Page 147 of Return Policy

“Garbage?” Jenna scoffs. “Well, that sure isn’t stopping you from eating to your heart’s content.” My lips curve upward as I enjoy their playful banter. I didn’t really have a lot of family around growing up, but I can imagine how full Elijah’s heart must have felt being here.

“Hey. I lost the need to keep my girlish figure when I married your dad. And now that he’s in heaven, I know his love for me grows as my curves do… And he likes me better this way,” she says matter-of-factly before extending a hand out towards Jenna and the other toward me.

I stare down at it.

Does she need the salt?

Jenna grabs Grandma Mia’s hand and slides her other one into Elijah’s.Are we praying?Elijah wiggles his fingers at me, and I slide my hands into theirs, pretending I know what the fuck we’re doing, my foot tapping nervously beneath the table.

“Dear God,” Jenna begins, and they all close their eyes. “Thank you for this morning, for bringing our baby and Sophia to us safely. Thank you for the angels that are watching over everyone at this table.” I glance around, and Elijah cracks open an eye, peering at me. I snap mine shut, heat flushing my face. “Please be with Abigail, Lord. We wish she could be here, but we know your plan and timing is best.” Elijah rubs his thumb over my knuckles, relieving a morsel of my anxieties. “Bless this food and let it nourish our bodies. In your son Jesus’s name, we pray, amen.”

“Amen,” Elijah and Grandma Mia say.

“Amen,” I rush out awkwardly and a bit too loud as we release hands.

Elijah reaches over, squeezing my knee. He winks while chewing on his food, somehow still looking like sex on a stick.

“So how did you two meet?” Jenna asks, waving her fork between me and Elijah.

“He stalked me and scared the bejesus out of me,” I say with a serious face, causing Jenna and Grandma Mia to burst out laughing.

“That is hardly the story.” Elijah narrows his eyes at me.

“Fine.” I roll my eyes dramatically. “Elijah crashed our graduation party in Longwood and chatted me up in the woods. I thought he was a serial killer.”

“Why do you think I brought you to my abandoned farm in the middle of nowhere?” Elijah grins, and I let out a bubbling laugh. “But if youmustknow…” He turns his attention back to Jenna and Grandma Mia. “I saw her walking through the woods and was just… I was mesmerized by how beautiful she is.” My cheeks flush with heat as my eyes drop to my French toast. “I knew I had to talk to her, so I followed her, and… I guess that was alittlestalkerish.”

“Try Joe fromYou.” I point my fork at him. “But please continue.”

“It took about ten minutes of her smart mouth to know I was a goner… And I guess it all worked out, huh?”

I smirk as he reaches over, gently squeezing my thigh. “I guess it did.”

“But I was an idiot and didn’t get her number before her friend dragged her away.”

“Couldn’t you have just looked her up on Facestagram?” Grandma Mia asks.

“It’s Instagram,Nama,” Elijah corrects. “And I couldn’t find her there. But thankfully, we ran back into each other a few months later. And the rest is history.”

“Well, wasn’t that a blessing?” Jenna beams, flicking her eyes between Elijah and me.

I feel slightly strange about her acting like our reconnection was some gift from God. It’s been a long time since I’ve believed there was a higher power out there controlling all of this… I mostly just believe the universe creates the life for us it chooses, and that’s that. No greater being pulling our strings like puppets. If there were, why would he have caused such turmoil in my life? Why would he have taken Chloe so young? What did she do to deserve that?

“So, sweetie,” Jenna asks, pulling me out of my thoughts, “Elijah mentioned you’re Will Summers's daughter?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Her face lights up. “You know him and I went to Longwood High together?”

I never considered Jenna may have known my family too…

“Small world,” I laugh nervously.Please don’t have more family drama I’m unaware of.

“Who’s your mom?”

Oh, you know… the washed-up drug addict who abandoned me before my sister died and never came back.

“Lysa.”

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