Page 30 of Eleanor & Grey
“I just never want to be like that,” he confessed. “When I fall in love, it’s going to be real. It’s not going to be a love forconvenience; it’s going to be a forever kind of love. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
“I agree.”
“But I do have to thank my parents. If anything, they taught me what love isn’t; therefore, I’ll know what it is when it comes.”
He kept doing his nervous fiddling thing with his hands, and I swore my heartbeats were directed straight to him.
“Sorry. We can talk about something else,” he offered. “Maybe we can talk about us.”
Heart skips and heart flips.
“Yeah? What about us?”
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, you know.” Greyson’s head tilted toward me, and we locked eyes. “About what it would be like to kiss you.”
I swore he controlled my heartbeats with those words. We hadn’t really talked much about things like that, about us and if there were any feelings involved other than friendship. The most we’d ever done was hug, for goodness’ sake, and a hug from him was enough to set my world on fire.
For a while, I’d thought my crush on Greyson was a one-sided thing, so to hear those words come out of his mouth felt like a dream.
“Do you ever think about that, Ellie?” he asked.
I inhaled slowly. “Only always.”
He inched a little closer to me, and I let it happen. He tucked my hair behind my ears, and I let it happen. His smile melted every part of me, and I let it happen.
“I think about it a lot. After we hang out sometimes, I beat myself up for not just doing it. I overthink it. Like, it should’ve happened when we got ice cream, or when you first brought me here. Or on Molly’s steps.” He scrunched his face. “Probably not on Molly’s steps, but still, I think about it.”
“Me too. All the time.” I paused. “Well, not all the time, but yeah... all the time.”
He placed his hand in mine and gave it a slight squeeze.
“I just want it to be perfect, you know? Especially now that I know it’s your first kiss. That’s important. In the novels you’ve had me read, it always happens naturally,” he said softly. “I take notes when I’m reading on how the hero does it, on where it happens, on how comfortable or uncomfortable both the characters seem.”
I felt his hands trembling slightly—or was it my hands that were shaky? It was becoming hard to tell what were his feelings and what were mine.
That was OK, though.
I liked the confusion.
“I know,” I agreed. “There’s always a moment...”
“When the timing is just—”
“Right.” I finished his sentence, knowing his thoughts the same way he knew mine.
“Ellie?”
“Yes, Grey?”
“Would it be cliché of me to ask if I can kiss you?”
“Yes.” I scooted closer, so close that his lips were millimeters from mine, so close that his exhales became my inhales, so close that my mind had already decided it was going to be the best first kiss of my life. “But do it anyway.”
And then he did.
9Eleanor
“He’s so goofy!” I exclaimed as Mom and I went grocery shopping. I wandered in front of her as she pushed the cart. “He kept trying to win me the stuffed animal and ended up with a black eye. Even with the black eye, he seemed proud, though.”
