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, “usedmywedding binder for her content and tried to seducemyboyfriend. Yet, somehow,I’mthe 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. “Iwasdesperate. 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 wishmyselfbetter.”
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.
