beautiful mistake - joe burrow

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Joe and Elle decided to take a short nighttime walk around the neighborhood. Elle just needed some more fresh air and besides, she wanted to show Joe the places where she had spent her childhood.

She had written a quick text to her mother telling her not to worry and that they would be gone for a little while longer. It was quite a cold November night, but even so, Elle enjoyed the warmth coming from Joe, who had his arm around her as they walked through the empty streets of Mansfield.

Eventually they arrived at the playground where Elle used to play with her friends. "I feel like swinging" grinning, she grabbed Joe's hand and ran to the swings.

Laughing, Elle settled down on the swings. "Push me" she beamed at Joe who stood behind her grinning and pushing the swing. Elle couldn't stop laughing as she swung higher and higher.

The wind blew through her hair and clothes, but not even the cold could bother her right now. She closed her eyes and suddenly felt transported back to her childhood.  How many times, she had sat on that swing and dreamed of swinging up to the sky. How many times her friends and she had tried to jump as far as they could.

She had to smile. Back then, life was still so carefree, so lighthearted. Back then, she hadn't known her ex. Back then, there hadn't been reporters sexualizing her, making fun of her. You'd think life was better then, but there hadn't been a Joe then either.

When she had eventually swung enough, she stood up laughing. "That was great" grinning she did a pirouette before throwing herself into Joe's arms. Amused, Joe pulled her into a hug. "Feeling better?" he asked, pushing her face up so she was looking at him from below.

The moon made his hair look almost whitish and reflected in his eyes. Elle nodded with a smile. "Thank you" she whispered. "For what?" Joe asked, smiling. "For having you in my life. You somehow make everything a little more bearable" she replied smiling. "You are welcome" he whispered back before placing his lips on hers.

When she broke away from him, Elle sighed and rested her head on Joe's chest, listening to his heartbeat for a few moments. She let the rest of the days, weeks go through her mind.  The party, her hangover, and the beginning of her viral internet video. Incredible how quickly life can change so much in such a short time.

Two weeks ago not a soul had known who Elle Simmons was and now she was an internet celebrity with almost 150k followers on Instagram. Two weeks ago, her name wouldn't have appeared on a football talk show and there wouldn't have been speculation about whether she was fucking players. But everything had changed.

She lifted her head and looked at Joe. "You know what? I'm doing it" "and...what are you doing?" he asked, confused. Every once in a while he just couldn't follow Elle's train of thought. "I'm facing the press. I'm telling them my opinion of those two assholes and what I think of women in the NFL. You're right. I should stand up for all women and show that this is not how we are treated" she said firmly.

Joe smiled at her. "That's good. That's very good, baby. And the team and I will stand behind you no matter what" Elle smiled gratefully at him. "I'll let PJ know as soon as we get back to Cincinnati tomorrow night and then I'll give them a piece of my mind" Joe grinned at her, amused. "Can't wait" he replied.

• • •

"Sis!" for some reason, Eric and Easton arrived at mid-morning at the same time, pulling Elle into a tight hug one after the other before Easton pressed the pie, which Tammy had probably baked, into her hand. "Here, can you take this to the kitchen? The women will be here in a minute."

Elle, feeling a bit overwhelmed, just nodded before turning to Joe. "Just introduce yourself. They don't bite" she winked at him as Joe laughed. "I can manage, don't worry" he grinned at her before Elle took off towards the kitchen with the pie.

"So you're our sister's new boyfriend" Eric looked at Joe critically and crossed his arms in front of his chest just like his brother "That's me. Joe, nice to meet you" Joe raised his hand in greeting.

"Yeah, yeah, real nice. Tell me, what are your intentions with our sister, John?" Easton looked at him seriously. "I..uh..my name is..." Joe was confused. "Are you going to marry her later, James?" Eric asked further. "Marry?" Joe asked, surprised. "Or is she just an amusement for you for a while, Jim?" Easton didn't respond to him.

"No, I..." "Answer the question, Jack," Eric raised an eyebrow. "We haven't talked about it yet" Joe replied. "Oh, that means you don't know yet?" Easton asked.

"Are you good enough for our sister then, Jacob?" Eric didn't even wait to see if Joe would answer. Easton went right on. "Prove yourself. We're arm wrestling" he raised his arm towards. "Is...is that really necessary?" Joe asked, confused. He didn't know what the conversation was right now.

"Why? You think you're better than us just because you play in the NFL, Jayden?" Eric asked, nodding at Easton, who still had his arm ready. "No, it's just...." Joe was interrupted again by Easton. "Come on, Julien. Afraid of losing?"

"You two are just impossible" Elle scowled at her two brothers as she suddenly stood in the hallway again with her hands on her hips. "Can't you guys just be nice?" she lightly punched her brothers' upper arms, who just grinned at each other before turning to face Joe.

"Sorry, I should have known I couldn't leave you alone with those two knuckleheads. You'd think they'd be able to behave well at that age, but well, apparently not" Elle sighed and looked apologetically at Joe.

"We're sorry too, bro. We've been looking forward to finally meeting you all this time. We've been rehearsing that scene we just did all week" Eric stood behind his sister, grinning.

"You guys rehearsed for this?" she asked, stunned, but the brothers just nodded proudly. "Anyway, it's really cool to finally meet you, Joe. Welcome to the family. I'm Easton, Elle's younger and cooler older brother" Easton held out his hand and Joe chimed in with a grin.

"I'm Eric, the oldest and coolest, no matter what my siblings say. It's an honor Joe" Eric also held out his hand.

Just as the boys finished their greetings and introductions, the doorbell rang again. "Well, have the gentlemen finished their play?" Tammy asked with a grin as she entered the house with Leila and Ian, who immediately clung to Elle's leg with a loud "Lele" and pulled Elle into a hug.

"You guys knew?" Elle asked laughing as she also hugged Leila and tousled Ian through his hair. "Yeah, we had to make an extra trip to Easton and Tammy's this morning so they could talk it through once and afterwards we were ordered not to leave until ten minutes later" Leila shook her head laughing before turning both women to Joe almost simultaneously.

"you're probably Joe then, aren't you? Tammy, Easton's wife. Nice to meet you" Tammy beamed at Joe and immediately pulled him into a hug. "Leila, Eric's girlfriend" Leila also gave Joe a quick hug. "Tammy and Leila, nice to meet you. Elle has told me a lot about you guys" Joe replied smiling.

Tammy turned to Elle, who in the meantime had taken Ian in her arms. "I like him" she winked at Elle before turning to Leila. "Shall we go and find our actors?" Leila nodded with a grin and followed Tammy.

Joe stepped toward Elle and Ian. "Ian, look. This is Joe. He's my boyfriend" Elle nudged her nephew lightly before pointing at Joe. The little one looked at Joe with wide eyes. "Hello, Ian" Joe smiled at the boy.

"Can you say hello Joe, Ian?" Elle smiled patiently at the little one, who was still staring uncertainly at Joe. "Hello Joe" Ian repeated. "Great, Ian" Elle squeezed him close.

Joe's heart immediately softened. It was the first time he had seen Elle with children. While he had always noticed how much she beamed when she talked about Ian, seeing her interact with him now was even sweeter. She was definitely a great aunt.

Don't ask me what the scene with Joe meeting Elles brothers is. I saw something like that on TikTok by kallmekris and idk thought it was funny so i wanted to use it. Don't like it that much but well haha

Thanks for 72k reads and 2k likes!!

Question for today: if you could choose about what celebrity/ person I would write my next story, who would you choose?

WHO-DEY🧡