“I’d want something smaller,” I said to Ellie, thinking about a house and a life that only existed in my dreams.
“Like what?” Ellie asked.
I held Henry under the ribs and pushed my belly in and out to make him jiggle. He loved this trick. We did it in the park yesterday.
“Like… a cute little rancher,” I said.
Henry made a sound of annoyance. I’d stopped moving. I lifted him up and set him on the grass. Ellie passed him a pickle from her sandwich and he stuffed it in his mouth, then made a face that had both of us laughing. He threw it on the ground and began playing with a paper sandwich wrapper instead.
I sat up on my elbow. “There’s this house over on Cottonwood Street I drive by every day to get to your place. It’s brick, and has this wrap-around porch with these pretty purple flowers hanging off of it. And an actual picket fence. That’s what I want. It looks like a real family home, you know?”
Ellie was looking at me with a strange expression. “Wisteria,” she said.
“What?”
“The flowers—they’re called wisteria. I know the house you’re talking about. That was the house I worked on a few weeks ago. The week you came over.”
Her cheeks went slightly pink. Or maybe that was just a trick of the light.
“Seriously?”
She smiled. “On the corner, right? With that weird-looking green duplex next door?”
I nodded.
It was just a funny coincidence, but it felt meaningfulthat Ellie didn’t just know the place but had been inside it.
“A sweet older couple lives there,” Ellie said. “They raised their kids in that place. It’s got four bedrooms. A sunken living room. There’s a creek in the back their oldest liked to catch frogs in. That’s what they told me, anyway.”
The hair blew off her forehead. What I wouldn’t give to be the wind.
“Do you like that place, Ellie?” I was suddenly anxious to know. Because… Ohfuck.Okay, maybe the ‘letting my brain run free’ strategy was a terrible idea after all. Because right now I was thinking of selling my condo and throwing a down payment on the next house with a white picket fence I saw. One Ellie helped pick out.
Ellie pressed her lips together, then released them. She looked over at the house and ran a hand through her hair, messing it up in this beautiful, loose way. It was then, as she opened her mouth and closed it again, that I remembered what I’d needed to ask her.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t need to answer that.”
She looked relieved. I tried not to let that bother me.
“But I have another question for you,” I continued, “and it’s totally okay for you to say no.”
I really,reallyhoped she wouldn’t say no.
CHAPTER 21
Look at Me
ELLIE
“You sure you’re okay with this?” Sam asked. “It’s still totally fine to say no.”
“Sam.” I arched my brow at him. We were standing on the front porch at his parents’ house. Sam was carrying Henry. And the diaper bag. I was holding a pie. Store-bought, of course. I was not a baker, even though I’d discovered recently Sam was. Not only did he make us dinner every night he’d watched the boys last week, insisting I relax when I got home, but he’d made muffins and even homemade granola bars too. He said he wanted to make sure I had something to pack in my lunch each day so I didn’t do a repeat of that day I’d passed out. When Henry went back to Mrs. Oxford I’d gone to work in a serious funk.
“It’s a little bit late to cancel,” I said now.
“Right. We’re already here.” He bit his lip. “But we could still run. Or you could. You know, spare yourself!”
I shook my head, laughing.
