Chapter Thirty-Six
ELLIE
Celia slipped out of the parlor without another word, the door closing on a breath of perfume and the soft whir of the camera crew retreating.
“Hey,” Drew said softly. He cupped my face like I was something precious, something worth protecting. “You okay?”
I nodded—too fast. Relief and shock buzzed under my skin like static. “Mostly. I didn’t realize she … felt like that.”
“You know none of this is on you, right?” His thumbs brushed the apples of my cheeks, catching moisture I hadn’t realized was still there. Traces of tears from my sister’s confession. Everything still seemed surreal, like I was watching someone else’s life unfold.
I did know.
Logically, I understood. And still, years of making myself smaller pressed at my ribs. A weight I’d carried so long I’d forgotten it was there. “Maybe I’m done trying to fit into a family that only ever had room for one daughter.”
Though part of me hopes Celia finds the strength to break free, too.
He searched my face, something flickering in his expression—fear that smoothed into determination. “Move here,” he blurted out, a smile breaking wide open across his face. “Stay. With me.”
Hope rose bright and reckless in my chest, stealing my breath. It scared me. It thrilled me. It felt like standing at the edge of a cliff, wondering if I’d fall or fly. “Do you mean that?”
God, I hate that I still needed reassurance.
The tremor in my voice was audible, but Drew didn’t flinch. He straightened, like a man about to place a bet and go all in. “Ellie Remington,” he said, voice hoarse, “I am undoubtedly, unequivocally, head-over-heels in love with you.”
The room tilted.
It wasn’t even dramatic—no choirs and no spotlights like in the movies. Just my heart cracking open neatly along a seam I hadn’t known was there. A space where our love could live. Where I could be loved fully, completely, without conditions.
He loves me.
He LOVES me.
My vision blurred as tears welled in my eyes. Happy ones. Joyful, overwhelming, excited ones.
I gripped his belt loops to keep myself grounded. “I am undoubtedly, unequivocally, head-over-heels in love with you, Drew Kingsley.” Words so true I felt them echo in my soul.
He lifted me without hesitation, and I wrapped my legs around him because that was where I belonged. I kissed everywhere my lips would reach—cheekbone, jaw, the corner of his mouth that softened when he smiled. He growled, a sound that thrilled me, heat pooling in my belly.
“Mine,” he murmured against my ear. The word a promise and a claim all at once.
I kissed him and the world narrowed to the warm slide of our lips, and the hush of breath between us. Excitement burst within my chest and filled my body with hope for our future.
“What did you say to your sister? My mother’s voice cracked the moment in two like a precise, irritated blade. “Eleanor, answer me.”
Of course she has to ruin this, too.
I let my forehead rest against Drew’s for a heartbeat or two, to gather the strength to face her.
Then I slid down, planting my feet on solid ground.
I needed to be standing, centered, to face her.
I needed to wipe my slate clean of the people who didn’t add anything to my life.
“It’s Ellie,” I said, turning to face her. “I prefer Ellie.”
An elegant eyebrow arched, her universal signal for ‘how dare you.’ “We are not playing these childish games.”
“We’re not,” I agreed. Strange how calm I sounded when my pulse hammered in my throat. “I’m done.”
She blinked, likely thrown off by my tone. “Done with what?”
“With the way you speak to me. With being convenient. With pretending I need your approval as much as I need oxygen to breathe.” My voice didn’t rise. It didn’t waver. “I’m done trying to earn the love from someone so determined never to give it.”
I needed to stand firm. I could do this.
Her mouth tightened into a thin line. “How dare you speak to me this way! After everything—” She paused, and took a breath. “You’re making a scene. Again. Just like always, demanding attention when it’s your sister’s special day—”
“My sister,” I interrupted quietly, “used my wedding binder for her content and tried to seduce my boyfriend. Yet, somehow, I’m the problem?”
Mother’s expression turned glacial. Her eyes swept over me and Drew with naked disdain. “Look at you, clinging to this man like he’s your salvation. It’s pathetic, Eleanor. You’ve always been so desperate for attention you’d take it from anyone willing to pretend to give it to you.”
The words were said to wound, to make me small.
Instead, they bounced off the armor I’d been building up these past two weeks.
“You’re right about one thing,” I said. “I was desperate. But not how you think. I spent my whole life begging for any bit of attention you’d give.” Drew’s hand rested on the small of my back, steady and supportive. “But I’m not that girl anymore.”
“Ungrateful,” she spat. “Don’t bother coming to the wedding.”
“I wasn’t planning to,” I said, and the truth tasted like freedom—clean, sharp, exhilarating.
“Don’t come crawling back when you change your mind, either” she snapped, her composure fracturing. “You don’t get to hurt people and disregard their feelings then expect—”
“I won’t,” I said quietly. Saying it out loud made something inside me click into place, like a lost key finding its lock. “I wish you well. But I wish myself better.”
For a flash, I saw something startled in her eyes—surprise, maybe, that I’d actually grown a spine. Then it shuttered, brittle and familiar, and she swept out in a whirl of silk and disapproval.
I exhaled. My knees wobbled.
Drew’s arms were around me before I could stumble. “That sucked,” I said into his shirt, breathing in his familiar scent.
He held me like he could absorb my tremors. I hadn’t even realized I’d started shaking. “Yeah.”
But I did it. I actually did it.
“I should go before I lose my nerve and decide to forgive them or something equally self-destructive.” My voice steadied as I said it. “Can we … just leave?”
“I’ll text the family. Translation: be prepared for hugs and food. And smothering. Lots and lots of smothering,” he said, a small smile quirking up the corner of his lips. “They don’t believe in being subtle.”
“I think I’d like a little unsubtle smothering in my life.” The words came out thick with emotion.
We stepped out the front door into the cool air, hand in hand, and my muscles loosened. I hadn’t realized how much tension I was holding until now.
The sky stretched out before us, a deep purple-blue like a healing bruise. Everything smelled like fall and cut grass and possibility. A new beginning my body whispered. A new place, a new family, a new start.
Drew intertwined his fingers with mine as we reached the walkway. “You don’t need to answer me right now about moving in. I know tonight was a lot,” he said, his tone gentle. “I don’t want to pressure you.”
“You’re not,” I responded. “I’d like a little time to think about it, though.” It was a yes, wrapped in caution. Things had moved fast between us, and I wanted to make the right decision for me.
“Of course.” He squeezed my fingers. “But you’re thinking of moving here?”
“I am.” A wide grin stretched across my face, and warmth bloomed in my chest like a cozy ball of yarn wrapped around our love. “I don’t want to be far from my boyfriend.”
Boyfriend. He’s my actual boyfriend.
The words felt right on my tongue. Real in a way nothing with Kyle had ever been.
He grinned back, his whole face lighting up.
“Good. Because your very real boyfriend is very against long-distance.” He glanced towards his car, and something shifted in his expression—excitement bleeding into his features.
“The next few months will be intense, and having you close will make sure we see each other more.”
My breath caught, an uneasy flutter starting in my stomach.
Wait. Why does ‘intense’ suddenly sound ominous?
Drew kept going, his words tumbling faster now. “With the Heritage Line getting the green light and the expansion still on track, I’ll be bouncing between design and operations. It’s a lot, but it’s good. It’s what I’ve been working toward.”
“Right.” The word came out flat. The cozy warmth in my chest began to cool.
His gaze locked on mine, face animated and bright with enthusiasm as he figured out how his new role would mesh with the old.
“Mornings at the office—we can still drive in together. Then I’ll spend afternoons at the nearby construction sites to oversee progress.
I might have to fly out a few times for the ones further away, but the great part about working together is that you could go with me sometimes. ”
“Yeah. Sometimes.” I forced words past the tightness building in my throat.
“Thank God I have you. You have the magic touch with my schedule.” He was warming to his subject now, planning out loud.
“With all the additional meetings we’ll need to slot in, I think I’ll have to bring in my cousin Logan.
He’s been asking how he could help with the project, and now’s the perfect time to get him involved. ”
Each word landed like a small cut.
The more he talked and with each responsibility he listed a tiny string inside my chest was cut. Three appointments became five in his recitation. A day or two of travel morphed into possibly a week. He was trying—genuinely trying—to make a world with room for me in it.
But I can see the space shrinking. With every promise he makes to everything else.
“We’ll have dinner every night,” he continued, squeezing my hand. “And I can’t wait to show you more of Ruby River on the weekends when I'm home.”
When I’m home.
When he’s home.
“Mmm.” The sound came out strangled.
The little girl who’d stood at the edge of every room waiting to be picked, waiting to matter, tried so hard to stand tall. Tried to figure out a way to make this work, to contort myself into whatever shape would fit into the margins of his life.