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Joel Miller had to admit to himself that a lot had changed in the months since he, his daughter Sarah, and his brother Tommy had taken in the street-foster kid formerly known as Switch (now known only by her name: Ellie). One of the significant changes he didn’t think he’d be dealing with at the same time was the possibility of dating Tess Servopoulos after not seeing each other for five years. Not to mention finding out that she had a son to boot.
After the disaster of their first date, not the date itself, but the disaster that happened at home because he wasn’t there had led to a therapist being in their home a couple days a week for a little over 90 minutes at a time, where she spent most of that time with Ellie and another fifteen to thirty minutes with Joel or any of the Millers who were there to make sure they were doing what they needed to do for Ellie to stay and it had been going well.
Sarah had met with Natasha Tembo, the therapist, a couple of times to check in with how she was doing, having a foster sister. They discussed some of the things that Ellie had told them about the abuse she’d survived, and ‘Just call me Nat’ had worked with Sarah on how to handle it when Ellie told her upsetting things like that. Joel made sure to talk to Sarah every couple of days about things, checking in with his eldest daughter to ensure she was getting what she needed from him. However, most of the time, she was just as focused on Ellie as Joel was.
Tommy spoke with Nat about the fact that Ellie barely trusted him and that he wanted to be her ‘uncle.’ He also discussed how he could support her without pushing her boundaries, including physical ones. Mainly because his normal behavior with Sarah had already caused one triggered episode. Joel was glad that Nat was willing to talk to them all about these issues that none of them had ever really had to deal with, not since their abusive father passed away.
Joel and Tommy never wanted to scare Sarah because they were large men, and until Ellie, it had never happened. They had always worked at tag-teaming when one or the other got angry with Sarah when she was younger, as they were still deconstructing from the violence that had been trained into them by their father.
They were all dialed in and working on their relationships.
Then Tess asked why they hadn’t gone on another official date, outside of phone calls and lunches, where they could meet up at the Miller office or Tess’s office during coinciding meal breaks, and he knew he had to tell her honestly about the circumstances of their limited dating experience.
Joel stepped out on the front porch away from Sarah and Ellie’s interested, nosy faces, figuring they were doing well enough with their post-dinner movie in the front room for him to make this call. “Hey,” he said when she answered.
“A phone call, in the evening, when you have custody of your gremlins?” Tess teased gently.
Joel winced, “I know, sorry about that. I have been working on being available for Ellie, and that meant that I have completely screwed up things with you.”
“I think ‘completely screwed up’ might be taking it a bit far, Joel, but it would be nice to know where we stand.”
Joel hummed in acknowledgement and considered what the hell to do right now. What to say or to promise when his first and second priorities were Sarah and Ellie? He literally couldn’t make Tess any promises, and that hurt more than he expected it to.
They weren’t really in a place where either of them was open to introducing kids to each other. He’s been purposefully keeping Tess away from Ellie if she came by the office, which was pretty easy since Ellie still spends a lot of her time sleeping on his office couch. Her healing was going well, and she was weaning off the heavier meds, so keeping his dating life and life with the girls separate was going to get more difficult because Ellie wasn’t in school yet, and she wasn’t up for being left with Tommy.
“Joel, did I lose you?” Tess asked, and he sucked in a breath and pushed it out again.
“I’m here, sorry ‘bout that, I want to spend time with you, Tess, but you’ve caught me at a bizarre point in my life.”
“Taking in a street kid will do that to you,” Tess said gently, and he winced. Joel wanted to tell her to stop saying that. Ellie wouldn’t care; she calls herself a wide range of unpleasant terms and words, something that all the Millers were trying to convince her not to do, and having someone outside the family say things like that didn’t feel good. Especially someone that he hoped would be around his daughters in the future. Tess interrupted his thoughts, “Speak your mind, Tex.”
Tess was too brilliant for him, Joel thought with a huff, “Sorry, just, can you not describe Ellie like that. It’s been tough to convince her that she belongs with us, and if someone talks about her like that around her, I don’t know how far back that will set her.”
Tess hissed in obvious regret, “You’re so right, Joel, I’m sorry.”
“I just don’t want her to think she doesn’t belong with us, or at least any more than she already believes it.”
“You got it, man sometimes when it's not my kid, I can be a little closed off.”
Joel hummed in understanding. He can’t even argue since he’d been like that with Ellie when they first crossed paths with her, “I know I’ve been pretty vague about why we couldn’t go out again. Ellie freaked out the last time and thought Tommy was hurting Sarah. Tommy was not hurting his niece; just for clarity, Ellie was having a triggered event, and she is still having a hard time being alone with Tommy since then. I don’t like leaving the girls on their own, even if they are old enough to be trusted for an evening alone. And I am not feeling good about inviting you to hang out with them yet, that’s too much too fast.”
Tess hummed, “Understandable. Please do not take offense, but I’m not ready for you to meet Charlie either. I only told you about him because I met Ellie that day, which I mentioned at dinner.”
Joel hummed, not taking offense. He didn’t date often, had a few one-night stands with single mothers back in Texas, and he never introduced Sarah, and the ladies never introduced him to their children. Joel always made sure that the women knew that they were having sex, but it wasn’t going to be anything more than that; they weren’t going to date, and Sarah was off limits. Hearing another parent utilize the same mentality was more of a relief than anything to worry about.
“So we need to figure out a better way of actually spending time together in the meantime.”
“You sure those little girls of yours won't let you off the hook for one dinner? Maybe next week sometime, let you guys get through the weekend.”
Joel wasn’t sure, but he wanted to see Tess again in a more romantic setting. “I can ask.”
“Okay, talk to you later, Tex.”
She hung up before he had a chance to say anything else, and he walked back inside the house, only to catch the eyes of both the girls and Tommy. “What?” he asked, chuckling a little.
“You gotta go out with her again, otherwise she’s gonna find some other dude to date,” Ellie blurted, and he stared at her with a questioning smirk.
“Oh, you think so?” Joel responded before walking over and sitting down on the couch, with Ellie sitting next to him and Sarah on the other side of her foster sister. Ellie moved a little so she could shove into his side, and Joel moved his arm over her shoulder and pressed his hand to Sarah’s shoulder because she was pressed close to Ellie’s other side. Tommy got up from his chair and squeezed his ass down between Sarah and the end of the couch, making them all laugh, and Joel watched Ellie as she was forced closer to Joel’s side and was near Tommy. Still, she seemed to be enjoying the close quarters, which made him think that maybe they would be okay if he tried to go out with Tess again.
But not tonight.
Tonight, they were going to watch a movie together before he sent his girls off to bed, before they went to the street fair tomorrow, just as they did every weekend for at least another month.
Tommy left after the movie was over, grabbing Sarah to kiss her forehead before holding his hand out to Ellie, who rolled her eyes and placed her hand into his for a quick grip before he waved to Joel and headed next door to get some sleep, leaving Joel with his two girls.
“Can we get food from Frank’s for breakfast?” Sarah asked as she snuggled into Ellie’s shoulder, who had gotten used to Sarah’s snuggles in the past couple of weeks but was still sometimes in need of space. She seemed to be handling it at the moment, so Joel left them to their own devices. One of the things that Nat, Ellie’s therapist, was working with her about was being able to say when she needed physical space from any of them, especially since the Millers were all very prone to closeness. They were always in each other’s pockets, roughhousing or with a gentle hand on each other’s shoulders.
“I’m pretty sure we can make that happen,” Joel said, running his hand down the back of Sarah’s head.
“Are you gonna grow a pair and ask Tess out on a real date again?” Ellie asked abruptly, and Joel rolled his eyes as he tugged gently on Ellie’s ponytail for her sass.
“I would like to, but after the last time I went out and left you three alone, things didn’t go well for anyone. I don’t want to rush that. I think if this thing with Tess is going to work out, then she might have to wait a little longer.”
Ellie sat up and looked back at him as Sarah grunted in annoyance and flopped her head against the back of the couch, and watched Ellie, who turned a little on the couch to watch him more easily. “A woman that fine shouldn’t be kept waiting. I’m doing a lot better now. I know that Tommy isn’t going to hurt Sarah. I know that I am safer here than I have been in a long time and most places. I can handle a little bit of time as long as Sarah is here too.”
Sarah snorted, “Where would I go?”
Ellie shrugged, looking down to mess with the sleeves of the sweater she was currently wearing, one of Joel’s, if he wasn’t mistaken, but Ellie usually felt better in larger clothes, so he wasn’t going to stop her or try to retrieve his stolen hoodie. “You have friends, you might go out in the evenings.”
It was another concern they were having. Sarah still spent some of her time with friends from school and her soccer team, to which Ellie was always invited, but the younger girl always felt out of place, so she struggled to befriend anyone outside of Sarah. And she didn’t even consider Sarah a friend, a sister for sure, but Ellie had a lot of baggage when it comes to foster siblings, the ‘real child’ versus the foster child, along with the abuse she went through in more than a few placements.
They were working through all of those things a little at a time, but she hadn’t been seeing Natasha for long, and she struggled to trust her therapist to begin with.
“How ‘bout we all talk about our plans during the week so we can make sure someone is here with Ellie and Tommy? How’s that sound?” Joel asked them, and they both nodded in agreement.
Sarah yawned theatrically and got up, “I’m gonna go get ready for bed, see you for bedtime stories, okay, Els?”
‘Bedtime stories’ was code for them reading together in Ellie’s room for another half an hour before they tried to go to sleep, something that happened most nights. He was surprised by the nickname, which was new to him. Joel leaned up when Sarah leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He did the same to her, “Night, baby girl. I’ll come to shut down your stories at some point.”
Sarah snickered as she went to the bathroom and then her room, closing the door quietly. Ellie moved to snuggle into his side again, and Joel pressed a quick kiss to the crown of her head, something he’d only been allowed to do casually for a little while now, and he couldn’t help how the warmth spread in his chest that she was allowing it. He wrapped his arm back around her and listened as she breathed in the closeness.
“You gonna keep Sarah waiting for stories?” he whispered against her hair.
She nodded against his face, tucking her face close to his chest, and he couldn’t help but feel like, in moments like this, Ellie was trying to make up for lost time, of all the times she needed someone to hold her without hurting her or wanting something from her. He hoped to have more moments like this, where Ellie felt like she was regressing into a little girl who just needed her parent to hug her. And Natasha didn’t seem to feel there was anything wrong with it, as long as the regression wasn’t used to treat Ellie as if she were without autonomy.
“I do think that you should go out with Tess again, I’m not just forcing myself so you can have normalcy back in your life or anything. I know Nat’s going to ask me about that, but I want you to have a nice dinner with a gorgeous, kick ass woman who likes you as much as you like her.”
“I appreciate that, kiddo. We’ll try for next week sometime. Tess was willing to wait that long. She understands that you and Sarah are my priority.”
Ellie nodded again, “It would be nice to see her again, talk to her.”
Joel snorted, “I see that going well for me, you and Sarah ganging up on me with her. I think we are going to hold off on that for a little longer.”
“If you think so,” Ellie said seriously, but Joel moved to frown down at her face, and she broke into a smile, snickering at him as she resettled against him. Joel let her stay there for a bit longer until Sarah indeed lost patience and came back out to separate them.
“Stop hogging Ellie, it’s time for stories,” she said as she helped Ellie to her feet, giving her the crutch she used to get around still. She usually only used both when she was out of the house. Ellie turned to wave at Joel before she was forced to bed by her overbearing older sister.
Joel watched all this with a smile, thinking it was a miracle that Sarah caught sight of Ellie that day and forced him to do something about her getting ganged up on by a bunch of other street kids. He’s glad that they had her, trying to give her a better life than she’d ever had before.
He chuckled when he heard Ellie’s groan from out here as Sarah determined what books they were reading tonight, knowing it was mostly for show. Ellie liked doing what Sarah wanted her to do, and he watched them both to make sure that Sarah didn’t abuse the compliance. He knew better than anyone that his sweet baby girl was a bossy little thing, and Ellie might be sassy when she wanted to be; a lot of the time, she erred on the side of ‘going with the flow’ when it came to Sarah, something they were all better off doing most of the time.
Joel stayed up long enough to load the dishwasher and set it going, clean the table, and the counter. Hence, everything was ready for a fast-moving morning. He headed off to his room to get ready for bed before he kicked Sarah back into her room, pressed kisses to each girl’s head, and went to bed, leaving the door cracked so he could hear if either of them needed anything in the middle of the night.
Ellie had nightmares, and open doors made it easier to get to her faster when she needed someone to comfort her. Often, Sarah would beat him to Ellie, and once he checked to ensure his daughter was okay with staying with her, he would usually leave Sarah to her own devices. Other times, he would make Sarah go back to bed and sit next to Ellie to help her fall back asleep. Sometimes, staying home for half days lately has made taking naps in the early morning a lot easier, as they weren’t getting enough sleep at night.
One of the reasons he only let Sarah soothe Ellie down on the weekends or for short periods was that his oldest still had to make it through full school days, and he didn’t want her falling asleep in class. They would all have another transition period when Ellie returned to school, but right now, she was taking tests on different subjects to determine where she needed to start catching up again.
Joel let himself drift off, thinking about getting Ellie to her next checkpoint, something that has taken over all of their lives for the past couple of months. Something he knew they were all happy to do.
Ellie watched as Joel and Tommy finished putting together the booth for another weekend at the street fair from her seat on the back of Joel’s truck bed. She would be hopping down as soon as they had her chairs set up, but she’d learned the enjoyment of watching the Miller brothers working together because they are so snarky with each other, and they complain about each other in a way that is equally real and loving at the same time. They often bug each other, but they work well together.
Ellie had spent most of her life snapping back at people because they weren’t trustworthy or they were looking for some way to hurt her. She hadn’t experienced the kind of snark that all the Millers took part in with each other; they even did it with her sometimes, but she could tell that they were walking on eggshells still, after she stupidly hit Tommy with one of her crutches because she believed that he was going to hurt Sarah.
“Come on, kiddo, there were promises made about breakfast from Frank’s,” Joel said, so she took the crutches from him while he slipped an arm around her back and helped her off the tailgate so she didn’t wrench the one good ankle she had left and headed off towards Frank and Bill’s booth with Joel. At the same time, Sarah and Tommy stayed at the booth.
“You think Tess’ll stop by the booth today?” Ellie asked Joel, who looked down at her with a frown.
“She’s been by the booth one time since we saw her the first time. I don’t think she’s going to make the trip to see me.”
“It could happen,” Ellie said, and Joel nodded because it could happen. The street fair featured numerous booths, which often changed from week to week, and there was always something new to see.
Additionally, there was good food, similar to what they served at Frank’s Cafe.
Ellie and Joel stopped at the edge of their booth, while Frank and his husband, Bill, had a loud argument about something. Ellie had learned in the weeks of knowing them never to try to guess what was setting Bill off. He was a survivalist who’d only opened the cafe because of his partner, Frank. Although Bill was the cook, he hated people, society, the government, school, and everything else to varying degrees. Frank usually just let him rant about whatever was bothering him until they opened, then sent him to make the food.
Frank finally caught sight of them and smiled, “Hey, Joel! Hey Ellie!! You need some breakfast to get through the morning slog?”
“Not really morning anymore,” Bill grumbled.
Ellie looked at Joel’s watch; technically, it was still morning, but she didn’t really wanna ruin her chances for an egg sandwich from the master, so she kept her mouth shut. Joel clocked the motion and grinned at her.
“Can we get some sandwiches to go for everyone? Some drinks as well?”
Frank wrote out the ticket, and Joel paid for it while Bill started making the breakfast sandwiches the way each of them liked them. They mostly sold baked goods here at the fair. Still, they also offered a couple of breakfast sandwiches and cold sandwiches later in the day, a minimal menu compared to what they had available in their store location during the week. Ellie had wondered how they could afford to shut down their storefront every weekend for this and had asked Frank, who told her that during the summer, people knew where to find them, and due to the shorter hours, it meant that Bill and Frank were both able to get more rest on Saturday and Sunday. During the months when they had the cafe open seven days a week, it was a lot longer days every day.
It sounded exhausting in Ellie’s opinion, but if that’s what they wanted to do with their lives, who was she to judge? Out loud anyway.
Joel and Frank talked a little, Frank asked her questions and Ellie answered but didn’t engage very much so the adults just let her be and looking at the way Joel treated Frank and Bill like he would treat anyone else and wondered if he clocked the times she’d been overly complimentary of Tess or Ellie Satler on Jurassic Park, how often she was obsessed with girls and women and wondered if he cared that she’d had a crush on her best friend, Riley, who was a girl.
Maybe, if they didn’t send her back to a group home, she would tell them someday.
Once they had their food and drinks, Joel, carrying everything since Ellie was still on her crutches, headed back in the direction of the booth.
“You should have brought Sarah; she could have at least carried something,” Ellie said as Joel fumbled the bag for a second before he settled into the bulk of what he carried.
“I wanted to walk with you, and Tommy wanted to use Sarah as a pack mule; it worked out fine,” Joel told her, and Ellie nodded as she looked around the booths and at the people in the booths. Some of them recognized her from before the Millers took her in, and she couldn’t stop looking at them as they shuddered at her presence there. Ellie flipped one of the women off when Joel looked away, causing the woman to press her hand to her chest in surprise and horror. Ellie could tell the woman about the actual horrors, but instead, she refocused on Joel next to her as they made their way back to the booth. Both trucks were gone, reparked in the ‘employee’ lot nearby, and Sarah and Tommy were laughing about something as they walked up.
“Whaddya two laughin’ bout?” Joel asked, his accent a little thicker for a moment, making Ellie snicker as Tommy reached out and took the bag of food from Joel and started unloading for each of them. Ellie moved around the table and settled into her chair at the back, which was situated next to a cooler that was the perfect height for her to rest her cast on. Sarah handed Ellie her drink as they passed out food and ate together. Ellie listened to Sarah talk about a soccer game that was coming up and that Joel was supposed to bring snacks this time which caused some argument about the last time he brought snacks and that he was getting ‘volun-told’ to bring things more often than some of the other parents to which Sarah pulled out a paper calendar which had weeks worth of information on it about who was bringing what and when. Ellie ate her sandwich while Joel was outmaneuvered by Sarah and her proof, and conceded, as if that wasn’t going to happen all along anyway.
Sarah looked over at Ellie and gave her a wink. They’ve discussed more than once recently about how sometimes they were similar because, though Sarah had a father and an uncle who would do anything for her, Sarah’s independence was tied closely with how often she’d been left on her own to fend for herself. Sarah knew her father wasn’t perfect; she was usually the one acting like the parent for her dad. However, it was still so much more than Ellie had ever had, and Sarah knew that no matter how often she’d been home alone for too long when she was younger or left with the babysitter on essential days, Joel and Tommy were doing the best they could.
It meant that Sarah was the boss of the Miller house sometimes because Joel and Tommy couldn’t keep up.
Ellie worried more than once that the fact that she was getting a more dedicated foster parent than Sarah had gotten from her actual father would leave Sarah jealous and petty, something that had happened in more than one foster situation. Still, Ellie also knew that Sarah was speaking to Natasha about some of these things, too, so all she could do was remind Sarah that she was the ‘real’ daughter and no one could replace her, especially not someone like Ellie.
Natasha was probably going to force her to talk about it on Monday.
“Fancy meeting you here,” someone said as they walked over to the booth, and all four of them looked up in surprise to see Tess standing there with a young boy who was her son.
“Tess!?” Joel exclaimed, and Tess, Sarah, and Ellie all rolled their eyes at him at the evident shock and something like fear in his voice.
Tommy clocked the look they all shared and laughed out loud, making Joel look at him in annoyance, “Sorry,” he muttered, clearly not sorry at all.
“I didn’t think you would be here today,” Joel said, saving himself from exactly nothing.
“Well, I wanted to stop by and get something from Frank’s, so I figured I would pop over and say ‘hey’, this is my son Charlie. Charlie, this is my friend Joel and his family.”
Charlie waved, mostly occupied with eating what looked like a Danish from Frank’s place, an excellent choice.
“Tess, Charlie, let me introduce you to my brother Tommy and my kids, Sarah and Ellie.”
Ellie looked over at Joel sharply, then looked away quickly when Tess saw it, but the woman didn’t say anything, just smiled at them all, “Nice to meet all of you, though I feel like I know you already because Joel talks about you all so much.”
Joel flushed, and Charlie looked up from his snack long enough to nudge his mom, and Tess leaned down so he could whisper something to her, which wasn’t a whisper at all, “Why don’t they look alike?” he asked.
“Charlie!” Tess scolded, then looked over to Ellie and Sarah and spoke, “Sorry about that. Charlie, I know you understand that sometimes families don’t look alike. You look more like your daddy than me.”
Ellie didn’t know about that; it was undeniable that the boy was her child. Even with Sarah, who was mixed-race, Ellie could see the Miller genetics in Sarah. Charlie didn’t understand why Ellie didn’t look like the others. “I’m not his kid, just a foster kid. They took me in off the streets like a feral raccoon,” she answered for everyone, and Charlie looked over at her, then nodded, happy with the answer that made sense to him.
Joel and Sarah were both frowning at her, though Ellie was sure she was going to get the ‘hang-dog’ expressions from them while they told her again that she belonged with their family, that she was more than some ‘foster kid’. She knew that’s how they felt. Ellie would appreciate the conversation for what it was — wishful thinking — and then she would return to mentally preparing for the worst, even as they acted as if the best thing was going to happen.
“Well, we have other things to do, but we wanted to say ‘hey, ’” Tess said, and Joel shook off whatever he was going to tell Ellie to look back at Tess.
“It was great to meet you, Charlie, Tess, you gotta sec?” he asked and motioned off to the side of the booth.
“Stay here a second, okay, Charlie?” Tess asked him, and Charlie nodded, looking at the comic books that Ellie and Sarah brought with them for the day.
Tess and Joel stepped a few feet away from the booth so they could speak quietly, and Ellie focused her attention on the boy still standing there. “You like Savage Starlight?” she asked him, gesturing to the comic in front of her on the table.
Charlie shrugged, “Haven’t read it. Do you like it?”
“I love it,” Ellie said excitedly, “Maybe you could try it out, it's such a great story.”
Tess and Joel were walking back, smiling a little, so Charlie said, “Maybe, thanks!” before he left with his mother, and they all turned to give Joel questioning looks.
“What?” he asked.
“Did you ask her out or not?” Ellie burst out.
“Yes, for Tuesday, as long as you guys don’t have anything going on that night?”
Tommy shook his head, “I have a date this week, but I think it’s on Thursday, the only time Maria was available.”
“I’ll be home with Ellie,” Sarah said. “I think some of the girls wanted to go see a movie this week, but that would be on Friday, and either way, we are hoping that Ellie comes with us.”
Ellie just smiled at them, glad that they were all taking steps to get back to normal. She wouldn’t always be here, and they needed to know she couldn’t be the thing they focused on.
Someone walked up to the booth and started asking questions about costs, and Ellie went back to her comic and finished her breakfast while the Millers sold the business to anyone who walked up to the table for the next couple of hours.
“Two phone calls in the evening, two days in a row? You’re gonna spoil a girl, Tex,” Tess said when she picked up the call later that evening, when he sent the girls off to bed and stepped out the front door to make the call. Tommy went home right after dinner tonight, as they had the fair tomorrow and he had a meeting beforehand with a client who could only meet on weekends.
“Hey Tess,” he responded with a smile, “I just wanted to see how you were and how Charlie was. I don’t know if you meant to introduce him, especially after very recently telling me that you didn’t want to do that.”
Tess chuckled, “Look, we were going to visit Frank’s, Charlie is obsessed with the danish, and we are rarely able to go on the weekdays, but I also felt like I wanted to make all this a little more normal. We both have kids, we are taking things slow, but I don’t need to protect my kid from knowing about you, and I don’t need to pretend that our dating isn’t going to be affected by all three of the kids.”
Joel smiled, “I appreciate that. Charlie seems like a great kid.”
“He is,” she responded easily. “I’m looking forward to a date where we don’t have as much of a time limit as our lunch dates, not that I mind those at all.”
“I will have my phone with me. I had to force promises from both the girls and Tommy that they would call or text if anything went wrong, but it seems like Ellie is doing much better, and she wanted me to go out with you again. I think she has a little bit of a crush on you.”
Tess chuckled, “I have a way about me,” she said, and they both laughed before she continued. “I can see what you are talking about with the ‘foster kid’ label. She was swift to separate herself from you guys when she was answering Charlie’s question. Sorry about that.”
Joel huffed, “He’s a curious kid who noticed something that a lot of people are going to notice. Even if we get Ellie settled into being a part of our family, she has a different last name, and she doesn’t look like us. Sarah looks a lot like her mama, but you can see me in her, too. Ellie is just so used to pushing herself away from anything that could be good, so she doesn’t get hurt by being hopeful. We reminded her that she’s a part of the family again, and she rolled her eyes, but she’s not actively arguing against it so much anymore, so I am calling it a win.”
“It’s good that she is letting you in. I can’t imagine what she’s been through. Thinking about Charlie possibly going through something like that makes me see red.”
Joel thought about some of the stories that Ellie has told them in the time she’s been with them, or the fears and worries she has specifically because of what she’s gone through. “The things she’s gone through led her to believe that being on the streets was better. I can’t believe adults have failed her so often.”
Tess hummed in understanding, “I think we should talk about what we are going to do on Tuesday.”
Joel agreed readily. It was good to have an outside perspective on Ellie sometimes, but he also wanted to focus on the two of them.
Monday morning was busier than it had been for the past couple of weeks, as Joel was piling both girls into the truck to take Ellie to Sarah’s school. This was because she had completed a significant amount of her make-up work during the days when they were either at home or at the office. She was brilliant, not that Joel was surprised about that; it takes a lot to keep oneself alive in the worst situations, and intelligence was only one aspect of that. However, he had to wonder if a part of it was because she was so well-read for a twelve-year-old. Sarah had also been reading above the average for her age group, but Ellie seemed to read the way Sarah did everything else —hyper-focused.
“I don’t want to go to school,” Ellie complained as Sarah climbed into the back of the truck, and Ellie climbed into the front seat, something that was a lot easier with her crutches. Sarah took the crutches from Ellie and put them down next to her as Joel got into the driver's seat and started the truck. Tommy was already gone, having an early on-site meeting before heading to the office for a while, so that Joel could go over to the school and they could start the enrollment paperwork for Ellie.
“I get it, kiddo, but I can’t homeschool ya, and I don’t wanna a twelve-year-old dropout on my resume.”
“Technically, I already dropped out, so you already have to write that shit down,” Ellie snarked in reply, but Joel ignored her as they headed towards the school. He didn’t like the idea of having Ellie out of sight and doing something she didn’t want to do because she still had ‘flight risk’ stamped across her forehead, but he knew that not getting her back into a rhythm wasn’t going to help her otherwise. He would have to hope that because she was still wearing that cast, she wouldn’t get very far.
Joel had already given her a phone, similar to the one Sarah had, and their phone numbers were saved in the device as well as on the inside of a notebook she had in her pack. Her knife was sitting in the cup holder between Ellie and Joel, a deal they had made to keep the peace; she would get it back as soon as they were picked up every day, and he would keep it safe in the locked truck.
He didn’t think she would be enrolled today, but just in case, they’d already discussed everything, and she had notebooks, pens, and pencils along with an extra hoodie and snacks. There were so many snacks in her bag that it was ridiculous, but Joel had already discussed the possibility of Ellie needing to carry her bag from class to class and having snacks in it for between classes.
She would also be put on the breakfast and lunch plan, though he usually fed them in the morning. Ellie might need more food on some days, so he was willing to pay the school a little more in fees to ensure she wasn’t as worried about getting enough food. Nat had discussed food insecurity with him more than a few times since she started seeing Ellie.
Sarah started talking to Ellie about the book they were reading together in the evenings, and Ellie answered readily, seemingly ready to accept that school would happen. However, he figured her silence could be a ploy to get at him later.
Joel would have to wait and find out.
Once they arrived at the school, he parked in one of the regular parking spots, staying away from the drop-off line for once, and got out of the truck to help Ellie out after Sarah handed her the crutches and exited the back. Sarah closed both doors and gave Ellie’s pack to Joel before she caught sight of a couple of her friends and headed towards them with a wave at Joel and Ellie.
Joel kept his pace slow enough that Ellie didn’t try to outpace him while on crutches, and they made it inside, ignoring some of the interested looks they were getting from adults or children alike. Ellie looked like she was about to curse at someone when he pressed a hand to her shoulder, and she looked up at him, glaring but not speaking, at least.
“Please do all your cursin’ at home, I don’t mind it there, but you need to learn to keep it behind your teeth some of the time.”
Ellie scoffed but complied as they continued moving to the office and stepped into one of the small offices, Joel handing over all of Ellie’s testing and make-up work. He also had some of the necessary paperwork from social services, and they quietly reviewed everything. The administrator asked Ellie a few questions, to which she responded with a shrug or a one-word answer. He didn’t like how this was looking.
“She’s on crutches and gonna be learnin’ a new school, is there a chance she can have someone to help her for the first couple of days?”
The administrator looked Ellie up and down in her overly large shirt, jeans, and sweater, which made Joel want to step between them for a moment. Instead, he put a casual hand around her shoulder and felt when Ellie allowed a little bit of her tension to slip away.
“I’m sure we can find someone to help her out in the short term,” the lady finally said.
About thirty minutes later, Ellie had a schedule in hand, and she was being walked to the first class. Joel walked next to her and stopped outside the door when Ellie turned to him, “Are you going to pick us up after school?”
Joel nodded. It was another concession that he’d made easily because she wouldn’t be able to walk very easily right now, and Joel didn’t want Ellie and Sarah on the streets alone right now anyway. Sarah usually walked with several other kids to Frank’s, then the office, but he was more worried about Ellie at this point because she was still at a higher risk of being recognized with the teens who were out to get her at the street fair. Until Ellie was back on both feet, he didn’t want to chance it.
“I’m gonna be in the lineup with all the other parents, promise. I need you to settle in a little here, okay?”
Ellie looked down at her feet, holding the crutches tightly, before the administrator opened the door and introduced her as a new student. Joel took a deep breath as the door closed behind her, and he watched as she gave a quick, awkward wave to the class before finding her way to an empty desk. She sat down and caught sight of him still standing at the door, shooing him away with a hand motion, which made him smile.
“Thank you for your help,” Joel said to the woman as he headed back to the exit of the school and went back to the truck, getting in and then heading over to the office to get some work and make sure that the guys on site weren’t being jerks to Tommy.
They were good guys, but Tommy was more than a little likely to let them slack off more than they should if he didn’t remind them that they received paid bonuses for completing the work quickly and to code.
It was one of the benefits he offered to workers who came in for more than a couple of days at a time, and they were currently working on several significant projects. The day moved along at a slow pace, marked by phone calls and on-site conversations with workers and Tommy. He wished he could find out that Ellie was doing okay, but hoped the adage of ‘no news was good news’ would hold here as well.
There was something that told him it wasn’t, long before he drove up in the pickup line and found Ellie standing next to Sarah, with tissue paper stuffed up her nose, and a bandage over her eye. Joel shoved the truck into park right in front of them as someone honked behind him, but Joel rushed over and pressed a gentle hand to her cheek and looked her over.
“I’m fine,” she insisted, but she leaned into the contact.
“What happened?” he demanded, looking over at Sarah, who shrugged and kept rubbing Ellie’s back.
More honking started up behind them, so Joel shuttled the girls into the truck and got them moving out of the line as quickly as he could before heading back to the office.
“What happened, Ellie?” Joel asked again.
“It was nothing. I got mouthy with one of the older girls, and she shoved me into the wall. With the crutches, I couldn’t keep my face from hitting the wall. It won’t happen again, I swear.”
Joel heaved a sigh, unsure that she could make that promise, but let it go for now. If it happened again, he was going to take it back to the school about bullying. If for no other reason than letting Ellie know that she wasn’t alone, even if she had to attend school. It didn’t help that Sarah wasn’t in the same grade, wouldn’t be in the same area of the school, and Ellie would be left on her own for most of the day when it was obvious that she also struggled with making friends. Maybe Sarah could help him figure something out for her.
He could ask Tess if she had any thoughts.
Once they were back at the office, Joel and Sarah greeted Kelly while Ellie grunted as she walked by, though thankfully, Kelly was nonplussed by Ellie’s grumbling. Joel led the younger girl to the bathroom and helped to clean her up the rest of the way; thankfully, her nose wasn’t broken, and the cut wasn’t too deep.
“Did you go to see the nurse?” Joel asked.
Ellie frowned, “Why would I? I’ve had worse.”
“Ellie,” Joel chided but she shrugged and moved passed him out of the bathroom, towards the conference room where Sarah was already working on her homework so Joel moved to follow, pressing a kiss to Sarah’s head and getting some snacks and drinks for them from the mini fridge before heading back to work for a couple more hours.
Tuesday wasn’t any better for Ellie.
She went to school with Sarah and headed off to her class, as if everything was normal. However, by the time he picked them up from school, Ellie had a black eye, and she rushed to get into the truck before Joel got out and came over to her.
“What happened, Ellie?” he asked, hoping desperately that he wasn’t going to find her bruised and beaten every single day he sent her off to school. If this continued, he would have to pull her back out again and figure out something else, which he didn’t want to do because she was already so isolated.
“I tripped,” Ellie said, and then nothing else. She picked up her switchblade and tucked it against her chest like a stuffed animal, so he let it go. He didn’t know if going on a date tonight was a good plan after Ellie had come home hurt. He would double-check with Ellie and Sarah, then Tommy, before he called Tess to confirm.
Ellie shuffled into the office and headed into the conference room, closing the door. Although she could have gone into Tommy’s office, which was currently empty and had more comfortable chairs, he left her to it while he directed Sarah into his office and sat down with her on the couch. He left the door open so Ellie wouldn’t think that she wasn’t welcome to join them, though he was sure she wouldn’t.
“Dad, I don’t know what happened to her,” Sarah said without him saying anything.
Joel figured that, but he had to ask the question at least. Or not ask the question out loud because his daughter knew him well enough to guess what was coming out of his mouth about half the time.
He settled against the back of the couch, and Sarah tucked into his side as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Has she said anything about what it's been like? School? I know it's only been a couple of days, but anything?”
Sarah shook her head, “She won’t even talk during stories, and I tried, Dad. I wanted to know who was picking on her so I could speak to them, maybe try to figure out why they were bothering her. I know she was probably sassy about it, but they must have said something to set her off. Ellie doesn’t just attack for no reason.”
Joel nodded, pressing his cheek to Sarah’s head, “Do you know any kids in her grade? Maybe we could find someone she would be willing to befriend. Being alone for so long must have been hard; having someone besides us might help.”
Sarah shrugged, “I have to think about it. Some of the people in my grade have younger siblings, but I don’t know them well enough to see if Ellie would be comfortable with them. Maybe Friday, when we go to the theater, she might have a chance to talk to some of the other girls. The invitation is pretty open, so that it could be more than just me and the soccer girls.”
Joel hummed a little and rubbed his hand up and down her arm, “You think she’s gonna be okay if I go out with Tess tonight?”
Sarah jerked up a little and glared at him, “She’s going to kick your ass if you cancel, she’s obsessed with Tess, and she wants you to have a good time.”
Joel snorted, “I noticed that. Do you think she would feel safer if there were another woman around us more often?”
Sarah shrugged and pressed into his side again, “I think she just thinks Tess is hot and very cool.”
Joel hummed, “Well, to be fair, Tess is very cool.”
“And hot?” Sarah asked.
Joel rolled his eyes, “And she’s beautiful.”
“Good, I was worried for a second that you didn’t know.”
Joel squeezed Sarah a little, waiting for her to squeak and giggle before he let her loose again, then left her alone to go back to work. It had only been a couple of days. Still, he was hoping that this wouldn’t continue, so he could return to working on job sites again and let Tommy retake his position as the person who meets with their customers to do a lot of the preparatory work before they start breaking ground.
He sent a text to confirm with Tess for a nearby dinner place that would be very close to the Miller house. Sarah settled in with her books and homework, and Joel looked out the office door to see that Ellie was doing the same, so he stepped out to walk into the conference room to get her some snacks from the cabinet. She looked over at him with a smile, and he pressed a hand to her head, “You doin’ okay, kiddo?”
She nods and starts nibbling at her snack as he walks around the table and settles into another chair, and Ellie rolls her eyes, “What do you want, Joel?”
“Doing my part as your guardian when you are coming home bloody from school. I need to know what’s going on so I can do something for you.”
Ellie snorts, “I don’t need you to do anything. I’ve been through worse than school.”
“I’m not going to let someone keep hurting you,” Joel stated, brooking no argument.
“No one is hurting me,” Ellie rolls her eyes, “Except gravity.”
Joel heaved a sigh, but decided not to argue with her, so he stood up and walked past her, pressing a quick kiss to her head before walking back to his office. He tossed a snack to Sarah, which bounced off her head.
“Hey!” she exclaimed, grinning as she grabbed the snack and started eating.
Joel turned back to his computer screen and continued working for a couple more hours before loading the girls into the truck and taking them home. Tommy was out of the office for the rest of the day, but he was supposed to be at the house for dinner and ‘babysitting’ for Joel’s date.
He would check in with his brother later if he didn’t hear from him in about an hour, but Tommy rarely flakes on ‘Uncle Tommy’ duties, so Joel wasn’t worried, which had only doubled when they took in Ellie.
Every once in a while, he looked out to the conference room, but Ellie seemed to be doing fine, though she was purposefully not looking towards Joel’s office. It had taken them weeks to get to a point where Ellie would let them close, and he didn’t want to go backwards, but he hated the idea of forcing her to talk to him if she didn’t feel safe to do so. He didn’t understand why she was coming home busted the last two days, but for now, he would let her be.
There were no changes by the time Joel was packing up the girls and heading out with a wave to Kelly, who would stay another half hour before closing up. Sarah hugged Kelly before rushing out to the truck. She helped Ellie up into the cab, stowed her crutches and their bags, then waited for Joel to get in and start the car.
They drove in silence until Ellie fiddled with the radio and turned on a rock station. Joel smiled a little at her when Ellie glanced over at him like he was going to bat her hands away. He’d accepted long ago that he would only ever control the radio when he didn’t have his brother or kid in the truck with him. Ellie’s music tastes were different than Sarah’s, but he wasn’t worried about it.
Once they got back to the house, Joel helped them inside the house and watched as Ellie flopped down on the couch, and he gave her the backpack he was holding onto as Sarah walked into the kitchen to grab both of the girls a snack from the pantry before sitting down with Ellie so they could finish their school work. Sarah usually got the bulk of her work done at the office, but Ellie was still playing catch-up, so she needed more time. Sarah was sitting with her, reading or doing some extra work, so Ellie didn’t feel like she had to work alone.
Joel dropped all his stuff against the wall and took off his shoes before heading to the bedroom to change into something more comfortable so that he could get ready for his date later. Once he was changed, he gathered laundry from all their rooms and started a load before returning to the kitchen to plan their dinner.
“Dad, when is Uncle Tommy coming over?” Sarah asked, looking up from her book for a second.
Joel checked the time and his phone to see a message from his brother saying that he was coming home now, and Joel would have to feed him. Not that it was a surprise, he feeds Tommy most days of the week. And the weekend, for that matter. Thankfully, Joel can deduct the cost of food from his pay when needed.
“Looks like he’s on his way now. He’s coming to eat all our food, as per usual.”
“You can pretend you hate it, but you always have his favorite snacks in the house,” Sarah responded, and Ellie snickered at his expense. Joel gave them a long glare, trying desperately not to smile at them. Ellie’s laughter was more important than needing them to think he was annoyed with them.
“Yeah, don’t remind me.”
He turned on the stove and prepared an easy meal of enchiladas and salad, knowing it wouldn’t take long to finish once Tommy arrived. Then, he would grab a shower and head out to meet up with Tess. He double checked with her just after getting home, and the time and place were still good for her. As much as he would like to go and pick her up, he couldn’t take the chance if Ellie needed him quickly.
His mama taught him to always pick up a lady for a date, to open doors, and treat them well. As much as Joel would love to do that, Tess wouldn’t agree to it, nor could he do so in his current situation.
At some point, Ellie turned on some afternoon television while he finished up on dinner, and Tommy came in through the front door with barely a knock. One of these times, Joel is going to lock that door to watch his brother run headlong into it. Ellie would think that was funny, so would Sarah, for that matter.
“Hello, Millers!” Tommy said jovially as if he wasn’t also a ‘Miller’ and Ellie’s last name was ‘Williams’. Joel watched as Ellie threw a quick wave over to Tommy and thankfully didn’t argue. Tommy leaned down to press a quick kiss to Sarah’s head before gripping Ellie’s shoulder gently, then coming to the kitchen to greet Joel.
“Tommy, can you get the plates out for you and pull the enchiladas in a couple of minutes? I need to shower and get ready.”
“Will do, go get pretty for your lady.”
The girls snickered at that, but Joel just ignored them as he went to get ready.
After he was done with his shower and getting ready, he headed back out into the living/dining area to find Sarah, Ellie, and Tommy already sitting down to eat. He moved to the couch and sat down to put on his shoes, then stood up again. Ellie watched him intently, and Joel raised an eyebrow in question, but she just smiled a little, like she was confirming that she was okay with what was happening.
“Okay, anything goes wrong, ya’ll are goin’ to call me right?” he asked as he donned his jacket.
“If Ellie defends my honor by beating up Tommy, we will call you as soon as we can,” Sarah said with a singular nod.
Joel rolled his eyes and walked over and kissed his beautifully snarky daughter on the head, “You do that, baby.”
Joel pressed a gentle hand to Ellie’s shoulder, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead when she looked up a little with her eyes closed. Joel smiled against her skin and whispered, “You sure?”
Ellie pulled away and pushed at his nose with her finger, making him wriggle his nose as she responded, “You are going to have a great time with Tess and are not allowed to come back here until you kiss that woman.”
Joel bopped Ellie’s nose before he straightened away from her and caught Sarah grinning at them before he fist bumped Tommy and grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone before heading to the door. He opened the door and turned to look back at the three of them, watching as the girls waved him away before walking out the door.
Joel got to the restaurant, parked the truck near the front of the building, and got out to stand near the front door, watching a few other people walking through the door before checking his phone to see that Tess was on her way. He was there a little earlier than their chosen time, so when she got there, he could open the door for her.
Tess parked her vehicle, a dark blue Jeep, near the front, and he walked over with a smile as he opened the door. She grinned at him, “Hey, Tex, thank you.”
Joel helped her out of the vehicle, noticing the nice black jeans that she was wearing and the nice top under a jacket. It matched his level of ‘dressed up,’ something that they hadn’t explicitly talked about, but Tess had always been more casual. The restaurant wasn’t very dressed up either.
He held out his elbow as she closed her door, and she smiled as she tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. They walked into the restaurant and were seated quickly because they had a reservation.
Once they were settled with some water glasses and drinks ordered, Joel smiled at Tess again, enjoying the stillness of the moment while she looked him over with an intensity that made him warm. There was something about Tess’s attention that had felt special when they were both in Texas, and it hasn’t changed since then.
“How was the rest of your weekend?” Joel asked her. They hadn’t talked much since Saturday, outside of making sure that they were still going out on Tuesday, so hopefully it wasn’t too lame a first question for her.
Tess grinned, making it seem like it was that lame, but she winked before speaking, “I had a great time with Charlie at the fair; he loves Frank’s Cafe.”
“You were saying that. We eat there a lot of the time. Sarah was always walking past it when she was walking from school to the office, and they gave us the information for the street fair.”
Tess nodded, “That’s been a good opportunity for you?”
Joel thought about Ellie and how they met her at the street fair and figured if they hadn’t gotten several jobs out of the event, it would still be worth it because they met her, and he didn’t want to consider what his life would have been without her now.
“We’ve gotten some work there, but it's more than that now.”
Tess smiled, “I know what you mean.”
Joel realized after a moment that not only had he met Ellie there, but he had also run into Tess there. It was turning out to be a very pivotal place in their life here. He shook himself out of the reverie when the waiter came back with their appetizers, and he patted his pocket where his phone was sitting, but he hadn’t heard it jingle, so there was no reason he should be worrying.
Tess caught it anyway, “You can call them, I understand.”
Joel shook off the need; Tommy and both the girls promised they would call if anything went badly. He left his phone in his pocket and reached out to offer his hand to her, and Tess accepted, placing her hand into his with a soft smile. “They promised they would tell me if there was anything wrong, and I promised that I would be here with you.”
They maintained an easy conversation about their respective jobs, the kids, and the challenges of moving after being settled in one place for a long time. Joel realized that the addition of the kids to their conversation didn’t affect their interest in each other or make them feel like parents who were out on a therapy-enforced ‘date night.’ Something they both shared was a concern about having children. Joel hadn’t dated in a long time, but the idea of seeing someone and pretending the girls weren’t his priority wasn’t of interest to him. In the past, even what happened with Tess in Texas had been about pleasure in the short term, while it was new, fun, and ongoing. However, they were both parents, and that changed things.
There were no calls as they continued their meal, shared a dessert, and Joel paid the bill before walking her out to her vehicle, where she fiddled with her keys. Joel smiled at the thought of his daughters’ pushiness, “So that you know, I’ve been told by my kids that I am not allowed to come home unless you have been thoroughly kissed, but I would never presume. I could lie to them.”
Tess leaned against the side of her vehicle, reaching out to grip Joel’s collar, and sighed, looking up at him with a soft smile, “Well, you have your marching orders then, sir.”
Joel smiled and leaned down to press his lips into Tess’s and let her take the lead. She impatiently pushed closer, wrapping her arms around his shoulders while his snaked around her waist as the kiss deepened and lasted until they had to part for air. Joel pressed his forehead into Tess’s as he panted a little, “Thanks for that.”
Tess chuckled, “Now you can go home and not have to sleep on a bench somewhere.”
“Yeah, that’s why I was thanking you,” Joel returned with a laugh, letting his nose rub up against hers, then across her cheek for a second before he kissed her again, “The second one was just for me.”
Tess kissed him again, “That one was for me.”
Joel grinned as he stepped back a little, pulling her keys from her and opening the door before helping Tess into the driver’s seat of the vehicle, “I had a great time tonight, Tess, and I can’t wait to do it again. Maybe, since no disasters happened, it can be sometime next week?”
Tess smirked, “I’ll check my schedule, Tex, while you check on your gremlins.”
Joel nodded, moving so she could close the door and start the vehicle before he headed back to his truck and drove home, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t find any disasters inside the house. Thankfully, there was no music blasting from the house as he came through the front door, and Tommy was sitting on the couch with Sarah tucked into his side.
“Hey, where’s Ellie?” he asked as he leaned down to press a kiss to Sarah’s head in greeting, “I’m pretty sure you are supposed to be in bed, missy.”
Sarah pouted, “Dad, there’s like fifteen more minutes of the movie. And Ellie’s in bed.”
Joel pointed a finger at his brother and daughter, “Fifteen minutes only, you two, then bedtime.”
“Yes, Dad,” Sarah said happily.
“Yes, Dad ,” Tommy responded sarcastically.
“You can leave now, Uncle Tommy,” Joel said imperiously, but Tommy just winked and snuggled a little closer to his niece, calling Joel’s bluff. He kicked off his shoes and removed his jacket before he headed back to Ellie’s door and knocked gently. It wasn’t closed all the way, so he peeked around the edge of the door to see Ellie lying in her bed with a book above her head and the small lamp on her bedside table.
“Hey Ellie-girl, you okay?”
She turned to him with a small smile, “I’m fine, just wanted some quiet reading time before Sarah interrupted with ‘stories’. How was your date?”
Joel walked into the room and sat down on the side of her bed. “It was excellent, Els, I’m glad I went.”
“Don’t screw it up, Old Man,” Ellie told him.
Joel rolled his eyes and poked her in the side for her sass, “Watch it, Ellie.”
“You don’t scare me,” Ellie said with a snicker, and he watched her for a few seconds as she smiled, and he hoped that she was telling the truth. It was weird to know that Sarah was always kidding whenever she said something like that, but he didn’t know when it came to Ellie.
He poked her again and pushed her open book down on her face to hear her giggling, “Sleep well, kiddo.” Joel leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead, listening as she breathed in and out in a sigh that he thought sounded happy at the contact before he got up, “Don’t stay up too late with your sister, it’s already late on a school night for you both.”
Ellie nodded as she moved her book away from her face, as Joel headed for the door, closing it almost the whole way before heading back out to the living room to oust his daughter from her movie and get her started on her evening routine. Sarah kissed his cheek before she went to the bathroom, leaving the brothers alone in the living room.
“How was everything?” Joel asked quietly.
Tommy smiled, “She sat on the couch with us, watched several episodes of some show they want to kill me with, and then headed to bed. I don’t think she was uncomfortable, but Sarah and I made sure there was nothing to trigger her. I was glad to get some snuggles with Sarah after she went to bed, but hopefully that won’t always be upsetting for her.”
Joel nodded, “I know, little brother. We’ll get through.”
“So, did you make out?” Tommy asked after a couple of minutes of silence, but Joel just reached over and pushed Tommy’s face away, making him tip over.
“Not that it's any of your business, and we are not fifteen anymore, Jesus, but yes, there was some kissing and it was very nice. Now go home so we can get off to work in the morning.”
“Hugs first!” Sarah said as she rushed back into the living room, Tommy stood up from the couch, so he allowed it before heading out. Joel got up and locked the doors, turned out all the lights, and followed Sarah back to the bedrooms so they could settle in for the night.
He couldn’t wait for the next date he went on with Tess.
As long as Ellie was okay with it.