"Her flight was on time, right?" Elle asked for what felt like the five hundredth time in the past hour. Emmett stifled an exasperated sigh. He was trying to be understanding- she was obviously very excited. But she was starting to get on his nerves.
"The flights on time, and it's landed, see?" He replied, pointing at the message board hanging over the luggage carousel. "She's probably just held up at the gate or something.
Elle nodded, but her lips were pursed and her brows were furrowed. A new wave of people began spilling into the baggage claim area, and Elle stood on her tiptoes. After a few minutes her face brightened.
"There she is!" she exclaimed beaming.
Emmett scanned the crowed, searching for a bright spot of pink amongst the crowd. He was a little surprised so see that the girl Elle ran up to was wearing a fairly indistinct outfit- denim shorts, and white tank top, and a navy blue sweater. But apart from the apparent absence of a signature color, when Elle pulled back Emmett could see that in every other way the two sisters were carbon copies. Both girls were grinning excitedly as Elle put her arm around the younger girl's shoulders and led her over to Emmett.
"Emmett, this is my little sister Lacey," Elle said. "Lacey, this is my best friend Emmett."
Lacey held out her hand.
"Nice to finally meet you," she grinned. "Elle talks about you all of the time."
"I've heard a lot about you too," Emmett replied, shaking the girl's hand.
"Once we get your luggage, I figured we'll go back to my apartment so you can unpack and rest for a little bit, and then we'll go eat dinner and walk around Cambridge, do a little shopping," Elle suggested. "Sound good?"
"Sounds great!" Lacey nodded. "I'm always game for shopping."
Emmett chuckled to himself. Apparently, the two girls had more things in common than just their looks.
Mr. and Mrs. Woods had paid for priority baggage handling, so Lacey's suitcase was one of the first to appear on the carousel. Emmett at first ignored the large navy bag until he noticed the Woods sisters struggling to get it off the conveyor belt. It took all three of them to pull it off and get it into and out of Emmett's car. It was so large that Lacey was pressed up against the car the entire ride to Cambridge.
"Sorry it's so big," Lacey apologized. "My other one didn't have enough room for two weeks' worth of clothes."
"No worries," Emmett told her. "I'm pretty sure your sister used a bag that size just to get her hair products out here."
"Hey!" Elle exclaimed, pretending to be offended.
"I believe that," Lacey told him. "It took a U-Haul just to get her shoe collection out here."
Elle sighed.
"I never should have let you two meet," she grumbled, smirking. "As if the two of you aren't mean enough to me on your own, now you can gang up on me."
"Finally!" Lacey exclaimed. "After fifteen years of having to do it all by myself finally there's someone to help me out here. It gets exhausting."
"See what I mean?" Elle appealed to Emmett. "Just because I'm older doesn't mean I'm the bully."
"You love me," Lacey said.
"It was Stockholm Syndrome," Elle replied, and the two sisters laughed. Emmett didn't say anything, but he foUnd himself grinning. For a brief moment he met Elle's eyes, and he felt his smile widen as he watched hers do the same. His ears started burning and he glanced away before he could see Elle's cheeks get any pinker. The three continued on in pleasant silence until they got to Elle's apartment. Before he left, Elle threw her arms around him, catching him slightly off guard. Before he returned the embrace, he caught Lacey watching them with her eyebrows raised.
"Thank you so much," Elle told him. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"
"Yeah," Emmett said. He waved to the younger blonde standing on the stairs. "Bye Lacey it was nice to meet you."
"Bye," she replied.
"Bye Elle," he said, looking down at her. "I'll see you soon."
"Bye Emmett," she grinned.
She watched him get back into his car and pull away from the curb before she turned back around to her sister.
"Come on," she chirped. "Let's go inside- you must be exhausted!"
"Eh, it was a long flight, but I've had worse," Lacey shrugged as she followed her sister in to the apartment building. "I would like to take a shower though."
"Of course!" Elle nodded.
"So, uh, Emmett seems nice," Lacey said.
"He's so sweet," Elle told her sister, not making eye contact. She could feel herself blushing. "You'll love him once you really get to know him."
"I'm sure I will," Lacey responded. "Is he coming to dinner with us tonight?"
"Nope," Elle said. She put her arm around her sister's shoulder, grinning. "This is the first time I've seen my sister since last summer, we have a lot to catch up on." She kissed the top of her sister's head. "I've missed you kid."
"I've missed you too," Lacey confessed. "It's too quiet without you around. Not that I think you should come home."
Elle huffed indignantly.
"I didn't mean it like that!" Lacey exclaimed. "It's just… you've got a really good thing going here. A year and a half ago, you knew nothing about law, and now you've won a major murder trial all by yourself. I'm so proud of you. I always knew you could do something like this."
"You did?" Elle asked.
"Of course!" Lacey said. "I mean, you are the most amazing big sister ever. I always kind of thought you could do anything."
Elle hugged her little sister as hard as she possibly could, tears pooling in her eyes.
"I love you," she whispered.
"I love you too," Lacey responded.
After a moment Elle pulled back.
"Now, go on, take your shower," she said. "It's going to be a fun night of quality time, Woods sister style.