“That I’m the only one who calls you that?”
My nod was slow.
“I didn’t, actually.” The tone of his voice was flat, telling me everything I needed to know about what he thought of me. Of seeing me, of sharing this elevator with me, of being within two feet of me for the first time in years. “Itisyour name, and it’s been a long time. Maybe?—”
“No,” I cut in.
The corner of Sully’s mouth twitched, in a satisfied way.
“Stop,” I demanded.
I didn’t need him to be smug about that. I didn’t need him toacknowledgewhat it meant that I still didn’t let anyone else call me that.
“Mm,” he hummed. His hunched shoulders grew a little more relaxed as he sauntered a step or two toward me before seeming to think better of it. Pausing, he swallowed and then flopped back against the wall of the elevator. “Very bossy tonight, Eleanor.”
A shiver ran down my spine when he said my name. Again.
He noticed. Of course he did. “Sorry.” Sully cleared his throat, looking annoyed that he was apologizing. “I mean…very bossy tonight,Ellie.”
There was a tiny wrinkle of Sully’s nose when he said it, like it was unpleasant, maybe even revolting, to call me that. And honestly, I understood. It felt wrong, and I loathed it.
Releasing a breath, I tried harder not to be affected by his presence. I’d hoped to avoid this—hoped to escape the night without getting close enough to Sully to know if he still wore the same cologne, the one I gave him for his nineteenth birthday. But breathing was unfortunately hard to avoid, and when I inhaled, the scent of cedar and amber hit me like a freight train, drowning me in memories. Lazy summer mornings between the sheets, late winter nights watching only the Christmas episodes ofGlee, afternoons filled with textbooks and assignments and sneaky kisses in the library.
Words were hard to find. They hid behind the memories, but I managed to scrounge up four of them at his accusation that I wasbossy. “Well, you know me.”
“I do.” His gaze raked over me, and I flushed from head to toe. Hot and,ugh, needy. My body immediately grew desperate for something I recognized so acutely. He knew me. This manreallyknew me. He knew me in ways that unfortunately couldn’t be replicated. His eyes jerked away, to the ground. “Or…I did.”
It was like a splash of cold water, his words. A gut punch I deserved.
“Not much has changed,” I argued.
It was a ridiculous thing to say. Because everything had changed.
Awkward silence fell over us, and Sully shifted on his feet, the rustle of his clothes far too loud in the quiet elevator.
“I, uh, would have thought you’d be staying at Natalie’s tonight,” Sully muttered, ignoring my comment. His gaze remained downcast.
“Work booked me here,” I answered. “I would have thought you’d be staying at one of your brothers’.”
“Noah booked me here,” he responded and shrugged. “I guess he didn’t want his brother crashing his first night as an engaged man.”
Noah.
Noah was the reason this was happening, wasn’t he? Because Noah had an entire penthouse in the city where Sully could have stayed, separate from his new house with Gemma. I knew that because Noah had tried to getmeto stay there. Had texted me specifically to let me know it was an option while I was in town, to which I’d replied that I was staying…here.
The elevator dinged, and Sully lifted his head, eyes flaring.
We were on my floor. Or his. Had he even pressed a button on the display? He stared at the elevator wall like he wanted to punch it.
And then hedid.
He slapped a hand over the elevator stop button, and the doors stayed shut, the machinery jolting to a firm halt.
Bewildered, I shifted my stare from my ex to the blinking button and then back again. “What are you doing?”
Sully relaxed back against the wall again, like what he’d done was totally normal. He shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
