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“Where are you?” he says.
I tell him. He says, “I’m on my way,” and hangs up the phone.
I stand and slowly walk back down the pier, heart racing. This is my chance, probably my only chance, to tell Sullivan the truth.
I see him, a dark figure stepping out of a sun-dazzled car, and I start running. He turns. The look that lights up his face is all I need to throw myself into his arms.
He hugs me until I’m breathless, finally setting me down.
I burst out with everything I’ve been planning to say to him tumbling out of my mouth at a hundred miles a minute.
“Sully, I’m so fucking sorry, can you ever forgive me? I promised you not to tell Martinique, and I swear I tried so hard not to, but Sunday morning I finally did, and I know what a mistake it was. I broke your trust, but I swear to you, I’ll never do that again. I’m so, so sorry! You kept all your promises to me; you didn’t deserve that. And I didn’t believe Davis for one second! I know you didn’t hit him for no reason; you always have a reason, and whatever it was, I bet he deserved it. And if he didn’t, it doesn’t matter ‘cause you were a kid and you just lost your mom, and fuck him anyway for bringing it up again!”
I search his face, expecting to see pain and anger, but he just laughs.
“There was a reason,” he says. “But probably not a good one—Davis sold pics of my dad passed out in a pile of bottles to the tabloids. The prosecutor used it against him in the trial.”
I think of the betrayal, a picture stolen in Sully’s own home, in his family’s most vulnerable, most devastated moment. And I kind of want to punch Davis myself.
“Fuckhim,” I say fervently.
“I’d rather not,” Sully says. “And anyway, it was punishment enough that I stopped him getting in your pants on prom night. Looking back on it, I might have had ulterior motives…”
I don’t know if that’s true, but it gives an extra thrill to the memory of Sullivan dragging away my prom date.
“Is that everything?” he says, smiling.
“No,” I pant. “There’s one more thing—I love you, Sully. I know I’m not supposed to, you’re not even my boyfriend, but I did it anyway; I fell in love with you. And I wondered if maybe…we could try going on a date for real?”
Sully lets out a laugh like a sob and swoops me off my feet. He kisses all over my face, hands cupped around my jaw so he can kiss my forehead, my cheeks, my lips…
“I love you, Theo. I love you,” he says with each kiss. “You’re going to take me on a thousand dates, and I’m going to take you on a thousand more. But none of them will be our first date because every one of our dates was real. The way I felt about you was real from the moment I asked you to dance.”
My face is wet with kisses and tears. The happiness I feel is as blinding as a bomb. It levels everything I knew before.
“You love me?” I squeak.
Sully laughs and hugs me like he’ll never let me go. “More than I could ever tell you.”
I can’t believe it. I’m so light I could float away if I weren’t anchored in his arms.
“That’s great,” I say. “Because I’d really like to keep staying at your house…I think I need to quit my job.”
Sully’s face darkens. “That’s probably a good idea.”
Nerves swirl back in, and I cling to his chest. “What happened with Angus?”
“He’s not taking the property.”
The words hit like a hammer. I take a step back, hand rising to my mouth.
“I’m sorry, Sully?—“
“It doesn’t matter,” he assures me. “I sold it anyway.”
“What?”
“Not for very much—I had to take what I could get. But I made two hundred K in profit.”
