Chapter 6 #2
Avery shrugged and went back to his beer, but I felt Theo looking at me like he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure what it should be. I was intimately familiar with being looked at like that, and since I wasn’t interested in pity, I focused on lining up my next shot instead of looking at him.
People got strange sometimes when they found out your mother died young, a little uncomfortable, like your grief might become contagious if they got too close.
When I finally did risk a glance at Theo, I noticed that he wasn’t looking at me like he was afraid he might catch a serious case of the sobbings.
Instead, he seemed almost understanding, but he also looked away a moment after I’d met his gaze, taking his next turn like nothing had happened.
Avery drew him into conversation with his friends about bikes and that was it, awkward moment averted. For all of about five minutes until the next awkward moment approached us.
Literally.
Hunter’s friends wandered over like I’d invited them before I’d left the jukebox. The vibe shifted around the table immediately. Avery’s shoulders tightened and his friends straightened a little.
Travis, the friend who hadn’t said anything back there, separated himself a bit from Franklin and David, who had been flanking him, but hung back now.
Back in high school, Travis had been the funny one, charming and witty enough to get out of most of the trouble he caused, but too much of a douche to take it seriously anyway.
“We haven’t seen you around much, Raquel,” he drawled when he reached me. “Where you been at?”
“I work.”
He smirked, glancing at Theo with one of his eyebrows raising slightly. “That all?”
Avery took a step closer to my side, not aggressive but definitely alert. He got this way when customers started raising their voices at the shop too.
“That’s all,” I said coolly. “Is there anything else I can help you with? We’re in the middle of a game here.”
“Yeah. I see that.” He glanced back at Theo, then flicked his eyes back to mine. “I was just wondering if you’re ever going to answer my texts. It’s been a year since Hunter and Farrah got married. I doubt he’d mind.”
Avery’s expression instantly went flat, certainly aggressive now. “Is that your idea of a pickup line? No wonder you’re going to die alone.”
He lifted both hands as if in surrender. “What? I’m just saying, she’s single and not replying to my texts.”
“You’re drunk and stupid,” Avery replied without skipping a beat. “She’ll reply if and when she wants to.”
Franklin took a step forward. “Easy, man.”
“No, you take it easy,” Avery said calmly. “You’re the one stepping up to me.”
As their gazes locked, I could practically feel the impending fight trying to materialize between them. I took an automatic step forward, but a hand closed gently around my elbow before I could start trying to diffuse the situation. I glanced over just as Theo started tugging me away.
“Hey, we need another round of beer,” he said easily, already steering me toward the bar. “Come help me carry.”
I blinked in surprise as he seamlessly guided me away from the pool table. Behind us, Avery was talking again, dropping into that terrifyingly calm tone he used right before somebody got punched. Theo’s timing had been truly impressive, but that didn’t mean I was a damsel in distress.
“Thanks, but I didn’t need your help. I know how to handle those guys.”
“I’m sure, but I have a little sister too and it’s categorically true that it’ll be easier for Avery to deal with that prick if he knows you’re safe.”
“So you’re doing this for him?” I asked as we slid onto two empty stools at the bar. The tension still simmered twenty feet away.
Theo shrugged, a lock of his dark hair falling across the forehead as he twisted to watch the action. “All I’m saying is that it looks like he’s got it handled. Having you in the fray is what might get him hurt if that escalates.”
I took a sip of the beer the bartender slid to me. “Avery can be a fighter when he needs to be. He’s calmed down in his old age, but he would have been okay with or without me there.”
“In his old age?” Theo nearly choked on nothing but air. “How old do you think is old?”
I turned and pretended to study him. “You’re, what, thirty-five?”
“I’m twenty-nine.”
“Really?” I tried frowning, but I couldn’t get my face to complete it without a smile threatening to take over. “Did you have a rough paper route as a teenager or something?”
He laughed. “Wow. That hurt. I pride myself on my skincare routine.”
I nearly sprayed my next sip of beer all over him. “That’s actually true, isn’t it? You have a skincare routine that involves more than just water and soap?”
“Hey, it’s a very manly skincare routine.”
I couldn’t help the chuckle that bubbled out of me. “Of course. Grease and a dirty towel only.”
As he shrugged, I felt some tension ease out of my shoulders. Theo acted like he was constantly amused by life, even when things got uncomfortable, and being around him, it was too easy to lower my guard more than I usually would.
He glanced back at the pool tables where Avery was now waving Hunter’s friends away. “Who are those guys?”
“They’re friends with my ex-fiancé,” I said, shocking the ever-loving heck out of myself for admitting it.
This had happened earlier in the hardware store, too. I told this guy things without meaning to open up and yet it just came out.
He let out a low, quiet whistle. “Ex-fiancé, huh? It’s no wonder Avery wants to beat their skulls in.”
“Yeah,” I said, picking at the label on my bottle. “He was having an affair with my ex-friend, and eventually, I caught on. Broke up with both of them. Now, they’re married and living in Tucson. Apparently, they’ve got a baby on the way and those guys just couldn’t wait to let me know about it.”
“Shit, that’s rough. I’m sorry. It can’t be easy, still living in a town where everybody knows your history.” He met my eyes over the rim of his beer. “I understand the feeling.”
I paused for a moment to just stare at him. Nobody had ever said that to me before. I’d thought I’d heard it all by this point, but Theo was the first person to have dived right in and immediately touched the very heart of the issue.
I was over Hunter. Hell, I was even over Farrah and the amount of times she’d looked me right in the eyes and lied to me.
What continued to sting wasn’t that. It was the fact that absolutely everyone knew exactly what had happened and they were still treating me like I was fragile because of it.
Theo had not only instantly gotten there, but when he’d said that he understood the feeling, there was real, very honest understanding in his eyes.
“What does that?—”
“Another round,” Avery announced as he suddenly appeared beside us, dropping into a barstool with his friends hot on his heels and no sign of Franklin or the others behind them. He clapped Theo on the shoulder. “Thanks for getting her out of there, man. Next round’s on me.”
I squinted at Theo, but the moment to ask him how he’d known all that had passed.
It had left me with a sneaky suspicion that there was more to this out-of-towner than I’d thought, though, and when I went to join back up with Miley and Ethan, who had arrived since I’d left, I couldn’t help wondering if I would ever find out what it was.