“Make that two, my mom would want one, too,” he said with a grin as he turned to look at her.

She looked down, nervously messing with the tie at her waist.

“Alright,” she swallowed and looked up at him, “This is why I didn’t want you to come in my house. I thought you would think I am a crazy stalker fan.”

He chuckled, looking around the room.

“Baby, I’ve seen worse. This is awesome, I love it.”

She smiled weakly and started for the hall.

“Do you want a tour?”

He nodded as he followed her through the hall. The left wall was of the kids, and the right was a timeline of Harper and Elli.

“I didn’t know you and Harper had known each other since childhood.”

“Yeah, since we were five.”

“Wow,” was all he said as they reached the end of the hall that went into a large, beautiful, yellow living room. She had black couches with glass tables with big black vases full of yellow flowers on them. Her walls were lined with black and white photos of Adler, then random things like a butterfly, a tree, and a brick wall that had a heart drawn on it. When Shea turned to the south wall and saw a TV that was as big as his, he just grinned. It had to be for the away games. Under the TV was more pictures of the kids along with others of her friends, he guessed. There were none of her family. Well, except her dad.

He turned to see her waiting by an open door whose frame was painted black. It looked so good with the yellow.

“This is the kitchen and dining room,” she said as he peeked his head into the purple kitchen. He could see that the dining room was a soft purple, more of a lavender, with big white vases of lavender on a large black table.

“Your color scheme is bright.”

“Yeah,” she said as she walked past him to the other side of the living room. He followed her down a hall as she opened doors, showing him her office, done in pink, the bathroom, done in a very soft green, and the playroom for the kids, done in red. Then came her bedroom.

Elli’s bed sat about five feet off the ground. The headboard consisted of four huge squares: two baby pink squares and two hot pink ones. The bedding was a mixture of all kinds of pink swirls, and she had to have about 900 pillows. Frilly little lamps hung from the ceiling, and a glass night stand sat beside the bed. One stand had a big bouquet of sweet peas, while the other had a pink alarm clock, along with her pink iHome, which was playing Adele, if he was correct, and a photo frame. When he got closer, he saw it was a picture of him looking as if he were about to kill someone.

“Out of all the pictures you can put beside you bed, the one you chose is the one of me mean mugging someone?”

Elli laughed, picking the frame up before pressing it close to her heart.

“This was at one of the playoff games last season. I can’t remember who was in front of me, but you looked up at him with this look, and I got this shot right before you plastered him into the glass in front of me. When I printed it out and put it beside my bed, Harper asked why. I told her it was for you to scare all my bad dreams away.”

She let out an empty laugh.

“Stupid, huh? Wanna run?”

He smiled, taking the picture out of her hand, putting it back on the nightstand before wrapping his arms around her waist.

“I’m not going anywhere,” He pressed his forehead against hers, “I’m sorry, Elli, for freaking out on you.”

“You had every right,” she whispered.

He watched as a tear fell over her cheek. The sight of it made it hard for him to swallow.

“I’m so sorry Shea. I mean, all of it, I should have told you a long time ago, but I was so embarrassed of my failures.”

“But, baby, with me you shouldn’t be. Your past has made you who you are and I adore you, everything about you.”

“I feel the same about you.”

“Okay, so don’t hide things from me. Tell me everything.”

She bit on her lip, before looking deep into his eyes.

“Okay, but not tonight.”

She cupped his face in her hands, running her thumbs up and down his cheeks as she searched for God knew what, but he stayed where he was, holding her close as Adele crooned in the background about loving someone.

“Dance with me?” she whispered as she moved her hands to the back of his neck, and all he could do was nod. He was spellbound with the way she was looking at him.

It was as if she was telling him how much he meant to her with her eyes. He had never felt more cherished in his whole life than he did in that moment, standing with Elli. Her gaze fixed on his. God, she was beautiful.

Her hair was drying, so it was in a mess of beautiful curls. She smelled like a ripe mango, her scent filling his nose as she laid her head on his chest while they moved to the music. His hands rested on the small of her back, holding her close to him as they swayed back and forth. They stayed like that through three songs, before Elli broke away from him. She went to the door, shutting it, before shutting the light off. His eyes adjusted just as she came back into his arms.

Naked.

Chapter 15

Shea knew everything, and now Elli stood in his arms as naked as the day she was born. It was dark so she knew he couldn’t see anything, but he could feel and it only took a moment for his hands to start roaming. Shea’s hands were shaking as they moved down her side, over her hips, onto her bare butt. She looked up at him. The only light was from the stars and moon, so she could only see a little bit, but she saw the grin. She smiled back, as she slowly moved her hands up his chest to the top buttons of his shirt. With every button she opened, her heartbeat sped up.