight. Your poor wife is down there looking for you, so I offered to come up here and check on you.”

Mason giggled. “My wife is ready to start our wedding night and so am I.”

“Ew,” Ellie teased, sticking her tongue out at Mason who did the same.

Standing, Mason put one hand on her hip as she pointed at Ellie with the other. “Hey, never forget I made time to apologize to you on my wedding night because I love you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Ellie stood and hugged Mason tightly. “I love you, too. Now, go get laid.”