48. Ellie
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
ellie
“HEY, KIDDO,” MY MOM called as soon as I stepped out the front door to get some fresh air. She took a sip of what looked like a wine cooler, and I waved, walking over to her.
Her front porch was just as rickety and questionable as the Londons’, and the wooden boards groaned a little as I sat on them.
“Look at you, all done up,” she commented, casting a glance at my outfit.
Sully, who was still finishing up a work call, had made reservations for tonight. And when I’d approached my closet earlier, I’d reached for his favorite red dress without really thinking twice. It seemed the only logical choice to wear on our first date in so many years.
“I have dinner plans with Sully,” I explained. “He said there wasn’t a dress code, which means there totally is.”
“Well, isn’t that nice.” She said it as though I’d detailed the current weather conditions, and I laughed at her blasé attitude. “What?” She lifted a brow. “Was I supposed to act surprised that you’re back together? He’s been over here painting that whole house for weeks.”
“Yeah, well…” I sighed, wrapping my arms around my knees as I tucked them closer to my body, trying to escape the chill in the air. “It was complicated for a bit.”
She snorted, taking a sip of her wine cooler, a lime something or other. “I’m no stranger to complicated when it comes to men, honey.”
“I went to Boston in June,” I explained, the words falling out of me. “I had a work trip that overlapped with Noah’s engagement party, and Sully was there.”
My mom glanced over at me, nodding. But I looked away, staring at my feet and knocking my toes together as I confessed, “I moved home this summer because I was pregnant.”
Silence stretched between us, interrupted only by the sound of insects, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at her.
“You ran home when you got pregnant, and I ran away.” She tapped her nails on the side of her wine cooler can. “In some ways, we couldn’t be more different.”
I wasn’t sure that was so true, even though she’d never told me much about it—what happened when she got pregnant with me.
“I went where I felt safest, Mom.” I finally cocked my head to the side, taking in the lines of her face, which had grown so much more pronounced in recent years. “Why did you decide to leave?”
She sighed. “Because it would have been safer than staying.”
“We’re not so different,” I said with a shrug. “Though I have to admit that it did cross my mind—that I wouldn’t want my child not knowing their father.”
“Sully London is worth knowing.” My mom shook her head, which I’d expected. “Your father wasn’t, Ellie.”
I bit down on my lip, wondering what I should and shouldn’t say. This was more than I’d ever gotten her to say about my dad, and maybe that was the crux of it.
“I would have at least liked to know something, Mom.”
She heaved a breath that sounded as though she’d been holding it in for years. “Okay.”
I took that to mean that maybe the conversation was open. More open than it had been.
“I’m not anymore,” I said instead of prodding her further.
There would be other times for that.
“Hm?”
She seemed to have gone somewhere in her head and jerked out of it.
“Pregnant,” I clarified. “I’m not pregnant.”
Mom nodded and put her arms around my shoulders, drawing me closer. “I figured, honey. You said ‘was.’”
“It wasn’t…” I blew out a breath before trying again. “It wasn’t our choice.”
She squeezed tighter, her voice softer than I’d heard it in a long time. “I figured that, too.”
I nodded, feeling grateful that she wasn’t asking any other questions, and silence once again lingered in the air around us. For a moment, this was all I really needed. To sit here with her.
“I know that’s your home more than this one ever was,” she said after a bit, tipping her head to gesture across the street.
“And I’m not upset about it. I think moving here was the best thing I ever did as a mom, the best thing for you.
I realized very quickly that the Londons could give you more of a family than I’d ever be able to—”
“Mom, that’s not entirely true—”
“No, no, it’s okay.” She pulled back. Sometimes I wished I could see my own eyes staring back when I looked at her instead of not knowing where mine came from.
“I just want you to know that you can come home to me, too. I am here, if you need me. I’ve been working on…
” Her expression was strained. “Making space. I know that’s why you haven’t been by. ”
“Thanks, Mom.” I burrowed in closer to her again, not sure I wanted her to see just how much the thought of her doing that meant to me or just how unsure I was about it.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up, and I didn’t want to guilt her if it didn’t go the way we wanted.
But the thought was nice. It was really nice.
“Seeing the two of you back together with those paint cans, tackling house projects…it inspired me,” she admitted. “I lost…a lot when I was younger. Which made it hard to voluntarily let things go. But there’s something about second chances, right?”
“Yeah, there is.” I nodded. “Love you, Mom.”
“Love you, too, hon.”
Across the street, the front door opened, and Sully stepped out. His eyes scanned the front yard before eventually lifting and spotting me and my mom. After locking the door behind him, he slid his hands into his pockets and wandered toward us.
“I just really can’t believe that’s the scrawny boy who used to throw rocks at your window,” Mom muttered as Sully crossed the street, and I laughed.
Because yeah, it was hard to believe. The Sully who was striding purposefully in our direction could never be described as scrawny.
Or a boy. In so many ways, Sully was larger than life.
And tonight, he was making my mouth water with the way his fitted dress shirt stretched over his torso and his pants hugged his hips.
God, how the hell had I gotten so lucky?
His eyes caught on mine as he grew closer, and then they raked over my outfit, flaring when he realized what I was wearing.
“Hi, Susan,” he said after a beat where he barely tore his gaze away from me to look at my mom. “I hate to steal your daughter away, but she’s actually my hot date tonight. And we’ve got a six o’clock reservation.”
She slid her arm from around my shoulders. “Just tonight or every night, Mr. London?”
I elbowed my mom, but Sully just chuckled, his gaze sparkling. Dusk had settled, painting the sky behind our house with pretty hues of purple.
“Every night, ma’am.” My stomach flipped from his husky tone. “She’s my hot date for eternity.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” My mom gave me a little nudge, muttering, “With the way he’s looking at you, you’d better get over there before you end up over his shoulders.”
“He likes this dress,” I murmured back, giggling. “But I didn’t tell him I was wearing it.”
“You’re right,” my mom said definitively while Sully’s gaze intensified, trying to decipher what we were saying. “You are my daughter.”
I laughed and leaned in to give her one more hug. “Have a good night, Mom.”
“You, too,” she said, and then I hopped off the steps to walk over to Sully, whose expression was now indescribable. But hot—very hot.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Eleanor,” he said as soon as I approached his side. The words were so low, I probably could have pretended I didn’t hear them.
If I’d wanted to.
But I didn’t really, so I feigned innocence instead. “What?”
“You know what,” he growled.
“You don’t like my outfit?”
“I don’t like getting a stiffy in front of your mother.”
I laughed as I walked across the street to his parked car. Behind us, my mom’s front door shut with an echoing click. “She thought it was funny.”
Sully shook his head. “Every time you’ve worn that dress, I’ve ended up inside you by the end of the night.
You’ve Pavlov-ed the shit out of my dick with it, and you look fucking unbelievable.
” He groaned as he opened the passenger door of his jeep for me.
“If I wasn’t so determined to take you out tonight, I’d be hauling you back inside. ”
“Plenty of time for that later,” I hummed, giving him a sultry glance as I slid into the passenger seat. “When you take off this dress and end up inside me again.”
“Please, El, can I?” He was gripping the top of the car, leaning over me and resting his forehead on his forearm as if he couldn’t even bear to hold it upright. “God, I want that.”
I blinked up at him, suddenly impatient for something we’d been building up to for so many weeks now. “If you don’t fuck me on every surface in our house tonight and in every way imaginable, I might never forgive you.”
“Oh my God.” Sully swore and closed the door in my face, only to rake his hands through his hair repeatedly and then whip the door open again. “What if I called and asked for a later reservation?”
I laughed before realizing he was serious. My pulsed ticked faster.
“Yeah, I’m not that hungry,” I said in a low voice, and Sully’s eyes flared. “Should I go inside…while you call?”
“Yes.” His fingers fumbled for his phone.
“I won’t be able to talk straight otherwise.
It’s been almost six months, and before that, so much longer, and I—” He stepped back so I could get out of the car and groaned when I brushed against him, leaning to give him a kiss on the cheek that he held his breath for.
“I’ll be inside waiting for you,” I murmured while barely repressing a whole-body shudder from the anticipation of the evening as I walked toward the house.
He was right; it had been so long. And suddenly, the idea of waiting even a second longer was unbearable.
Once inside, I stood in the living room, wondering what to do with myself and whether I should go upstairs to wait for Sully.
But I couldn’t really get my feet to move any further away from the door—or him—and within seconds, it was crashing open anyway, Sully standing in the frame and taking up all of it.