Fall Too Well (Cozy Creek Collection)

by Erin Branscom

“The smallest man who ever lived.”

She calls it my “Rory Gilmore-ing” when I bring an extra book in my purse just in case I get bored wherever I go.

I can’t help it that fictional characters are often better than real people.

We’ve both watched Gilmore Girls a thousand times and repeatedly use phrases from the show. It’s like a love language between us that makes us laugh.

Every little memory of her was like a million paper cuts to my soul.

“Knowledge has always been chasing you, but you’ve always been faster.”

One thing I’ve learned is that family isn’t always the one you come from. It’s the one that you make.

I slide a pan of pumpkin bread into the oven and turn on my favorite show to binge-watch, Gilmore Girls.

I sing “All Too Well,” Taylor’s Version, of course. Hayley sings along with me, and then she sings “Timeless,” which got couples dancing, and I could tell it made her happy.

You can’t claim something you never really had. You know she’s always been mine.”

“Beautiful, you’re nothing casual. You’re forever.”

“I thought of Taylor Swift as just a pop artist. How am I relating to her songs?”

“It doesn’t matter what the mess looked like. It matters that we keep writing our story and make an epic epilogue,”

Because sometimes family isn’t who you started with; it’s who you end up with.