“Go for it,” I chuckled, watching as she grabbed her phone from the TV stand and aggressively typed out a message for Noah. “He might not get back to you right away, though. It’s Tuesday, which I’ve learned means family date night in his household.”
“That’s okay.” Ellie put the phone back down and then skipped back over to pick up the roller brush. “I just needed to scream at him about that for a second.”
“I am in full support of you screaming at my brothers.”
Ellie’s eyes flicked up in mock irritation as she walked toward me, and then she gave her roller a little flick so paint splattered off it and onto me.
“Excuse me,” I scoffed, wiping a bit of paint off my cheek and watching as Ellie fought to contain her laughter. “Rude.”
“What was it you said?” She cocked her head playfully to the side, and something about her tone made my dick twitch in my pants.
The corner of my mouth lifted as I dropped down from the footstool I’d been using. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Ellie lifted a brow. “I believe you implied that you didn’t have a problem getting a little…” She spun the roller brush again, and more paint splattered, this time on my shirt. And on the floor, which was luckily covered by a drop cloth. “Dirty.”
Yeah, okay, this little display and her husky tone of voice were not good for my cock.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” I said and then cleared my throat, trying to keep my want from leaking into my words. “But I’m also not above—” I jerked my wrist, letting a little bit of paint fly from the end of my brush. “—revenge.”
Ellie looked down at the yellow on her arm and then back up at me, narrowing her eyes. The air thickened, making me wonder if the air-conditioning had suddenly gone out.
“Duly noted,” she tsked and then turned on her heel, marching back to her part of the wall. We’d started on opposite ends of the room to avoid working on top of each other, as delightful as that sounded tome, and slowly, we’d been painting our way to a meeting point in the middle.
At the moment, though, I felt a little sad to see her float away, out of grasp.
We returned to painting, settling into a comfortable silence, music floating in the background. I got back on my stool and thought more about Ellie in San Francisco, going to concerts,meeting new people. It made me realize that I didn’t know enough, that I’d missed so much, that I wanted to know more.
“Did you like it?”
“What?”
I glanced over at her, watching the focus she had on the paint. “Living in California.”
“Oh.” She paused, but only for a second. Her brows pulled together. “I liked some aspects of it.”
“Yeah?” I’d likedzeroaspects of it. “Like what?”
“Well, being close to the ocean,” she replied, and I nodded. That was a fair answer that didn’t surprise me. I used to have to throw Ellie over my shoulder when we’d go to the lake because she refused to leave the water. “There’s so much you can do outside—when I force myself to leave my coding cave, anyway.”
“But?”
I could just hear it in her tone, unspoken.
Or maybe that was just me being optimistic and ridiculous.
I was glad that she’d found some joy out there. I wanted her to be happy, no matter where she was. But fuck, the distance had killed me. And the lingering thought that she might want to go back…well, that gutted me more than anything. So call me selfish, call me whatever the fuck you wanted, but I needed there to be a but.
Ellie sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t think working in Silicon Valley is really for me. I don’t think I…vibe.”
“You know, I was surprised,” I admitted. “When I saw you there.”
“Yeah, I—saw me there?”
My head had been tilted as I focused on the trim—the crease where the wall met the ceiling. But at Ellie’s questioning words, my neck straightened, and I stared ahead at the yellow wall.Shit.
“Did Nat share pictures with you?” she asked. “I don’t…”
She drifted off, but she didn’t need to finish her sentence.
