Page 10

“I did know you would be there. I knew who you were. I didn’t when we were on the plane,” I amend, when his face screws up in confusion. “But in the airport, when we ran into your student? She called you Dr. Wyles, and you had told me your name was Elliot, so I put it together.”

“That’s why you disappeared,” he says, his voice thoughtful.

I nod. “I knew I was starting at MassTech mid-year, and I knew I wanted to ask you to be my research advisor. It felt…wrong to stick around when I…” I trail off, not exactly sure how to finish that sentence.

“It wasn’t just me. You felt something on the plane too.”

It’s a statement not a question. His eyes bore into mine, and the heat of his gaze warms my skin and has my heart thudding in my chest. Being the sole focus of Elliot Wyles’ intense, all-seeing gaze is a heady thing. So heady that I lose the ability to lie.

“I did. But it doesn’t matter,” I say quickly.

Elliot hooks his ankle around mine under the table, and even through my winter boots and his shoes, I feel the contact everywhere. From the way his eyes flash, I know he does too.

“I think you’re wrong,” he says quietly. “I think it matters a lot. Cards on the table, Amelia. I’ve never felt a connection with anyone like the one I felt with you on that plane. And right now. That means something. I think it means something to you too.”

I shake my head, but it’s all very the lady doth protest too much . “It can’t. Student. Professor. Advisor. Also, I’m too young for you.”

He snorts out a laugh. “Not possible. How old are you?”

I sit back and cross my arms. “Twenty-five.”

“Seven years is not a lot of years, but let’s just set that aside.

I’m almost positive there are ways around any kind of guidelines for professor/grad student relationships, and you don’t strike me as much of a rule follower, Mystery Girl.

If you’re really uncomfortable that I’m your professor and advisor, I completely respect that.

I’ll be the best advisor you’ve ever had and nothing else as long as we’re working together, I swear.

But I don’t think it’s really about that. So, want to tell me the real deal?”

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, unused to being so well understood.

I’ve never been sure anyone in my life really sees all of me, but I have the uncomfortable feeling that, without even really knowing me, Elliot sees too damn much.

It lowers my defenses just enough to answer him honestly. “Sullivan,” I mumble.

His eyebrows furrow in confusion. “What?”

I meet his gaze. “My last name. It’s Sullivan.”

He studies me and I can tell the second he puts it together, his gaze dropping down to my brand new, not yet released Redwood phone and then back up to me. “Gabe Sullivan is your brother.”

It’s the way he says it, Gabe Sullivan is your brother , instead of the way people usually say it, you’re Gabriel Sullivan’s sister , like Gabe owns me or something, that has me warming another fraction towards him. “Yes.” I pause, turning his words over in my head again. “You called him Gabe.”

He shrugs. “Yeah, why?”

“No one calls him that except people who know him. To the rest of the world, he’s Gabriel Sullivan, tech god, king of the smartphones, or whatever.”

Elliot smiles. “I’ve met your brother before, and he introduced himself as Gabe.”

“You’ve met him? Like, at a tech thing?”

Elliot shakes his head, his expression growing serious.

“Your brother is friends with my older brother. A few years ago, my brother’s fiancée died.

” He pauses, swallowing hard like saying that out loud is still painful.

“My family went to Pittsburgh for the funeral, and my younger brothers and I stayed with him for a couple weeks afterwards. I met Gabe at the funeral, and he, Molly, and my brother’s other friends were around a lot during those weeks. They’re a really tight group.”

My brain works to catch up and make all the connections. “Hang on. Your brother is Jordan?”

Elliot brightens, like he likes to talk about his brother, and how fucking adorable is that? “Yeah, you know him?”

“No, by the time I made it to Pittsburgh to visit my brother and Molly, Jordan had already left, but I’ve heard his name a lot, and I know the rest of their friends pretty well now that Gabe and Molly have been back together for a while.”

“Yeah, he left a couple months after Allie—his fiancée—died, and he spent some time in New York, but now he’s back in Boston with his girlfriend, Jo.”

“The girlfriend who needed the cinnamon roll this morning?”

Elliot grins. “The very same one. Turns out we’re a bit of a tangled web, Mystery Girl. It’s almost like we were meant to be.”

When he says meant to be with those earnest eyes of his, butterflies swarm in my stomach, but then I remember all the reasons why that is a terrible idea. “Do you know how hard it is to be a woman in STEM?”

He nods. “I wouldn’t presume to know how it feels because I’m not a woman in STEM, but I’m in STEM, and I have a front row seat to the uninformed and, frankly, horrifying way women are often treated.”

“Good answer. Since you do know, you’ll understand why, from the time I was in the damn engineering club in ninth grade, everyone has assumed I got where I am because of my brother, like it’s impossible I could have made it on my own.

And people are always watching me, just waiting for me to screw up so they can tell me I never should have been there in the first place.

There are always eyes on me, no matter where I go or what I do, and I’m constantly being compared to my brother, even though if you ask him, he’ll tell you that I’m the smarter Sullivan in STEM, and he would be right. ”

Elliot nods like it’s obvious to him that I’m smarter than Gabe, and something about the way he just takes that on faith sends warmth careening through me.

But I ignore it and plow ahead. “No one has ever believed I’ve gotten anywhere on my own merit because everything I’ve done, my brother has done first, and he’s been wildly successful.

This PhD program is the first thing that Gabe hasn’t done before me.

If it got out that I was dating my professor, it would be the same you don’t deserve to be here assholery, just a different flavor.

And to be honest, I’m fucking sick of that.

I know there are easier ways to learn what I need to know, but I don’t want easy.

I chose this, and I’m going to see it through.

Look. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t attracted to you.

That I didn’t think of you in the last six months.

A lot. I won’t even lie and tell you I’m not attracted to you right now.

But this…” I wave my hand between us. “This can’t happen.

I’ll be damned if I become a punch line. ”

Elliot unhooks his ankle from mine and sits up straight. “Then I’ll be the best advisor you’ve ever had.”

“Just like that?”

“Yeah, Ames, just like that.” Elliot’s eyes soften when he looks at me.

“I like you. I would never mess you up. When you walked into my classroom this morning, it felt like a kind of miracle. If the way I get to have you in my life is by being your professor and your advisor, then I’ll have you that way.

You’re here, Amelia, after I spent a really long time trying to find you. That’s enough for now.”

I blow out a breath, feeling an unexpected wave of emotion at his words.

At the way he is wholly focused on me, like I’m the most important thing in his world right now.

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like the most important thing in anyone’s world, and it occurs to me that keeping a professional distance might be harder than I think it will be.

But that’s a problem for future Amelia. “Thank you,” is all I say, my eyes never leaving his.

“Anything for you, Mystery Girl,” he says, his tone matching the intensity in his eyes. But before I have time to figure out what that means, the waitress comes back, dropping at least five plates on the table. I glance over them and then back up at Elliot.

“Uh, none of these are cinnamon rolls.”

He grins at me. “Those are coming later. I wanted to feed you, and I knew if I mentioned a full breakfast you would protest, so I ordered when I walked in, before I sat down.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Is that why you dropped me off first? So you could come in after me and stealth order breakfast?”

His grin grows even wider. “You bet it is. Anyway, I didn’t know what you would want, so I ordered everything.”

I study the plates, my stomach growling. “Well, now I kind of want everything. Breakfast is the best.”

“Sure is. So, let’s eat breakfast together, Mystery Girl, and you can tell me all about what you want to study. We’ll get a head start on all this advising.”

I take the last sip of my Diet Pepsi, giving the waitress a grateful smile when she sets a new mug down in front of me. “When you’re doing the advising, my name is Amelia.”

He smirks at me. “Will there be a time when we’re together that I’m not doing the advising?”

Shit, I really like him. I can’t like him. Fuck. “Nope.”

He looks at me like he knows exactly what my train of thought looks like. Like he’s enjoying the hell out of it. “Okay then, Amelia it is.”

The way he says my name in that low, rumbly voice of his has tingles racing across my skin and as I look into his sparkling blue eyes and the way he just looks so damn happy to be sitting here with me, I realize this whole thing is going to be a lot more complicated than I bargained for.