Page 49 of Eleanor & Grey

“My father. I heard him talking to Camila. He’s thinking about selling our house back home.”

“But I thought…I thought you guys would come back. I thought you’d be coming home.”

“Yeah…I thought that, too.”

The fairy tale part of me had thought I’d go back to Illinois, had thought Greyson and I could fall back together. I figured I’d be going to college up there, and even if we hadn’t gone to the same university, we’d be close enough to at least be with each other.

But, fairy tales aren’t real, and the reality of it was that I couldn’t leave my father, not when he was as broken as he was. If he was staying in Florida, I was going to stay right there with him. I’d made a promise to my mother, and I had no plans of breaking it.

“I just thought we’d have the summer, at least,” he said softly as he placed his hand on top of mine. “But it looks like we only have now.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Don’t be. Now is enough.”

“You go home tomorrow?” I asked after Greyson yawned, which made me yawn, too.

“Yeah. Pretty early. Camila said she’ll take me to the airport,” he told me.

“Grey?”

“Yes, Ellie?”

“How long will I be sad?”

He shrugged his shoulders before he combed my hair behind my ears. “For as long as it takes. There’s no rush to be happy, that will come when it’s ready.” I yawned again, and he smiled. “Get some sleep, Ellie.”

“You’ll stay with me?” I asked.

He moved in closer and wrapped his arms around me. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I slept awful that night. My sleep had been bad since Mom passed away. I’d randomly wake up from panics, in sweats, after twisting and turning nonstop.

When I awakened, Greyson was there to soothe me. He held me tight as I cried against his T-shirt. He told me it was fine to break, because he was there to pick up every broken piece of me.

“Still here, Ellie,” he whispered as my head lay against his chest.

He was still there.

When morning came and it was time for our goodbyes, I wasn’t ready for him to go. Truth was, I’d never be ready to say goodbye to him.

He held me in his arms, and I held him back. “Thank you for coming.”

“Thank you for everything,” he replied before whispering against my ear. “You have her smile. Did you know that? You have your mom’s smile.”

That made me hold him even tighter.

“What now?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” I didn’t have a clue what happened next.

“We’ll keep in touch, yeah? With email? Or you can call me? Or anything…”

“Of course, but also, I want you to live up college.”

“And you live up your life down here, too.”

“We’ll check in,” I swore. “On the good days and the bad.”

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