beautiful mistake - joe burrow

83

The weeks went by. Elle was busy around the clock. She worked, went to the gym afterwards, and in most free minutes had some kind of talks for her campaign, which was now officially called "the future is female".

She helped Joe set up the guest room for Thanksgiving and tried to spend the free evenings with him, Celine or other friends. In the nights she usually fell into bed quite exhausted, but the feeling of being able to make a difference made her get out of bed smiling again the next morning.

Finally, the time had come. It was Thanksgiving and as soon as she would be done with work at noon today, she would head to her apartment to meet her parents and brothers and then join them for a drive to Joe's.

Joe would head home immediately after practice where his mom, who had already arrived last night along with his dad, had been preparing dinner and the house since this morning. Joe would help with the final chores to make sure everything was straightened out by the time Elle would arrive with her family.

Elle couldn't stop beaming as she entered her apartment and was immediately smiled at by her entire family. "Elle, it's so good to finally have you here!" her mother immediately jumped up and pulled her daughter into her arms.

When Elle had greeted everyone and they had all sat back down, her living room was definitely too small for so many people, Elle explained what was planned now. She would go take a shower and get ready for them to go to Joe's afterwards.

The plan was that Easton and Tammy would sleep with Ian in Elle's apartment, while Eric and Leila and her parents would sleep at Joe's house. Elle had worked it out with Easton during the week. It would just be easier if they could go with Ian if it got too late, and Ian wouldn't wake anyone if he was up too early again the next morning.

Once everything was settled, Elle jumped in the shower, fixed herself up in record time, and got back in her car. Throughout the drive, she looked in the rearview mirror to see if the others were still following her and couldn't deny the anticipation of the joint celebration.

Joe opened the door smiling and beamed at the Simmons family standing outside his door. "Welcome, glad you're here, come on in" he quickly greeted Elle with a kiss before hugging the rest of the women and cutting high fives with the men.

Robin and Jimmy stood behind Joe and excitedly greeted Elle. They couldn't wait to meet Elle's family. Joe had said so many good things about them and Robin was sure Elle's family was as great as Elle herself.

Lauren and Robin immediately beamed at each other when Elle introduced the two moms, hugged for a long time, and told each other how nice it was to meet, how great they thought Joe and Elle were, and that they were so excited to spend the holiday together today.

Jimmy and Harry greeted each other more like two old sports friends who regularly met at their local pub and played cards together. A quick handshake before a brief exchange of football news and that was it.

It took what felt like an eternity before Elle's whole family was finally introduced, Robin was blown away by little Ian and when Joe suggested afterwards that he could give a house tour so everyone could see where they were sleeping, Elle just sighed.

Her stomach was complaining louder by the minute, she was really hungry and the smell of the food that was already almost ready in the kitchen didn't make her hunger any less.

So while her brothers joined Joe's house tour with Leila and Tammy, who had Ian in her arms, along with her parents, Elle took off for the kitchen with Robin and Jimmy. However, since she couldn't help with any preparations and her stomach only freaked out more at the sight of the food, she retreated to the living room and set up a small play area for Ian.

She laid his dinosaur blanket on the floor and spread his toy cars and dinosaur figures on it. He also had his train set in the little bag of toys.

"Nice place this is" Harry murmured to his daughter, impressed, as they returned from Joe's house tour. "I can see why you're here more often than you are at your apartment" Easton added with a grin.

That's as far as they got, as Robin called everyone to the dining room table, which by now was full of food. Elle's mouth watered as she took a seat next to Joe, who grinned at her in amusement as Elle's stomach growled again.

Robin had really gone overboard with the food and Elle was sure that everyone at that table could survive on the leftovers for at least the rest of the week. There was ham, a big roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, Brussels sprouts with bacon, gravy and cranberry sauce.

"Before we eat, I want us to go around the table and have everyone say what they were most thankful for this year" Robin stopped before anyone could pounce on the feast on the table.

Jimmy, sitting on the other side of Joe, started, which meant Elle and Joe would be the last. Smiling, Elle listened as everyone recounted their most grateful moments, moments with family, friends, or simply memorable moments.

When Leila, who was sitting next to Elle, finished talking, everyone looked intently at Elle. She cleared her throat before saying what she had been thinking about while the others were talking.

"I...I'm thankful that we can all be here together today. I'm thankful for my degree and the opportunity to be an athletic trainer with the Bengals. I'm thankful for my family..." she smiled at her brothers and parents.

"...I'm thankful that I got to meet Joe, and through him, Robin and Jimmy" she gave Joe a sweet look before looking at Robin and Jimmy gratefully as well. "And ultimately, I'm thankful that I got the chance to fight for something that means a lot to me"

"Very well said, Elle. Joe, it's your turn" Robin beamed at her before looking at her son promptly. "Ok, yes" Joe cleared his throat and sat up straight before beginning his speech.

"I...I'm thankful to finally be back on the court and playing after the injury. I'm thankful for the team I have around me and the success we've had this season" he began before looking lovingly at Elle and placing his hand on her thigh.

"I'm thankful that I got to meet Elle. I'm thankful that we found each other and I'm thankful that I get to spend today with our families together" he looked her straight in the eye and butterflies just flew in Elle's stomach as she quickly leaned in and blew Joe a kiss on the lips.

Everyone around them looked at the two of them smiling before Robin finally spoke the best words of the day. "Dinner is open. Dig in."

Thank you so much to harrysxnflwr and Ronin1025 for helping me writing this chapter! Couldn't have done it without you❤️

Thanks for all the likes, reads and comments🥰

WHO-DEY🧡