BY THE TIME WE left the bar, I felt lighter than I had in a long time.
I hadn’t realized how badly I’d needed to listen to Theo and Sully bicker while Cooper attempted to run interference. It felt reminiscent of simpler days—a reality I missed so much.
We stayed until the end of the game, almost two hours in total since we’d missed the kickoff at the beginning. And now we were in the car again, heading back to Rosewood.
“Thank you,” Sully said, reaching across the car to slide his palm onto my knee.
“For what?”
“For suggesting we watch the game with the guys. And for coming with me to my apartment.”
I shrugged. “Well, I couldn’t let you keep wearing those tighty-whities, now could I?”
His lips cracked into a smile. “I’m serious, El.”
I swallowed before confessing, “I’m glad we went. I’ve missed them. Being together. Watching you bother your brother.”
A soft chuckle slipped out of him as he rolled to a careful halt in front of a stop sign and then continued through the intersection. He was curiously slow as he navigated theneighborhood around Maple Street, taking extra turns that were unnecessary. But we were running out of road now, approaching the large white house with its wraparound porch.
“They’ve missed you, too. My whole family has.”
“And you?”
The question managed to squeak out before I could stop myself, and now I was holding my breath while Sully parked in front of the house in odd, measured movements.
After what felt like forever, Sully turned toward me. His eyes had this energy to them that I couldn’t quite put into words. But they shone brighter than usual.
“Do you remember those numbers I rattled off?”
“At Cream & Craft?”
He nodded.
“Thirty-six, zero, and…”
I couldn’t remember the last one.
“One thousand, nine hundred, and seventy-three. The number of miles between us before you moved home.” His gaze bore into mine, making it hard to breathe. “And I felt every fucking one of them like a goddamn dagger.”
“Sawyer.”
All I could get out was his name.
But he didn’t mind filling the silence. “To say I missed you is the understatement of the fucking century.”
My breath hiccuped out of me. “What about the millennium?”
“That too, baby. That, too.” He reached out, cupping my face with a tenderness I melted into. “And there are things I want to say to you, things I want to talk more about, but I don’t want to rush you. You’ve already gone through so much over the last months, been so brave, and?—”
“I wish you would stop saying that,” I interrupted, shaking my head.
Sully’s brows knitted together. “What? That you’re brave? But El…you are.”
“No, no. I’m—” A harsh, humorless laugh broke out of me. “I’m really not.”
His hand dropped from my face, sensing my retreat. I couldn’t help it, though. I honestly wasn’t sure I deserved the way he was treating me.
One thousand, nine hundred, and seventy-three miles.
