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We did our best to keep in our own spaces after that, and soon enough, Ellis was bringing in a plate of freshly grilled burgers that made the house smell amazing. My mouth watered and my stomach growled as I grabbed chips and drinks for everyone, while Ellis dressed the burgers and plated them.
Once we were all around the kitchen table, Lena turned to Ellis. “Well?”
He frowned before swallowing his bite. “Well what?”
“Did you decide about the shop?”
He coughed in surprise before taking a sip of water. “What?”
Lena’s smile clearly said that she was proud of herself. “The shop that you looked at. Did you make a decision?”
His brow furrowed deeply. “How did you know I looked at a shop?”
She shrugged flippantly. “I ran into Warren at lunchtime today.”
Ellis pressed the fingertips of his left hand to his temple. “So much for client confidentiality.”
“You didn’t want me to know?” She sounded hurt.
Ellis softened his tone. “I didn’t want you to get your hopes up.”
“Okay. Well, if you want to talk about it, you know I’m always here.”
He bit his lower lip for a second, clearly torn. “I’m going to do it. Rent the space. Start my own shop.”
The expression on Lena’s face cleared like the sun breaking through the clouds. “That’s awesome. I’m so excited for you. What’s your next step?”
“I haven’t even told Warren yet. I’ve been sitting on the decision just to be sure it felt right. But yeah, I’m going to do it. I’m going to call Warren in the morning and let him know, and then I guess it’s a matter of signing a lease and starting to fix the space up to look the way I want it to look before I open to clients.”
“How’s Emma going to react?”
He chuckled and shook his head a little. “She’s the one who told me about the space in the first place. She’ll be happy to hear I’m taking her advice.”
Lena patted his hand. “I’m happy to hear it, too.” She glanced at me before looking back to Ellis. “Now if you two could just find a way to get along better, everything would be perfect.”
“We get along just fine,” Ellis grumbled, shifting in his seat.
“Okay, grumpy,” she said, her tone thick with sarcasm. “We’ll see about that.” A little while later, as we were finishing up dinner, Lena yawned. “I’m beat. I’m headed to bed early tonight.”
“I’ll help clean up,” I said quickly. “You go rest.”
She squeezed my shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re here. Goodnight, you two. Try not to kill each other.” With that, she made her way down the hall to her bedroom, leaving Ellis and me alone again.
Chapter Sixteen
Ellis
The silence stretched between Kieran and me while Lena made her way to her bedroom, tension building as the two of us avoided meeting each other’s gazes, until eventually, Lena’s bedroom door shut with a click and we both looked up at the same time. I couldn’t deny it any longer. I wanted to kiss him so badly my lips tingled with desire, my hands itching to reach out and touch him.
“I should…” Instead of doing something stupid, I stood, gesturing at the leftover mess from dinner.
Kieran nodded and jumped to his feet. “I’ll help.”
“Okay,” I murmured.
We cleaned up without another word, the sounds of scraping silverware on plates and water running the only things punctuating the quiet of the room. When the dishwasher was loaded and the table was clean, Kieran stood in the kitchen, facing me, looking like he was waiting for me to say something.
I cleared my throat and his expression shifted a tiny bit, tensing up. A moment later, he stuffed his hands in his pockets. My heart pounded so hard I could feel my pulse beating in my throat and hear blood rushing in my ears.
