Flirting with the Frenemy (Bro Code #1)(68)

She barks out a high-pitched laugh. “Kidding. I mean, not about thinking about you while I masturbate. I mean about the squirrel. Nothing bad happened.”

“Fuck, Ellie,” I manage, because now I’m hard as a pipe and so fucking glad to hear her voice and terrified what she might say next.

“And I’ve kissed your picture every night this week before I went to bed, and all that happened was I ran out of milk.”

Her voice is wobbling, which is understandable, because my knees are wobbling too. “And?” I ask.

“I miss you,” she whispers.

“I miss you too.”

“Did you know the odds of getting in an accident and having your house burn down in the same lifetime are less than your odds of getting struck by lightning?”

I have no idea the real statistics. “Of course. I remember all the Trivial Pursuit answers I read.”

She laughs, and it sounds watery, and I wish to fuck I could hold her right now. Or just look at her. “Shut up,” she says, but there’s none of the old venom or irritation.

This is all playful Ellie.

Hesitantly playful, but playful.

“When I’m right, it’s my duty to tell you so.” My cheeks crack with the effort of smiling, and my heart’s buzzing like it’s hooked up to a car battery. But this is what we do.

We give each other shit.

“Fine, Mister Smartypants. What are the odds I’m in your driveway?” she asks.

I freeze.

But only a split second before I’m striding to the front of the house.

The back bumper of a white Prius comes into view.

My pulse amps higher.

She’s here.

Ellie’s here.

I drop my hands to my side, just staring while she pulls herself out of the driver’s seat. She cut her hair shorter, so it’s framing her ears with crazy, beautiful curls. Her blue eyes match the deep summer sky, but the hesitancy in them almost makes my knees buckle.

“You drove,” I say dumbly.

Her lips hitch toward the sky. “The whole way. After I told the universe I was coming to talk you out of your pants. And no vultures attacked my car. Bears didn’t dash in front of me. Random ice storms didn’t pop up out of nowhere. My hotel didn’t burn down. And so I don’t have to interrupt the space-time continuum and bring about another ice age.”

I’m supposed to smile, but I still can’t believe she’s standing here. “What—why—”

She limps as she starts around the car, but holds a hand up when I move toward her. “Do you know what irritates the fuck out of me about you?”

My eyes shift toward the side of the house, but I can hear Tucker still laughing in back, so he missed that little F-bomb. “How perfect I am?” I guess, even though I’m so fucking far from it.

“Exactly. You even knew I was going to say that.”

Her gait is smoothing out as she rounds the car.

My fingers itch, and my arms are aching to hold her, but I wait, because I know she’ll read me the riot act if I try to make this any easier on her.

“I’m not perfect, Ellie.”

“Do you remember what you said? That if anyone would flip off the universe and do what I wanted anyway, it was me?”

She stops inches from me, the waver still in her voice.

I nod.

“You forgot a part.”

“What part?”

“The part where I won’t have to do it alone.”

“I thought that’s what you were afraid of.”

“I don’t want to be afraid to live.”

“That’s my girl.”

“I love you, Wyatt.” She finally closes the distance between us and lines her body up with mine, her hands sliding up my chest. “Do you still want me?” she whispers.

“Always.”

“Even if always is only like thirty more seconds?”

I laugh, because she’s teasing. And she’s here. “Ellie Ryder, I will love you long after my heart stops beating. And that, you can count on.”

She pushes up on her toes while I angle my head down to meet her, and there’s no head-crashing, no black eyes, no sneezes, just her lips teasing mine, here, real, here, in the hot fucking Georgia sauna, her hands exploring while I crush her to me because I am never letting her go.

Ever.

“Dad! Are you—Miss Captain Ellie!”

The joy in Tucker’s voice puts a lump in my throat, and I’m blinking hard as Ellie pulls back and leans down to hug my son. “Hey, kiddo. You teaching your dad to play ball?”

“Yeah, he’s kinda bad. He keeps missing the ball. Are you better?”

“Probably not.”

“That’s okay. We have ice cream when you’re bad.”

I choke on a laugh. “We what?”

He grins hopefully at me. “Right, Dad? Ice cream. Miss Captain Ellie, can you stay for ice cream? My dad’s grilling burgers later too. You can have his. He’ll go to the store for more.”

I gape at him, because he’s moving in and pulling smoother moves than I have.

But Ellie hugs him again. “You are adorable.”

“I don’t think he needs encouragement,” I tell her.

She rises and smiles at me, but as she does, something white lands in her hair.