Today.
“Ye know she’ll be happy with anythin’ ye get her, Eli,” Bailey said. “Noah is so in love with you that if ye picked wildflowers for her, she’d be over the moon.”
I smiled. “I know. She’s smitten with me, right?”
“Right.” My sister chuckled. “But you’re equally as smitten with her. I still can’t believe ye asked the first girl ye’ve ever liked to be your girlfriend. I didn’t think ye had it in ye.”
“Ha ha.” I grinned when Bailey laughed. “Ye should learn from me. I knew what I wanted and went for it with Noah. There was no point in beatin’ around the bush when I knew she was my one.”
“How did ye know though?” Bailey asked, turning her body slightly to face me. “Was it love at first sight?”
“Love? No. Lust? Yep.”
“Ew! I’m fourteen, don’t talk to me about how ye sex up Noah. She’s practically me sister.”
She sounded revolted at the very thought.
“Let me finish,” I laughed. “I saw her before she saw me. It was me first day in school the week after we moved here, and she was sittin’ on the basketball court outside – she was readin’ a book and eatin’ an apple. I wasn’t sure what caught me eye first, how captivated she was by what she was readin’ or how her hair seemed to shine like gold as the sun hit it. Either way, I was instantly attracted to her . . . and because I had no clue what to do about it, I ignored her for the first few days at school.”
“That was almost poetic until ye got to the end, dumbarse.”
I shook my head, amused.
“She liked me too, but I didn’t realise it,” I continued. “I caught her lookin’ at me a few times, and when I started to pal around with AJ and realised she was his friend too, I started to plan ahead.”
“What’d ye do?” my sister quizzed. “Bully her until she loved ye?”
“What the hell? No. That’s toxic, Bailey. No boy will treat ye like shite if he truly likes ye . . . If one ever does, tell me and I’ll kill him.”
“Yeah, yeah, continue with your story.”
“There’s not a whole lot to it. We were friends and we grew closer; we had a bonfire on me eighteenth birthday and I kissed her that night. We started casually datin’, then I asked her to be me girlfriend a few months later. We haven’t looked back since.”
“That’s like a Wattpad story . . . except nothin’ dramatic happened before ye both got together. It’s a little anticlimactic, I won’t lie.”
I laughed. “That’s what’s perfect about Noah. She doesn’t play mind games and she doesn’t fight with me just for the hell of it. She calms me in a way I didn’t know I needed to be calmed. I’ve never met anyone like her and I never want to. She’s my one.”
“I should have brought a bucket,” Bailey teased. “All that sweet talkin’ may as well be honey drippin’ from your lips.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t even know why I’m lettin’ ye come along.”
“Ye had no choice,” Bailey answered as she tapped away on her phone. “Ye need someone to record her face when ye surprise her, and since AJ is on watch at the station today, I’m all ye’ve got, loser.”
“Stop callin’ me that.”
She snorted, then she shamelessly took about twenty-seven selfies before she smiled and bobbed her head happily, obviously liking one out of the whole fucking film reel.
“This one is Instagram-worthy.”
I stopped at a red light and glanced at her as she chuckled.
“Oh my God, I posted twenty seconds ago and he’s already liked the picture.”
My big-brother senses began to tingle as my hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“He?” I repeated. “Who is he?”
“A lad from school.” She shrugged. “Pretty sure he likes me. He double-taps every picture on me Instagram and always comments . . . Ha! Look, he commented too.”
She showed me her phone, and I read the words the little creep wrote.
So sxy.
“He forgot the E, the dumbarse. Stay away from boys who can’t spell easy words.”
“He’s only lookin’ at the menu, Elliot, not orderin’ from it.”
I felt my jaw drop. “Little boys like that can’t afford to order what you’re sellin’ on your menu. Which, let me be very fuckin’ clear, is absolutely nothing.”
My sister giggled, rolled her eyes, then flipped her hair over her shoulder, dismissing me.
“I will not be ignored,” I protested. “You’re fourteen. Ye don’t get a menu yet. Your restaurant isn’t openin’ for years.”
My sister burst out laughing as a car beeped its horn behind us. I realised the light was green, held my hand up in apology to the car behind, shifted into gear and drove.
“I’m serious, Bailey. Stay away from boys, we’re no good at that age . . . at any age, really.”
My sister chuckled. “I’ll be frigid until I’m eighty if ye get your way.”
“Eighty is still too young in my humble opinion.”
“You’re full of it.”
I grinned.
Ten minutes later we parked in town and I rang Noah.
“Hey,” she answered on the third ring. “Where are you?”
“Hey, gorgeous, just got into town.”
“I’m in the town centre where you told me to meet you. I got off work a bit earlier.”
“I’ll be right there, don’t move.”
I hung up as Bailey spotted her.
“She’s there,” she squealed. “Right there.”
I looked to where Bailey was pointing. Noah was standing outside H&M, looking at the outfits on display in the window.
“Sit here on this bench,” I said to my sister as we got out of the car. “I’ll bring her across usin’ the pedestrian crossin’, so point your phone that way. Make sure ye start recordin’, okay?”
She saluted me. “On it, boss!”
I nodded, turned and jogged across the road, after checking for cars.
“Noah,” I called.
She heard me and turned around. When she spotted me,
