Page 50 of Elevating Eve

A strangled sound came out of him, as if he’d tried and failed to speak. After a moment of silence, he shook his head.

“When you sold HSS and started the Manor.”

Jonathan whirled around, his dark eyes bright with tears. “There’s no way that’s true.”

With a solemn nod, Lucy said, “He knew you were doing what you truly loved. It’s so obvious how much happier you are now. We can all see it.”

“It’s true,” Maisie said, her voice shaking. All of them were crying now. “You’ve been a whole different person since you started the Manor. Dad used to talk about it all the time.”

A pair of tears started a slow descent down Jonathan’s cheeks. “I wish I talked to him more. That I took more time off to visit. But it’s too late.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Lucy cupped his cheek with her hand. “I promise you, he never felt ignored or forgotten. Do you have any idea how happy he was when you called him last week? How proud he was that you came to him for advice? I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger smile on that man’s face since Maisie’s wedding last year.”

The muscles in his jaw clenched as he tried to regain control. “Really?”

“He was happy when he died,” Lucy said, her voice breaking on the final word. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am for that.”

Jonathan lost the last vestiges of his tenuous control, his face crumpling as he started to cry in earnest. Gathering him into her arms, Lucy held him close, whispering about how proud they both were as he sobbed.

When Alice held out a box of tissues, Eve and Maisie both took several. Eve swiped at her eyes and tried to breathe through her torrent of tears. Her heart ached, and she longed to go to him. To wrap him in her warm embrace until he knew, without any room left for doubt, how truly wonderful he was. But she knew that would have to wait—this moment was for his family.

She had no idea how long they all cried. It could’ve been one minute or ten. All she knew was that the tension Jonathan had carried in his shoulders for the last several days had finally disappeared.

“What was the word?” Jonathan asked, his voice barely a whisper. “The one you two said so you always knew you could trust each other.”

When Lucy smiled, she looked years younger. It lit up her entire face. “Edamame,” she said with a little laugh.

Jonathan pulled away, eyebrows arched high. “You’ve got to be joking.”

“We were at this little sushi place in LA when Orson came up with the idea,” she said, her smile growing even wider. “We were eating edamame, and I guess we weren’t feeling creative at the time. Sorry if that’s not as profound or romantic as you hoped.”

He stared at his mother for several seconds, shock still written all over his face. And then he burst out laughing. “I should’ve known. You two never took anything seriously in your lives.”

“Not if we could help it,” Lucy agreed, eyes still crinkling at the corners.

Sighing, Jonathan wiped the wetness away from his cheeks. “All right. I guess I’d better go pack.”

Alice stood and hurried over to him, putting a hand on his arm. “We’re not forcing you to leave or anything. If it helps you to be here, stay as long as you want.”

“We just know how busy you always are,” Maisie added, her frown remarkably similar to her brother’s. “We were afraid you’d feel like you had to stay and be in charge of everything, like you always do. When really you’d rather be back at the Manor, spanking ass and taking names.”

Another startled laugh bubbled out of him. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

“Not gonna lie,” Maisie said with a little smirk, “I’ve had that one in my back pocket for a while now. I’ve just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it.”

Eve had no trouble seeing why he’d always been extra close to his baby sister. The woman was a goddamn delight.

“You guys are right,” Jonathan said once silence fell over the room again. “I know you are.” With a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, he looked over at Eve. “We’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning.”

The plane ride home was much more subdued than the trip out toDenver. The air of mystery and excitement had been engulfed by sorrow and a deep, permeating exhaustion.

Eve slipped in and out of consciousness as the jet traversed the country, while Jonathan stared at his laptop, not even pretending to get any work done. His screen showed the same page of the same document every time she looked.

“Are you doing okay?” she finally asked when he started aimlessly scrolling between the pages, far too fast to read anything.

Abandoning the ruse, he shut his laptop and put it on one of the empty seats. He patted a hand on his lap, and she settled sideways over his thighs without hesitation, leaning into his chest and tucking her head under his chin. Her legs stretched out onto her old seat.

Jonathan sighed as he wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her with his warmth. “I know what I need to do,” he said, sounding wearier than she’d ever heard him. “Go home, take clients, finish the expansion, keep living my life. But I—I don’t know.” He sighed again. “I just don’twantto. Which sounds even whinier out loud than it did in my head.”

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