Chapter 18

Elle

Elle just barely made it to the diner in time for opening. When she got there, Kelly and Gracie were gossiping, and they both looked up at her expectantly.

Kelly handed her a cup of coffee.

“Well?” Kelly said. “How’d it go?”

“How did what go?”

“You’re night with lover boy.”

“Oh come on,” Elle protested, “it wasn’t like that.”

“It looked like that,” Kelly said, grinning at Gracie.

Elle sighed. She realized how scared she was of appearing like an idiot in front of her new friends. “It was just a fling,” she said, praying to herself that it wasn’t true. She wanted more than anything to have something real with Forrester.

“Just a fling? Oh come on,” Kelly said.

“Really, until I hear otherwise, that’s all I’m treating it as. I don’t know who Forrester is, I don’t know where he comes from, I don’t know what his personal life is like. Until I know more, I’m not getting my hopes up.”

Grace cleared her throat. She had a look of compassion on her face and her voice was full of kindness.

“Elle, dear, it sounds to me like you’re being very cautious.”

“I am not.”

“Tell me you didn’t slip out of his room this morning.”

Elle was about to respond when her voice caught in her throat. She was caught off guard by the fact that Grace could read her so easily.

“So what if I did,” she said defensively. “Boys do that all the time.”

“I know it makes you feel safe to have walls around your heart,” Grace said, “but believe me, until you let them come down, you won’t be able to find happiness.”

“I’m not, I don’t,” Elle sighed in frustration, unable to finish her sentence.

“Relax, child. No one’s accusing you of anything. I’m just telling you, I know how you feel. I’ve been there. Believe me. I’ve been treated so badly by men I thought I loved, that it took me years to learn how to trust again. But let me just tell you this much. Unless you open up your heart to danger, it can never truly find happiness.”

Then Grace pulled Kelly into the kitchen. “Come on, you. Let the girl have a cup of coffee in peace. She’ll be run off her feet soon enough.”

Kelly went into the kitchen with Grace and then came back out and sat with Elle. Elle noticed that she didn’t bring up the Forrester issue again. Grace must have told her to let it lie. Elle knew they were right. She’d taken psychology classes. She knew how it worked. She’d been hurt. Now she was afraid to be hurt again. That’s why she slipped out of Forrester’s room. She didn’t need the whole world analyzing it for her. She just needed some time to learn how to feel safe with Forrester, then she’d be fine. There was nothing wrong with her. It wasn’t a crime to be careful with her heart.

Elle was violently yanked out of her little reverie when a man came crashing angrily through the door of the diner.

Oh great, the first customer of the day and he’s an asshole.

But then Elle stopped dead in her tracks. This wasn’t just any asshole, it wasn’t even the assholes she’d already met in Stone Peak, Phil and company.

It was Gris.

“I knew I’d find you here you little bitch,” Gris said, stumbling into the diner.

He’d been drinking. He was unshaved, unwashed, and very angry.

“Gris,” she gasped. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, you little bitch. I’m going to make you pay for wrecking my Camaro.”

“Gris, please, not here.”

“Look at you. You see me and within two minutes you’re begging again. I told you you were a worthless little whore.”

“Gris, you have to get out of here right now. If you don’t, I’ll call the cops.”

“Oh, you’ll call the cops. Maybe I’ve spoken to them myself already. Maybe they called me, to tell me you were here. You forget, that piece of shit car you drive is in my name.”

“You can take it back, Gris. You can keep the car.”

“Shut the fuck up, bitch. I didn’t come here for the car. I came here for you. You’re coming home with me, where you belong, and you’re never going to run off like this again.”

“I’m not going back with you Gris, not now, not ever.”

Elle didn’t know what to do, what to think. She was terrified. She’d lived for three years under Gris’s abusive thumb, and she was only just beginning to come to terms with the fact that she might have gotten free of him.

“Come on, get in my car. Your holiday’s over.”

Elle looked at him. She looked into the cold, hard face of the man she’d given everything to for so long.

“No,” she said.

“No?”

Elle shook with every violent word from Gris.

Then she heard Grace’s voice, and suddenly remembered that she was no longer alone. She had friends now. They might not be able to protect her from someone like Gris forever, but they stood with her, and they had her back.

“That’s right, fuck head,” Grace said. “The lady said, no. Now get out of here before I blow your fucking brains out.”

Elle turned and saw that Grace was pointing a hefty shotgun right at Gris’s face. Gris put his hands up in self-defense. “Oh, you stupid old hag. You’re going to pay for this. The sherif’s on my side. This girl took my car, smashed my other car. She’s mine. She’s my fucking property.”

Grace just looked at him, waited for him to finish his rant, and then cocked the shotgun menacingly.

Reluctantly, Gris backed out of the diner.

When he was gone, Elle realized just how terrified she’d been. She sat down on a stool at the counter and burst into tears. Her entire body quivered in fear.

“Oh my, God,” Kelly said. “That’s your ex?”

“That’s my ex,” Elle said.

“He’s even worse than Phil,” Kelly said.

Grace came over, threw her hands around Elle, and hugged her as tightly as Elle had ever been hugged by anyone.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Grace said. “Now I see why you’ve got such high walls around your heart. You listen to me. We’re going to keep you safe here, okay, sweetie. We’re going to keep you safe. We’re your family now.”