“Almost?” she laughed as I nuzzled her neck, peppering her with a downward series of kisses.
“You know those photos are saved in my forever folder.”
I was talking about all the photos I had her take of her working, particularly the sneaky sexy ones when she was working alone. I would commit crimes if anything happened to those photos.
“Okay stop, we have to go,” Ellie said, gripping my arms. “The limo’s on its way. And I can’t get up on stage with a hickey!”
“I probably shouldn’t show up to the party with a boner, either.”
“Probably not.”
“All right,” I said, “I’m ready.” I followed her out to the front where we slipped on our shoes. We could have walked to the opening gala for the Heartbreaker Trades College: it was only a few blocks away from our new place. But I knew Ellie would be stressed out running around looking in boxes for everything she owned, which is why I’d happily accept the limo Winona had offered all the faculty and board members.
I’d dropped Henry off at Conrad’s new neighbor’s place earlier. They’d moved in to Mrs. Oxford’s place, and had a fourteen-year-old daughter who loved babysitting. We could have had Tommy babysit—he’d offered to look after his brother—but we knew he’d been meaning to see this art documentary at the movie theatre in Greenville. That’s where his girlfriend lived. He’d bussed out there earlier, and would be coming back on his own before midnight. He’d started bussing to school on his own at the end of the last school year, and Ellie had apologized to him for not being okay to try it from the beginning.
He got it though. He really did. He’d matured so much in the past few months.
When we pulled up to the college, I whistled. “This place is looking great.”
“The signboard just went up last night,” Ellie said. “I thought Winona was going to get an ulcer.”
Winona herself came out of the doors a moment later. “Look at you two!” she said, her eyes big and round as she took us in, holding hands like we couldn’t seem to not do when standing next to each other.
Winona, Cher, Sarah, and Kit still made the same face when they saw us, even though it had been nearly three months since we made it official with everyone. I didn’t mind. I ate it up, in fact, though I knew it made Ellie embarrassed.
“Okay,” Ellie said. “Are we all set?”
“Yes,” Winona said. “Cher and I will be speaking about the formation of the Heartbreaker Collective. Then Sarah will talk about the vision of the college. Kit will talk about the diversity of learning streams, and Ellie’s going to wrap us up with her talk about the daycare and working mothers.”
Ellie smiled, glancing over to me with a wink, and I just about popped all the buttons off myshirt.
“Everyone is to keep to a strict five-minute speaking time,” Cher said. “Then we’ll announce the first scholarships.”
“And after that,” Winona concluded, “we can finally relax and have a party!”
The women cheered. The doors behind them opened then and everyone’s respective partners came out. With the exception of Conrad, who was there as Kit’s platonic plus one, since she and that doofus Chip had gotten back together this summer. Thankfully, Kit had refused to go on the big fishing trip he always dragged her to at this time of year, so Conrad had stepped up.
“Sam!” Conrad said, looking relieved to see me—and alone, since Kit had gone over to admire Ellie’s dress.
“You all right?” I asked.
“I hate these things,” Conrad complained, pulling at his collar. “Also, no one else is here as a ‘platonic plus one’. Kit tricked me.”
I grinned. “Would you have come otherwise?”
“As a guest, sure. But we’re in this special husband’s section, and it’s awkward as fuck.”
“Sorry, man. Feel free to sit next to me. I’m not a husband.”
“Pshht. You will be before the year is out.”
It was true. I’d asked Ellie to marry me the day we signed the deed to our new house.
The house Ellie’s mom had sent me a photo of that night before the whole ordeal with Dad.
The exact house I’d told Ellie about with the white picket fence.
Fate was basically whacking me over the head with a two-by-four. So why bother waiting?
