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I shrugged and wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her to me. “Might be a permanent thing, you know. Your mom was pretty adamant that she didn’t want to come back here.” I watched her carefully.
She nodded, chewing on her lip. “Yeah, I know. Guess that means we’ll have a bit of driving to see each other.” She reached up, tracing her finger across the collar of my T-shirt, making my skin prickle.
“I’d drive to the ends of the earth every day to see you,” I replied. True, there would be a fair bit of commuting each day to see her in the Poconos, but she was worth every second of it.
The corners of her mouth quirked up in a smile. “Corny.”
“You love it.” I bent my head and captured her lips in a soft kiss that quickly deepened and turned into something more. Everything always morphed into something more with her; it was like my body couldn’t get enough of hers and was making up for the lost three years.
I groaned against her mouth as her hands gripped the back of my hair. Lust sparked inside me, and my hands slid down to her ass as I walked her back a step and crushed her against the side of the car, pressing my body against hers. A soft groan from her throat drove me wild, and I forgot where I was, forgot everything as our bodies rubbed together in ways that made me long to rip her clothes off and have her writhing underneath me.
My hand slid up her shirt, tracing the soft skin of her stomach, heading higher, my arousal spiking with every inch gained.
A loud throat-clearing made us both jump and I whipped my head around to see Ellie’s grandmother standing there with one eyebrow raised and her arms folded. I smiled sheepishly and shifted on my feet, caught in the act. “Didn’t you two get enough of each other last night, for goodness’ sake?” she asked, pursing her lips playfully.
Ellie gasped and then laughed as I grinned and stepped away from her, being careful not to turn so her grandmother wouldn’t see just how excited Ellie made me with a simple kiss.
Her nana winked playfully, laughing as she rolled her eyes. “Are we almost ready to go? I told Ruth we’d be there at three.”
I nodded as Ellie straightened her shirt and tucked her hair behind her ears, her face full of embarrassment. “We’re ready,” she agreed. “Is Kels packed?”
“Yes!” Kelsey called, coming out of the house with a rucksack on her back. “Kels is packed and ready. Let’s go get Mom.”
While Kelsey stuffed her pack in the nonexistent space in the trunk and then struggled to close it, her nana climbed in the passenger side, setting her purse at her feet.
“Right, time for me to go,” Stacey said, stepping forward, arms outstretched. Ellie smiled and the two girls hugged fiercely. “Call me when you get there, and I’ll see you next weekend. Remember to snag me the biggest bedroom to sleep in and one on the other side of the house from you two raging nymphomaniacs so I can’t hear you guys making up for lost time all night.”
I laughed, kicking my toe into the grass, letting them say their good-byes. It wasn’t really a good-bye, though, just a see you soon. Those two would never lose touch—they were way too close.
“Talk later. And thanks for helping me pack,” Ellie said, hugging her again.
“Anytime. Say hi to your mom for me,” Stacey replied, planting a deliberately noisy kiss on Ellie’s cheek before bending and waving to Kelsey and Ellie’s grandmother inside the car. Stacey smiled at me awkwardly, probably because she still disliked me for hurting her friend. I didn’t mind; I was confident I’d win her over eventually, too. “Take care of them, Jamie.”
“Will do,” I promised, watching as she headed to her own car, shouting a final “See ya” before pulling away, waving enthusiastically out of her window.
Ellie sighed and then headed to the house, stepping inside the front door and checking that the lights were off before just stopping and standing there, her eyes taking in the empty living room.
I walked to her side, placing my hand on the small of her back. “All right?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, it’s just weird seeing the house with all the photos and stuff taken down,” she replied.
I looked around too, seeing that they’d packed all the family photos, all the personality that made a house a home, into the backs of the two cars in the driveway. This was merely a shell left behind. “It’s just a house, Ellie.”
She sighed and turned to me, a smile lingering on her lips. “Home is where the heart is, right?”
I flashed her a smile. “Right.” My home was her, because that was where my heart lay.
She took a deep breath and slipped her hand into my good one as we walked out of the house together. After she had locked the front door, we headed to the cars. I could tell it was hard for her, leaving the house she’d grown up in, the house filled with memories of her childhood and father. But that was the exact reason why her mother didn’t want to come back, and everyone respected that.
I walked Ellie to the car that her nana and Kelsey were already seated in and kissed her softly outside the door. “I’m proud of you, you know,” I whispered.
And I was. She took everything in stride, handled everything with grace, and came out the other side a stronger person. She smiled gratefully as I planted a kiss on her forehead and pulled away.
“I’ll see you at the hospital,” I called, walking back to my car.
As I walked, I noticed a hopeful spring in my step. This was a positive move for all of us; everyone—including me—could actually build a future together rather than just blowing through life on a breeze.
I watched Ellie start up the car and roll out of the driveway, heading to the hospital. After we picked up her mother, we’d be leaving the city behind us and heading to the Poconos. No one was sure if this was a permanent move or not—only time would tell—but even if it was I didn’t mind one bit. I would follow Ellie anywhere.
EPILOGUE
ELLIE
I CLOSED MY eyes and sighed happily, listening to the Christmas songs playing quietly on the radio. This was definitely my happy place.
“Ellison, I made you a coffee,” my mom called from the back room.
“Thanks, Mom,” I acknowledged, opening my eyes and grinning when I saw the snow falling outside the window. The weatherman had predicted snow today, but my mom had been adamant the sky didn’t look right for it. Seemed the weatherman was right, for a change.
I loved this time of year, I loved the snow, and I loved the cold. Winters in the Poconos were the best, and in a couple of weeks, we would spend our first proper Christmas here.
It had been almost nine months since we packed up the car and moved in with my nana, and we’d all mutually decided not to go back. Almost nine months of fresh mountain air and time to reflect and rebuild our family without my dad. It had been hard, but things were looking up for all of us: Kelsey loved her new school, my nana loved the company around the house, and my mom, well, she had found her calling late in life—fronting my store and doing the books.
My store, aptly called Jellie’s Boutique—a name that Jamie had come up with and I had fallen in love with immediately—sold one-of-a-kind items of handmade clothing from a local designer...me! We also sold beautiful costume jewelry that I had commissioned from another local designer and jams that my nana made. The store had been open for six months now and was doing well. We weren’t millionaires by any means, but we were holding our own and making a decent profit.
I worked long hours, often sketching or stitching late into the night when my creative brain wouldn’t sleep, but it didn’t feel like work. When you find something you love in life, doing it is never a chore. The pride of seeing someone wearing one of my designs was immense. Last week I had just finished an order of five bridesmaids’ dresses for a lady who had driven all the way from Philadelphia to have them commissioned after she’d found me online—on a website my mother had set up all by herself! Who knew she was such a marketing whiz? Knowing that something I created was going to be included in someone?
??s special day filled me with incredible pride and satisfaction. I was loving life at the moment and wasn’t sure it could ever get better than this.
The store had all been Jamie’s idea. He’d always loved my designs, and after we had moved here, my creative spark came back with a vengeance, but my newly crafted designs were just wasting away in a sketchbook. Jamie had been the one to convince me to make a few of them and sell them online. They had been a hit and sold like hotcakes. From there, he’d started talking about me opening my own store in town. It was just a pipe dream for me, a nice idea, but something I could never afford—until the day that Jamie handed over the keys to the newly purchased store to me. He’d sold his apartment, his cars, and one of his clubs to pay for it, giving up everything he had in favor of me achieving the dream I once had of owning my own clothing line. The store had taken a lot of work to get up and running, lots of late nights decorating, renovating, and outfitting, but we’d gotten there, and six months later it was thriving.
