Eleanor & Grey(101)

“Karla…” My voice dropped, and I grimaced. “You know why we can’t—”

“Yeah, Dad, I get it. You’re fucked up, I’m fucked up, Eleanor’s fucked up—we’re all fucked up! But we might as well be fucked up together.”

“Language,” Eleanor and I said in unison.

I smiled, she smiled, and damn, I loved it.

More of that, Ellie…

I missed those smiles.

“See? You both are even corny together. So, you have to be together.” Karla shrugged. “Look, I get it. I sometimes fall apart and make things hard, but I just want you to know that I want Eleanor here. So does Lorelai. We don’t need to wait until we are perfectly healed, Dad. We can be a team with a few cracks still left to fix. Through the good and the bad. Besides…” She gave Eleanor a hesitant grin. “We made a pinky promise.”

She turned and headed back to her bedroom.

I parted my mouth to speak, but no words came to mind. Because this was what I wanted, Eleanor was who I craved.

I locked eyes with Eleanor and brushed my thumb against my chin. Nerves filled me up as she kept smiling my way.

“Grey, if you’re not ready for this, I—”

“Ellie?”

“Yes?”

I stuffed my hands into my pockets. “You’ve been my true north since the day I met you. You’ve healed my family in more ways than I could count. You brought me back to life after my soul had died. You save my life each and every time you cross my mind. Just the thought of you heals me. I know we have things to figure out. I know there are hurdles that we have to jump, but if you’re willing, I am willing to take the leap. I want to leap and fly with you and only you for the rest of my life. So, what do you say?”

She moved in closer and wrapped her arms around me. I placed my hands against her lower back and pulled her to me. Our lips brushed, and I swore my whole life lit up with our possibilities.

“Okay,” she whispered against my skin. “Let’s fly.”

My mouth crashed against hers as I pulled her to me. We kissed for our past, we kissed for our present, and we kissed for our future.

Her lips took mine as if they were promising me forever.

Forever.

This kiss meant forever.

And I was okay with that fact.

We made it. After all these years, we began to descend on to our beautiful chapters. The chapters where pain became beauty. Where heartaches began to heal. Where always met forever.

She was she, I was me, and we were us.

This was our story.

This was our always and forever.

And it was going to be beautiful.





58





Greyson





Eleanor didn’t talk about her father as much as she used to, but I could tell that it still ate at her soul. Whenever I brought it up to her, she’d smile and tell me, “He is what he is, and there’s not really a place for me in his life.”

That broke my heart, because I knew it broke hers. And if her heart was breaking, mine cracked, too.

“I have to travel today for business,” I told Eleanor as we lay in bed a few weeks after she came back into my life. “Do you think you can watch the girls until I get back? I fly out early, but will be back home late tonight. It’s a really quick trip. I feel a bit odd about leaving with everything going on with Karla, but it’s a very important issue.”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll take care of them.”

I leaned in and kissed her. “I love you,” I whispered, and the words came so effortlessly. Almost as if we’d been saying it all our lives.

She kissed me back. “I love you, too.”

Of course we loved each other.

I was certain when our love began all those years ago, it never really stopped.





I found myself in Florida, standing on Eleanor’s father’s front porch. Shay had given me the address. I stood there for a minute with a book in my hand before I built up the courage to knock.

“Can I help you?” Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow as he opened his front door.

Eleanor might’ve had her mother’s smile, but she truly had her father’s eyes.

“Hi, yeah, I’m Greyson. I don’t know if you remember me, but we met many years ago through Eleanor. I was her friend from high school. I took her to homecoming.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, yes, Greyson. Long time.”

“It has been indeed.”

“How can I help you?” he asked, somewhat closing his door so I couldn’t see the mess that existed behind him.

“I’m actually here on behalf of Ellie. You see…I love her, sir. I am in love with your daughter for a million reasons. She is truly the greatest gift this world has given to me, and she is currently heartbroken because she misses her father.”

Kevin grimaced and huffed. “Now, look, if you came here to make me feel bad—”

“That’s not why I’m here,” I cut in. “Not at all. Trust me, if anyone knows what you’re going through, it’s me. Over a year ago, my wife passed away, leaving me with my two daughters. I shut down completely. I pushed everything and everyone away because I couldn’t face a world where Nicole no longer existed. But then, against my stubbornness, Eleanor Gable came back into my life, and she saved me. She’s the most patient person in the world, Kevin, and I bet she gets that trait from her mother. I bet she gets a lot of her best traits from Paige.”