Edith frowned. “Who wouldn’t be comfortable?”
Ella bit her lower lip, debating the wisdom of sharing this with Edith, who was very, very fond of the entire Storm family. What if Ella confessed what she’d done, and Edith became angry at her for hurting Maverick?
“Ella, dear, I can see the wheels spinning a million miles an hour in that head of yours. Tell me who wouldn’t want you at dinner tonight.”
“Maverick,” she blurted.
Gigi was the only person who’d known the entire truth about what happened between her and Maverick, Ella sharing the story with her beloved grandmother toward the end of her senior year.
Following her family’s abrupt return to Meridian, Ella had withdrawn into herself, exhausted from fighting battles she couldn’t win. She’d spent her last year of high school simply going through the paces—school, home, church, repeat. She hadn’t bothered to reestablish any of the friendships she’d had prior to moving to Gracemont, and she stopped fighting her father.
With all the fight beaten out of her, she simply disappeared into her books. She’d always been a huge reader, but that year, her books hadn’t just been an escape from her homelife; they’d been her escape fromlife. Period.
Ella made it all the way to spring before Gigi showed up at school one day, checking her out early, claiming Ella had a doctor’s appointment.
Gigi had driven her to Ella’s favorite restaurant, insisted she order whatever she wanted, then she informed her they weresitting there until Ella told her what had happened in Gracemont—because she wanted her granddaughter back. The one filled with spunk and life and ambitions. Not the shell she’d become.
Ella broke down quickly, telling her everything in a rush as her grandmother listened, never interrupting, never saying anything until every painful word bled out.
Gigi had comforted her, held her as she cried, and slowly, over time, helped Ella find her way back to herself.
“Maverick?” Edith’s tone of surprise told Ella just how good a job she and Maverick had done at hiding their romance. Part of her had always wondered if Ms. Pauley had mentioned her leaving the library with Maverick every day. Obviously she hadn’t.
“He and I…we dated briefly our junior year.” Now that Ella had decided to open this door, she saw no reason to hold back. One of the best parts of this visit had been having someone to talk to again. Without Gigi or her family, she’d spent way too much time stuck inside her head. Most days, the only conversations she had were the ones her characters engaged in on the page.
“How briefly?” Edith asked.
“Eight months.”
Edith’s eyes widened. “I had no idea.”
“No one did. We kept it a secret.”
“Why?” Edith asked.
“I wasn’t allowed to date until I was eighteen. I…” Ella rubbed her eyes, trying to figure out how much to say, how far to go back. “My childhood was…”
Ella had never said these words to anyone except Gigi, because she’d never trusted anyone else enough. She suspected that if Dad hadn’t dragged them back to Idaho before Ella’s senior year, she would have eventually opened up to Maverick.He’d certainly been on the path to earning her trust, unlike anyone else in her life.
“Your father was a hard man,” Edith said for her.
Ella wasn’t sure why she was surprised that Edith had seen through him. While she’d only been back in Gracemont a few weeks, Ella had quickly learned that very little went unnoticed by the older woman.
“He was a very devout man,” Ella said, aware that, even now, she was choosing her words carefully, still terrified of repercussions that weren’t there anymore.
Edith gave her a pointed look, not at all fooled. “He was ahardman,” she repeated. “Cruel. Judgmental.”
Ella nodded, relieved to finally be able to admit to it.
“Abusive?” Edith asked softly.
“He was fond of using the belt whenever my sister or I stepped out of line. Martha was better at behaving,” Ella said. The truth was, Martha had drunk the Kool-Aid, so it wasn’t as hard for her to follow Dad’s strictures.
Ella, on the other hand, couldn’t follow blindly. Gigi had always praised her for that, assured her that being a woman who knew her own mind was a good thing. It was Gigi’s encouragement of Ella’s freethinking that had caused Dad to uproot the family and move them to Gracemont in the first place. He’d been determined to move her away from her grandmother’s influence.
“You were always a smart girl,” Edith said. “I noticed that right off. Yes, you were quiet, but I could see the keen intelligence behind those pretty green eyes of yours.”
Ella smiled. “Unlike my sister, I loved to read. I don’t think my dad realized the influence books were having on me. He never graduated from high school, and the only book I ever saw him read was the Bible. In the books I read, I saw much different worlds than the one I lived in. When we lived in Idaho, Dadblamed Gigi for what he called my ‘willfulness.’ In Dad’s mind, women are meant to be subservient to men, to obey.”