Wonderful.

“I don’t like that look on your face, baby,” he said. She didn’t even realize he was watching her. She smiled, and he returned it.

“I like that better,” he said. He then pinned her against the truck, nuzzling her neck, causing her to giggle. Shea wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. She closed her eyes as she held on to him. Gosh, she didn’t want him to go.

“I don’t want you to leave,” she whispered. He smiled against her neck, placing a soft kiss against it.

“I wish I could take you with me. You can’t quit for a couple months?”

She laughed, kissing his neck before he pulled back to look down at her.

“I would never quit. I love my job, the same way you would never quit.”

“True, so we’ll have to settle with Skype and phone calls?”

“And texts,” Elli added with a grin. He grinned back, kissing her softly.

“It’s just a week.”

“But next month, it will be a month.”

“True, but we’ll be fine. I promise.”

Elli smiled at the grin on his face, and then kissed him long and hard. He kissed her twice more before backing away, kissing her palms before walking away. She watched as he walked to his truck, got in, and started it. Without ‘goodbye’ leaving either of their lips, he waved, and she waved back as he drove off. When she felt the single tear fall down her cheek, she became disgusted with herself and jumped in the truck. It wasn’t like Shea was crying or anything. He was good, he was used to this. He was used to the goodbyes. But she wasn’t, and she didn’t know how she was going to deal with it.

Chapter 12

Elli missed Shea.

She missed him a lot.

Shea called every chance he got, but she was only four days in, and she was lonely. Elli tried to stay busy with the weddings and the baby showers, but nothing seemed to take her mind off the fact that Shea was not in the same state as she. He couldn’t just walk in with that goofy smile on his face, bringing her food or just to give her a kiss. Nope, he was in another state, kicking ass.

The Assassins had won Tuesday’s night’s game. Elli had sat at the house, cheering them on, and she swore that Shea would look in the camera just for her, and when she told him that after the game, he laughed saying he had hoped she noticed. Things were so great between them, even with him gone. He was just as amazing as he was when he was home. Elli smiled at the thought of his grin as he laughed; it was always so big, so full of life. She missed seeing it.

God, I’m pathetic.

She was sitting at her desk, returning phone calls for appointments, and scheduling consultations when her phone rang. She looked at the display and saw that it was her daddy, Michael.

“Daddy!” she gushed, moving some windows around on her computer, “How are you?”

“Elli bug, I’m good darling, haven’t heard from you this week.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I’ve been terribly busy.”

“So I heard, the Adam’s wedding you just shot, that was one of my old college friends’ daughter. She was the bride.”

“Oh, really? Small world!”

“It is. He had nothing but good to say about you. He went out of his way to call me.”

“How nice, that makes my day brighter.”

Michael chuckled as Elli finished with a couple of orders that were pending on her website.

“So I was calling because your mother is on me like white on rice about this family dinner with this man you are dating.”

“Oh God, really? I was hoping she forgot,” Elli groaned.

Her dad laughed and said, “No honey, the grandbabies came home saying you were open mouth kissing with Shea Adler. Even if it wasn’t him, I’m pretty sure your mother would be on a mission. We haven’t met anyone since Justin.”

“There hasn’t been anyone,” Elli said, as she pulled up her email to glance at a few things, “No big deal, Shea comes home Friday, I’ll ask him.”

“So it is Shea Adler?”

“Yeah.”

“How did y’all meet?”

“When I did the team’s shoot for Uncle Bryan.”

“That’s nice, is it serious?”

“Yeah, it’s been almost three weeks. He’s amazing, Daddy, just amazing.”

“I’m happy for you, Elli bug. After Justin I didn’t think you would recover.”

“Me neither, Daddy, but Shea, he’s just…” Elli thought for a moment, a contagious grin going across her face, “He makes me feel.”

“Wonderful, so, I will expect to meet him sometime this month?”

“Yes, daddy,” Elli said with a groan. He laughed, telling her how much he loved her before hanging up. Elli smiled down at the phone afterwards, she loved her daddy. Harper walked in, falling face first into the couch that sat in her office. Elli looked over at her, noticing Harper’s hair was her normal brown this week, before raising an eyebrow.

“What the hell is wrong with you?’ Elli asked, hanging up the phone and clicking a few things on her computer.

“I miss sex!” Elli rolled her eyes, moving some paperwork around, and fixing the pictures of her nieces and nephews on her desk.

“What do you mean? You can have sex with anyone.”

Harper sat up quickly, looking over at Elli, her eyes looking crazed. Elli moved her chair back just a little, trying to put distance between them.