“Shut up.” Noah’s laughter filtered through the door. “No, you’re not!”
I heaved a sigh. “Okay, fine, I’m not.” Eleanor giggled. “Unfortunately. But my sister’s at college in the cities today.”
“Oh.”
The girl looked a little crestfallen, and I realized my mistake.
“No, like, she’s still in high school, but she takes college classes in her free time. I’m telling you, she’s, like,reallyboring.”
Eleanor’s grin reappeared. “Well, if you think she wouldn’t mind taking a freshman under her wing next year, tell her I stopped by. Okay?”
“Sure,” I said and then racked my brain to try to think of anything else I could say to get her to stay. I wishedIwere already in high school so I could offer to take her undermywing. But I wasn’t. And for once in my life, words failed me. Soon, I was watching her walk away, sticking her hands in the back pockets of her jean shorts.
Damn.
“Would you take a hint?” I grunted, giving my older brother a light shove as I walked back into the house.
Noah threw his head back and laughed. “I take it you’re calling dibs on the new neighbor girl?”
“She’s not some object you can justclaim, Noah.”
“Of course not.” Noah nodded along. “Sounds like we’re in the same grade, though. Maybe I should go introduce myself.”
“Maybe you should go fuck off.”
Noah snickered as he walked away, but I didn’t care.
When you’re the youngest kid out of five, you rarely have firsts that the others don’t.
But I met Eleanor Summers first.
I met Eleanor Summers first, and I no longer cared about being last at anything else.
CHAPTER ONE
sully
“DOES NOAH THINK WE’RE broke?”
Theo shook his head and slumped into his first-class seat by the window of the 737 that would fly us to Boston.
“No, Sul. I don’t think Noah thinks we’re broke.” He watched as I maneuvered into the spot next to him. “We’renotbroke.”
“I know that,” I said defensively, finding both ends of my seat belt and wrenching them out from under my ass. “But I’m not entirely sure that he knows that.”
“We have good jobs and make more than a decent living,” Theo said, sounding as patient as if he were explaining how stocks work to a five-year-old. “For normal people. Our brother isn’t a normal person. He has a disposable income, so if he wants to fly us first class to Boston for his engagement party, then by all means, he can fly my ass to Boston.”
I leaned my head back with a sigh because I knew he was right—something else to be annoyed about—and Theo looked over at me, eyes slightly narrowed.
“What’s up with you?” he asked. “Since when do you care if Noah pays for shit?”
“I don’t know, I just feel a little…” I shrugged, struggling to find the words. My whole body vibrated as I tried to get comfortable inmy seat, absently watching other people board the plane. I’d never loved travel, which might explain the odd sensation that had been weighing me down this week, building as we got closer to the weekend. But I’d traveled before without issues, even when I had to fly economy and squeeze my long legs between those tiny, torturous seats.
This felt…different.
“Do you ever wish you’d stuck it out with football instead of going the nerd route and becoming a professor?” I asked my brother, my brain flitting from one topic to the next. “You probably could have been rolling in as much dough as Noah.”
Theo’s eyes rolled up. “First of all, I wouldn’t have beenrollingin as much doughas Noah. He’s a quarterback. I was not.”
