Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A gust of wind blew against Michelle’s face and pushed at the folder of posters she was carrying.
Elaine had put out posters announcing The Birchwood House’s grand opening at many of the businesses around Coral Sands the morning before, but there were still a few places she hadn’t had time to get to.
Michelle had volunteered to go to them, and she was now hurrying along the sidewalk, glancing up at the sky nervously.
That’s a thunderstorm, I can smell it in this wind, she thought. I’ll have to hurry up here unless I want me and these posters to get soaking wet.
She only had a couple of places left to get to, and one of them she’d been procrastinating going to all afternoon. It was the auto repair shop, and Michelle had a sneaking suspicion that her grandmother had left that business for her on purpose.
Maybe Theo won’t even be inside, Michelle thought, pausing in front of the shop. It’s possible, right?
She realized that she hadn’t seen him since that day in the library when he’d seemed to appear out of thin air amongst the bookshelves.
That seemed odd, since for a while there he’d been turning up regularly in all sorts of places around town.
Although his appearances were always unexpected, she’d discovered that she’d come to expect to see him—although she never knew where or when.
Not seeing him at all for several days was almost disappointing.
Argh, what are you thinking? she scolded herself, feeling her cheeks flush.
As if it could somehow stop thoughts of Theo from going through her head, she hurried up to the auto shop and opened the front door. She was greeted by the intense smells of rubber and grease, but not by any human being. There was no one seated behind the desk.
Michelle rose up and down on her toes a few times, wondering if one of the mechanics in the shop would see her through the indoor window and come to greet her.
Her heart was beating faster than usual, but she told herself that had nothing to do with the thought that Theo might be the person to come greet her.
Another minute passed, and no one came to talk to her. She considered impishly just putting up one of the posters on the bulletin board that hung in the lobby, but then she decided against it. Finally, she peered through the indoor window into the garage.
“I don’t see anybody,” she muttered. “Are they all gone already? That can’t be right.”
It was much too late in the day for a lunch break, and the shop couldn’t have been closed because the lights were all still on and the door had been unlocked.
Coral Sands was an unusually safe place to live, and many people didn’t bother locking the doors of their homes, but businesses still kept their doors locked as a rule.
She glanced around the lobby one more time, wondering if there was some kind of “Be Back Soon” sign that she’d missed. She didn’t see anything, however, and was just about to admit defeat and leave when she caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye.
Through the indoor window, she could see legs sticking out from underneath a car. Long, thin, gangly legs. She let out a sort of involuntary squeak as soon as she saw them. The fact that Theo was there in the garage after all startled her more than it should have.
She gathered herself fiercely and pushed open the door that led into the garage. She walked across the cement floor with vigor, trying to work up her spunk even though part of her felt like turning tail and leaving the whole building.
Theo must have heard her footsteps, because he rolled out from underneath the car with a quizzical expression on his face. The moment he recognized her, his expression shifted to one of disappointment.
Michelle nearly stopped up short when she saw his face.
She and Theo were hardly best friends, but he’d always offered her one of his disarming smiles or at least an impish smirk.
He’d always given the impression of being delighted to see her, even when he was acting unusually awkward about running into her.
Was he just tired and he’d been hoping to have the place to himself? Or was he actually disappointed to see her specifically?
Michelle swallowed, pushing past the way his reaction to her made her feel.
“Sorry to bother you,” she said, her tone a bit brisker than she’d meant it to be.
“Would you be willing to put up a poster in your window?” She held up the folder of posters.
“We’re advertising the grand opening of The Birchwood House. ”
Theo sent an indifferent nod in the direction of a worktable that was placed against the far wall. “You can set it over there if you want. I’ll put it up later.”
“Oh.” Michelle turned toward the table, and then back to Theo. “Uh, yeah, sure.” She watched as Theo rolled himself back under the car. Slowly, she walked over to the table and set a poster down gingerly on the top of it.
In the distance, outside the garage, she heard a grumble of thunder. She knew she should hurry out of the auto repair shop and stop at one more business before it started to downpour, but as she was making her way back toward the lobby, she stopped.
“Theo,” she said, walking toward the legs that were sticking out from underneath the car, “is something wrong?”
Theo slowly rolled out from underneath the car. His face was pointed toward hers, but as he said his next words he carefully avoided eye contact. “Why would you think that?”
“You’re acting weird,” Michelle said, gesturing helplessly.
She felt like a kid trying to explain something she didn’t really understand.
She huffed dramatically and fought off an impulse to stamp her foot.
“You… I don’t know. Like, are you okay? You’ve never acted like this before.
And I haven’t seen you since that day at the library.
Have you been acting like this since the library? ”
Theo sat up, his legs splayed out in front of him. Michelle thought that he looked something like a frog in a mechanic’s jumpsuit. No, that wasn’t right. Frogs weren’t attractive—
Sure, a frog.
She cleared her throat loudly, trying to stop thinking about how attractive Theo was, and he gave her a curious look.
“I mean, the two of us have always had a contentious relationship,” he said slowly. “How are you expecting me to behave?”
“Um, not like we’re basically strangers. You kept showing up places where I was, like, a lot. I was starting to think that—” She felt her cheeks flush hotly. “I mean, you weren’t acting all standoffish like this, that’s for sure.”
He shrugged, his eyes on her shoes instead of her face.
He was looking at them so intently that she was starting to wonder if she had a smudge of dirt on her sneakers or something.
“Surely you don’t expect me to be giving you any kind of special attention anymore now that you have a man who you really seem to like a lot showing interest in you. ”
Michelle blinked in confusion. There was a revelation hovering on the edge of her consciousness, but she was trying to dodge it. She could feel it approaching, fast as a bullet train, ready to knock her off her feet. “What are you talking about?”
“In the library. You and Marcus seemed to be having a grand old time.” Theo shrugged again, but the scowl on his face showed that he felt anything but indifferent about the situation.
Michelle’s mouth popped open.
Is he… is he jealous? she thought wildly and immediately shoved the thought away because she couldn’t face what it implied.
“We’d just met,” she stammered, gesturing emphatically as if she was mad even though she wasn’t. Right? She wasn’t angry? She hardly knew what her emotions were. “We were just having a friendly conversation. He was helping me do research.”
Theo shrugged again. “Okay, that’s fine. I’m just saying that it didn’t look friendly to me.”
Michelle spun around on her heel, ready to storm out of the garage.
She turned around again a second later. “Listen, what’s stopping you from having a normal, friendly conversation with me?
” she spluttered. “If you want to talk with me, or spend time with me, you—you should just come right out and say it instead of awkwardly showing up everywhere I am and making weird obscure comments!”
She didn’t wait for a response from him. Part of her was embarrassed about her outburst, and part of her wanted to leave before he had a chance to tell her what he was thinking. She felt scared of what his answers might be.
She didn’t acknowledge it to herself, but she was scared of him saying, “Wait, I do want to spend more time with you” just as much as she was scared of him saying, “No, I’m good, thanks.”
She pushed open the front door of the auto repair shop and hurried out onto the sidewalk. She had only made it a few steps before the sky opened up with a grumble of thunder, and torrents of rain began to fall.