Chapter 4 #4
She considered pretending she hadn’t heard, but when he yelled her name again, closer, she was forced to turn around. One look at his puzzled expression, and she knew she’d been busted on the vehicle situation.
“Where’s your car?” he asked, when he caught up to her.
“Oh, um…I walked today. I foolishly thought five miles wasn’t that far.”
Theo frowned. “Jesus. Why didn’t you say so? I’ll drive you home.”
“No, no,” she quickly replied, aware it would be obvious there was no extra car in Edith’s driveway. “It was a nice walk,” she lied.
Theo’s frown let her know he didn’t believe that for a second. “It’s not a safe road to walk, Gretchen.”
“I don’t want to be an imposition.”
He pulled keys from the front pocket of his jeans.
“My truck’s parked right over there.” His tone and the light touch of his hand on her back as he turned her in the other direction told her arguing was pointless.
Besides, she was so taken aback by how nice his hand felt, she didn’t have time to react.
Of course, as soon as that thought landed, his hand was gone.
She wasn’t sure how to process her feelings, because it had been far too long since a man had touched her in a way that she wanted.
She closed her eyes briefly, giving herself a mental lecture. She could not be attracted to her boss.
Gretchen walked across the parking lot, surprised when Theo opened the passenger door for her. While she’d heard the myth about men who did such things, she’d never seen it happen out in the wild.
Her hesitation must have given her away.
“Dad taught us that a gentleman always opens a lady’s door,” Theo explained with a charming grin.
“Thank you.” She climbed into the truck.
As they headed down the mountain, Theo talked about the improvements they’d made to the road leading to the brewery, chuckling at her surprise when she learned the current road was way better than the previous one.
When he pulled into Edith’s driveway, Theo looked around, not seeing exactly what she knew he wouldn’t. “Where’s your car?”
Before she could think through the repercussions, the truth fell from her lips. “I don’t have one.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry. I should have told you that right from the start.”
“So what was the plan? To walk to and from work every day?” He was aghast, something that made perfect sense, now that she knew firsthand how bad the daily commute would be on foot.
“I thought there would be a rideshare option when I took the job,” she confessed.
“Koda doesn’t get up before eleven,” Theo said.
“Yeah. Manny told me.”
“You can’t walk to work,” he insisted.
“It’s only five miles,” she countered. Five of the most painful, brutal miles in existence.
“All uphill,” Theo countered, stating the obvious. He’d put the truck in park, so now he turned to face her. “You know what? This isn’t a problem. I’ll pick you up and drop you off every day.”
Gretchen was shaking her head before he even finished the offer. “No. No way. I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“Fine. Then you’ll borrow one of the farm trucks. We pretty much only use them during the hours when you’d be at work anyway, so it’s not like we’d miss one overnight.”
Gretchen bit her lower lip, her silence apparently enough for Theo to understand.
“You can’t drive.”
She didn’t miss the tone of surprise. Given he’d grown up on a farm, Theo had probably been driving since he was old enough to see over the steering wheel.
She sighed. “I’ve spent the first twenty-four years of my life in a city with ample public transportation and rideshare options. Never needed to learn.”
Briggs had seen a driver’s license as something that would afford her too much independence and give her a way to leave him. Not having a license had slowed her escape, like the lack of money, and the fact he had her phone tied to Find My Friends, so he always knew where she was.
That was why her old phone had been left on her desk at work the day she left him.
Brenda always drove her to and from work, and that day, they followed the same routine, in case Briggs was checking her location.
Once at work, Gretchen grabbed her suitcase and new phone, leaving her old cell, along with her Dear John letter on her desk, escaping without him knowing.
Theo didn’t appear overly concerned about his new employee’s lack of car or license. “I’ll teach you how to drive.”
Gretchen frowned. “That’s not necessary.” Actually, it was, but she couldn’t ask her new boss to do that. Could she?
“We’ll practice in the brewery parking lot after hours,” he continued, as if she hadn’t rejected his offer. She was starting to realize that Theo had a bad habit of ignoring things he didn’t want to hear.
“Seriously,” she said, trying to think of a reason to refuse.
“Once you’ve mastered the parking lot, we’ll take a spin around town, and from there,” he made a horrified face, “we’ll move on to the mountain road that leads you to work.”
She couldn’t help but smile, because that damn road to their farm was treacherous as hell, and he was right to look terrified.
“There it is,” Theo said.
“There what is?”
“That pretty smile. I was wondering when you’d let me see it.”
Gretchen’s cheeks felt hot, and she hoped she wasn’t blushing. It had been too long since she’d heard kind words from Briggs. Or from anybody, really.
She shut those thoughts down.
Enough.
No more thinking about Briggs.
No more comparing everybody she met to him.
No more wallowing in the past.
She’d moved here to move on, so she was fucking doing it. Moving right the hell on.
From this moment, Briggs Howard was evicted from her thoughts.
Before Gretchen could continue to refuse Theo’s offer to teach her to drive—even though she really didn’t want to—there was a tap on his window.
Theo rolled it down when he found Edith standing next to his truck. “Hey, Edith.”
“I see you met our girl,” she said by way of greeting.
“Yep. She walked to the farm.”
Edith’s brows lifted nearly to her hairline, and Gretchen felt instantly guilty. Because there was no way Edith would have let her walk to Stormy Weather Farm if she’d known that was the plan.
“How on earth?” Edith mused, as her gaze slid to Gretchen. “I wondered what was taking you so long. I thought you were going to walk around town today and save the farm visit until tomorrow.”
That was what Gretchen had told her this morning, since Edith knew she didn’t have a car. “It was a whim.”
Theo pierced her with a look that said he knew that was a lie.
“Well, I’m glad you brought her home. I want to invite you to dinner on Saturday night.
I’m making a huge pan of lasagna for Gretchen’s Welcome to Gracemont dinner.
And while I know Manny will give it the college try, even he won’t be able to put a dent in it, so you have to come and help us eat it all. ”
Theo grinned, because Edith clearly wasn’t the type of person to ask for what she wanted, which meant her invitation was one that couldn’t be refused. Not that it looked like he was going to.
“Thanks for the invitation,” Theo said. “I’ll be here. Of course, now I’m wishing I’d thought of having my own welcome dinner for Gretchen.”
“Oh no,” she hastened to say. “Neither one of you needs to make a fuss.”
Theo brushed her off. “Even so, I’m going to talk to Mom and get her help pulling something together for next Friday. I doubt you’ll have the chance to meet everyone by then, so it’ll be easier to introduce you to the whole family in one fell swoop. You’re invited too, Edith.”
Edith clapped her hands. “That’s sounds wonderful! Two parties is always better than one. Now, come by at five on Saturday, Theo, and we’ll start with drinks and apps.”
Theo chuckled as he glanced in Gretchen’s direction, winking about Edith’s use of the word apps . She was reminded of his Urban Dictionary comment and couldn’t help grinning herself.
“Wait there,” Theo said to Gretchen as he opened his truck door.
Edith stepped away, giving him an approving look as he circled the truck to open her door for her.
“You don’t have to—” Gretchen started.
“When you’re with me, I open the door for you,” he said, interrupting her.
Gretchen didn’t know how to reply to that, since she wasn’t used to people doing nice things for her.
Theo placed a gentle hand on Gretchen’s back, escorting her around the truck. Edith was waiting at the path that led to the front porch, so he offered her his other arm, the three of them climbing the stairs together.
Gretchen had never experienced anything so charming and old school and peaceful. By the time they reached the front door, she was smiling, overwhelmed with…God…happiness.
Gracemont was her new beginning.
The place where Gretchen Banks, the real Gretchen, was going to come to life.
She couldn’t wait to meet her.