Eleanor & Grey, an all-new beautiful and emotional standalone from Brittainy C. Cherry is available now!
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Excerpt:
I must have looked terrified because as Allison grabbed her coat and purse to leave, she gave me a light squeeze on the shoulder.
“You’re going to be fine, Eleanor. Mind over matter. You got this. Let’s touch base later in the week so I can check in on how things are going.”
“Sounds great. Thanks, Allison.”
After she left, I took a deep breath and flipped through a few pages in the binder. Then, I did a once-through of the house, familiarizing myself with whose room was where. There was something so unsettling about the quietness of Greyson’s home. It was so dark with an odd gloomy feeling attached to it, haunting almost. I didn’t mean dark as in the lighting situation, rather it was the energy level. There was such a heaviness in the space.
The place felt like a house, not a home.
If I hadn’t known any better, I wouldn’t have believed a family lived there at all.
It felt so abandoned, almost like a memory frozen in time.
That might’ve just been my own thoughts, thought, due to knowing about the tragedy that had taken place in the lives of the individuals who lived there. With the number of books I’d read, it wasn’t inaccurate to say my mind wandered toward the dramatics.
I walked back into the kitchen, flipping through the binder, completely taken aback by the girls’ schedules. Between school, swim lessons, karate, piano lessons, physical therapy, and grief counseling, I wasn’t sure how they found the time to live a little.
“Eleanor.”
I leaped out of my skin at the sound of my name and turned to see Greyson standing behind me with an empty glass in his hand. He was dressed in a suit and tie, which was so strange to me.
Who wore a suit and tie in their own home?
I hardly wore pants when I was home alone.
“Oh, Greyson, hi. Sorry I’m still here. Allison was just giving me a tour, and she said it was okay to look around a bit more.”
“She made me aware.”
Wow. He had responded immediately, unlike the first time I saw him. I called that progress.
I smiled at him, but he didn’t smile back, and that felt like the oddest thing in the world. The old Greyson had been full of smiles.
“It’s a beautiful home,” I stated, unsure what else to talk about. “It’s massive. I swear, it’s like ten times the size of my place.” He blankly stared my way as I shifted from foot to foot. “I love the décor,” I blurted out, and I hated myself the second the words left my lips. Just walk away, Eleanor. Don’t be awkward. “Those throw pillows in your living room are to die for. Where did you get them?”
“The interior designer chose everything,” he replied dryly.
“Oh, right, of course. My interior designer is normally the clearance section at T.J. Maxx,” I joked. “Or on special occasions, Target.”
He didn’t laugh, probably because I wasn’t funny.
I wondered when was the last time he’d laughed.
Did he ever find anything funny anymore?
We kept staring at one another in the most uncomfortable silence, though I didn’t feel as if I could pull myself away from it. I probably stared at him too long, but how could I not? I’d gone fifteen-some years without looking at him. It was understandable that I wouldn’t be able to turn away quickly.
The awkwardness of it all finally came to a halt when Greyson cleared his throat.
“Eleanor?”
“Yes?”
“I came for water.”
“Oh?” I stared at him like an idiot, wide-eyed like a deer in headlights, waiting for his next words. I stood still as if he were going to expand on his interest in water. Was he offering me a drink? Were we going to sip water and catch up on things? Was I finally going to be able to ask him how he’d become the CEO of his father’s company at such a young age? What had happened to his father?
His stare narrowed, and his lips turned down in a displeased fashion. He nodded once.
“Hmm?” I asked.
He nodded more aggressively this time, gesturing past me.
I glanced behind me and realized I was standing right in front of the refrigerator, blocking the water dispenser. I stepped to the side, mentally beating myself up.
Idiot.
“Oh, right, of course. Well, I think I’m done here, so I’ll see myself out,” I stated, scrambling to grab my binder. “Have a good afternoon.”
He didn’t reply, but that wasn’t shocking. I was quickly learning that this new Greyson didn’t have nearly as much to say as the old one.
She has been in love with words since the day she took her first breath. She graduated from Carroll University with a Bachelors Degree in Theatre Arts and a minor in Creative Writing.
Her novels have been published in 18+ countries around the world. Brittainy lives in Brookfield, Wisconsin with her fur babies.