Eleven Years Ago
ELLIE
“Hello, Beautiful.”
Sully opened the door, letting me step inside.
His arms encircled me, and his lips brushed my forehead, and I’d never get sick of the way my stomach did flips when I inhaled his familiar woodsy scent. It lingered in the air, mixing with the remnants of a Midwest home-cooked meal.
I smiled, resting my head against his chest. “Hey, Handsome.”
“Did you eat dinner?” he asked. “My mom made extra in case you’re hungry.”
“I ate,” I assured him. “But that was nice of her.”
“It was nice of her,” he agreed. I could feel his fingers playing with my hair, nearly urgent in the way that he touched me.
Like he hated that it had been all of a few hours since he’d seen me after school.
Like he wanted to reassure himself that I hadn’t disappeared on him.
Like he was impatient with this moment, this conversation, and wanted to whisk me away somewhere secret.
“It would be even nicer of her if I knew she wasn’t planning to lurk around and make sure we abide by some ridiculous three-foot rule. ”
“Sullivan London, I said no such thing about three feet!” Anne called from the kitchen before I could reply. “You need to stop making mountains out of molehills.”
“I swear to God, she must have bugged the entire house,” he muttered before yelling, “Some molehills seem really, really big, Mother!”
I laughed, listening to Anne London’s grumbles about how her son doesn’t even know what molehills are. Which was likely true.
With a sympathetic pat on my boyfriend’s chest, I reassured him. “It’s gonna be okay, Sawyer.”
He raised a brow. “You say that now, but when she comes flying at us with those pillows, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“It was a joke!” his mom called, and I laughed again.
Last week, she’d walked in to find Sully and me tangled together on the couch while watching a movie and had laughed that maybe she needed to be stricter before wedging a throw pillow between us—all while Sully groaned and I’d been laughing so hard I could barely catch a breath.
I loved this family, and I loved being here.
I loved the voices that would ring through the house and the wallpaper that was at least a decade out of fashion.
I loved the sound of paws on the hardwood, anxious to sneak past the gate I knew Anne had up in the kitchen, and the dinner and dessert she’d save for me, just in case.
But my favorite part of the London home would always be the face that first greeted me when I knocked on the door three years ago. The face that always greeted me when I arrived, like he had some sort of sixth sense that I was coming.
Even though I’d never told him, I loved him the most.
“Come on, El.” Sully pressed another kiss to the top of my head, and I could feel his lips curving against my skin. “I made us some popcorn.”
He led me to the living room—no, tugged me, once again displaying a sense of urgency that might have been odd if it weren’t for the fact that he was Sully—and we nearly tripped over a pile of Noah’s football gear, causing my boyfriend to stop in his tracks.
“What the hell? That was not there when I walked to the door. Noah!” Sully began kicking the gear toward the corner of the room.
“Oh my God, plug your nose,” he warned with a shudder, and I shook my head at his dramatics.
“Only, like, a year and a half left of this shit, and then he can go leave his stinky gear in his dorm room or something.”
“You shouldn’t be too quick to wish that time away,” I reminded him, suddenly queasy.
“Why shouldn’t—oh.” Sully’s shoulders dropped.
“Yeah.”
I shouldn’t have said anything.
He heaved a sigh. “Are you sure you have to, you know, graduate and go to college? It’s a little inconvenient for me—” Another kick to Noah’s football gear.
“And I was hoping maybe you could reconsider the timing of it and all. If you’re open to bribery, I’m sure I could come up with some good options. ”
He was teasing, but I felt something jabbing my insides anyway. “It’s only one year,” I reasoned with a forced smile. “We can survive one year, Sawyer.”
He sighed. Again. And then turned to yell over his shoulder again. “Mother!”
“Yes, Sullivan?”
“Why did you have Noah before me?”
“We’ve talked about this. It doesn’t work like that, dear!” she called back, and a more genuine smile wormed back onto my face.
“Fuck that,” Sully muttered, and then he was whirling me into his arms, picking me up and dropping me down on the couch for our movie date.
It would be okay. We didn’t have to have everything figured out yet.
“One year,” I repeated.
“I did manage to make it through eighth grade, even if I hated it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Eighth grade,” he repeated as he settled onto the cushions beside me. “The year I survived without you.”
“We weren’t even together then,” I laughed.
“But I knew we would be,” he said.
And then he tossed me a wink that made all the tension in my body disappear.