theboltersalbatross
Eleanor Sullivan has known the Berzatto family for as long as she can remember. Carmen is her best friend, Natalie is practically her older sister, and Michael Berzatto is the loudmouthed, infuriating older brother she's spent most of her life trying to ignore.
Mikey has always been good at making people love him. Nell, however, has never been particularly impressed. She's a schoolteacher with a good head on her shoulders, a life she's carefully built for herself, and absolutely no interest in a man who can't seem to take anything seriously.
Unfortunately for Mikey, somewhere between family dinners, late nights at The Beef, and a lifetime of knowing each other, he starts falling for the one girl he's convinced deserves better than him.
And unfortunately for Nell, she eventually starts falling back.
What follows is seven years of stolen kisses, crowded kitchens, impossible promises, and a love neither of them ever saw coming.
Because Michael Berzatto has always been good at making people stay.
He just never learned how to stay himself.