The Problem with Falling (Problems #3)

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Willow

“ W hat the hell are you doing here?” Theo barked as he marched over to the house in a huff. “Shouldn’t you be on your way out of town? What are you doing at my grandparents’ place?” Theo paused. He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his broad, broad, holy hell, broad chest.

I didn’t recall him being that fit last night, but then again, he was wearing sweats. That morning, he had on a pair of blue jeans with a tight, bicep-hugging sky-blue T-shirt that brought out his eyes.

And how blue those eyes were.

His hair was brown, and his beard had the tints of red combing through it. He was easily six-foot-three, if not taller, and he definitely made me feel as if I were even shorter than my petite five-foot-three.

He would’ve looked handsome if he didn’t have that seemingly permanent frown plastered on his face.

His upside-down smile somehow deepened as he glared at me as if I were the oddest woman he’d ever met. That might’ve been true, too. Theo didn’t seem the type to have many friends. His main friend group probably included the Grinch, Ostruck the Grouch, and Eeyore.

“Are you stalking me?” he barked as true concern filled his eyes.

His distress rubbed me the wrong way because why was he concerned as if I were the stalker in our situation?

“Me? A stalker?” I yipped, stunned by the accusation. “Do you even know how stalking works? I was here first . Stalkers come second .”

“If you’re not stalking me, then why are you at my grandparents’ house?”

“I’m not at your grandparents’ house. I’m at my friend Molly’s house,” I countered.

His face dropped as a wave of disbelief hit his stare. “There’s no fucking way,” he remarked.

Mr. Grump sure had a foul mouth. If I had a bar of soap, I would’ve shoved it between his lips.

Just then, Molly came out of the house. “Oh, lovely! You two already met. I just ran inside to check on Harry. Theo, this is my greatest of friends, Willow. Willow, this is my grandson, Theodore.”

No way.

This was Theodore?

Theodore Langford—Molly’s grandson?

No way.

No freaking way.

There was no way the grumpy man standing in front of me, who stitched up my forehead while grumbling and pouting the whole time, was Molly and Harry’s grandson. Harry and Molly Langford were two of the sweetest people I’d ever met. How did they manage to raise such a grouch? That couldn’t have been her grandson.

But then again…they did have those same blue eyes.

“You’re Theodore?” I remarked, stunned.

“Theo,” he grumbled. “Just Theo .”

“Only I get to call him Theodore. A grandma perk, I suppose. Theo, do you want to come in for coffee or just show Willow over to your place?” Molly asked.

“I’m…confused,” Theo said, his bushy brows lowered. “I thought you said your old friend was coming into town.”

“Yeah, I did. This is Willow,” Molly explained.

“But you said old. She’s not old,” he pointed out.

“Old as in the timeline of our friendship. Willow and I have known each other for a few years now. So…coffee?” Molly asked.

I couldn’t stop staring at Theo and his bewildered expression. If I hadn’t been so concerned about the fact that Just Theo was the one I’d be playing house with over the next few months, I would’ve found his bad attitude comical. Yet with our rough first meeting, I didn’t see the next few weeks going as smoothly as I’d hoped.

Theo didn’t respond to Molly’s coffee request. He kept his stare on me, eyes narrowed, arms crossed over that damn chest of his. I kept my gaze on him, too. If I was a professional at anything, it was a staring contest.

“Is…everything all right?” Molly’s sweet voice dripped with concern.

“It’s fine,” Theo and I said in unison.

Theo shook his head. “I’m good on the coffee. I’m gonna go say hi to PaPa, and then we can head over,” he remarked before heading into the house.

Molly moved in closer to me and smiled. “I know he can come off a little rough around the edges, but beneath that tough exterior is a gentle giant. I hope you get to witness that over these next few months.”

“It’s fine. Besides”—I pushed out a smile and placed an arm around Molly’s shoulders—“I’m here for you, not your grandson.”

She turned to me and placed her hands against my cheeks. “Thank you for coming, Willow. Things with Harry have been…”

The last letter I’d received from Molly was about how Harry’s health had declined over the past year, and she wasn’t certain how much time they’d have left with one another. Even though it was a written letter, I could feel her anguish through every cursive letter she’d crafted. Molly Langford was currently living through one of the most heartbreaking situations any human could go through. She was witnessing the decline of her other half, of her soulmate. I couldn’t imagine how hard that had to be. Sometimes love seemed so cruel. How could it come rushing in as a massive wave, only to evaporate over time?

Don’t get me wrong, I loved love. I thought it was the most incredible thing to ever exist.

I just didn’t need it for myself. I liked to keep real love at a distance after one too many heartbreaks. But puppy love? I ate that up like a hobbit ate their second breakfast.

Yet when I read Molly’s letter, I knew I needed to spend my summer up in Westin Lake, holding her hand as she held her husband’s. I’d be the quiet friend catching her whenever she needed to fall a little.

She even set me up with a job at their family restaurant, which would be helpful with my income. I’d been a wanderer since I was eighteen years old, and over those years, I’d become pretty good at finding ways to make a living. I liked to think I was a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. I was a quick study. When Molly asked if I was good at making sourdough bread, I told her sure.

How hard could it be?

I placed my hands on Molly’s shoulders. “How are you?”

Her eyes teared up as she shrugged and said no words.

I heard her loud and clear.

Sometimes words weren’t needed when the heartbreak could be read through one’s eyes.

I pulled her into a hug and held on tightly. “He’s still here.”

“Still here,” she repeated, holding me tightly. “He’s still here.”

That was something I wanted her to remember. It wasn’t about what was coming ahead or about the days behind it; it was about our present moment. Harry was still here. And right now, that was what mattered the most.

Before we could continue speaking, Theo came back out of the house.

He glanced toward Molly and me, then toward Big Bird. “Are you parking that beast on my property?”

“I was going to leave it here, actually. A little she-shed for Molly to do some of her artwork inside of,” I said. Not only did Molly bake and crochet, but she was also an amazing artist. When it came to creativity, Molly was beyond gifted and talented. I wouldn’t have been surprised if one day she told me she wrote a novel.

Theo grimaced, but that wasn’t surprising. If I saw him actually smile, I might’ve passed out from shock. But I had no concerns about growing faint, seeing how I had high doubts his lips knew how to turn upward.

He scratched at his beard. “Where are your bags? I’ll load them into my truck.”

“This is your room,” Theo said as he placed my bags in the room. The space was very nice and toasty warm, too. A welcome basket sat on the bed, which made me raise an eyebrow.

“You made me a welcome basket?” I questioned.

He blankly stared at me. “Do I look like the type to make welcome baskets?”

I laughed a little because his grumpiness was so over the top. “No, Theo. You don’t seem like the welcome-basket type.”

He brushed his hand over his forearm. I wondered if he knew his arm muscles were flexing when he wasn’t even trying to highlight them. This man was fit like no other. He made it look effortless, too. “I have to get going. You’re free to roam around wherever you want. Just stay away from my boat. And anything in the fridge is—”

“Up for grabs?”

“ Mine ,” he corrected. “I can take you grocery shopping tomorrow if you need, but don’t touch my shit.”

I smiled. “Fair enough. I think Molly said you’re supposed to take me into the shop tomorrow for my first day, too.”

“First day?”

“Didn’t she tell you? She hired me to work at the restaurant.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Theo murmured under his breath before he raked his hand through his hair. “We don’t have money to hire another employee.”

“That’s not what Molly sa—”

“She doesn’t keep the books,” he scolded, cutting me off.

I tossed my hands up in the air. “I’m just repeating what I was told.”

“Well, you were told incorrectly. Let me call her fast.” He stepped into the hallway and made his call. “Hey, Grandma. Willow is saying you offered her a—” He was cut off. “Yeah, but—” Cut off again. “Well, does she—” Cut off. Grumble. Grumble. Grumble some more. “Yeah. All right. Love you, too, Grandma. Bye.”

I waited a few minutes, and then Theo reappeared in my room. He huffed out a low growl like a damn werewolf before brushing his hand against the back of his neck. “I’ll take you to the restaurant in the morning. You’re on sourdough duty. My grandmother has to go to a doctor’s appointment with PaPa, so I’ll show you around the space. Then after the workday tomorrow, we can go grocery shopping for you.”

I knew it was silly, but something was so remarkably sweet about a big, strong, grumpy man calling his grandfather PaPa. It made Theo seem somewhat softer than before. Only slightly, though. His attitude was still there.

“Sounds good.” I nodded.

“Do you know how to make sourdough?” he questioned.

I shrugged. “How hard could it be?”

“How hard could it be?” he huffed, his deep, smoky voice dripping with annoyance. “ Fucking hell ,” he grumbled as he walked out of the room, leaving me alone for the rest of the day.

Theodore Langford was my new roommate.

Welp. That wasn’t how I saw my stay in Westin Lake starting, but if I’d learned anything about life, it was the fact that you had to allow it to take you wherever it wanted you to go. Float downstream was a motto I lived by. Unfortunately for me, it seemed that my roommate was a man who floated upstream, making life much harder than it truly had to be.

I’d met hundreds of people on my travels over the past few years, but I was almost certain that Theodore Langford was the grumpiest grump that had ever grumped.

I walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to find a Post-it note on a pizza box that read: Do not eat this, Willow. On a jar of pickles: Do not eat this, Willow. The orange juice: Do not drink this, Willow. On a container with cookies: Don’t you even fucking think about it, Willow.

I smiled. Even with his grumpiness, Theo was funny without trying to be.

I definitely took a cookie.

After relaxing on Theo’s dock for a while, watching the water wave back and forth, I headed back to Molly and Harry’s for dinner. Even though Harry wasn’t feeling his greatest physically, the illness couldn’t steal his joy. He still laughed and made jokes. Sometimes it took him longer to get his words out, but Molly simply stared at him, patiently waiting for his thoughts to complete. Something was so precious about witnessing their love. It had history built into every piece of it.

I’d seen many love stories throughout my travels. I’d seen couples who were meant to be and some who were not so much a perfect match. Yet the best love stories I’d been able to witness were those of my two older sisters and their partners. Avery, my eldest sister, recently married her first love, Nathan, which was one of my favorite love stories to observe. Avery was currently pregnant with twins, which wasn’t shocking. Nathan had two pairs of twin brothers, so the odds were in their favor. Needless to say, Avery was exhausted, but Nathan catered to her like no other. My other sister, Yara, was married to her own grump, Alex. They gave me the sweetest niece, whom I missed more and more as I traveled the world.

I had to admit it was getting harder and harder not being home because I felt like I was missing out on some of the happiest days of my family’s lives. Yet being home also reminded me of how far I was from living the married-with-children lifestyle. There used to be a point when I thought I’d have those things, but the more time passed, the more that felt like nothing more than a dream.

But still, those two couples were a young kind of love. Something new with so much future ahead of them. Molly and Harry were an old-school kind of love story. One that had been through more trials and triumphs than most could’ve imagined. I bet they had stories of hardships that never left the corners of their bedroom. I bet when Harry’s heart was heavy, Molly’s eyes teared up. Their love story had gray hairs to it, each hair telling a story.

With their upcoming wedding anniversary in a few weeks, the two will have been married for sixty years. Sixty years of waking every morning and still saying “I do.”

I’d never even had a relationship last beyond a few months. Let alone sixty years.

I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for Molly to accept that soon, her Harry would no longer be around.

But…he was still here.

Still laughing.

Still breathing.

And that was the gift of each morning.

When Molly asked me to plan her anniversary celebration, I knew I’d have to make it as remarkable as possible. It was even more exciting when they said they wanted it wacky and wild, based on Alice in Wonderland . I already had a million ideas running around in my head. She also wanted Theo to be involved with the party since the location was on his property. He and I would have to get along enough at some point to bring the celebration to life.

I’d tackle my approach with Theo as I tackled everything in life: I’d kill him with kindness.

After dinner with Molly and Harry, I headed back to Theo’s place and sat in the rocking chair on his back porch with my laptop, where I crafted an email.

Every single week, I’d write my father a love letter. It was the promise I’d made him when I turned eighteen and told him I wasn’t going to college, but I’d be a world traveler instead. After he almost had a heart attack over the idea, he agreed to let me go. He was the one who renovated Big Bird for me, too, when I had the silly idea of turning a school bus into a mobile home. That was the thing about my father, though. Even though he didn’t always understand my choices, he always, always supported my freedom of choice.

The only thing he’d ever requested was that I keep him updated with a weekly email so he knew where in the world I’d been. He always called me his Carmen Sandiego, and he’d leave the subject lines of his emails saying things like, “Where in the World is Willow Kingsley?”

We’d been exchanging those emails for almost eight years now, seeing how I was about to turn twenty-six. Whenever I’d send him an email, I’d get one back sooner than I’d think. It was as if Dad sat by his computer, waiting for my letter. And whenever his words would come through, I’d always feel as if I’d received a warm hug from home.

That was what my father’s love did for me—it made me feel less alone when I was driving around the world with no one else nearby. When I was at my lowest, I’d often reread Dad’s emails just to feel a little bit of his love.

He and my two sisters were back in the small town of Honey Creek, Illinois, where I’d grown up. The small-town life was something they all excelled at. Yara had her dog spa business, and Avery was the head coach of the baseball team at the local high school. Dad was the town’s construction man. He’d probably built half the town with his bare hands. They thrived in that environment. Me, on the other hand? The small-town life felt suffocating to me after I’d lost a close friend. I struggled to fit into that life, so the second I was given the chance to leave, I took flight.

My papa wasn’t a rolling stone, but I sure rolled around enough for us both.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Willow News Update

Hey Old Man,

I made it to Westin Lake to stay with Molly and her husband, Harry. I can’t believe I’m staying in the same place for more than two months, but I think it’s important. I’m excited to see the small town. On the drive over, I heard a song by Billie Eilish that reminded me of Yara and Avery. It’s called “Birds of a Feather.” Can you squeeze them the next time you see them? And give my niece a snuggle for me, too. How’s Avery handling the pregnancy? I can’t believe she and Nathan are having twins. Touch and kiss her belly if she’ll let you, which I know she won’t, but you might as well try.

Also, tell Alex I’m not a vegan anymore, and I’ll eat a fish fry in his honor. I’m sure that will thrill him.

Anyway, I love you, Dad.

Tell me something good.

I’ll see you soon.

-Your Little Bird

PS Don’t worry. I’m okay.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Dad News Update

Little Bird,

I think I can call Billie Eilish’s management to see if they can arrange a private concert for you and your sisters. I listened to the song, and it made me a little misty-eyed. I must be getting softer with old age. I’m glad you girls have each other. That’s my greatest dream come true. Other than you coming home, that is.

I know, I know. Feet like yours always have to be flying off onto another adventure. I get it. I just wish I could find the ability not to miss you so much.

I told Alex you weren’t a vegan. He grumpily replied, “There must be a God.” He also said he had the best fish fry and that you shouldn’t waste your time on anyone else’s. I think that means he loves you and wants to cook dinner for you when you’re back in town.

When will you be back in town? Maybe a day trip? Wisconsin isn’t too far from home.

Avery let me kiss her stomach for you. I think that means she loves you, too.

We all do.

Kind of hard not to.

I’m also so proud of you, Willow Rose. By always being fully you, you’ve inspired me each day to be a little bit more me.

Anyway, your old man is good. Just a few more gray hairs in the beard.

I love you, Willow.

You said you’ll see me soon. Make it sooner than that.

-Your Old Man

PS I’ll always worry. But I know you’ll be okay.

He was right. I’d be okay. I was okay. I’d always been okay. Even when my heart felt like it was being shattered into a million pieces. Which it always did around this time of year. It was the twentieth of June, which meant my birthday was in a few weeks. That also meant it was one of the hardest times of the year for me. I never went home for my birthday, and I stopped celebrating it altogether with my family a long time ago since it was too hard for me. I understood why people loved birthdays. Heck, I loved celebrating others’ birthdays all the time. It was just mine that I hated because it reminded me of everything I’d lost.

With my life came another’s death, and I’d never really made peace with that.

My mother died during childbirth, and I never really processed how that affected me. All I knew was that the summer months were hard for me to keep my feet on solid ground, especially in Honey Creek. I knew Dad and my sisters told me a million times over that what happened to my mom wasn’t my fault, but I couldn’t help but feel the heaviness of their loss whenever my birthday came around.

For me, it simply felt like an emptiness. Like something was missing from my life puzzle, and it was my fault that the piece could never be recovered.

I had no memories of my mother like Yara and Avery had. I didn’t recall her favorite color or her favorite song to hum. I only knew the stories others told about her, and Dad told a lot of stories about her. If life was built solely on being loved, then Mama would’ve lived forever based on how Dad cherished her.

The last place I wanted to be during my birthday season was in Honey Creek, looking at my sisters, who pitied me. They’d say they didn’t pity me because they knew how much I hated their pity, but still, it would be there. My sisters and their eyes always told their truths. Unfortunately, my eyes did the same. Which was why I couldn’t go home.

Not now.

“What are you doing?” a voice boomed, making me jump out of my skin. I turned around to see Theo standing behind me.

I’d almost knocked my laptop out of my hands based on how much he startled me. “Geez! I didn’t see you there. You scared me.”

“What are you doing sitting there?”

I glanced around and then pointed at myself. “Who, me?”

“Yes, you. Who else would I be talking to?”

“That’s hard to say, seeing how you’re asking me a pretty straightforward question. I’m just sitting, and I was writing—”

“Those chairs are off-limits. Get up.”

I laughed. “Excuse me?”

“Those rocking chairs. They are off-limits. I need you to get up.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

No, no, you don’t.

I didn’t think that man could find his way to a joking manner if he tried his hardest.

I stood from the chair and held my laptop to my chest. “My mistake for thinking that a chair could be used as a chair. You should’ve put a Post-it note on it,” I quipped.

He grumbled and didn’t say anything else.

His eyes fell to the rocking chairs.

He gazed longer than one would deem a normal amount of staring. Then he started toward his boat.

What an odd, odd man. The grumpier he grew, the more I felt the need to do what I did best—kill him with kindness. It drove me a bit mad that he didn’t seem to like me. People liked me! I prided myself on being liked by many. Theo not liking me was doing a number on my psyche.

“By the way, I know you ate one of my cookies,” he said without turning back toward me.

I smiled a little. It was a delicious cookie.

“Are you going fishing?” I called out.

“Yup,” he replied.

“Can I go fishing with you?”

“Nope.”