thirteen years ago
SULLY
Only minutes away from beating my brothers’ asses in Monopoly, and the shrill ring of our old doorbell interrupted me.
It was the height of another Minnesota summer, and Mom told us not to answer the door when she was gone at work, not unless Blake was home. He’d graduated from high school last year, so apparently, that made him responsible, though the number of hair gel bottles he went through said otherwise. What heactuallywas was an environmental disaster.
Blake wasn’t home, but I sprang to my feet before Theo or Noah could stop me, scattering Monopoly pieces across the sunroom floor as I raced to the front of the house and peeked out the window.
It was just a girl, by herself.
Well, notjusta girl.
She was, without a doubt, the prettiest girl I’d ever seen. Like holy?—
“Sully!” Theo called from the sunroom, just as I heard footsteps that I knew were Noah’s.
My pulse ticked, matching the beat of my brother’s march. I scowled. My older brothers always got everything they wanted, and always before me.
But not today.
I whipped open the front door before Noah could get there and then stepped outside, nearly knocking the girl over in the process. She stumbled back, her brown eyes flashing with surprise, and I mumbled an apology while slamming the door behind me and holding the knob in hopes that I might fend off my brother.
“Hi!”
The short syllable came out breathless and certainly not suave, not how Noah or Theo probably would have said it. But she smiled.
Oh my God, I made her smile.
Or maybe she was just smiling to be polite.
Whatever, it was amazing. Her face lit up in a way that I didn’t know was humanly possible. Like a Christmas tree or a Lite-Brite or a?—
“Hi! I’m Eleanor Summers,” she said.
“Eleanor,” I repeated, testing how it felt in my mouth. I didn’t know anyone else named Eleanor.
“Well, Ellie.” A blush appeared on her cheeks. Why did I want to touch it? “I don’t know why I said Eleanor. Everyone calls me Ellie, and?—”
“I like Eleanor,” I cut in, too impatient. Fuck, I was always too impatient. “I like Ellie, too, but Eleanor is—” I cleared my throat. “I’m Sullivan Sawyer London.” She cracked a smile, like she knew what I was doing. “Everyone calls me Sully, though.”
I felt a tug on the doorknob, but I leaned forward, taking all my weight with me so Noah couldn’t open the door.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Eleanor’s smile was mind-blowing. “Sully. Or Sullivan. Or Sawyer.”
“No one calls me Sawyer,” I said thoughtfully.
“I like Sawyer.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She nodded resolutely and then pointed across the street, tossing her long, black hair over her shoulder. “I just moved in, over there. Our moms met at some back-to-school thing, and I guess your mom mentioned you have a sister who goes to the high school I’m starting at? She thought I should introduce myself. And I—” She shrugged. “It’s probably weird that I just showed up, but I was…bored, I suppose. I don’t have any siblings.”
“I can relate,” I said.
“You can?”
“Oh, yeah. I don’t know why my mom said that to your mom. I’m definitely an only child. No sister, definitely no brothers or?—”
