(Complete) Joe Walch was in love with the girl of his dreams. Everything was perfect until it all changed...
Ella Burke had a wonderful family, a job she loved and a man she was completely in love with until her dreams were shattered.
Can Ella lear...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Both Ella and Joe looked at each other when Caleb announced he was going out. It had been two weeks since his falling out with Gaby.
Joe recovered. "Home by eleven and no drinking or anything else illegal."
"Yeah, yeah." Caleb walked out the door.
Ella smiled, because a few hours without Caleb sounded good to her. Joe was always shushing her in bed, since Caleb's room was on the other side of the wall. She wasn't completely selfish, she was also glad Caleb wasn't sad. He had been happier after school. Still, he and Gaby weren't talking in her class.
Joe was more interested on tracking his brother than on Ella's attempts to seduce him.
"He's walking."
"Come on," she cooed.
Joe stopped looking at his phone long enough to kiss her. She felt her body come alive, but the flame died when he went back to his phone.
Sighing loudly. she picked her own phone and texted Ava.
🗨E: How was your last day?
🗨A: Ok. Sad. I'm packing
🗨E: Can't believe you'll be home for good?
Ava had been in Boston, since she started college. As a student she came home during the summer and other vacations, but since she'd been working she would only pop home for Saturday night and Sunday.
Ella was scrolling through Snapchat, when Joe exclaimed, "He's back at Gaby's house!"
"Good. Now put your phone down, I'm feeling lonely."
Thankfully, Joe did just what she asked. She was too comfortable to get up when Caleb came home. Joe had watched him walk back, as his post-coital entertainment.
Joe took eyes off his screen. "What are you laughing at?"
She hadn't realized she had laughed out loud.
"Joe, our kids aren't going to be able to move, if you're this overprotective."
"El, our kids aren't going to almost be arrested and defiant. They're going to feel loved from the moment they're conceived. I think my mother knew her mistake after Leah. I'm not sure she wanted another child with that man..."
"Poor Caleb, she loved him, didn't she?"
"Yeah, but she was too worn down to put any effort into mothering. My family was so opposite yours. We're going to do it right."
"Just don't leave me."
The words slipped out, but they represented her biggest fear and they lingered below the surface. She saw sadness pass over Joe.
"I could never. It would kill me. I hate being away from you a few nights."
She didn't have any gigs, but she had to go welcome Ava home. She would stay the night and return on Sunday night which was her routine. She hated not spending her full weekends with Joe.
