I chuckled but bit my tongue. It seemed a little like she was giving me an opening to talk about the future, a future I badly wanted to plan with her, but I was nervous, scared to overwhelm her with too much at once.
So I just said, “I’ll be here to help with whatever you need.”
And then I stood, walking two paces to the rosebushes that I’d been desperately trying to keep alive for years now. Bushes I’d needled my mom about endlessly, wanting to know how to take care of them properly. I snapped a flower off, being careful of the prickly stem as I handed it to Ellie.
She stared at it thoughtfully as she took it from me. “Is this where you tell me that every rose has its thorn?”
I shook my head as I sat back beside her. I had no intention of trying to convince her that there was a silver lining in her loss.
“No?” Her questioning gaze wandered over my face. “Nothingabout how we have to make it through the thorny parts of life to find the beauty waiting for us?”
The corner of my mouth lifted as I considered her. “No, El.”
“Is it just a flower, then?”
It was hard to tell if she was disappointed by that idea or not.
“It’s just a flower, yeah, but it’s our flower,” I reminded her, pointing to the stem dangling between her fingers and the slightly wilting petals attached to it. “You know, I’ve only given roses to one girl in my entire life.”
“Yeah?” Her voice was raspier than it had been a minute ago. She was staring at the cherry-pink petals now, twirling the flower delicately.
“Yeah, Eleanor.” I leaned down, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and breathing in the floral scent that has always seemed to surround her. “And I don’t plan for that to be changing.”
“You never have liked change,” she whispered.
“Actually,” I sighed, “I think this is the only thing in my life that I’m unwilling to change. The only nonnegotiable. Everything else can get thrown out the window as far as I’m concerned.”
Ellie tipped her head to the side, and it landed on my shoulder.
I could hear the slight smile in her voice when she spoke next.
“I don’t think we have to throweverythingelse out the window.”
Our conversation lapsed into silence again after that.
But Eleanor muttering the word “we”carried me through the rest of the week.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
ellie
“HELLOOO!”
I did a double take at the screen of my phone when the voice that answered my call was undoubtedlynotmy best friend, but someone who sounded about twenty-five years younger. And then, “What’s up, Aunt Ellie?” came through the speaker, and everything made sense.
I laughed, my heart immediately squeezing with a joy I hadn’t expected to experience on this phone call, considering my plan to fill Natalie in on everything that had happened since I saw her at the custody trial.
It had only been a couple of weeks, but God, it felt infinitely longer.
“What’s up, Chlo? How’s my favorite almost fifth grader?”
“Nu-uh,” she shot back, as sharp as ever. “I asked you first.”
“Just calling to fill your mom in on some stuff,” I answered with a soft smile, pulling my legs beneath me on the couch and dragging a blanket over my lap.
I’d made a comment the other day that the house was feeling a bit warm, and Sully immediately cranked the air-conditioning, and now I didn’t want to complain that it was freezing. It would probably become a sauna.
“Is it cool stuff?” Chloe questioned, always curious.
