My heart hammered in my throat, my palms all of a sudden sweaty, as though I were revealing some grand secret, when it was, in fact, just the truth of my heart.
“I know I’d asked about Summers, but I’ve always felt more of a London myself,” I confessed. “I mean, I did for a long time, anyway. From the summer I moved in across the street to…well, you know. And today, it felt a bit like I was again. A London.”
Sully began closing the distance between us like he couldn’t get to me fast enough. “Baby, youare.”
I just smiled at him. I knew he believed that, but there was still some lingering newness to being back in his world.
Sully took one look at my expression, and determination surged into his. “If you want to be a London, we can definitely make that happen, Eleanor. In a permanent, officialsort of way.”
My stomach flipped, but I rolled my eyes at him. “Stop, I’m serious.”
“And you think I’m not?”
I didn’t have time to answer him before he abruptly turned on his heel, walking away from me—toward the house.
“What are you doing?” I called.
“I’m making you a London.”
Each word was like a little punch in the night air.
“You’re…what?”
I watched as Sully began what looked likeattackingthe rosebushes, plucking at the stems with an aggression that made no real sense. He spun back toward me with several in his hand, sucking on a knuckle that, if I had to guess, had been nicked in the process. His hair looked windswept, as if he’d just endured a hurricane while in the rosebushes, and his hoodie was askew on his torso. And I wasn’t sure why I found the whole thing so attractive, but my pulse intensified as he struggled to pull his wallet out of his jeans’ pocket, fishing for something with his available hand.
What was hedoing?
And then my jaw dropped. Because a second later, Sully had a glittering ring between his lips. He held it between his teeth while pocketing his wallet again, and I…couldn’t breathe. He walked toward me with purpose before dropping into the soft grass beside the sidewalk I stood frozen on, looking up at me with a love I couldn’t quite put into words.
“I know, I know,” he said, his words coming out in a rush. “IknowI just told you a couple weeks ago I wasn’t going to rush you. So maybe I should actually just—” He swallowed hard and pushed back to his feet. “—stand while I say this instead. So you know that it’s not—fuck.”
He blew out a breath, his body vibrating.
“Sawyer,” I whispered, reaching out with a shaking hand, needing to touch him.
But he put the roses in my outstretched fingers instead.
“Those are for you, El,” he said. “Because they’vealwaysbeen for you.”
I attempted to swallow past the lump in my throat as I took them from him. “Thank you.”
“Yeah.” He ran his hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face. My eyes tracked his fingers. Mostly because there was still a ring between them. “I just—I’m so in love with you.”
His eyes sought mine, and I brought the roses closer to my chest while fighting the urge to launch myself at him, knowing he wasn’t done with what he was doing.
And Ibadlywanted him to finish what he was doing.
Which was maybe exactly what he needed to know.
“Sawyer.” His name barely escaped my emotion-filled throat.
“Yeah, El?”
“You…can kneel.”
His eyes grew rounder. “What?”
“You don’t have to stand,” I said carefully. “You can kneel.”
