Oh, and Edward just stood there staring in horror while Lucy held his hand in a death grip. It was Brandon who helped her up. Several other people came to see if she was okay and insisted on jogging next to her the rest of the way after bandaging her knees. But not Edward. When he was done staring, he went back to pretending she didn’t exist. Maybe it was part of the act, maybe he didn’t realize he was making his choice by making no choice at all, but regardless, it was time for Elinor to stay out of the way.
***
Edward was doing everything Lucy said, like a good blackmail victim, and every day he felt worse. Elinor’s understanding, distant smiles felt like needles in his heart. Lucy’s smug, triumphant ones were like prison bars. This couldn’t continue. He wasn’t sleeping. He wasn’t living. He was just… waiting.
One promise, given with the best of intentions, had turned into a never-ending nightmare. Of all the contingencies Edward had thought of back then, falling in love with someone new had not entered his mind. He’d overestimated his attachment to Lucy, and he’d doubted his future judgment. Being single for a while hadn’t seemed so bad at the time. He just hadn’t seen Elinor coming.
Edward stared at his ceiling once again, knowing he needed to fall back asleep, and knowing he wouldn’t. So, he got up, dressed, and went to his garage. A while back, he’d bought the lumber to fix the Dashwoods’ sagging porch steps. He’d even cut the boards to size. But that was as far as he got.
Well, there was no time like today. He opened his garage and hauled a board across the street, leaving it near their porch before going back for the others. Then he grabbed his drill, put a fresh battery pack on it, and went to work.
With all his focus on doing something good for once, he hadn’t considered how much racket he’d be making at five in the morning. He pulled off the rotten boards as quietly as possible, but at the first whine of the drill securing the new board, the front door popped open and a sleepy-looking Elinor ducked her head out.
“Edward? What are you doing?”
“Fixing your porch.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” The corner of her mouth turned up in a smile. “But why right now?”
He shrugged. The answer was too complicated for mere words. “Do I need to stop?”
“No. My mom and Greta are deep sleepers.”
“Are you going to come keep me company?”
She sighed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” But she didn’t shut the door.
She seemed to be having an internal argument, one he didn’t want to interrupt, but with their front door open he couldn’t continue to work. Deep sleepers or not, the whole house would wake up, and right now, all he wanted was Elinor to himself. Even if it was just her standing next to him.
When he’d paused long enough for her to realize why, she stepped out and shut the door carefully behind her. Today her socks had Mondays on them. Perfect for a Friday morning. Her fuzzy pajamas pants were covered in hippo ballerinas. But best of all, she had bedhead, where the back of her hair was having a static cling party while the front couldn’t quite be tamed by a tuck behind her ears. It made him think of waking up next to her on a thousand mornings, and being extremely glad for every single one.
A fierce protectiveness washed over him. No matter what, he wouldn’t let Lucy hurt her.
“How’s Marianne?”
Elinor shrugged. “She hasn’t said much. And what worries me more than that—she asked me for Brandon’s phone number. I almost didn’t give it to her.”
“But you did.”
She shrugged, a ghost of a smile crossing her face. “I figured Brandon’s a big boy. If he doesn’t want to be her sounding board, he’ll tell her.”
“But he’s not a big boy when it comes to her.”
“No, he’s a giant child when it comes to Marianne, that’s for sure.” Elinor’s gaze seemed to seep into his soul. Was she making the comparison, too? There was something beautiful about being a risk-taker when it came to love. It would probably end in disaster and heartbreak, but at least Marianne and Brandon were going for what they wanted.
“I’m sorry,” The apology sort of burst out of him.
“About what?”
“Everything. My fake engagement.”
She pierced him with her stare, for once, letting a little bit of anger at the situation show. “You’re sacrificing for a greater cause. I’m sure Lucy will be eternally grateful.” She turned and tried to retreat through the front door, and he jumped up to follow, immediately tripping on the board he’d been about to put in and making a greater racket than any drill could do.
Elinor knelt down to check on him, trying to keep her laughter in check and failing miserably. “What a pair we make.” A tear escaped from her eyes and she immediately tried to hide it.
“Elinor.” He took her face in his hands and kissed every tear that escaped.
“No.” She shook her head, gently pulling away. “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
“That saying doesn’t make any sense. The world should retire it.”
“No, it does make sense. Greta learned it the hard way when she was four. She learned you can’t chuck your ice cream cone in the lake, and eat it too.”
“I’m not chucking any ice cream cones. I’m trying to protect them.”
“Protect them from what?” Elinor shook her head. “Never mind. This feels like the beginning of another bad game of twenty questions. I won’t play that anymore.” She gave him one quick, fierce kiss, and retreated inside the house.
