Page 65

ELLIOT

THREE MONTHS LATER

T he grill is smoking, the table on my parents’ deck is covered in food, and my family is scattered around the backyard for our regular summer Sunday barbeque, which is doubling this week as a little impromptu engagement party for Jordan and Jo.

Walking through the living room towards the yard with a bag of ice for the beer cooler, I pause at the picture of Henry and Clara on the beach that hangs on the wall, smiling as I take them in—the love on their faces, the contentment that radiates from the frame.

A few weeks after we told everyone Henry and Clara’s story, Bonnie and Jane came down to Boston to meet my family.

Unsurprisingly, they hit it off with my mom and Cece immediately, and the four of them have become good friends.

Bonnie and Jane blew this picture up and had it framed for us, and my mom hung it up immediately, saying that after all these years, Henry and Clara’s love deserved to be lived all the way out loud.

It's my favorite part of the house now.

“You know she won’t disappear if you look away from her for a second,” I say, stepping out of the sliding door and tossing the ice into the cooler, then coming up behind Jordan.

He’s leaning up against the deck railing, beer in his hand, his eyes glued to the spot where Jo stands with Hannah and Amelia.

The three of them have their heads together laughing about something, and my eyes find Amelia instantly.

The grin on her face has a smile spreading on my own, and the way her hair falls down her back in waves, the pretty summer dress she’s wearing, and the way her sandals have her legs looking miles long have me itching to touch her. To get my arms around her as soon as possible.

Even in all the months we’ve been living together—waking up and going to sleep together, having quiet, sleepy breakfasts before I go to school and she goes to her office to work on her latest project, dinners with my brothers and Jo when everyone is around and just the two of us when they’re not—I still can’t get enough of her. I don’t think I ever will.

“You’re one to talk,” Jordan snarks, taking a swig of his beer. “That dopey, lovesick expression is a permanent feature on your face these days.”

I shrug, my eyes still fixed on Amelia. “She’s here, and that means she’s all I see. You understand.”

Jordan nods, expression on his face turning soft as he glances at Jo again.

“I do. More than you can possibly imagine. You should follow my example, little brother, and put a ring on it. There’s no way she won’t say yes.

Amelia looks at you the same way you look at her.

She was made for you, man. You’re like twin tech nerds, destined to be together forever and have lots of brilliant, computer loving babies. ”

I laugh, shoving Jordan’s shoulder. “You literally proposed to Jo a week ago. You don’t want to enjoy the moment a little before I come in and steal your thunder?”

“You couldn’t possibly,” Jordan says quietly, his eyes fixed on Jo again.

“There is nothing in the world that could take away even a little of the happy I feel being engaged to Jo, planning a life with her. And it’s not like we’re going to draw out the engagement.

We just want to be married, and we don’t want to wait.

Besides, Mom would be over the fucking moon for two of us to be engaged at the same time. She lives for this shit.”

“She most certainly does.” My mom comes up, pressing herself between Jordan and me and wrapping an arm around both of our waists.

“Look at my boys,” she says, voice thick with her trademark Pam Wyles tears as she glances at both of us and then around the backyard at the rest of our family.

“Both happy and in love and planning futures with amazing women. Celebrating as a family. I’m a happy mom today. ”

I toss an arm around her shoulders and grin. “No criticism or suggestions about how we could do it better or should have done it differently? You’re really in rare form today, Mom.”

She looks up at me, eyes sly. “Well, like Jordan said, you could finally propose to Amelia and make it official. Two weddings are better than one wedding.”

I chuckle and give her a squeeze. “There she is. We’ll get there. But for now, we’re just enjoying where we are. We like it here.”

“Ten more minutes,” my dad says, joining us by the railing, spatula in hand, wearing an apron that says Hot Chef Alert that my mom got him years ago and he wears every single time he turns on the grill.

“Thank god,” Noah says, jogging up to the deck with Cooper trailing behind, a football under his arm. “I’m fucking starving.”

My mom rolls her eyes. “Did I or did I not see you eating a sandwich the size of your head in my kitchen like an hour ago?”

Noah shrugs. “I’m a growing boy. Besides, I was on call last night and ended up in a nine-hour surgery. Gotta replace all the calories I burned.”

“The calories you burned by holding suction or whatever for the real surgeons?” Jordan asks.

“How much did you bet Cooper this time that you could get me to bitch about how I’m just as much of a surgeon as you? I’m on to you two assholes.”

Cooper pats Noah on the shoulder. “Just because you can’t get Hannah to give you the time of day, doesn’t mean you have to be taking it out on the rest of us.”

“She gives me the time of day,” Noah grumbles. “But she gives him the time of day too.”

“She’s had a boyfriend for years, my dude,” I say. “This is not a new development.”

Noah blows out a breath. “There’s just something off about that guy. I don’t like it,” he says, his eyes on where Hannah stands with Jo and Amelia.

“Do you even know him?” My dad asks, furrowing his brow at Noah.

“I know enough,” Noah says. “That guy is bad news.”

“Noah’s right,” Cece calls from the yard, where she’s sprawled in a lounge chair, margarita in hand, wearing giant sunglasses and a bright pink caftan.

“Right about what?” Jo asks.

The girls all turn to us, and when my eyes meet Amelia’s and she smiles and winks at me, I feel the jolt of connection through my entire body.

Mine .

“Go get your girl, El,” my mom says, nudging me. “You know you want to.”

I kiss my mom’s cheek and head down to the yard, coming up behind Amelia and sliding my arms around her. Her body melts back into mine, and she covers my arms with her own. Turning her head, she presses a kiss to my jaw and grins at me. “Hey, handsome.”

“Hey, Mystery Girl. Whatcha doing down here?”

“Telling Jo a million times that with a ring like that she can’t fly to Vegas and get married tonight. A ring like that deserves a real wedding and a kick ass party. A ring like that needs to be celebrated.”

Jo shrugs, smiling as Jordan comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her shoulders. “I like a celebration as much as the next girl, but I really just want to get married, and my mom sucks a lot of the time, so the idea of planning a wedding with her really doesn’t appeal.”

“I want what you want, Hurricane,” Jordan says, bending and kissing her neck. “If you want to jet off to Vegas in an hour, I’m game.”

“I can get Gabe to gas up the jet,” Amelia says. “We can all go. It’ll be a blast.”

“Forget Mom,” Hannah says. “You have us and Hallie, and something tells me Pam and Cece will be kick ass wedding planners. The whole thing will be so extra, just like you.”

“Count on it, Jo Jo,” Cece yells. “Save Vegas for your bachelorette party and leave the wedding to us.”

“How does she always know everything?” Amelia wonders.

I chuckle, pressing a kiss behind her ear. “When it comes to Cece, we try not to ask too many questions. Come with me, Mystery Girl.”

I grab Amelia’s hand and tug her away from the group as the talk moves from a Vegas elopement to a joint Vegas bachelor/bachelorette party, which is absolutely something I can get behind.

My mind turns to the last time Amelia and I were alone in a hotel room, and I quicken my pace, needing to get her alone as soon as possible.

“Where are we going?” Amelia asks, as I lead her around the side of the yard.

“Right here,” I say, spinning us around and pressing her back against the house, covering her mouth with mine.

I cup her face in both of my hands and tilt her head back, taking the kiss deeper, sweeping my tongue into her mouth, tasting the gummy bears that she was eating earlier and the margaritas she’s been drinking since we got to my parents’ house and her .

Amelia grips my waist and opens wider for me, taking the kiss deeper and moaning into my mouth. She is everything I ever could have dreamed of, and she’s mine. My dream girl. My other half. My most perfect match. I am the luckiest person alive.

“I love you,” I murmur, stroking her face with my thumbs, twin strands of tenderness and possession weaving together inside of me.

“I love you so much, more than I ever thought it was possible to love another person. I’m so fucking glad I can love you all the way out loud now, everywhere and always.

“I love you too.” She grins against my lips, winding her arms all the way around my waist. Then she leans back and looks around. “But you know we’re literally hiding right now, right? This doesn’t feel very out loud to me.”

I chuckle, leaning in and kissing her again. “Brat.”

“You bet,” she says, tilting her hips just enough to graze my rapidly hardening cock. “And when we get home tonight, you can show me exactly what happens to bratty girls.”

I hiss out a breath, grabbing her hips to grind against her, pleasure sparking up my spine. “Maybe we should go inside, and I’ll show you right the fuck now.”

She laughs and grinds harder. “In your childhood bedroom with the uncomfortable mattress your mom won’t let you get rid of and your old hockey trophies?”

I kiss the spot behind her ear, sucking lightly. “Baby, anywhere I can get you horizonal as soon as humanly possible is perfect, terrible mattress and all. I need to be inside you more than I need to breathe.”

“Well, then looks like you’re going to suffocate, El, because dinner is ready, so whatever little interlude you’re planning to have in my house is going to have to wait until later.”

Amelia and I both whip around at the sound of my mom’s voice. She’s standing at the corner of the house, looking at us with amusement.

“Sorry about that,” Amelia mumbles, looking anywhere but at my mom.

My mom grins. “Oh, honey, don’t be sorry. You’re not the first one of my children I’ve caught making out on the side of my house, and you certainly won’t be the last. As a matter of fact, this isn’t even the first time I’ve caught Elliot back here with a girl.”

“Oh realllly,” Amelia drawls, grinning up at me, laughter in her eyes.

I roll my eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Mom, I was sixteen.”

“Be that as it may, kiss your girl later. Dinner. Now. Family Celebration.” She spins and walks back to the yard, secure in the belief that we’re going to follow her because Pam Wyles always gets what she wants.

Amelia and I look at each other for a beat before we collapse into hysterical laughter, holding onto each other as our shoulders shake and tears roll down our cheeks.

“Your mom is the best,” she says, wiping tears from under her eyes.

“She drives me fucking crazy, but she is, in fact, the best.”

Amelia’s expression turns serious for a second and she wraps her arm around my waist. “She called me one of her children.”

I kiss Amelia’s head, knowing what she means without her having to say it. Knowing she’s thinking of her own parents, and how long it’s been since she belonged to someone that way. “She means it. You’re hers now because you’re mine. You’ll always be mine.”

Amelia leans her head against my shoulder, and I wrap an arm around her. “You’ll always be mine too, you know. I’m keeping you, Elliot Wyles, and your big, loud, crazy family too.”

Pressing another kiss to her head, I breathe her in, smiling into her hair, loving this moment. Her. Us. Everything. “Mystery Girl, nothing in the world sounds better than that.”

She smiles up at me, and with arms around each other, we head back to the yard to spend the rest of the day celebrating with family. And everything about it is better than I ever could have dreamed.

THE END