Chapter Six
Esther
Iwas annoyed Theo overheard that little exchange with Mrs. Meyers, but I hadn’t anticipated his apparent guilt over not defending me, nor had I prepared myself enough to politely decline a dinner invitation.
Most people reacted to pity with more pity, or else with explanations and excuses for any unintended rudeness they witnessed.
Theo responded with self-deprecation and humor.
It was a certain brand of kindness, I knew, but the man never quite did what I expected him to do.
Stranger yet was the realization that most people in this town knew all about his past, too. Maybe leaving town had served to actually quell the rumors—Sofia said he didn’t date, but how would anyone else in Spruce Hill know that?
Not for the first time, I wondered at his mother’s comments in the days leading up to her departure.
Even after nearly four years of living in the guest house, I could count on one hand the number of times Anita had made any reference to my social life.
She seemed to understand in a way no one else did that my soul still bore invisible scars needing time—and solitude—to heal.
Then, out of nowhere, she started dropping casual mentions of her handsome firstborn son’s imminent return to Spruce Hill.
These little hints started off subtle, but somewhere along the way, they became a bit too flattering to be simply informative.
There wasn’t a coy bone in Anita’s body, something we had in common, which meant her efforts to extoll Theo’s virtues were glaringly blatant.
When I pulled into the driveway and shifted into park, I felt Theo’s amused gaze on the side of my face. I rolled my eyes and asked, “What are you staring at?”
He only grinned. “You looked very deep in thought during our seven minute commute home. Dare I ask what had your mind so occupied?”
“Your mother’s meddling,” I replied.
“Ah, yes,” he mused. “She’s something, isn’t she? I thought the pot pie was a bit heavy-handed for her. What else did I miss?”
I sighed and turned off the engine. “Oh, just her telling me how handsome and intelligent and single her eldest son is. I swear she knew exactly what she was doing, too, because she’d drop one compliment and then change the subject, so I could never be sure if she was actually trying to make a point about you or if she was just excited about you coming back here. ”
“Oh, no, please tell me she didn’t,” he groaned, covering his face with both hands.
Embarrassing him hadn’t been my intent, but it didn’t seem unfair either, exactly. After all, he’d witnessed my awkward moment in the gym. I decided to roll with it.
“Come on, surely you can’t blame her for bragging, not with such a stud muffin for a son.”
He choked out a laugh, but his eyes were aglow with mischief when he dropped his hands. I imagined he must have gotten into a great deal of trouble as a child.
And out of it, most likely, with that cheeky grin of his.
“I refuse to believe my mother used the term ‘stud muffin,’ but if that’s how you see me, I’m not going to argue.”
“Touché,” I conceded. “I guess you’re not half bad.”
“You know what I’m even more curious about, though?
” When I raised a brow in his direction, he said, “I feel like she went out of her way to avoid giving me any details about you. Granted, my assumption that you were an old lady was my own, but it’s like she made it a point not to mention your age or occupation or the fact that you’re drop-dead gorgeous.
Why would she only play matchmaker on one side? ”
My cheeks flooded with heat at the casual compliment, spoken as though everyone in Spruce Hill agreed with his assessment.
I’d heard them at each stupid event Steve had dragged me to, the people who congratulated Steve on seeing past my looks in order to find the good inside.
As the years went on, I recognized more and more of how he’d manipulated me into thinking I was lucky to have him.
Theo was waiting patiently for me to respond. I stared at him for another second, then gave myself a mental shake.
“I don’t know. She’s your mother, why don’t you take a guess?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ll be thinking about it, believe me. I don’t like feeling like a puppet.”
I scowled. “You think I do?”
Across his face bloomed a smile so sweet my chest ached with it. “No, Esther, but between the two of us, we’ll solve this mystery. Come on, then, let’s get cooking.”
“You’re cooking, I’m supervising, remember?”
His low chuckle roused a thousand butterflies in my midsection. I had to force the reaction down as we headed into the main house, considering the situation instead. Even if I weren’t personally involved, Anita was the last person on Earth I’d expect to play matchmaker.
Given what she knew about my life? It seemed even less likely.
Unless…I stopped so suddenly that Theo ran right into me, his entire front pressed into my back as he caught my hips so I didn’t pitch forward with the impact. The heat of his body radiated against me, soaking into my limbs.
“What is it?” he asked, sounding slightly panicked.
I turned slowly toward him as I mulled over the idea that had occurred to me. “What if she wasn’t trying to tempt me with that information, but to warn me?”
“Warn you against my numerous charms?”
He sounded doubtful, and I couldn’t really blame him. The more I thought about it, though, the more sense it made.
“I don’t date, Theo. I barely socialize.
My late husband was a charming narcissist who had everyone in town fooled except for me, because I lived with him, and your mother, because she’s ridiculously insightful.
She was probably the only person in Spruce Hill he couldn’t win over. He hated her for that.”
Theo’s dark brows drew down. “And if you weren’t expecting my devastating good looks, would my presence have upset you?”
I rolled my eyes at the description, however accurate, then decided I owed him honesty since I’d brought it up. “Yes.”
“Esther,” he began, still looking troubled. “I’m not like him, I hope you know that.”
“If I didn’t know that, I would have slammed the door in your face the first time you invited me to dinner,” I said sharply.
Maybe I wasn’t fully convinced I could trust my gut yet after everything Steve had done to make me feel like my reality was warped to hell, but I’d done enough work in therapy to finally rely on my instincts again.
Theo Silver was as different from Steve as night and day. That much I didn’t doubt for a second.
The smile that flashed across his bearded face looked both pleased and relieved, like he realized me snapping at him meant I wasn’t as fragile as he feared.
I would’ve been annoyed if his concern didn’t kindle a ball of warmth in my belly.
After our collision, he hadn’t stepped away, so we were still standing almost uncomfortably close.
At least, it would have been uncomfortable had he been anyone other than himself. I didn’t want to explore that too carefully just yet.
“Why wouldn’t she have told me anything about you, do you think?” he asked.
I shook my head slowly. “I’m not sure about that part.”
Still barely half a foot away, Theo swept his amber gaze over my features, from my hairline to my chin.
He paused ever so slightly at my lips, then lifted his eyes to mine once more.
“Because if she’d told me you were young, beautiful, and clearly quite able-bodied, I might not have let her talk me into coming.
By letting me believe you were a little old lady who needed some degree of help, refusing to come up here would’ve made me into the asshole. ”
I snorted. “Are you saying Dr. Anita Vasquez-Silver is the asshole here, Theo?”
“No,” he protested quickly, lips twitching. “However, she’s a mastermind when it comes to playing the long game, and she’s spent almost two decades trying to get me to come back into town. I wouldn’t put it past her to use whatever weapons she could in order to get me here.”
The ball of warmth was spreading upward the longer I spent at this proximity, so I drew a breath and turned to lead us both into the kitchen. “Well, mastermind or not, we’re grownups who can handle ourselves, right?” I asked as I sat down at the table.
“We are, indeed,” he agreed. “We’ll save the mystery for another day. Now, it’s time for you to give me a crash course on food allergies so we can get dinner going. I’m famished after all that heavy lifting.”