Chapter 13 #3
For several moments, they simply remained there, locked together, struggling to find their way back, even though Theo didn’t want to return. Not to reality or real life or anywhere that required him to exist outside of this room and her body.
Finally, his strength gave out and he shifted to her side, drawing her to him, tucking her close.
Gretchen glanced up at him. “That was… Jesus, Theo. Your A game nearly killed me.”
Theo chuckled. “What can I say? You inspire me.”
“Time to say thank-you now?” she joked.
He nodded. “Yep. Thank you,” he said, beating her to the punch.
She smiled. “You stole my line.”
He chuckled, sighing deeply. They lay there for several minutes, both reveling in the aftermath.
Gretchen’s breathing slowed, and he thought perhaps she’d drifted to sleep until she said, “I didn’t realize I was capable of this much happiness.”
Theo kissed the top of her head. “I intend to make sure you feel this way every day for the rest of your life.”
Gretchen lifted her amused face his direction. “Do I need to remind you how many weeks we’ve known each other? It’s a very small number.”
Theo tried to be patient, but Gretchen was lying to herself by pretending this wasn’t the real deal. “Tell me you don’t feel it too.”
One side of her lips quirked up, an adorable dimple appearing. “I might be feeling something,” she admitted. “But it’s too soon to start talking about forever. There are still a million things we don’t know about each other.”
“We know the important things. The rest is future dinner conversations,” he insisted.
She huffed out a breathy laugh, then her expression sobered. “Seriously, Theo. Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me for orgasms, kitten. It was my pleasure.”
She lightly slapped his bare chest. “I don’t mean for tonight.
Though tonight was definitely worthy of some gratitude.
I mean for the rest of it. For so many years, I couldn’t find a way out of the darkness, trapped in a life that was slowly killing me with no clue how to turn the tide.
Then you took a chance on me, gave me a job that led me to Gracemont, and… ”
The rest of her words faded, but he knew what she meant.
Then, his thoughts drifted in a different direction, and he realized she had a point about those million things they didn’t know. Time to start filling in some of the blanks.
“You know, there’s something I’ve been curious about,” Theo said. “Given how controlling the asshole was,” Theo didn’t think her ex deserved to be referred to by name, “I’m surprised he let you out of his sight long enough to go to work.”
“Oh, yeah, that.” Gretchen’s head rested his shoulder, her fingers toying with the light smattering of hair around his nipples.
“That was probably his biggest mistake, because he let his overweening sense of confidence convince him he’d snowed everyone in his life into thinking he was some pillar of the community and a great guy.
He found a job for me shortly after I ran to the bus station.
It was his way of insuring I had a warden to keep an eye on me during the day, when he was on duty.
The sad thing was, he didn’t need to bother at that point.
That last failed grab for freedom had beaten all the hope out of me, pushed me into a well of depression where I’d spent nearly a year and a half drowning. ”
Her disgusted tone always gave away how much she hated being what she considered weak, even though the odds were not in her favor back then.
“Who was your new warden?”
“Brenda,” Gretchen replied.
“Isn’t she the woman who helped you escape?”
Gretchen nodded. “Briggs had known her his whole life. Her younger brother, Douglas, is Briggs’s best friend. Brenda was like a big sister to him, so I’m sure he believed he’d found the perfect solution.”
“Brenda didn’t know what he was doing to you?” Theo found that hard to believe. Edith confided in Theo that she’d noticed bruises on Gretchen’s neck the first day she arrived in Gracemont, and that it hadn’t taken a genius to figure out they were the same shape and size as fingerprints.
“She didn’t. Not at first. I worked for her for two years, and the first year and a half, I got very good at making excuses for the bruises.
Though to be fair, she didn’t see many of them.
I owned a lot of turtlenecks, and I was very good at covering my injuries up with makeup.
Then about eight months ago, Brenda walked into my office, closed the door, and asked me how long Briggs had been hitting me.
It was the first time anyone had asked that…
and I fell apart. Cried my freaking eyes out. Then I told her everything.”
Theo tightened his arm around her shoulders, his free hand stroking her bare arm.
“Brenda was incredible. Initially, she tried to talk me into checking into a domestic abuse center in the city, but after the three failed attempts at leaving him, staying in Harrisburg wasn’t an option I would consider anymore.
I wanted away, you know? So she and I started making a plan.
My paychecks went into Briggs’s account, so she gave me a small raise and a bonus, both paid in cash, that I locked in a safe she had at work.
Then she helped me through the legal process of changing my name. ”
Theo nodded. “I figured Banks must have been a new name when Briggs called the sheriff asking for Gretchen Parker. Forgot to ask you about it.”
“Banks was the last name of my great-aunt. She sent me a birthday card every year until I was ten. It always had five dollars in it and a nice note. Some years, that five dollars was the only gift I got.”
“Why did she stop when you were ten?” Theo asked.
“She died. Funny thing is, I’d only met her once, shortly before my dad left, and I didn’t remember her very well.
Even so, I lived for those cards. I was devastated when I didn’t get one on my eleventh birthday.
No one had told me she’d died. When I asked my mom about her, she rolled her eyes, and said, ‘The nasty old bitch finally croaked. Good riddance.’”
Theo couldn’t begin to imagine how someone as sweet as Gretchen had come from such a horrible woman.
“Ordinarily, in Pennsylvania, you have to publish your intent to change your name change in the newspaper, but Brenda’s mom is a lawyer, and she got a judge to waive that requirement for safety reasons.
I started smuggling clothing out of the house, one piece at a time, so Briggs wouldn’t realize I was packing a bag.
And Brenda wrote me the greatest reference letter in the history of letters, one that she allowed me to tailor to each job I applied for.
I swear I must have applied for at least a hundred jobs, and I rewrote that reference letter every single time. ”
Gretchen realized what she’d let slip, because she gave him a sheepish look. “Oops.”
“You didn’t plan the open houses for Brenda’s real estate business, did you?” he asked, trying not to laugh.
Gretchen shook her head. “I’d never planned a party in my life, so I was shocked as hell when you emailed to set up an interview. I’ve never studied so hard for anything, researching everything I could find on event coordination and party barns and breweries and wineries. Are you mad?”
“Not even a little.” Though now it was Theo’s turn to look sheepish.
Gretchen frowned. “What is it?”
“Your resume was in our rejection pile.”
“Then why did you interview me?”
Theo couldn’t help grinning. “Because we’d narrowed it down to four good candidates.” He paused, waiting to see if Gretchen would figure it out on her own.
“And?” she prodded.
“Four,” he repeated. “An even number.”
Gretchen’s eyes widened. “You added me to the interview list so it would be an odd number for Nora?!”
Theo nodded.
Gretchen laughed so hard she had to wipe her eyes. “Oh my God. That’s insane!”
“I basically reached into the ‘no’ pile and picked one at random. It was yours.”
“Holy shit. How lucky is that?”
Theo shook his head. “Luck didn’t have a damn thing to do with it.”
Gretchen tilted her head. “Hate to disagree, but that was all luck.”
“Nope.” Theo kissed her forehead. “It was fate, plain and simple. You were meant to be here, meant to be mine, and fate made sure it happened. You and me…we were inevitable, kitten.”
Her expression was pure awe and delight when she whispered “inevitable” back to him. “I like that word.”
“I love you.”
Gretchen blinked rapidly, and he saw her lashes were now wet with tears. Sadly, he also saw a shadow of fear.
“You don’t have to say it back. I know you’re not ready, and that’s okay,” he reassured her.
“I don’t want you to say it until…” He ran his thumb under her eye.
“Until you can say it without being afraid or worried. Until you know beyond a shadow of a doubt in your heart that you’re safe with me, with my love. ”
She nodded slowly. “I want that.”
He kissed her gently. “I know you do, kitten. Don’t worry. I’m a very patient man.”
She giggled. “No, you’re not.”
Theo laughed. “No, I’m not. But I’m trying. Let’s go to sleep.” He gripped her knee, tugging it over his thighs, loving the way she snuggled against him.
This time, sleep did claim her, and Theo wasn’t too far behind her.
Just one last thought floating through his brain as he drifted off.
Thank God for fate.