Page 54 of The Hook Up
He peered at the label and grimaced. “Earthflower,” he muttered. “What the hell does that even mean?”
Ellie smiled, then reached out and rested a hand on his. “I’m sorry, Ty. For everything you went through as a kid. For the things you’re probably not even telling me. Not that you have to—I know we’re only sleeping together, but it means a lot that you shared that with me just now.”
Something knocked against the tender edges of his gut, and it wasn’t the kombucha. It was the warm sympathy in Ellie’s eyes and the softness in her voice. It was the slow, subtle shifting of the walls he’d built to protect his stupid, battered heart.
“Thank you,” he murmured, meeting her eyes again. Their startling blueness made his breath snag in his lungs. Ty cleared his throat. “How about you?”
“What about me?” Ellie shifted in her chair, bumping his knee with hers. Ty wanted to reach out and stroke her bare leg, but he focused on keeping his hands to himself. He wasn’t experienced with conversations like this, but something told him groping her wasn’t the right approach.
“What’s your reason for just wanting a casual fling instead of happily-ever-after?”
Ellie laughed, but something flickered in her eyes. Sadness, maybe. He wanted to understand why someone like Ellie Sanders, who could have any man she wanted, would be in a sex-only relationship.
“Well,” she said, giving a small shrug as she looked down into her glass. “I already tried the whole happily-ever-after mess. It didn’t exactly go like the fairy tales.”
“So, you’re giving up?”
“I’m not a quitter,” she said, her chin tilting up. “I have a successful career, a healthy son, hobbies I love?—”
“I didn’t say you were a quitter.” Ty smiled so she knew he hadn’t meant anything bad. “I just wondered why you weren’t interested in trying again with relationships or love or—whatever.”
“Are you?” She gave him a pointed look, holding his gaze a few beats longer than he’d expected. He understood she wasn’t asking if he was interested in a relationship withher.She was talking about the bigger picture.
“No,” he said. “I’ve had enough disappointment to last a lifetime, thanks.”
She smiled. “So, it sounds like we’re in the same place.”
“Right.” Ty nodded, part of him wishing they didn’t have heartbreak in common. That things could be different for them.
Ellie looked away first, picking up both glasses of kombucha to empty them into the Big Gulp cup. She popped open a third bottle and dumped the contents into the wineglasses, then nudged one in front of him.
She picked hers up and took a sip, then made a face. “Ugh. Apricots and mustard with a hint of beef jerky.”
Ty snorted and turned the bottle around to study the label. “Spring Essence.”
“Yuck.” Still, she held up her glass and gave him a hopeful look. “Well, Ty. Things haven’t gone the way either of us expected in life. I think that’s pretty clear.”
“Right,” he said, and tried to swallow back the lump in his throat.
“But cheers to having fun with each other anyway.”
“Cheers.”
He picked up his glass and clinked it against hers with an unidentifiable ache in his chest. He wasn’t sure what to call it, but he felt sure about one thing.
He was falling for Ellie Sanders.
* * *
A week later,Ellie stood in the kitchen with Miriam, putting the finishing touches on a lasagna for dinner. Jason had taken Henry with him to the hardware store to pick up some more plumbing supplies, leaving the two women alone to drink grape juice out of Ellie’s best wineglasses.
“If I swirl the glass and don’t sniff too deeply, I can pretend it’s Bordeaux,” Miriam said.
“Just a few more weeks.” Ellie gave a supportive nod and laid the last noodle atop the thick mound of spinach and ricotta and Italian sausage. “It’ll all be worth it, I promise.”
“I can’t see my toes.” Miriam peered toward her feet with a forlorn expression. “Are they still down there?”
“Yep,” Ellie assured her as she spread a handful of shredded cheese over the top of the casserole dish. “Your shoes even match.”
