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“No.” Ellie shakes her head adamantly. “I promise you there’s nothing else.”
“Thank fuck for that!” he exclaims. Sighing, he goes on. “For the record, I’m not mad about you working here at Boots. That’s your decision, Ellie.”
Hands on her hips, she asks, “What about me and Nils?”
He doesn’t outright answer, he just asks, “Does anyone know about you two?”
Now it’s my turn to jump in. “Finn does,” I say. “But only because he guessed and was obviously right.”
Arden nods knowingly. “Ahh, so that was why he was trying to keep me talking when you left the table.”
“Yeah,” I say, “what happened with that, anyway? How did you end up back here in the break room?”
“Finn got a phone call and had to go out to the lobby so he could hear. I figured I’d hit the men’s room before we all left the restaurant. That’s how I ended up coming through this door.”
He gestures behind him, and it all makes sense now.
“You saw me come in here?” I ask.
“Yeah.” He nods. “I thought the restrooms were somewhere back here.”
Things are loosening up. I can feel it. I think Arden accepts that we’re a couple.
Ellie must feel this, too, since she snarks, “Wow, I bet you were surprised when you stepped through the door and saw us.”
Arden snorts. “That’s putting it mildly.”
Softly and much more seriously, she asks, “Do you forgive me for keeping not one but two secrets? And can you please forgive Nils too? We can’t help it that we fell in love.”
“Ahh, man, Ellie.” Arden rakes his fingers through his raven-black hair. “I just wish you both would have come to me right away. I would have understood.”
She laughs. “Would you have, though?”
He thinks it over, then shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe not. You may have been right that I would have been pissed.” He sighs. “But it’s only because I love you so much, El. You’re my baby sister, and even when we’re in our eighties, I’ll always feel like I need to protect you.”
“I understand that,” she says. “But I have to live my life.”
Jerking his chin to me, but with a smartass smirk tugging at his lips, he says, “And you want to do that with this fucker, eh?”
“Heyyy,” I say, pretending to be offended.
I’m not. I’m happy that he’s joking around about us. I’ll gladly bear the brunt of his sarcastic humor if it means we can all get past this and he accepts that his sister and I are in love.
Stepping back to stand united with me, Ellie takes my hand and says proudly, “As a matter of fact, I do want him in my life.”
Arden shakes his head, but he’s chuckling, so that’s good. “Man, you two. Just next time you’re keeping a secret, share it with me right away, okay?”
“You’ll be the first to know,” I say.
Ellie nods. “Yes. In fact, I’m going to start sharing everything with you, big brother. Like, how ’bout this one… My damn period started earlier, and I didn’t have a tampon in my bag. Thank God for Sammie. She’s a lifesaver, because she had lots of extras.” She shrugs. “Turns out, it’s her time of the month too. Anyway, that’s when we realized we’re synchronized! It’s so cool when that hap—”
I’m laughing my ass off, but Arden is wincing.
Holding up his hand, he cuts her off. “Okay, okay, okay. You made your point. That’s not the kind of stuff I need to know. Feel free to keep those details to yourself.”
I’m still chuckling, filled with relief. I’m beyond thrilled that Arden and Ellie are back to getting along and bantering.
There are no more secrets, and Arden isn’t going to murder me after all.
