How can I tell what he wants?

My ex-boyfriend and I dated for awhile (months) and we broke up about a year ago. I've NEVER gotten over him. Since then, he's had a girlfriend and I've had my flings, in other words we've both been with other people. But we ALWAYS end up back with each other. I'm pretty close with his family still and hang out with his sister often. But lately I'm so confused I want to hear opinions of others. I've been home for about a month due to christmas break from college. The second I got home he wanted to be with me so we caught up and of course had sex. He then asked me to come to a friends house a couple days after and I declined since I was busy, he got mad and the next day when I asked to hang out he said he didn't want to and that he was talking to another girl. So I got angry and he ignored my texts/calls for the next week. Then all of a sudden I got a Merry Christmas text from him on Chrismas day and he asked to take me to the movies that night. So i accepted and he came over my house and spent some time with my family and we went to the movies. Everything went well and we ended up hanging out the 3 following days as well. I thought everything was great but theres just something weird about it. He won't text me all the time like he used to. It seems like he will only text or call when he wants to hang out and when he does text hes not very talkative. We've talked about liking each other and he knows i still like him and he said he was starting to like me to. So what I want to know is (guys opinions) why is he doing this to me? Why can't he just ask me out and we can pick up where we left off in our relationship? Why is he so distant but when we're together it's like we're a couple?