20. Theo #2
The sun shines through the window above the kitchen sink, filling the room as I move around the island and toward the coffee machine. I start the coffee before I look in the fridge and take out the bacon and sausage. I put them on a baking sheet and into the oven before I take a sip of coffee.
I snatch up my phone from the counter and step out onto the back porch, going to the small two-seater couch. The phone rings in my hand at the same time I put my coffee cup down on the small wicker table in the middle of the seating area.
“It’s 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday.”
“Yeah,” Caleb huffs out. His not laughing means it’s not a good call. “Sorry to call you so early, but I knew you’d be pissed if I didn’t tell you.”
“Oh shit.” I sit up, looking out into the distance of nothing but trees.
“The house, the one on New Haven, was broken into, and they took all the tools.”
“Fuck,” I hiss. We’ve been working on that house for the past two weeks. “I thought we told the guys to load up at night and lock it all in the trailer.”
“They did. Trailer was broken into. A shitty job, but they got what they wanted to get.”
“Shit.” I sit back. “How much did they take off with?”
“Not that much—the handsaw, the hand drills, a couple of other things.” I close my eyes. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but I’m thinking we’re being targeted.”
“Yeah,” I reply in a whisper.
“You still think it’s that chick, or do you think it’s the Cartwrights?” My stomach tightens.
Before Caleb came to Montgavin, the Cartwrights were the construction company everyone in town used.
If you needed work done, you got it from them.
That is, until it was revealed that their new development was literally sinking into the ground.
They went out of business, and their reign as town royalty was over.
I’ve heard they are trying to take their company to a new town, but they have yet to be successful.
“Is it time to start putting cameras up everywhere?” Caleb asks.
“Fuck, I don’t know.” I look over my shoulder to make sure Collins isn’t there. “I don’t think it’s necessary, but then again, I didn’t think it would escalate to this.” I exhale. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but the last time I saw Claire, her car was near one of the worksites.”
“Fuck, well, when you get back to town, you either have to go and talk to her or talk to Burke. It’s one thing for her to spray-paint He’s a Dick on the side of your car; it’s another thing to start stealing our shit.”
“She never spray-painted that.”
“I’m just saying, I would have preferred she do that. Or, you know, Small Dick Asshole Has to Drive a Big Truck.” I reach for my cup of coffee when he laughs. “This makes me feel a little better, that we aren’t being targeted by the Cartwrights.”
“Glad I can help. I’m sorry, man, I never thought that she would go to this level.”
“How’s the visit home?”
“Good.”
The door slides open, and Collins joins me, dressed in her red shorts set, her hair hanging wet.
“Good,” I repeat, smiling at her. “Great.”
“I guess she just walked in the room?” He laughs.
“How did you know?”
“Your voice got that lovesick puppy tone,” he teases. “I’m going to let you go. I want to meet her when you get back to town.”
“I think I can make that happen.” I put the phone down as she walks to me.
“How long have you been out here?” She sits next to me, curling her feet under her.
“Not long.” I wrap my arm around her and pull her to me. “Are you hungry?”
“I didn’t think so and then I smelled the bacon, and my stomach rumbled louder than it’s ever rumbled before.”
“Well, we’ll eat and then you can go back to sleep. You need your rest,” I remind her as she snuggles deeper into me. I kiss the top of her head. “What do you want with your bacon? Pancakes or eggs?”
“Hmm,” she contemplates, “both.”
I chuckle as I pull her into my lap. “I can do that.” I lean in and kiss her neck, moving her to the side and starting to get up. “Do you want to lie out here or inside?” She moves to get up. “If you think you are coming in to help me, you’re wrong.”
“I can do the pancakes.”
“I can do the pancakes and then the eggs.” I point at her. “Don’t come inside until I call you.”
“You’re going to have to stop doing these things for me.” Her voice is soft. “I’m going to get used to it, and that’s not a good thing.”
“You can get used to it. I’m not going to stop taking care of you.” I kiss her head. “Rest, baby.”
She looks up at me, her gray eyes shining with a ring of blue around them. “Okay,” is the only thing she says, and I can’t help but kiss her lips.
“Be right back,” I tell her and walk into the kitchen to finish making her breakfast.
We pull up to my parents’ house, and I look over at her. “You okay?”
“No.” She shakes her head, and I smile at her. She ate breakfast, and then we both went back to bed. She slept in my arms, and for the first time in a long time, I slept peacefully. “My blood pressure must be through the roof.” She puts two fingers on her neck. “Yup, high.”
I study her, worried. “I’m going to need you to calm down.”
“I’ll get right on that,” she mumbles, opening the door. “When has telling a woman, much less a pregnant woman, to calm down ever worked?”
I walk around the truck toward her as she shakes her hands in front of her. I grab her hand. “If at any time you want to leave, or you feel uncomfortable in any sort of way, you tell me and we’ll leave. No questions asked.”
“Okay.” I know, even if she feels uncomfortable, she’s not going to say one word.
With each step toward the front door, her hand grips mine a bit tighter. I step inside and immediately hear a baby crying.
“Hello,” I holler and then follow the commotion coming from the back of the house.
“He’s here,” my mother shouts. When we walk in the room, I spot my two sisters side by side, looking at Collins with big eyes.
“Jeez,” Daisy starts in, “how did he land her?” She breaks the ice. I was nervous, and I didn’t even know until the moment I heard Collins laugh. My body feels like a whoosh has just gone through it.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say she didn’t get to know you before she accepted that first date,” Lizzy goads. My throat gets tight when I realize I’ve never even taken Collins on a date. I make a mental note to do that as soon as we get home.
“Wow,” I respond. “Collins, these are my sisters.” I drop her hand and wrap my arm around her waist. “I told you not to believe anything they say”—I don’t exactly whisper that—“and I meant it.”