Chapter 25
Theo
I finished loading the dishwasher while Pen wiped down the stove. She’d seemed jumpy when I’d first come home, but I’d brushed it off. Sometimes she was like that.
It was cute.
Truth be told, I’d been jumpy, too. Which was not like me. But walking in and finding her curled up on the couch had felt like being punched in the gut. I couldn’t decide if I felt guilty over what had already happened or wanted to drag her to my bed and lose myself in her.
Both. Definitely both. I’d coped by taking a shower.
Fortunately, sharing a meal seemed to have cut the tension for both of us. It felt like things were calming down—returning to normal. Granted, I’d almost lost my mind and kissed her again before the call from the assisted living home. Her grandma’s dizzy spell had saved my ass.
She finished cleaning up and went to her room.
Probably to grab a sweater or something, since she was leaving to see her grandma.
It was odd, but I didn’t really want her to go.
Not that I didn’t want her to visit her grandma.
That was great. But with the rest of the evening stretched out before me, it felt a little bleak without her.
I really needed to get my head together.
“Hey, Theo?” she asked as she came out of her room. She’d put her hair up and changed into jeans and a T-shirt with a green cardigan.
“Yeah?”
“I know visiting someone’s grandma in assisted living is probably not the most exciting thing in the world. But, do you want to maybe come with me?”
My mouth turned up in a grin. “I’d love to.”
Her smile filled my chest with warmth.
We put on shoes and coats, then headed out. I offered to drive, so we climbed into my truck, and she gave me directions.
I was genuinely excited. Pen had told me so many stories about Grandma Colleen, I was looking forward to meeting her.
We arrived and parked out front, and Pen led me through the automatic doors that opened as we approached. While Pen signed us in, I helped myself to a piece of chocolate from a bowl on the counter. The place was decked out for fall, with pumpkins and leafy garlands everywhere.
Just past the entry was a large gathering space with a big two-sided gas fireplace in the middle. On the near side were couches and armchairs. Residents looked up as we walked in, smiles crossing their faces. And they weren’t smiling at me. It was all for Penelope.
“Hello, Miss Penelope!”
“Hi, Penelope!”
“Good evening, Penelope!”
She said hi, smiling and waving at each of them in turn. It didn’t surprise me that she knew them all by name.
I followed her past the fireplace to an area with small tables.
One had a half-finished puzzle laid out on it, and several residents sat at others, some with books or magazines, others with mugs of coffee or tea.
A cabinet had a coffee and tea station, and two TVs mounted on the wall played a reality show with the subtitles on.
Penelope approached a table where an elderly woman in a wheelchair sat flipping through a magazine. Her long white hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and she was dressed in a pale blue sweater.
“Grandma Colleen,” Pen said. “I thought you’d be up in your apartment getting some rest.”
She set her magazine on the table. “Oh, Penny, don’t be silly. I’m in a wheelchair. All I do is rest.”
“How are you feeling? Any more dizzy spells?”
“Not a one. I’m fit as a fiddle.” Colleen’s eyes flicked to me and the corners of her mouth turned up in an amused smile. “Did we bring someone?”
“Oh, yes.” Penelope glanced at me, nervously biting her lower lip. “Grandma, this is my friend Theo.”
“Nice to meet you.” I stepped forward and offered my hand. Hers was soft as we shook.
“Very nice to meet you, Theo.” Her eyes moved up and down. “Please, sit.”
The fact that she was openly staring didn’t bother me. I liked that she wasn’t trying to hide her curiosity. Made her seem honest.
Penelope and I took seats at her table. Colleen didn’t stop staring.
“Um…” Pen looked between me and her grandma, like she wasn’t sure what was happening. “Grandma, I should tell you something.”
I glanced at Pen with alarm. She wasn’t going to tell her that we—
“Theo is a Haven.”
That seemed like a weird thing to bring up. Not as weird as the other thing would have been, though.
“Is he, now?” Colleen said. “One of Paul’s?”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Do you know my dad?”
“Not well,” Colleen said. “I’m afraid I was always on the wrong side of the feud for that.”
Her mention of the feud made me crack a smile. “Those were good times. Mostly. I’m glad it’s over, though. Having to hate another family for no reason was kind of tiring.”
“It does help when there’s a reason.”
I knew enough about her personal feud with Maury Haven to know what she was talking about. Back in the day, I wouldn’t have given prank advice to someone on the Bailey side, but since this was just between the two of them…
“Do you have your own kitchen?” I asked.
“I do, although I don’t use it much. Why?”
“Have you put any of his stuff in Jell-O yet?”
Colleen’s mouth curled in a devious smile. I decided then and there that I liked her. “I have not.”
“It’s a good one,” I said. “Just make sure you keep it in the fridge long enough. And don’t make the mistake of freezing it, thinking it’ll set faster. It just freezes and then melts into liquid once it starts to warm up. Makes a mess, and it isn’t even funny.”
“If only I could get ahold of his teeth,” Colleen said.
Pen laughed. “Grandma, please don’t put Maury’s teeth in Jell-O.”
“Why not?”
“Because that’s disgusting.”
Colleen tapped her chin. “I’ll think of something. Although he’s been keeping a close eye on me lately. I might have to call in a favor.”
“A favor?” Penelope asked. “What kind of favor?”
She patted Pen’s hand. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
“I want to hear how it goes,” I said. “Especially if you manage to get his teeth.”
“So, tell me, Theo,” she said, and I could hear the subject change coming. “How do you know my granddaughter?”
“We work together.”
“Theo’s a math teacher and the head football coach,” Pen added.
Colleen didn’t take her eyes off me. “I see. And you offered Penny a room in your house?”
“Yes, ma’am. She needed a place to stay, and I had an extra room.”
“Wasn’t that nice of you?” Her eyes narrowed, her voice and expression edging on suspicious.
“It was so nice,” Pen said, either dismissing or ignoring the tone in her grandmother’s question.
“I don’t know what I would have done without him.
I would have found a place to live eventually, but this worked out great.
Theo’s moving to South Carolina, but we’ve already talked about it, and I can rent his house when he’s gone. I won’t even have to move again.”
Keeping her eyes on me, Colleen crossed her arms. I held her gaze, my expression neutral. I didn’t want her to get the wrong impression—thinking I was out to take advantage of her granddaughter—but I wasn’t going to let her intimidate me, either.
“South Carolina?” she asked. “When?”
“Next summer.”
“Have you ever been married?”
“No.”
“Are you currently in a relationship?”
“No.”
“How well do you know my granddaughter?”
Penelope tried to interrupt her rapid-fire questions. “Grandma, please.”
I answered anyway. “We met at the beginning of last school year when she transferred to the high school. We’ve been friends ever since.”
“Just friends?”
Keeping my eyes locked with Colleen’s, I leaned forward. “She’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had. So if the interrogation is to figure out whether I’m a danger to her, the answer is no. She’s safe with me.”
And she was. Sure, we’d given in to temptation and slept together. But that didn’t mean I was out to use Penelope. I cared about her. And I took our friendship seriously.
Colleen nodded slowly as she processed my answers. “Good. I’m glad to hear it.”
Something, or maybe someone, else seemed to catch Colleen’s eye.
She sat up straighter in her wheelchair and her lip curled in a sneer.
Maury Haven wheeled himself to a table nearby. He was in his eighties—at least—and was my great-uncle on my dad’s side.
He glared back, wrinkling his prominent nose as if he’d smelled something unpleasant.
“Maury,” Colleen said, her tone icy.
“Colleen,” he snapped back.
Penelope met my eyes and shrugged.
Maury pointed a remote at one of the TVs and changed it to a local news channel. The subtitles popped up, but he cranked up the volume anyway.
“Do you mind?” Colleen asked.
“Sorry,” Maury said, pressing the volume again. “Let me turn it up for you.”
It looked like Colleen was about to protest, but Penelope stopped her with a hand on her arm and pointed at the screen.
“Look!”
The headline read Human Remains Found Near Raven Falls.
Shaking her head, Colleen clicked her tongue. “Terrible.”
“Where’s Raven Falls?” Penelope asked.
“East of here,” I said. “I think about an hour north of Spokane.”
A journalist was interviewing a police officer at the scene. Penelope grabbed my arm and pointed at the TV. “Theo.”
I didn’t know what she was so worked up about. “Yeah, it’s awful. I hope the family can get some closure.”
“No. Look.” She kept pointing.
“What am I looking at?”
“The crime scene,” she said. “Look where they are.”
I still didn’t know what she was talking about.
The cop was standing in a field of brown grass with a few small pine trees.
There might have been water—a river, probably—behind him in the distance, and beyond that, a rocky hill rose into the cloudy sky.
An old barn stood off to one side, not far from where he and the journalist were standing.
The paint was faded to a dull gray and the large doors were crooked, hanging like a little kid’s loose teeth.
“I think I’ve been through Raven Falls once,” I said. “But I don’t know where that is.”