Always, me and Ellie.
When do you plan on moving into Maple Street?
ELEANOR: I was thinking of going there today, actually. I don’t want to overstay at your mom’s place.
I can come after work to help you.
ELEANOR: I just have a couple suitcases, it’s not really a lot.
Are the suitcases heavy?
ELEANOR: I mean, I did pack my whole life into them.
ELEANOR: But no, not really.
ELEANOR: They’re fine, Sawyer!!!
I’ll pick you up from Mom’s at 5:30 tonight. I need to go back to Maple Street anyway. I didn’t get any of her to-do list done yesterday.
My entire night had been derailed after Ellie told me the news.
My entirelifehad been derailed, actually.
But oddly enough, for the first time in a long while, it sort of felt like I was back on track.
ELEANOR: None of that is necessary.
You’re carrying my child. The least I can do is carry a couple of fucking suitcases and clean the house.
ELEANOR: You know what, you’re right.
ELEANOR: Feel free to come over every night to do the dishes and read me a bedtime story, too.
Careful what you say, El.
She had no idea how much I wouldn’t mind doing that.
Though as I got closer to my mom’s place, I was realizing just how much time I would spend in the car. It wasn’t far, not really. But now, this distance, this thirty minutes or so, was the time, the distance between Eleanor and me. And I hated that I wasn’t going to be closer.
“You know,” I said as I got out of my car and walked up to where I found Eleanor standing in front of my mom’s large, white lake house. It towered over her small frame with its gray shutters and a grand wraparound porch, bigger than the one on Maple Street. “I think there are actually a few apartments in my building that are open, if you felt like living in the city might be a better speed for you.”
I’d much rather she were next door instead of a thirty-minute drive away.
“Hello to you, too.” She raised a brow at me, though her lips were crooked—a hint of a smile. “Want me to be your neighbor again, Sul?”
“You always were the best neighbor, El,” I said softly, trying and failing not to grin at her.
I’d found myself doing that a lot today—smiling at random.
There were still unresolved matters between us. Matters that would not be going away. Those things would need to be talked about because they had very real ties to what we were facing now, today.
But so much of my anger melted away yesterday when she stood in the kitchen at Maple Street and told me she was here because of me.
She hadn’t come backforme, but she’d come back because she wanted to do this with me. She’d uprooted her entire lifeagainso that we could do this together. She’d moved across the country because she knew raising my child here was my dream. And fuck, if that didn’t change everything.
She’d left.
But when it mattered—when it really fucking mattered—she’d come back.
