Page 36 of Racing Hearts

I really need to figure out a way to make these two get along.

That was a problem for another day, though. For now, they needed to work out. After discussing what made the most sense, Ellie and Sierra got to work. After an hour and a half, they were both sweaty and exhausted.

Ellie lay down on the floor and stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t think I’m ever going to stand again.”

Her view of the ceiling was blocked when Sierra walked over and stood above her. “You need to, or your legs are going to cramp up.” She held her hand out toward Ellie. “Here.”

Ellie accepted Sierra’s help as she stood. Yet, even with her feet planted firmly on the ground, she couldn’t get herself to let go of Sierra’s hand.

She looked in front of her where Sierra had beads of sweat running down her forehead and across her chest. Her heart beat faster as her eyes followed the trail into her cleavage. It was wrong for her to be checking Sierra out like this, so sheforced her eyes up. That proved to be a mistake, though. Sierra’s deep blue eyes were boring into hers, and for a moment, Ellie forgot how to breathe. Really, she forgot how to do anything. She was frozen in place, barely breathing, and her heart was beating out of her chest, but she didn’t want it to stop. She wanted to stay lost like this forever.

When Sierra’s hand fell away from hers, reality came crashing in around Ellie.What the hell just happened?It felt like something Ellie was very familiar with, but that couldn’t be the case. There was no way Ellie had a crush on Sierra.

“So, um, do you want to hang out?” she asked dumbly. Out of all the things to say, those were the words that decided to come out of her mouth? Really?

Sierra stared at Ellie as if she had no idea what to say. After a few seconds, she pointed toward the stairs. “I need to shower, and I should probably spend some time with my moms.”

“Of course. Yeah.” Ellie should probably spend time with her moms too.

She waited a few minutes to go upstairs, because her moms could read her like a book. If she didn’t take the time to get her emotions under control, they would immediately know there was something up with her.

“Hey, sweetie!” her mama said as soon as she walked through the door from the basement. She was sitting at the kitchen table with Ellie’s mom, both sipping their coffee as if they had nowhere to be.

“No work today?” Ellie asked.

Her mom chuckled. “Have you looked outside? At this rate, I’d say we’ll probably end up closed through Christmas.”

Ellie looked outside and was surprised to see how much snow was still coming down. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much snow.”

Her mom nodded. “This is definitely some pre-global warming shit going on right now. They are saying it’s a blizzard. We haven’t had one of those in ages.”

A blizzard? Wow. Ellie didn’t think she would ever see one of those with how all of the winters she could remember had gone. Normally, it didn’t snow until January or February, and it was nothing like the extent of what was coming down now.

“So, what are we doing today?” Ellie asked.

Her mama smiled at her mom before looking back at Ellie. “We’re doing housework and catching up on bills. Do you want to join?”

“I’ll pass. Where are Sierra’s moms?”

“Up in the guest room doing some work.” Her mama raised an eyebrow at her and smirked. “Looks like you, Sierra, and Sienna will have to find a way to entertain yourselves today.”

After talking to her mom for a few more minutes, Ellie went upstairs to shower. She got dressed into sweats and headed across the hall to Sierra and Sienna’s room. She paused for a moment before knocking as she thought back on the feelings Sierra had stirred up in her earlier. Maybe hanging out with her wasn’t the best idea, but what else was Ellie supposed to do? She couldn’t make her guests stay in their room all day.

“Come in!” Sienna shouted after Ellie found the strength to knock.

Ellie walked in to find both Sienna and Sierra lying on the bed. Sienna was scrolling through her phone, and Sierra was completely entranced by the book she was reading. Ellie had to fight the urge to stare at her, because she looked so damn cute with her eyebrows furrowed and lips tipped up in the slightest smile.

“Anything we can do for you?” Sienna asked, the amused tone to her voice telling Ellie that she had most likely been caught.

Ellie cleared her throat as she looked from Sierra to Sienna. “I was just wondering if you two wanted to watch a movie or play a game or something.”

“I’m down.” Sienna threw her phone onto the bed and slowly stood up, placing all of her weight on her good leg.

Sierra looked up from her book and blinked over at Ellie as if she had just noticed she was there. “I think I’m just going to read.”

“Okay.” Ellie tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice, but she was pretty sure she didn’t do a very good job of it. “We’ll go over to my room so we don’t bother you.”

After a movie and two card games, Sierra still hadn’t joined them. It wasn’t that Ellie wasn’t enjoying her time with Sienna, but it was the other sister she was trying to win over. Ellie instinctively looked toward the door for what had to be the hundredth time in the hope that Sierra would walk in the room.

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