Page 31 of Reluctant to Love

15

Eleanor

My heart literally stops as I sit on the basement stairs, watching Roderick read to Izzy. It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. He’s so different compared to the man I knew four years ago.

For one, he dresses better. Today, he’s wearing a cream cable knit sweater and olive-green pants. His long hair is tied up at the nape of his neck and his beard looks neatly trimmed. When we first started working together, everything he wore seemed old and faded. Thread-bare concert t-shirts and jeans with rips and holes. I didn’t mind since I didn’t dress much better myself and we weren’t really going out in public. When work turned to play, I saw more of him in black boxer briefs than anything.

But the Roderick sitting on my old, lumpy couch is a handsome devil. The kind I can’t resist.

I watch them for a little while longer before I tip-toe back up the stairs. He needs time alone with her, to build a bond that just might break the moment I tell Izzy the truth.

“Eleanor, there’s something I need to talk to you about,” my mom calls out from the dining room. She’s sitting at the table with papers spread out in front of her and her checkbook open. “I’m going to have some work done on the house.”

“Okay,” I say absently as I walk over to sit down beside her.

“And while it’s being done, I’m going to visit your aunt in Florida. I don’t really want to be here amidst all of the construction chaos.”

“Okay,” I repeat.

“You and Izzy need to find a place too.”

Now she’s got my attention. “What? Why?”

My mother looks me square in the eye. “I’m having the house totally gutted, darling. You can’t live here when the house is like that.”

I blink rapidly. What on earth is my mother talking about? I look around the house and don’t quite understand why she wants to completely gut the house. It could be updated but not totally overhauled.

“I don’t understand, mom. Why are you doing this?”

She sets down the pen she was holding and reaches out to grab one of my hands. “I’m planning on selling the house. I had a real estate agent come over while you were gone, and we discussed the importance of renovating. This house hasn’t been touched since your father died, almost twenty years ago.”

I shake my confusion away. “I still don’t understand why you want to renovate, and now you want to sell?”

“Darling, it’s time for both of us to move on.”

I reel back as if she slapped me. Tears sting the corners of my eyes. I don’t understand what’s happening to my life. Everything has been upended and suddenly, it feels like too much all at once.

There’s a burst of noise as Izzy comes barreling up the stairs with Roderick in hot pursuit behind her. She squeals with delight and even though my first inclination is to feel joy at seeing them together, I don’t. Instead, I lash out.

“Izzy, you need to settle down,” I bark. “You were just in the hospital.”

She stops dead in her tracks, her big jade-green eyes full of surprise and then she bursts into tears. Instantly, I regret my actions.

“I’m sorry, Izzy bear,” I murmur, holding out my arms to her but she doesn’t want me. Instead, she goes right to my mother, which makes me feel even worse.

“What’s wrong,” Roderick asks.

“I’ll let you two have some time to talk,” my mom says softly. “Come on, Izzy.”

Roderick walks slowly towards me. “Did something happen?”

I look up at him and wonder if all of this would be happening if I hadn’t gone to World of Books. “Izzy and I are going to be homeless for a little while.”

“What?” He pulls out one of the chairs and sits down beside me. I explain to him all about my mother’s plan to remodel and then eventually sell. “When is all of this happening?”

I shrug. “She didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. I was too stunned.”

“There’s a very easy solution to your problem.”