Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
TEDDIE
I wasn't giving him the silent treatment, not exactly, but I wasn't happy he ordered for me.
I was twenty-five years old, not five. Hell, even if I was, my dads didn't order for me.
They guided me, but they'd always let me make my own choices.
If I wanted chicken nuggets every dinner for a week, then that's what we'd have.
They always knew I'd get tired of them eventually.
On day three, as it happened. A girl could only get so much of the nuggety goodness.
Some of my irritation at Oak lessened when I tasted the food. I hadn't eaten here before, but I had to admit the smoothie was delicious and the wrap was perfect.
Would I have chosen either of them for myself? Probably not. Would I in the future? That was a complicated question. If I was here by myself, I absolutely would. If Oak was here with me, I might not. On principal.
Was I that petty? Probably. Did I care? At this exact moment, no.
"Why were you cranky?" I asked, sucking on the last of my smoothie.
He frowned at me. “What?"
"When I saw you outside the grocery store you swore to yourself," I said. "Were you angry about anything in particular?" I might be poking a hornets’ nest, but I couldn't resist asking.
"Right." He bit into his wrap. For a moment I thought he wasn't going to answer. Then he said, "I thought I had another job to do after the grocery store. I was wrong."
"You were pissed off because you got to take an early lunch break?" I asked. "I could be wrong, but I think most people don't mind."
"I have a routine," he said carefully. "I don't like to have lunch too early. I have my day planned in my mind."
I could relate to that. Plus, it explained a few things about him right there.
"You get upset when your plans are disrupted," I suggested. "It stresses you out?"
"I guess so," he said. "But I adapt. I've always had to adapt." His blue eyes were glazed, thinking about something. I couldn't tell whether it was bad or not, just something that grabbed onto his mind in the moment.
"That sounds about right," I said. "The world doesn't like to adapt to us." I watched him carefully. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Trying to figure out these men.
"The world doesn't give a shit," Oak said.
"The world, or someone in particular?" I asked. I remembered what he said about babysitters. What was that about? Did he have one as a kid? One who didn't like him ordering food for them? Was it something else?
"That's none of your business." Oak shoved his plate aside, what was left of his wrap sitting in the middle. He pushed himself to his feet and headed for the door.
I gaped for a moment before I rose, intending to follow him, but he was gone, walking past the window and off down the street before I could take a step.
I sank back in my seat and let out a breath. Apparently it was more than a hornets’ nest I poked, it was an open wound.
My food turned in my stomach. If I thought he'd react that way, I wouldn't have asked.
He knew I didn't mean anything malicious by it, didn't he?
I was trying to figure out what made him tick.
Apparently he did more than tick, he also exploded.
If you could call stomping off an explosion.
It wasn't as though he turned the table upside down, threw things or went on a rampage.
No, this was more like a cold fury than a burning hot one.
"Your friend has gone?" the server asked, stopping beside the table.
"He's not my—" I started to say. "He had somewhere he needed to be in a hurry." I hoped my smile was convincing. I wasn't going to tell her the truth, that was for sure. Whatever the truth was.
"Are you expecting him to come back?" She popped out her hip and placed her hand on it.
"I don't think so.” I looked down at the remains of his lunch and silently cursed. He said he'd pay for lunch and now he was gone, leaving me with the check. Asshole.
The server gave me a sympathetic smile. “Should I give you a minute?”
I was about to say yes, when I had a better idea. I gave her a sincere smile.
"No that won't be necessary. Can you send the tab to Egger Security?”
At some point it would cross the desk of Fade or Hel.
When it did, there’d be questions. Would they ask me or go straight to Oak?
Would they even notice a relatively small amount?
What kind of question was that? Of course Fade would.
It was his job. Besides, anything to do with me, he'd make it his business.
I wasn't sure what he or Hel would say and I didn't know what Oak would either. He walked off like a petulant kid because I asked too many questions. I overstepped by being curious about things I shouldn't be curious about.
Should I give up trying to get to know these men?
I sighed to myself. No, I didn't want to get to the end of the year and still be living with complete strangers. Fuck that.
I suspected, no matter how much I learned about them, there’d still be uncovered mysteries, but I didn't want to be completely in the dark. Why should I? They seemed to know more about me than I knew about them. If you asked me that was unfair. As unfair as…as walking away in the middle of lunch.
That gave me an idea.
Giving the server my best smile I said, “Can I get a piece of cheesecake?" If Oak wasn't going to stick around to police my lunch, then I was going to enjoy it. Not to mention, if I wasn't paying, I might as well have the most expensive dessert on the list. Right?
"Of course, honey,” the server said sweetly before she headed back to the kitchen, returning a minute or two later with a big slice of cake covered in raspberries and strawberries.
"There you go." She set the plate down in front of me and gave me a wink. Evidently she approved of me living my best life, in spite of my lunch date walking out and leaving me here.
"Thank you." I picked up my fork and started to eat. Held back a moan of appreciation.
I had to admit, Heartbeets made the best, creamiest cheesecake I'd eaten in a long time.
It was almost as good as the one Pop made.
Admittedly, that bar is high. He could have set up a cheesecake shop instead of a bar and made a killing, but he preferred to keep his baking as a relaxing hobby, not work.
Besides, Dad and I would eat the cake before he got to sell it to his customers. I didn't need to be an expert on business to know that would hamper its potential for success.
While I ate my spite cake, I watched the other people in the restaurant.
A guy sat off to one side by himself, his gaze on the window.
He rubbed his hand over his stubbled chin and sipped his drink.
Lemonade by the look of the hints of pulp floating in it.
He seemed to be gazing in the direction Oak went.
Had he seen him leave? The whole place probably had.
How long until word got around town? I’d give it an hour. Two tops.
I stuck my fork into a raspberry. Was I pretending it was one of the men's faces? No, but I was reflecting on what I might be missing out on while living with them for a year. I could be meeting a nice guy instead of spending my time being fucked around by them.
Think of the money, I told myself. Maybe I should get that on a T-shirt.
That might be my mantra for the next handful of months.
Relax, take deep breaths, focus on work and study and think of the money.
I ignored my clit, who suggested I think of orgasms too.
She’d gotten us into enough trouble as it was.
"Hey."
I looked up to see the guy who was sitting by the window. He placed his half-empty lemonade down on the table and sat opposite me.
"You don't mind me joining you, do you?” he asked. "I saw your date walk out. Is he out of his mind? If I was here with you, I wouldn't walk out.” He spoke so quickly, that was almost one sentence.
"You might," I said. "You don't know why he left.” I might ask this man a couple of the wrong questions and he'd stomp off too.
"I don't need to know," he said with a slow smile. "He walked out leaving a gorgeous woman by herself. His loss is my gain. Victor.”
He cocked his head, waiting for me to give him my name, reminding me of a puppy hoping for a piece of cheese.
"Theodora, but everyone calls me Teddie," I said.
"A cute name for a cute woman," he said. "You're a local, right? I've seen you around before. Would you believe I've been trying to get up the courage to talk to you?” That was also spoken in a rush.
"No," I said honestly. "You don't seem like the kind of guy who's short on confidence."
He rubbed his forehead with his thumb and forefinger and looked at me from under the heel of his hand.
"Beautiful and smart, and willing to call me out." He smiled. "I knew you were my kind of woman.”
"You seem nice," I said carefully. Letting him down gently seemed like the kindest thing to do.
He lowered his hand to the table and pouted. "Beautiful, smart and about to reject me. Am I wrong?”
"It's not personal," I said. "My life is complicated right now."
That was an understatement. As attractive as Victor was, I didn't want to drag him into my crazy world. Would I be interested if I wasn't living with three intense, difficult men? I don’t suppose it mattered much. I wasn’t. For now, anyway.
“I’m a good listener,” he said, placing his hands in his lap like he was settling in for a long stay.
“It’s not really things I can talk about,” I admitted. “I’m not even sure why…”
“Why that asshat left?” Victor offered.
“Yeah, exactly.” I didn't want to dump all of my problems on him either.
No, that wasn't quite accurate. I could have told him and he would have sat and listen, sympathized.
Then what? He'd end up on the wrong side of three men I wasn't even sure I could trust. For some reason, that made me uneasy as hell.
“I really shouldn’t say anything.” I sighed. I surprised myself by how much I wanted to. Those guys were really really doing my head in, that I wanted to spill everything to a total stranger. “Actually, I should probably get out of here myself.”
"I get it." He stood and picked up his lemonade. "I'll leave you be then. Wait, one question.”
“Yes?” Should I be asking? Probably not, but the hopeful expression on his face made me put my doubts and caution aside. I might regret it, but I was in too deep now.
“Do you like tacos?” he asked.
“Of course, who doesn’t like tacos?” Fuck, was he about to ask me out?
“Great, I’ll see you around." He gave me a smile before he turned and made his way through the restaurant.
“Wha— Right. Yeah, maybe." I watched for a moment. His ass made me question my life choices, but I wasn't going to call him back and give him my number. A guy like him, he'd probably forgotten about me already.
I grabbed up my things and headed toward the door.
The bell tinkled happily as I pushed my way out. The smell of food was replaced with ocean air and a hint of incense coming from the homeware store beside the restaurant.
On the other side of that, the thump of music came from the tattoo parlor. A woman around my age, with a bevy of tattoos, her ears heavy with piercings, opened the door and stepped inside.
I was half tempted to go in and get some ink myself, but I had no idea what I'd get. I put that in the mental ‘think about it later’ basket.
I glanced up and down the wide, tree-lined street. Oak was nowhere to be seen. Of course he was. No doubt he was long gone. If I was going to knee him in the groin, it wasn't going to be right then. Shame.
I thought for a moment. It wasn't much past one.
I should get to the library and get some study done.
Or find myself a quiet spot on the beach to work.
The warmer the weather got the more difficult it would be to find somewhere.
Of course the city needed visitors and the money they brought with them, even if it cost us a peaceful piece of sand.
I tucked a stray curl behind my ear. It bounced back out.
Should I head back to the house? It should be quiet there, with all three of the men at work. I could get a few hours of study in.
Or… I bit back a smile. This might be a good time for me to search for the door to the basement while no one else was home except Shannon.
If she was distracted, I could snoop around.