Elli moaned as Shea continued to push her out of bed.

“Fine, fine, I’m going,” she complained as she threw the blankets off of her and headed for the shower.

“You’re mean,” she spat back at him as he just laughed.

“I bet you won’t be saying that later!” he countered as she went into the bathroom.

A grin covered her face since he was probably right. She was so excited for today, she could hardly contain it. It was weird for her to be excited about her birthday, but she was. Another thing Shea had changed in her life.

The man was a Godsend. He made her feel so good about herself, made her happy, made her excited about things that she had never been excited about before. He had taken care of her all week, making sure she recovered quickly, which she had. She had never bounced back from being sick so quickly, and when she said that to Shea, he laughed.

“My mom always said that a lot of love will chase any sickness away.”

Mrs. Adler was completely right.

Elli took off her t-shirt and hopped into the shower, letting the hot water warm her body. She had been so happy staying at her house with Shea and was a little sad that they had to return to Nashville. It seemed that time stood still when they were in her house, that the outside world didn’t exist. Or maybe that was the sickness, because God knew she couldn’t do anything but lay in bed. Elli didn’t even know what was going on with the studio. She was sure it was okay, but she had no clue what the schedule or anything looked like.

After washing up, Elli got out and brushed her hair out before going back into the bedroom. Shea must have been out with Alder because he wasn’t in bed. Elli went to her closet, looking through her clothes for something to wear. She decided on a pair of worn Wranglers and a Toy Story t-shirt that she had gotten when she went to Toy Story on Ice with the kids. She went back into her bathroom, getting ready for the day. She didn’t know if she should do her hair, so she just dried it, and put it up. After putting on some light makeup, she went to go pick some shoes. After taking 20 minutes to decide on boots or pumps, she went with her black cowboy boots that had red hearts all over them. They were her favorite, and her most broken in boots.

Elli made her way down the hall, through her living room to the kitchen, where Shea stood drinking his coffee. A grin went over his face as she wrapped her arms around his waist, placing her cheek in the middle of his chest. He was dressed in jeans and a sweater, with his trusty chucks. He was ready to go, apparently.

“Ready, babe? Adler’s already in the car.”

“Yup, you sure are in a hurry to leave my house,” she teased as she let him go, putting on her jacket that hung on the peg by the hall, “You don’t like my house?”

He shook his head, putting on his jacket as he stood in front of her.

“Of course I do, but we need to get back. Like I said, Harper is coming.”

She nodded as she locked up, heading towards her truck as he went to his. When she climbed into her truck, she saw that Adler wasn’t there. She looked in the rearview mirror and there sat her dog, in the passenger side of Shea’s car.

Damn dog.

Harper was already waiting when Elli pulled up. It was no surprise that Shea beat her home. He drove like a bat out of hell, so she wasn’t even surprised when she pulled up to see Harper and Shea talking beside the truck. Elli got out of the truck and locked it as she walked towards the two most important people in her life right now. Harper smiled over at Elli, wrapping her arm around her shoulders.

“Happy birthday!”

“Why, thank you very much,” Elli said with a grin, “What brings you by?”

“Part of the surprise of today, come on! Say bye to your boy toy, let’s roll!”

Elli shook her head as she giggled, wrapping her arms around Shea.

“When will I see you, Mr. Secretive?”

Shea laughed as he kissed her cheek, “Later on tonight, have fun.”

“Doing what?”

“Shut up, stop trying to ruin the surprise,” he said before leaning down to capture her lips with his. He kissed her long and lavishly before pulling away and smiling down at her.

“See you tonight.”

Elli narrowed her eyes at him, pouting her lips, “Bye.”

She listened to his laughter all the way to Harper’s Honda. They both waved at Shea as Harper backed up, heading south on West End.

“You look great, babe. Really good.”

“Thanks, Harper. I feel a lot better” Elli answered as she looked out the window. As excited as she was for the surprise, she hated not knowing.

“Shea took good care of you?”

“He did,” Elli said beaming, “He bathed me, Harp, like actually stood in the shower and held me in his arms to wash me. He’s amazing.”

Harper nodded, “Hell, yeah he is. That’s great. I was hoping you wouldn’t be mad I called him.”

“No, I wasn’t. I was actually glad. I didn’t like that he saw me so sick, but I needed help. Lord knows you can’t handle it.”

Harper shook her head, a look of horror on her face.

“It scares the living shit out of me when you get like that. I’m glad Shea handled it well, though.”

“Me too,” Elli agreed as they pulled into Escape Day Spa and Salon.

Elli had never been there and wondered why they were there now. Harper got out, leaving Elli scrambling to get out of the car. She only took a step before Jodi, Reese, Piper, and Trice jumped out from behind a car, yelling, “Surprise!”