Chapter Twenty-Seven
Theo pulled into the side street faster than he should have. After an hour of driving in the pelting rain, he was brimming with adrenaline and angst, not knowing what he was going to walk into once he entered the small bed and breakfast across the small village road.
The rain had continued to fall, and the wind had picked up about a half hour ago, making trees fall in some areas of the county and decreasing driving limits to a snail’s pace.
He didn’t care though. The only thing that kept him going forward was her. Olivia had called him only a short while after he had hung up the phone. He could tell there was something wrong before she had even spoken. The only words she had uttered were: “Theo,” before her sobs pierced his heart.
After sharing her location with him, and a swift “I’ll be there soon.
” He had rushed home, grabbed his car keys and had begun the agonising drive to her on the motorway, the bad weather making the traffic move at a snail’s pace out of London.
None of that mattered though. Not the traffic, nor the rain pelting his windscreen.
He had to make sure she was safe, and she wouldn’t be safe until she was firmly planted in his arms.
He had spent the whole drive thinking about what he would see when he got there.
Perched on top of Edward, the two tangled in bedsheets.
He pictured her waiting at the bar like he had asked her to, with wet hair dripping down the back of her dress, and mascara running all over her soft cheeks.
When he arrived the bar was empty, except for a single, elderly lady wiping the bench top.
He spent ten minutes trying to get Olivia’s room number out of her, thinking of the worst possible scenarios he might find Olivia in.
The woman finally gave him her room number after he slid her a twenty-pound note, before telling him how a blond lad had stormed out of the inn half an hour ago, angry and muttering about her.
Edward.
Running up the old staircase, Theo made the trip to the second floor with his heart thudding in his chest and found her room at the end of the hall. He pressed down on the black door handle and swung it open to see the small double bedroom she was in.
He had imagined everything but how he actually found her. Curled up at the end of the bed in front of the fireplace, she sat there shivering, the bed covers thrown haphazardly across her shoulders.
He had barely made it into the room three steps before her words hit him.
“Am I a horrible person?” she asked, her voice shaking.
She had been crying. Although her face was turned away the telltale signs were obvious, and as soon as he saw them, all the anger, angst and hatred he had mustered up on the drive fall away as if it were snow melting off his shoulders in front of the warm fire.
“No, of course not.” He made his way to her, feet not going as fast as he wanted. With a thump, he slid down the edge of the bed and landed beside her on the matted rug.
“I feel like a horrible person.” Olivia sniffled.
Theo let out a breath before pulling her into his chest and rubbing up and down her arms in hopes of warming her up a bit. She was freezing.
“Edward thought you were my boyfriend.” She let out a sad laugh, leaning her head against his shoulder and wiping her nose on the corner of the throw blanket.
“When I told him the truth about my novel he said he didn’t know what was worse: me having a boyfriend or using him for my research.
” She sniffled again, lifting her head up and glancing at Theo for the first time since he had entered the room. “That makes me horrible right?”
“I don’t think you’re horrible,” Theo said, his voice low and crackling like the fire beside them.
He glanced over her features, noting her bloodshot eyes, the warm flush of pink across her cheeks from sitting too close to the open flames, and the way her hair had begun to dry in a mass of curly ringlets.
“You don’t?”
“I think you’re perfect,” he whispered.
Olivia shivered once more as the window rattled in the wind. After a quick glance to the cold outdoors, and back to her shaking form, Theo stood up and offered her his hand. “Come on, let’s get you dry.”