Elle's POV
Noah and I talked whenever we had a chance in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We decided we were going to wait until Christmas Day to tell our families all together about our relationship. I planned to fly in on Saturday and spend my first night back in LA at the Flynn's but instead I left work a little early on Friday and flew back a day early. I wanted to surprise Noah.
I knew Noah would be home at the time I would be arriving, this was the time we had been talking each night for the last few weeks, right after Noah gets home from work. I gave him a call after the car dropped me off at his apartment.
"Shelly! No Facetime tonight? I know I'm going to see you tomorrow, but I still wanted to see your face tonight." I rang his doorbell while he was still talking. "Hey, can you hold on a second. Someone's at the door, I'm not sure who would be here right now."
He opened the door and the look he gave me made me wish I decided to surprise him more often. I jumped into his arms and started kissing him before he even figured out what was going on.
"What are you doing here, Shelly? I didn't think I would get to see you until tomorrow night at my parents."
"I missed you! And I knew I wouldn't be able to do this when I saw you at your parents, so I decided I better get here a little earlier." I started kissing him again.
Noah pulled my suitcase into his apartment and pushed his door shut with me in his arms and carried me back to his bedroom. "I'm glad you thought of this, Shelly, I missed you too! I'm not sure I would have been able to say hi without kissing you in front of everyone if I saw you for the first time in weeks at my parents."
The weeks we spent apart had been hard on both of us, but making up for lost time tonight had almost made it worth it. Getting to spend the whole night with Noah to myself was a great way to start off this Christmas trip but I was really looking forward to Noah moving to Chicago so we wouldn't have to be apart like this again. I hope it won't be much longer before he gets an answer from his boss.
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I left Noah's late the next morning and went to my house to stop in to see my family before heading over to hang out with Lee and stay at the Flynn's for the night. I had always loved going to the Flynn's for Christmas. June always filled the house with decorations and I have a lot of fun memories of helping her decorate . Walking into their house this year brings back all the memories of our past Christmases together. The whole family was sitting together in the living room near the beautiful Christmas tree and I could hear the Christmas music playing through the speakers. I'm a little surprised to see Noah there, I expected to see him at supper later tonight, but he didn't say anything about coming beforehand. I say hi to June, Matthew, and Lee. I try not show how happy I am to see Noah when I say hi to him.
June pulled me into her arms for a big hug. "Elle, it's so nice to have you here. We don't see enough of you these days. Why don't you come in the kitchen and help me get some drinks for everyone?" I followed June into the kitchen. She stopped at the cabinet with the glasses, turned to me and put a hand on my arm. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that Noah was going to be here today. Are you okay with that? You guys seem to be okay around each other now, right?" She had a worried look on her face.
"Of course, it's fine. I knew there was a possibility he would be here, now that he lives in town, but we're really okay these days." We're more than okay and I really want to tell June that but Noah was pretty insistent that we wait until everyone was together.
"Oh, good. I saw how surprised you looked when you walked in and I know how hard it was for both of you for a while there. I'm just so happy that you aren't avoiding each other anymore, I love having everyone here for the holidays!"
"Me too. I missed you all so much in the year we didn't get together." June leaned in and gave me another hug.
"I know, we all should have tried harder to work things out back then. I'm so looking forward to having everyone together this year! You know, your Dad told me that it was you that suggested he invite Noah over for Thanksgiving. That was very sweet of you. I'm sure it was hard after everything that happened between the two of you, but I know he appreciated being to spend the holiday with you guys."
"It was no problem, I felt bad that he would be alone."
"And I'm sorry if I got you worried about Noah inviting a friend with him for Christmas. I just had a feeling that something was going on, but he won't tell me anything, so I'm trying my best to drop it for now." I didn't want to say anything where I would have to lie to June to her face about Noah and me, so I just smiled at her. I think she took it as a hint I didn't want to discuss it. "You have grown into such an amazing young woman. You know how proud your Mom would be of you, right?"
"Thanks, June, I hope so!" June and I both teared up a little. It always made me so emotional when June brought up my Mom. I felt really lucky that if I couldn't have my Mom with me anymore, at least I had June who knew my Mom so well and loved me like a daughter. We finished pouring drinks for everyone and headed back out into the living room.
Lee and I took our drinks and walked up to his room, leaving Noah and his parents talking in the living room. "So, how are things going with you and my brother?"
"Wonderful! It was hard to be away from each other for the last few weeks, but I feel really good about us. I surprised him at his apartment last night by coming home a night earlier. . ." Lee interrupted me there.
"I don't think I need to hear any details about that, but I can tell by the way your whole face lit up when you started talking about him that he makes you happy."
My phone buzzed and I looked down at a text from Noah. I respond quickly without stopping my conversation with Lee.
Noah – What are you and Lee up to?
Elle – We're just talking – actually talking about you right now.
"Noah and I have actually had a couple long conversations since I've been home and he's talked about you a lot. I can tell that he is as in love with you as he was before. I'm really glad you guys finally worked it out."
"He makes me really happy. I was surprised to see he's already here, I thought I wouldn't see him again until tonight. Although, I'm not sure how we're going to hide we're together if we're around each other the rest of the day."
Noah – Well, don't believe anything Lee says about me.
Elle – Haha, he was saying some nice things about you.
"Is that him now?"
Noah – I was kidding, he's my brother, he knows me so well.
I looked back at Lee sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that. He's just asking what we're up to."
"Are you telling everyone soon? Mom is determined to figure out what is going on with him. He's been hanging out with my parents a little more lately. Mom is beyond happy about it; you know Momma's boy and all that."
"We're going to tell everyone when we're all together on Christmas Day. You and I have plans for tomorrow and I'll be at my Dad's all day Christmas Eve, so it's only today that we really have to hide it."
"That's good. Mom asked me the other day if I thought you two were talking again and I had to change the subject so I didn't have to lie about it. She told me that she had wondered if you two could have gotten back together but since you live in different states, she knew that probably wasn't the case and it must be wishful thinking on her part."
"Thanks for not outing us to her. I'm sorry you have to keep the secret from your Mom for us. I felt bad earlier when she was asking me about it and I didn't tell her."
Lee and I decided to hang out by the pool for a bit and just relax. We were both headed into our last semester of college and were getting excited about going out into the real world. A little while later I went inside to use the bathroom. I didn't see any of the Flynns on my way in but as I came out of the bathroom, Noah walked by and pulled me into the movie room. This was familiar, this room was easy to hide in. No one could see you when they walked by and it wasn't a room that people were usually in. Noah and I spent a lot of time in here when we were sneaking around in high school.
"Noah, what are you doing?" Noah didn't reply, he just smirked at me as he pulled me in for a kiss.
"Does this bring back any memories, Shelly? You two have been outside a long time, I've been waiting for you to come in."
"Where are your parents?" I whispered in case they were close by.
"They're in the kitchen. They won't be able to hear us in here."
"You know, Lee already knows. Maybe we should just tell your parents now and we can tell my family tomorrow or on Christmas Day. I feel kind of bad not telling your Mom. She apologized to me earlier about you being here and telling me that she thought you were dating someone."
"I still think we should wait until we're all together. It won't hurt to sneak around for a little while longer. And I guarantee my Mom won't be mad when we finally tell her, regardless of how long we kept it from her. She's been mentioning you a lot to me this afternoon."
"Well, if you think we should wait, I guess we can hide it for a little while longer. I better get back out to Lee, he's going to wonder what happened to me." I gave Noah one last kiss and snuck out of the movie room.
That evening, as we all sat down to eat, I almost felt like we were back in high school when we would all eat together before we would all go to a party or Noah and I would take off on a date. After we ate, Lee and I planned on watching a movie. Noah's Dad had to leave for a client's Christmas party for the evening, so June and Noah ended up joining us also.
Lee and I were sitting next to each other on one couch and Noah and his Mom were on the other couch. I was doing my best trying not to pay attention to Noah, but every once in awhile I would catch his eye watching me. June left the room to make us some popcorn and Noah came over to where I was sitting and gave me a quick kiss.
"Noah, I thought we were trying not to get caught!"
Lee rolled his eyes at us. "Not that you two care, but I'm going to the kitchen to get . . . something."
"I think I've been acting pretty normal, but I've been wanting to do that, since we started the movie, Shelly."
We heard June and Lee walking back towards the movie room and Noah ran back to his seat. My phone vibrated on the table in front of me and I looked at it when we started the movie up.
Noah - Are you staying in the guest room tonight?
Elle - That's the plan.
Noah - Any chance you're tired and need to go to bed early?
Noah must have something planned for tonight.
Elle - Well someone did keep me up late last night, so I am getting tired. Maybe I'll head to bed when this movie is over.
Noah looked over at me with a big smile on his face, showing off his dimples. Lee mistook what he was smiling about and made a comment about the hot actress in the movie we were watching. Noah just laughed and agreed with him. I had to laugh at them both, I had missed hanging out like this, with both of my Flynn guys together.