“We want you to come with us, too,” Sullivan explains with forbearance, “but you’re still sick. And if I take you out by the water and you get even sicker, Ma and Pa will skin my hide.”
“It’s not fair.” Cecily’s sulking is broken by a harsh cough.
Sullivan raises a brow as if to prove his point, and my heart lightens to see the amusement reflected in his eyes. I’ve always thought the different colors made him extraordinary, especially when he was in full sunlight, so I was surprised to learn that it unnerved some kids and grownups in town.
Phooey on them.
They don’t matter.
I kiss Cecily’s warm forehead and tap at her scowl lines. “We’ll bring you back something special.”
“What?”
“Hmm…” I tap my lips and pretend to think. “How about the biggest, smoothest rock we can find for your collection?”
“Okay.” Cecily yawns before pointing a finger at me. “But I want three instead of one.”
“How about five?” Sullivan offers to sweeten the deal.
“Even better,” she says tiredly before shuffling back to her room.
Sullivan seems contemplative on our walk to the creek, so I don’t pester him. If I did, he’d probably make me carry the poles, so I don’t mind letting him have a little bit of thinking time. But when we arrive, I can’t stop my excitement when I hear the trickling water and smell the earthy dampness. I love this place.
“Mind your step,” he cautions with a hand to my elbow. “The bank’s a bit slippery.”
I scoff but allow him to escort me to our favorite spot. “You act like I haven’t been down here almost as much as you my entire life. And if I recall correctly”—which I absolutely do—“it was you who slipped here before I ever did.”
A smile cracks his stony face, and now I can relax. This is the Sully I want to see more of.
We fish for an hour or so, but the fish aren’t very interested in being caught. So after we collect five of the very best rocks for Cecily, we give up and lean back against a tree to count the turtles as they peek over the water’s surface.
“I’ve been thinking,” he says after a while.
I elbow him. “Oh, you have? Shall I send an announcement to the paper that Sullivan Shay finally had an original thought?”
“You’re such a smart alec, you know that? With sharp, bony elbows.” There’s no bite in his tone as he rubs his side. Just a quiet humor that matches his quiet personality. But then it fades back into his usual seriousness right before he drops something unexpected on me. “I’m thinking about leaving Hope’s Stand.”
Dumbfounded, I stare at him. But he just looks out over the water. “What do you mean, leave Hope’s Stand?”
“I can’t stay here anymore. I’ve got to go.”
“Go? Go where?” And what’s so important that he thinks he has to leave me?
“Shit.” He stands, running a hand through his dark blond hair with a perturbed movement as he takes a moment to find his words. “I’ve got to find my parents.”
He’s never come up with the best of jokes, but this has got to be the worst one yet. “Okay, I take back my announcementto the paper. Our parents are back at the house, right where we left them.”
Sullivan turns to me, and the uneasiness on his face makes me too nervous to sit. “I don’t mean those parents. I mean the ones I had before them.”
“Did you hit your head on something?” I poke his forehead beneath his dirty blond curls to see if he has any knots, but he grabs my finger. There has to be one somewhere for him to be this crazy. “Warren and Mara Shay are your parents. You have two younger sisters named Emmaline and Cecily.”
There’s a bittersweet twist to his lips when he says, “I’m not your brother. At least not by blood.”
“What do you mean? Don’t joke like that.” I laugh shakily, but when he stares back at me with no trace of amusement, my heart drops into my stomach. “Sully?”
“I’m sorry, Emma, but it’s true.”
“No.” I shake my head in denial until dizziness makes me stop. But Sullivan doesn’t lie. He never has. If there were a first place prize for truthtelling, he’d be the only one to win it every single time. And if he says he’s not my brother...that he has another set of parents somewhere… “That can’t be.”
