“Okay,” he agreed eventually. “Where’s your car?”
I sighed. “It’s a couple blocks down, off?—”
“In a lot?”
“No, just on the street.”
He pulled out of his parking spot and drove down the road. “Is it still the Corolla?”
“Yeah, I’d left it at my mom’s.”
“How is she?”
The question took me so off guard that I hesitated before answering. “She’s fine.”
Sully gave me a sideways look that made me think he wanted to ask more, but instead, he pivoted. “Are you going back to the lake tonight?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but I’m going to make myself scarce. Your mom’s having her friends over for?—”
“Bridge night. Yeah, I know.”
Of course he did.
God, this was so awkward. I searched for something else to say that might make it less awkward, but I wasn’t able to come up with anything before his phone rang.
“Sorry, it’s Theo.” He pulled up beside my car, close enough for the cables to reach, before parking. “I might have left without telling him.”
I forced a smile. “Then you should probably take that.”
“It’s fine.” He silenced his phone and then gave me his attention, which was frighteningly intense. It made my senses tingle. All we were doing was sitting next to each other in the front seat of his car, but after the years we’d spent apart, this felt monumental. It stirred up emotions I didn’t dare name. “I don’t want to jump your car,” he said, making my lips part with confusion. Until he said, “I’d rather just drive you to Mom’s.”
I sighed. “I can’t keep my car here overnight, Sawyer.”
His lips pressed together. “I know.” He put his palm out. “Keys?”
After I handed them over to him, he got out of the car, and despite his words, went through the motions to give my car thejump it needed. Once he got it running, he seemed reluctant to turn it over to me, lingering between the cars.
“So we’ll…talk tomorrow, huh?”
He said it like he couldn’t believe we were agreeing to be in communication again. Which, again, was fair. He hadn’t had a warning for all of this. Meanwhile, I’d been bracing myself for this new reality for a couple of weeks now.
“Yeah.” I swallowed a sudden bout of nerves that swelled inside me at the thought of the conversation we’d need to have tomorrow. “Sounds good.”
His brows furrowed, like he knew something was off.
But he didn’t push it.
“Thanks for the help, Sawyer,” I said because I really did appreciate it.
Sully answered me with a weighty stare, and I moved to get in my car before he stopped me.
“Eleanor, wait.”
I glanced back, my heart flying into my throat. The energy between us seemed to spike. I could feel the hair on my arms stand up, like there was sudden static in the air.
“You know me,” he said, voice rough, and it took everything in me not to lean closer to him.
“What?”
