“I can feed myself,” she said with a glare. Shea held the spoon to her mouth, as a smirk came across his face.

“Don’t be angry, just let me take care of you.”

“You’re always taking care of me,” she countered before she opened her mouth, swallowing the hot, yummy liquid. It was her favorite soup, and it warmed her whole body as it went down her throat.

“Because that’s what you do for your girlfriend. You know if I got sick, or if I drank myself into a stupor, you would take care of me and I wouldn’t be embarrassed at all.”

“How’d you know I was embarrassed?”

He smiled, feeding her another spoonful of the most amazing soup on earth. God, she was starving.

“I know you, Elli. Now that I know the extent of your sickness, I’m pretty sure I know everything.”

“You do not.”

“I do, too.”

“You don’t know about Justin.” She didn’t know why she said it because Lord knew she didn’t want to talk about him, but when Shea started laughing, it pissed her off as she raised her eyebrows.

“Actually, I do.”

“Huh?”

He laughed, before handing her a glass of hot tea, “You told me all about ass hat the night you got trashed.”

A heavy feeling filled her stomach as she incredulously stared at him. She knew that she had diarrhea of the mouth when she was drunk, but come on! She told him about Justin!?

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. I know all about you now, Ms. Eleanor Ray Fisher.”

“You ass,” she sneered playfully as he chuckled, feeding her some more. They sat in silence as he finished feeding her. She didn’t know what to say because he did know her insides and outs now, and for some reason, she felt good.

Happy even.

“You wanna try to get up? Walk around a little?”

“No, maybe tomorrow.”

“Okay,” he said standing, taking her dishes in his hands, “I’m going to go clean up the mess I made, do you need anything?”

“Not right now. Thank you, Shea.”

He smiled, and then leaned down kissing her lips softly before leaving. God, she needed to thank his momma. She raised herself an amazing man. Elli reached for the remote and turned on the TV, waiting for Shea to come back. It was crazy how much she got used to having him around her and, honestly, she was glad that Harper had called him. Harper hated taking care of Elli because it scared her really bad. Even though Elli was sure Shea was scared, he still took amazing care of her. Way better than Justin ever did. Justin would just leave her to die basically. He would clean up after her, but he would never shower her, or feed her like Shea had.

So why didn’t she love him? It should be so easy, so why wasn’t it?

“Hey.”

Elli looked over, pushing the question to the back of her mind, to see Shea standing only halfway in the room.

“Okay, so I’ve been working on something…for you. I was going to do it for your birthday but I think you could use it now.”

“What is it? Come in here.”

He looked down at the ground, clearing his throat, and for the first time he was acting shy.

“Come on.”

He looked over at her, taking a deep breath, and then came into the room with his arms behind his back, but nothing could hide the beauty of the Gibson Hummingbird guitar that was peeking out from behind his legs. Her eyes lit up as he sat down, placing the beautiful guitar across his lap. He tapped his fingers against the base before looking up at her.

“You have to promise you won’t tell anyone I did this, because I swear I’m probably the biggest girl in the world for this, but when I heard this song after dating you, I had to learn it…for you.”

Elli took in a breath, covering her mouth as her eyes became bright with excitement. He was going to play for her!

“And then I started singing along with it and knew I had to do both because hopefully it would express how I feel. But you can’t tell anyone!”

“I won’t!” she gushed through her hands that still covered her mouth.

“Especially not Grace. I swear you tell her, I’ll…I’ll call your daddy and tell him you’ve been sleeping with me, and you’re naughty as hell!”

Elli giggled uncontrollably as he grinned bashfully. She was falling for this guy. She knew it now, it was happening. And damn it, she was gonna let it! Because he was wonderful and he was going to sing to her! He shook his head, and then moved his hands to the strings of the guitar. He stayed there for a moment, not moving his fingers. Shea then looked up at her, and she smiled, hoping to encourage him to go ahead. He didn’t smile back, but he looked down at the guitar and slowly started moving his fingers against the cords.

Elli was so impressed to see his large hands move so easily over each cord, creating the most beautiful melody, but then he started to sing, “Oh, her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like they're not shining.” She recognized the song immediately, and she couldn’t help the little gasp or the “Oh, Shea” that left her lips. Bless his heart. He wasn’t the best singer, but it didn’t matter, he was singing for her. A song that every girl wants sung to them, because being told that “you’re amazing, just the way you are” would making any girl melt into a puddle of goo.

She couldn’t believe this was happening. Things like this didn’t happen in real life, only in books and movies. But there he was, playing the most romantic song in the world to her. He wouldn’t look at her as he sang, but a small smile would cross his beautiful mouth when he hit a note he knew he couldn’t, or when the lyrics really didn’t apply to her. Because hello, her hair didn’t lay flat.