“Perfect.”
We both glanced up as Tanya dropped off our check and cleared our plates. I’d been so caught up in this conversation that I’d somehow managed to eat my entire meal without rememberinga bite.
Ella had that effect on me. Had the ability to wrap me so wholly in her presence that everything around me drifted away to nothingness.
Across the table, our gazes collided, and I knew what she was thinking. That she was buying, as some sort of misguided need for paying me back for the help earlier.
She had no idea I’d meant what I said: I’d do it for free.
Again. And again. And again.
So before she could move, before she could fully complete the thought and reach for the check, my hand snaked out and grabbed it.
Then I was out of my seat and running toward the register, Ella hot on my heels and swearing up a storm.
I grinned.
This road trip was going to be fun.
As I followed Ella into the Delatou home the next evening, I was practically shaking in my boots. I had to remind myself the stakes here weren’t all that high given their daughter was only taking a road trip with me. But…I had high hopes it would become more than that.
“Mom? Dad?” Ella shouted into the ominously silent house.
“Back here, El!” Lena hollered from somewhere down the long hallway that served as the foyer and entrance into the house.
She glanced back at me, and I didn’t miss the tightness around her eyes. For all her bravado yesterday about not caring what theythought, it was obvious her parents’ opinions mattered to her. The last thing I wanted to do was be responsible for some sort of rift within the family, but if they couldn’t see how badly she needed this escape, then I was making it my job to help her in any way I could.
A few steps later, we passed through the archway into the main living spaces. To the left was the kitchen and formal dining room. To the right was the formal living room they never used, which I knew from attending several special occasions. Seated on the floral patterned sofa that belonged on the pages of a homestyle magazine were Leon and Lena.
Ella clocked them at the same moment I did because, with a tentative step in their direction, she asked, “Mom? Dad?” for the second time since arriving.
“Hi, honey,” Lena said softly.
“Ella,” Leon greeted his second youngest daughter. “Why is he with you?”
“Backup,” Ella said as she sauntered deeper into the room, throwing herself unceremoniously onto one of the uncomfortable looking armchairs, accent pillows flying to the floor. Lena made a noise of protest, but Ella ignored her.
“And what exactly do you need backup for?” Lena questioned.
Ella, who had been tapping away at her phone, glanced up at me and gestured me into the chair at her side before saying, “You tell me. This is quite the little production. Very…Godfather.”
“We’re worried about you,” Leon said, reaching for his wife’s hand and giving it a squeeze.
In that moment, I understood with stark clarity why Ellawanted me here. She must have had a sense they were going to pull some shit like this, and for whatever reason, her sisters hadn’t been brought up to speed.
I refused to examine too closely how deeply satisfied that made me—to know I was the one she was relying on when her parents were staging some sort of fucked up intervention.
“And why is that?”
“You’re—” Lena cut herself off, clearly grasping at straws. She cleared her throat and tried again. “You’re looking a little thin.”
Ella, who had made herself comfortable in the hideously uncomfortable chair by slinging her legs over the arm, tipped her head back and laughed. A full body, throaty sound that had my skin tightening. I had to turn away, mentally urging my cock to stay where it was.
The last thing this evening needed was me popping a spontaneous boner because of this woman’slaugh.
Fuck, I was down bad. But it was mesmerizing to watch her come to life before my very eyes. That flush of her skin, her throat working, her eyes squeezed shut with mirth. It was like watching the petals of a flower slowly unfurl beneath the light of the sun.
I was making it my personal mission to hear that sound at least once a day from now on, and to be the reason for it.
