Page 114 of Eleanor & Grey

“I’m not talking about for your father. I’m talking about for Lorelai.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Lorelai really misses you, Karla.”

“We live in the same house—I see her enough.”

“She needs you,” I told her.

“She’s fine,” she replied.

“Okay, I get it. You’re mad at your father, and I understand. You feel like he abandoned you, and you’re fully allowed to take as much time as you need to work through those feelings. But you have to understand that if there is one person who understands what you are going through, it’s Lorelai. She lost her mother, just like you. Please don’t make her lose her sister, too. She needs her sister, Karla. She needs you.”

Karla’s stare shifted, and she looked down to her shoes as she fiddled with her hands. Then, she got to her feet, picked up her plate, and grumbled. “Whatever. As long as it gets you to stop bringing this up.”

I smiled, pleased, and walked back to the dining room with her.

She put her plate down at the table, pulled out her chair, and plopped down. Greyson seemed beyond puzzled, and Lorelai’s eyes lit up when she saw her sister.

“You’re eating with us, Karla?” Lorelai inquired, clearly stunned.

“Looks like it,” she mumbled with her cell phone in one hand and her fork in the other.

“That’s good. I missed eating with you,” Lorelai said slurping up her spaghetti. “Mom missed you, too,” she said, nodding toward the untouched plate of pasta left out for Nicole.

Karla rolled her eyes. “Mom’s not here, Lorelai,” she said. “There’s no such thing as angels.”

“Karla,” I snapped, but Lorelai shrugged her shoulders and leaned in toward me.

She whispered, “It’s okay, Ellie. Mom knows Karla doesn’t mean it.”

Karla rolled her eyes again then she looked toward Greyson. “Just to be clear, I’m not here because of you,” she stated sternly. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“Duly noted,” he said, putting his hands up in surrender.

Greyson looked my way and mouthed, Thank you.

I nodded once and went back to eating.

As we ate, a big part of me wanted to tell Karla to get off her phone, but at least she was sitting down at the table. At least she had showed up, even though I was sure it was hard for her to do. I was almost certain it was hard for every single person to show up to that table that night.

One step at a time, Eleanor.

One step at a time.

“I can’t believe that after all this time, I finally get to see him,” Shay remarked as we drove over to Greyson’s house for the baseball game. “I mean, I know you’ve told me about him, and I’ve been tuning in the best I can to your reality show, but actually seeing Greyson after all this time is going to be surreal. It’s as if I’m an extra on your show,” she exclaimed.

I laughed. “You’re so ridiculous.”

“Does he look the same?” she asked.

“Um, yeah, but like, in a grown-up way. You’ll see.”

“So this is gonna be your new home when you marry Greyson, huh?” Shay said as we pulled onto the property. “Not too shabby.”

“For the love of God, I just hope you avoid saying all these things in front of him.”

“No promises. You know me—I’m a talker.”

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