Chapter Fifteen
Eleanor glanced at the calendar after her last piano lesson of the day. It had been a full four days since Will had pressed her up against the wall and changed everything. He’d rocked her world, shook her up, disturbed the force, whatever the hell it could be called.
She was no longer the same.
He’d texted her a couple of times in the past four days, and called once. Each time, she’d texted back, Not yet. The man had worked on earning her love for ten years. Then he’d succeeded, and disappeared.
What would have happened in The Little Prince if the prince had returned to his fox?
Eleanor suspected that the fox would have been elated and everything would’ve picked up right where they’d left off, frolicking around and sharing philosophical aphorisms with each other.
But Eleanor wasn’t a freaking fox—she was a woman and she’d been burned.
Darkness had fallen outside, and it was dinnertime, the time of day Eleanor most often felt lonely. When her parents had split up, all their family dinners had come to an end. If she stayed with her dad, they ate pasta, salad, or stew for dinner. When she stayed with her mom, it was quesadillas, leftover pizza, or barbecue. But no matter what they’d eaten, they never ate together.
Fido twined around Eleanor’s ankles, making it darn near impossible to walk anywhere in the kitchen. Sighing, Eleanor emptied a can of food into his bowl, scratched him behind the ears, and then left him alone to eat.
That was it. She was sick of feeling sorry for herself. On Sunday night, she’d felt like she had friends again. Why the heck didn’t she call them? She grabbed her phone and found Hayley’s number.
“Calling about my lesson again?” Hayley asked.
“No—although, we could do that,” Eleanor said. “But I was wondering what you’re doing tonight. Summer, too, if she’s free. I thought I’d order some pizza?”
“I’m there,” Hayley said in a rush.
Eleanor heard a male protest on Hayley’s end, but Hayley said, “Shush. I want pizza, and I’m gonna eat pizza. Stop babying me.” To Eleanor, she said, “Save me from my overbearing boyfriend. This dude will not leave me alone.” Then she snorted. “Overbearing. Get it?”
“No,” Eleanor said.
“Oh yeah. Well, anyway. Save me?”
“Yeah, come over,” Eleanor said. “Any special toppings I should order?”
“Canadian bacon and pineapple, but only if you promise not to judge me.”
Eleanor laughed. “Done. What does Summer like?”
“Pepperoni and olives.”
An hour later, Jaws was playing on Eleanor’s television, and the three women were talking over it except whenever the shark showed up.
“This is the only horror movie I’ll watch,” Eleanor said. “I’m too chicken for anything else.”
“Me, too,” Summer said. “Why aren’t we watching a Christmas movie instead?”
“No way,” Hayley said with a laugh. “I love horror. I’ll watch them all. They’re so unrealistic. Besides, Summer, you should see Jackson jump whenever there’s a scary part, the fraidy cat.”
“That might make it worth it,” Summer said. “Seeing a big old predator like him, freaking out over freaky clowns or kids crawling out of televisions…”
“Predator?” Eleanor asked.
“Oh, it’s just a weird nickname she has for him,” Hayley said, shooting Summer a quick look.
They stopped talking while the giant shark made its way into the lagoon. Eleanor felt her heart rate speed up. This was just a little too much excitement. If she were watching it alone, she’d be turning it off now.
“First time I watched this, I thought for sure everyone on that little boat thing was going to die,” Hayley said.
“I’m still mad about the little boy from the last scene,” Eleanor said. “The movie would be perfect without that.”
Summer reached over and gave Eleanor a high five. “Agreed.”
“So, Hayley said you guys got plans from the architect last night,” Eleanor said. “Summer, have you and Jackson picked which option you like the most?”
Summer laughed. “She gave us the poor man’s version, the moderately priced one, and the ‘hey we just won the lottery, let’s spend it all’ plan. Obviously we’re in love with the lottery house, but we’ll be happy no matter what the place looks like. And we’re really excited that all three houses are going to match.”
“Three?” Eleanor asked, looking between them. It was just Jackson and Summer, and Hayley and Marius.
“Oh, look,” Hayley said loudly, pointing at the screen. “It’s the part where Quinto gets into the pissing match with the researcher.”
Summer had definitely said, “all three houses,” and now Hayley was smirking even though she clearly didn’t want to talk about it.
Three houses. One for Hayley and Marius. One for Summer and Jackson. One for…Will?
If he was sticking around Huntwood, was it because of Eleanor? Something fluttered in her chest—something that felt a lot like hope.