Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Ages: Scott is 31, Abby is 27, Ellie is 24, Sophie is 25, and Evan is 22. Finn, Rachel, and the rest of the gang are all in their late 50s (!).
"You know, just because you're pregnant, it doesn't mean that you get a free pass with helping me plan this."
Abby settled back on the couch and shrugged her shoulders. She was clearly not at all concerned with her younger sister's protests. "Excuse me, Ellie. I'm in the process of creating a life. It's kind of a big deal, you know."
Ellie rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips. Abby was four months pregnant with her first child, and Blaire had just announced that she and Scott were expecting their second early the following year. Ellie couldn't have been more thrilled for her siblings. She loved being an aunt, and she couldn't wait to have two more babies in the family to spoil.
She was going to have to push all thoughts of babies to the side for the time being, however. Ellie was in the middle of planning a surprise vow renewal for their parents. They were celebrating their wedding anniversary in two weeks—little did they know, the Hudson children had gathered up all of their friends and family and planned a huge party in order to commemorate the occasion.
Finalizing the details was proving to be stressful. Of course, Ellie and Abby had immediately gone to their Uncle Kurt when they started planning the whole event. As always, there came a time when they needed a break from his obsessive planning. They were currently hiding out in Ellie and Sophie's apartment as they waited for their brothers to show up.
"Just tell Uncle Kurt that he needs to take a chill pill," Abby advised. "Maybe that will shut him up for a while."
Ellie groaned and tilted her head back against the couch. Having been in a sorority while she was in college (Sophie had convinced her to join), she had loved planning parties and was quite creative in her own right. Even so, she still didn't go as far as Kurt. It had been years, but he still had laminated poster boards for every event that he planned.
"You tell him," Ellie retorted. "You're having the next baby, so maybe he'll actually listen to you."
Abby smirked and covered the small bump protruding from her stomach with her hand. The door to the apartment swung open then, and Scott and Evan entered, followed closely by Nathan. As soon as Ellie saw Nathan, her cheeks turned bright red. Abby, of course, noticed that right away. She smirked at her younger sister, and Ellie rolled her eyes once again in response.
It had been three years since Ellie had met Nathan, and her crush hadn't waned in the slightest. They had both dated people over the years (in fact, Ellie had had the pleasure of being dumped via text message again just two weeks ago), but Ellie still found herself turning into a giggly mess whenever Nathan was around.
"We're here, and we come with supplies!" Scott announced. He was laden down with various bags of Chinese takeout, and Nathan was carrying two drink carriers filled with different cups of coffee.
"Thank god," Ellie breathed with a sigh of relief. She immediately started digging through the bags of food, looking for the carton of her Kung pow chicken. Meanwhile, Abby was inspecting the drink carriers.
She cast a dark glare Scott's way. "I can't have coffee, you dick," she reminded him.
Scott rolled his eyes in a move that made him and Ellie look exactly alike. He took one of the cups out of the carrier and handed it to his sister, along with a straw. "Here's a vanilla bean frappuccino. Stop whining."
Abby stuck her straw in her drink gleefully and settled back into the couch again. Nathan reached over and grabbed another cup and then turned to Ellie, offering it to her.
"Caramel macchiato with almond milk. That's your favorite, right?"
Ellie couldn't help the wide smile that spread across her face. "Yeah! How did you know?"
"I've seen you order it enough time over the years," Nathan said with a chuckle.
Their fingers brushed as Ellie took the offered drink from Nathan. They sat there, smiling at each other for several long moments. When Evan knocked a bag of the food off of the table and cursed, they both jumped. Ellie's brow furrowed into a frown when she saw her younger brother scrambling to save the food.
"Don't stain my carpet," she ordered.
"Who cares about your carpet?" Abby demanded. She had jumped to her feet as soon as the bag of food hit the floor. "Save the food! Did you spill any of the dumplings?"
Evan cursed under his breath again and chucked the cartons in the bag. Finding that nothing had actually spilled, he handed the carton of steamed dumplings to Abby. "Relax. Your precious dumplings are safe."
Satisfied, Abby sat down back on the couch as Ellie fished an egg roll from one of the bags. "How's Blaire doing?" Ellie asked before she bit into the crunch roll.
As always, Scott beamed at the mention of his pregnant wife. "She's great! I mean, the morning sickness has been kicking in with a vengeance, but it's only bad for about the first twenty minutes after she wakes up. She wanted to come to help out today, but I managed to convince her to stay in bed and relax until dinner. I'll head out to pick her and Liam up in about two hours or so."
Ellie smiled when she saw how excited her oldest brother got when talking about the woman he loved. The two of them were almost nauseatingly cute, but no one actually minded. Still smiled, she looked up and happened to catch Nathan's eye. He seemed to understand exactly what she was smiling at, and he returned it.
Feeling her cheeks heat up once again, Ellie blushed and looked down. Thankfully, Hurricane Sophie stormed into the room and scooped up a pint of lo mien. She collapsed onto the floor next to Ellie and swiped her chopsticks from her.
"I'm super glad you brought coffee and all, but someone brought beer, right?" she asked.
"Of course." Evan lifted another bag and dropped it on top of the table. Beer bottles clinked together in their cardboard carton, and Evan grinned. "I have some of Ellie's girly beer, too."
Ellie rolled her eyes and stabbed at her chicken. Everyone made fun of her because she liked cider (which Evan referred to as "girly beer") over beer—but Ellie had always preferred cider over cheap beer. Sophie laughed and nudged her. Instead of acknowledging her best friend, Ellie reached for one of the bags under the table and pulled one of the ciders out of the six-pack. She had a feeling she was going to need it.
Sophie reached for an eggroll. "So how's the re-wedding planning going?"
"It's not a re-wedding," Ellie corrected for what must have been the millionth time. "It's a vow renewal. And it's going fine as long as everyone remembers what they have to do."
Narrowing her eyes, Ellie pinned Sophie with a pointed stare. She was in charge of getting the linens and setting up the tables at the venue. She moved her gaze next to Scott—he was supposed to stay in contact with the caterer and make sure that they arrived with the exact menu Ellie had planned on the day of the renewal. Abby was next, as she was the person who was in charge of picking up the flowers, both arrangements and bouquets. Last was Evan, and he had to make sure that everyone had their dresses and tuxes pressed and ready to go.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Abby huffed and took another sip of her frappuccino. "I'm pregnant, you know."
"Yeah I know." If Ellie rolled her eyes anymore or any harder, she would knock herself into next week. "You're pregnant, Abby, not disabled. I think you're capable of picking up some flower arrangements and making sure they get to the venue on time. Plus, you have Mason for the heavy lifting."
"True." Completely satisfied, Abby settled back onto the couch once again. She tried to balance her carton of Chinese food on her stomach, but her little baby bump wasn't enough to make a shelf just yet.
Ellie had delegated much of the tasks to her brothers, sister, and friends, but she had made all of the contacts and completed all of the planning on her own. Her siblings had their own lives—families and school—to worry about. Ellie had nothing but the next episode of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. She had more than enough free time to plan the vowel renewal for her parents.
Scott took another bite of his General Tso's chicken. "Ellie, how do you plan on getting Mom and Dad there, anyway?"
She paused with a bite of her food halfway to her mouth. That was the one part of her grand plan that she hadn't quite figured out yet. Their father was willing to go along with pretty much anything, but their mother was a different story—Rachel Hudson had to have a reason for absolutely everything.
Ellie cleared her throat. "I don't know," she muttered. "I haven't really figured that part out yet." She shifted under the gazes of her brothers and older sister. Sophie and Nathan were quietly watching with sympathetic looks on their faces.
Suddenly, it was too much for Ellie. She loved planning the vowel renewal from her parents, and she knew that she had endless help from her family. Still, it didn't stop her from feeling like she had the weight of the whole situation on her shoulders.
Ellie jumped to her feet and ran into the kitchen. In the event that any of her siblings followed her, she busied herself by pretending to put dishes away. She heard footsteps behind her, and she assumed it was Sophie—as Ellie's best friend, she was the obvious choice of person to send, after all.
It wasn't Sophie.
It was Nathan.
"Hey." He reached out and touched her shoulder, and Ellie froze. "Are you okay?"
She looked up into his golden eyes and marveled over how interesting they were. She had never met anyone who was as beautiful as Nathan O'Neill was. She always felt on edge whenever she was around him, but in the best way possible—it was the same as when she had met him three years ago.
Ellie cleared her throat. "I'm fine. I'm totally fine. No one is finer than I am."
Chuckling, Nathan put his hands on Ellie's shoulders and turned her so she was facing him. "You sure about that?"
"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
Nathan peered at Ellie. It was like his golden eyes were peering into her soul, and Ellie wanted to look away from him. But she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't.
Damn it.
He stepped closer to her. "It's stressful. You want this to be perfect. But I've met your parents, Ellie. They're going to love this no matter what. You know that."
"I know that." Ellie dragged a hand through her messy, wavy hair. "But I don't actually know that." She pulled herself from Nathan's grasp and started pacing back and forth in front of him. "What if I don't pick the right flowers? What if the venue has to cancel at the last second? What if the caterer delivers the wrong kind of cake? Oh my god, what if my parents don't fall for whatever lame excuse I come up with, and I have to spoil the whole surprise? What if—"
Suddenly, Nathan's hands were on Ellie's shoulders once again. In the back of her mind, she thought that he was going to shake her or something. Anything to knock her out of the weird funk she was in. Instead of shaking her, however, Nathan pulled her closer.
And then his lips were on hers.
It took Ellie maybe a quarter of a second before she realized that Nathan was kissing her. Reaching up, she twined her arms around his neck and pressed as close to him as she could possibly get.
Maybe Nathan had intended for the kiss to be soft and gentle, but it didn't turn out like that. Instead, it was all lips and tongue, and hot, fiery passion. Ellie found herself pressed against the kitchen counter with Nathan's hard, muscular body fitted against hers, and she knew in that moment that she wanted nothing more than Nathan's lips and body on hers.
Just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over.
One second, Ellie was passionately kissing Nathan. The next, he was on the opposite side of the kitchen and Ellie was gasping for air. She was disoriented and confused, and she could do nothing more than stare at Nathan as he ran out of the kitchen.
What the hell had just happened?
The vow renewal is coming up next! :)