“Hi, Sawyer,” she whispered back.
“How’s the view, Ellie Bellie?” Dad asked.
“Perfect,” she said, eyes flicking up to the cosmos. “Might even be better than out in the fields.”
“I don’t know about that.” My dad’s head was tipped skyward, judging the view of the stars. “I’m not sure anything beats the back of that pickup.”
“This is at least a close second,” I said, tipping my head back to look up at the clear autumn night. It was perfect for stargazing, actually. Minus the chill in the air and the stiff wooden boards beneath my back. But the viewing was crystal clear, and the stars twinkled down at us.
They remained unchanged from when we were young, an ever-present reminder that the universe was vast, and we were just a blip, a speck in a timeline of constants.
Ellie was my constant. I would love her for light-years, for the amount of time that it took for the most distant stars to reach Earth. My love would be loud and bright and warm. And even after I was gone, even after she was gone, people would still see it.
For a million years more.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
ellie
WE STAYED ON THE dock until I couldn’t feel my nose and Chloe’s soft snores echoed in the night air. Cameron carried her up to the house first, and then the rest of us slowly followed. We found Anne curled up with a blanket on the deck, in a perfect position to be able to look down on us all. But like Chloe, she was out cold.
Sully gently roused his mother before dropping a kiss on her head, along with a good-night, and then we waved to everyone else. We planned to swing by for brunch tomorrow before people left to catch their flights, so the long Minnesota goodbye could wait until then.
A peaceful silence settled in the space between us on the way back to Rosewood. I was exhausted, but in the best way. My cheeks hurt from smiling, my throat sore from cheering, and my eyes ached from squinting at the stars.
“Did you have a good time?” I asked Sully when we were only a few blocks away from home.
“I don’t know, El.” He shot me his classic charismatic smile that I loved seeing again. “I got to see my brother win a football game with my entire family and the love of my life. What do you think?”
Every cell in my body seemed to come to life at his words, like I could feel him and his love moving through me.
“I think it was a great day.” I returned his smile to make sure he knew I meant it.
“Missed you, though,” he added, offhanded, and I frowned.
“Missed me? I was with you all day.”
“When we were at Mom’s, you were sittingallthe way across the deck. So far, El. I could see your pretty lips moving, but I couldn’t hear a single word. Fill me in?”
His eyes darted over to me, and then he winked, and I could have melted. “Just catching up, mostly. Gemma confirmed that Noahdoesknow Wednesday Elevett, and she’s even met her. I had to withhold my envy. Then we were guessing how long it would take Chloe to convince Cameron that her bedtime should be extended when he was trying to get her to go to sleep.”
Seeing Natalie get to relax because she had someone so capable that she trusted at her side was beyond amazing. I couldn’t be more happy for my best friend, especially becausesheseemed so happy.
“So you didn’t miss much,” I finished with, and Sully made a humming noise in the back of his throat that I couldn’t quite decipher. “What were you talking about with your brothers?”
He blew out a breath, his mood twisting. “Nothing as titillating as that, I’m afraid.”
Something about the vagueness and tone of his voice made me pause.
But then, a second later, he sighed again.
“I don’t want you to be upset.”
“Why would I be upset?”
Sully chewed on the inside of his cheek for a long moment. “I asked Noah about his experience with Gemma’s pregnancy, and I asked Blake about vasectomies.”
“Oh.”
