Page 38 of Eleanor & Grey

“Yeah, I mean, it seemed really important to her.” He paused and cringed a little. “But I mean, just to be clear I did it for me, too. I really wanted to dance with you, Ellie.”

My mouth parted and my sigh fell between my lips as I went back to swaying with him. I rested my head on his shoulder and breathed him in. “Grey?”

“Yes?”

“Would it be all right if I kept you forever?”

When my parents picked us up, we dropped Greyson off first, and when he was out of the car, Mom turned around and gave me the biggest grin. “So, how was it?” she asked.

I sighed, and I was certain she could see the stars in my eyes and the cheese in my smile.

Her grin widened as if that moment was the happiest moment she’d ever lived. “Yeah?” she asked.

I sighed, smiling with the kind of delirium that could only be described as happiness.

Yeah.

12

Eleanor

One day during the first week of November, I walked home from school, and when I headed inside, I was surprised to see Mom and Dad sitting in the kitchen. “Hey, I thought you had a doctor’s appointment,”

Mom rubbed her tired eyes. “We decided to miss it.”

“Miss it? You can’t just miss treatment like that, can you?”

Dad frowned. “We actually came to the decision to stop treatment, Eleanor. After getting some results back, we realized this was the best choice.”

“Well, what do we try now? What do we do?”

“Honey, I’m tired,” Mom confessed. “I’m so tired, and nothing we’re trying is working. I’m only getting worse, and I don’t want to spend these days feeling like this. I just want to be with you and your father.”

“You’re giving up?”

“No. I’m giving in. We’ve exhausted all of our options.”

I went quiet. I didn’t know what they wanted me to say. I didn’t know what to even think.

Dad rolled his shoulders back and cleared his throat. “I asked Paige what she wanted, and she said the water. We found a nice place on the beach down in Florida. It’s beautiful, Ellie.”

“You want us to go to Florida? For how long?” I asked.

Mom smiled. “For however long we’re able to be down there. I know that changes things for you. You’d have to switch schools during your senior year, and things with Greyson—”

“Whatever you want,” I blurted out. Mom had worry in her eyes about hurting me, and I couldn’t let that be her fear. My biggest concern was her. “Whatever you want, Mom.”

Wherever she wanted to be, I wanted to be there, too.

“A cancer vacation?” Greyson asked as we sat on the top step of his porch.

“Yeah, that’s what my dad called it. It would be a family trip to Florida for a few months because Mom’s treatment is over.”

His eyes widened with hope. “Because it worked?”

I frowned.

He lowered his head. “I’m sorry, Ellie.”

---