Page 264 of Safe With You
“Good night.”
“Good night.”
I made it down one step before she called my name.
“Ellis.”
I turned.
She was still standing beneath the porch light.
“Thank you for showing up.”
I looked at her.
“You don’t have to thank me for that.”
Her expression softened.
“I’m learning.”
I smiled. “Good.”
This time, when I headed toward the truck, she didn’t call me back. But when I pulled away and glanced in the rearview mirror, she was still standing on the porch, smiling.
Ellis looked at the container in my hands before he looked at me.
“What’s that?”
“Dessert.”
“I told you I was cooking.”
“And I told you I was bringing something.”
“You said you’d bring yourself.”
“And I did.”
His eyes lifted to mine.
“And yet.”
“And yet I also brought dessert.”
He stepped aside to let me in, but the smile on his face told me he was going to have something else to say about it.
I walked past him before he got the chance.
His house smelled like something had been cooking long enough to make me hungry despite the granola bar I’d eaten before leaving the bookstore. There was music playing somewhere deeper inside, low enough that I could hear Mila talking over it.
Or singing.
It took me a second to realize she was doing both.
“What is she doing?”
Ellis closed the door behind me.
