He'd been over to her house in a flash, and had confirmed that she had, in fact, secured the bookshelves successfully, but the episode had left Eleanor scrambling to catch up with her evening. She’d raced through her shower and blow-drying her hair, then had grabbed her makeup bag to deal with in the car, since they were running way late.
And she absolutely, definitely, one hundred percent could not be late for June’s big night, not after all the courage June had shown in scheduling this event with all their friends.
But she just hadn’t been able to walk away from getting those shelves installed, not until she knew they were secure. It wasn’t just about the safety issue of having an unsecured bookshelf either. The closer she got to her opening day, the more and more excited she felt. And the more excited she felt, the more she felt drawn to the work to get things up and running.
It was just all so wonderful. This felt like a bright new chapter.
And the man beside her was a big part of what made this new chapter feel so wonderful.
“Hey,” she said, stowing away her makeup bag, “did I say thank you for coming over so quickly today? Because thank you. I appreciate it. Especially because I was just being a nervous Nelly.”
“Of course,” Garrett replied, not taking his eyes off the road. “You’re my girlfriend. You call me for help, I come.”
“Pull over,” Eleanor demanded.
Garrett flicked a surprised glance at her. “What?”
“Pull over,” she repeated firmly.
He did so, brow furrowed with confusion. When they were safely tucked off on the side of the road, she grasped his cheeks and made him look directly at her.
“Did you just call me your girlfriend?” she asked.
Understanding lit his gaze, and a smile spread across his face. Even so, he looked a bit shy as he answered. “I did. Is that okay?”
In lieu of a response, she used her grip on his face to pull him close to her.
And then she laid a big kiss right on his mouth.
When she pulled back, they were both smiling.
“So I guess it’s okay, then,” he mumbled bashfully.
“Yeah, it’s more than okay,” she said. She was definitely grinning like a kid with her first crush, but she didn’t care at all. That was how she felt.
Only better, because now she was old enough and smart enough not to put out her eye by doing her mascara in a moving car.
“Great,” he said, then paused. “Girlfriend.”
“That makes you myboyfriend,” she said gleefully.
He chuckled, briefly dropping his head back against the car seat.
“You know, I never thought I wanted to be anyone’s boyfriend ever again. After Maria left me… I felt that way for a long, long time.”
She waited patiently for him to speak. Though their relationship had gone a long way toward healing Garrett’s emotional wounds, she knew that talking about his former fiancée, who had left him shortly before their wedding, could still be challenging for him. As someone who had been married before, she understood. She still often felt conflicted about her past. On one hand, she didn’t regret her marriage at all. It had given her Jeremy, and she loved her son more than anything. She could never regret something that had brought Jeremy into the world. But she did sometimes wonder how she had let herself stay in a loveless marriage for so long.
She knew Garrett felt similarly about his pain. He’d told her that he now felt foolish for being so curmudgeonly when it came to love for so long, but he was also glad that he’d waited, since that had brought them together.
“But you, Eleanor,” he said after a few moments, his voice gruff. “Meeting you. It was…” He chuckled. “Well, you annoyed the pants off of me at the start, don’t get me wrong.”
“So romantic,” she teased.
“Yeah, well, you turned out to be the best annoyance in the world,” he said, his eyes fond. “I’m real lucky to have you. I know that. And you don’t annoy me at all, anymore, if it helps.”
“I can work harder. I’ll up my game,” she promised.
His laughter faded as he pressed his mouth to hers.
