“I’m not changing my mind for him,” she scolded, rolling her eyes.

“I’m not talking about for your father. I’m talking about for Lorelai.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Lorelai really misses you, Karla.”

“We live in the same house—I see her enough.”

“She needs you,” I told her.

“She’s fine,” she replied.

“Okay, I get it. You’re mad at your father, and I understand. You feel like he abandoned you, and you’re fully allowed to take as much time as you need to work through those feelings. But you have to understand that if there is one person who understands what you are going through, it’s Lorelai. She lost her mother, just like you. Please don’t make her lose her sister, too. She needs her sister, Karla. She needs you.”

Karla’s stare shifted, and she looked down to her shoes as she fiddled with her hands. Then, she got to her feet, picked up her plate, and grumbled. “Whatever. As long as it gets you to stop bringing this up.”

I smiled, pleased, and walked back to the dining room with her.

She put her plate down at the table, pulled out her chair, and plopped down. Greyson seemed beyond puzzled, and Lorelai’s eyes lit up when she saw her sister.

“You’re eating with us, Karla?” Lorelai inquired, clearly stunned.

“Looks like it,” she mumbled with her cell phone in one hand and her fork in the other.

“That’s good. I missed eating with you,” Lorelai said slurping up her spaghetti. “Mom missed you, too,” she said, nodding toward the untouched plate of pasta left out for Nicole.

Karla rolled her eyes. “Mom’s not here, Lorelai,” she said. “There’s no such thing as angels.”

“Karla,” I snapped, but Lorelai shrugged her shoulders and leaned in toward me.

She whispered, “It’s okay, Ellie. Mom knows Karla doesn’t mean it.”

Karla rolled her eyes again then she looked toward Greyson. “Just to be clear, I’m not here because of you,” she stated sternly. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“Duly noted,” he said, putting his hands up in surrender.

Greyson looked my way and mouthed, Thank you.

I nodded once and went back to eating.

As we ate, a big part of me wanted to tell Karla to get off her phone, but at least she was sitting down at the table. At least she had showed up, even though I was sure it was hard for her to do. I was almost certain it was hard for every single person to show up to that table that night.

One step at a time, Eleanor.

One step at a time.

“I can’t believe that after all this time, I finally get to see him,” Shay remarked as we drove over to Greyson’s house for the baseball game. “I mean, I know you’ve told me about him, and I’ve been tuning in the best I can to your reality show, but actually seeing Greyson after all this time is going to be surreal. It’s as if I’m an extra on your show,” she exclaimed.

I laughed. “You’re so ridiculous.”

“Does he look the same?” she asked.

“Um, yeah, but like, in a grown-up way. You’ll see.”

“So this is gonna be your new home when you marry Greyson, huh?” Shay said as we pulled onto the property. “Not too shabby.”

“For the love of God, I just hope you avoid saying all these things in front of him.”

“No promises. You know me—I’m a talker.”

We parked the car, and as we began walking toward Greyson’s front porch, he came out wearing a backward baseball hat and a White Sox jersey. “Hey ladies!” He smiled and hurried down the stairs to greet us. “Shay, it’s been a long time. It’s great to see you.” He pulled her into a hug, and Shay stood still as day.

When he let go of her, she gave him a tight smile and then turned back to me and whisper-shouted. “What the hell, Ellie?!”

“What? What’s wrong?”

She pulled me in closer and turned her back even more to Greyson. “Um, how in the ever-loving-shit did you forget to inform me that Greyson, oh, I don’t know, grew up to become a Greek god? Seriously, are those real biceps? Those can’t be real. People don’t look like that. People don’t look like that!”

“Shhh, he’s going to hear you. Stop being weird.”

We turned back to Greyson and smiled. “Are you guys ready to head out? I figured we could all fit into your SUV,” I said.

“Yeah, let me go get the girls. We’ll meet you out here.”

He turned around and started walking away with his hands in his pockets, and Shay moaned.

She moaned.

“Do you see it, Ellie?”

“See what?”

“Those cheeks of steel. Left cheek, right cheek, cheeks cheeks cheeks, oh how cheeky Grey’s cheeks can be,” she said, mocking Greyson’s butt.

“Oh my gosh, Shay, shut up, will you?”

I rolled my eyes at my cousin’s comments, but heck, I did notice Greyson’s behind.

A man couldn’t wear perfectly fitted jeans like that and not have his bum looked at, and Greyson wasn’t lacking in that department.

Not at all.

“Listen, I know there are rules against this, but if you don’t sleep with him, I will,” she joked.

I shoved her lightly. “You’re ridiculous, but hey, I just wanted to warn you before you meet Karla. She can be a bit hard on people when they first meet her.”

“Oh yeah! The growler, right?”

“Yeah. Karla is going to try to freak you out with her scars. Don’t react to it, because that will just make it worse. Just try to be cool about it. Pretend you don’t even notice.”

Shay went to the car, grabbed her black bowler, and placed it on her head. “I’m pretty sure you’re overthinking it. Don’t worry, it will be fine.”

Yeah, that was what I had thought, too.

Greyson and the girls came out of the house, and Lorelai was bouncing up and down with excitement about the baseball game. I didn’t have a clue if she was into sports, but the moment I mentioned cotton candy, she was fully on board.

My stomach knotted as I witnessed Karla’s stare move to Shay.

Karla locked eyes with her.

Shay stared back.

I swore it felt like minutes before Shay nodded. “I like your style,” she said, speaking about Karla’s all black attire. “Very European vibes.”

“Thanks.” Karla nodded back. “I like your hat.”

“Do you want it?”

“Sure.”

Shay took off the bowler hat, walked over to Karla, and placed it on her head.

Karla nodded once more. “Thanks.” She turned and walked to the SUV and climbed inside after Lorelai.

My jaw was on the floor.

What in the world had just happened?

Shay frowned. “That was a very underwhelming growl, Ellie.”

She then walked off and climbed into the SUV, too.

I turned to Greyson, who was standing there just as stunned as I was. “Is your cousin a wizard?”

“That’s the only logical explanation for what just happened. Nothing else would make sense.”

We all drove to the game, and the whole drive there, Shay and Karla spoke like they were the best of friends, talking about music and makeup, and oh my gosh, Karla was talking more than Lorelai.

How did we just enter the twilight zone?

The baseball game turned out to be a lot more fun than I could’ve even imagined. Lorelai was on a sugar high, Greyson was locked in on the game, and every now and then I swore it looked like Karla was chanting, “Let’s go White Sox.”

“Hey, Dad. Can I get some cash to get a hot dog?” Karla said, standing up from her seat.

Greyson sat up a bit, seeming thrown off by Karla’s request. “Yeah, of course, here you go.”

“Thanks. Want anything?” she muttered.

Greyson’s eyes widened. He shook his head. “I’m good, thanks.”

“All right.”

Karla headed off to get her snack.

“Did you see that?” Greyson asked. “She asked me for money and then asked if I wanted anything.”

I smiled. “Yeah, I saw.”

“That’s one of those good small steps, right?”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “It was.” That was the thing about small steps—they had the power to lead to big changes.

When we hit the seventh inning, Lorelai was hitting her breaking point. She was coming down from that sugar high really quick.

“Just a little more,” Greyson said, holding his catching glove on his hand. We’d watched four balls fly in our direction the whole game, and he was more determined than ever to catch one, too.

“But, Daddy,” Lorelai yawned, climbing into Shay’s lap.

“Really, honey, we’re almost there. The next batter is the one who’s been hitting all those balls our way. And I have a good feeling.”

Lorelai groaned, but didn’t put up much more of a fuss.

Then, like magic, Greyson’s player delivered a ball in our direction. Greyson stood up from his seat and it all felt oddly like destiny. Greyson’s eye was on the ball, and as it started to come down, Lorelai tugged on Greyson’s jeans, forcing him to break his concentration for a split second. That was all it took, though. In the amount of time it took for Greyson to glance toward his daughter then back to the sky, his focus was shot. The ball was too close, and it hit him square in the face.

“Ugggh!” he groaned, tumbling backward and dropping the ball.

Everyone gasped.

“Are you okay, Dad?” Karla asked, seeming very concerned.

“Daddy, you missed the ball,” Lorelai mentioned.

“Oh, look! We’re on the jumbo screen! Dance girls!” Shay instructed, and the three of them began wiggling their bodies as I helped Greyson sit up straight.