Elsie
Chapter Thirty-Six
Ava Hughes was a hard woman to please.
Here I’d thought she’d be thrilled over me going out with Theo, yet every time he and I had any semblance of a private conversation, she swooped in faster than my racing thoughts—which also happened to be desperate for an escape from this night.
Will was being broody. Ava seemed to be playing a mental game of tug-of-war with Theo, who seemed as confused as I was about the entire evening. And me? Well, I felt like a jerk for agreeing to any of this in the first place.
I’d been fooling myself thinking I could go on a date and pretend that I hadn’t just realized I had feelings for my date’s best friend.
Maybe I could’ve, if Will hadn’t thrown himself into the mix. But being near him? It was impossible to even appear interested in anything Theo had to say. It was impossible to act like I wasn’t exhilarated at the way Ava’s intervention kept forcing Will and me together.
And it was impossible to pretend that Will wasn’t the one I wanted to be with.
But since he had basically ordered me back into the dating pool, I was pissed at him not only for forcing himself into our date and my headspace, but for also seemingly sabotaging any interaction I had with Theo.
I waited until Ava tugged Theo ahead once more before yanking Will to a stop beside me.
“Why are you walking so close to me?” I asked in a harsh whisper.
I mean, I knew I didn’t like Theo, but how could Will? For all he knew, he was ruining a very real attempt of me moving on.
“This is how close I always stand to you?” he said, though I could see the bullshitting gleam in his eyes.
He wasn’t sorry at all. And he knew exactly what he was doing.
“Yeah, well, maybe not tonight.” I took a pointed step away from him. “Since I’m, you know, on a date with your friend.”
“No, you’re not,” he gritted out, closing the space with a step toward me. “This is just the four of us hanging out.”
“It was supposed to be a date,” I hissed, trying to keep our voices audible only to us two.
“Why?” Will asked, making no such attempt at subtlety.
“What do you mean, why?”
“Theo isn’t your type.”
He made the declaration as if he were the undisputed expert on all things Elsie Cameron.
The absolute audacity of this man.
“You have no idea what my type is.”
“Oh, I think I do,” he said infuriatingly. “And it’s definitely not a guy you have nothing in common with.”
I scoffed, crossing my arms, loathing the fact that he was right about this.
“Unless I’m wrong and you want to enlighten me on all the things you guys have bonded over.”
I glared at him, and he snickered at my silence.
“Knew it.”
“You know what, Will?” I swatted his arm. “Maybe we would’ve been able to connect more if you hadn’t forced yourself into the night.”
“Oh, please.” He rolled his eyes in a way that made my blood boil. “He’s said nothing this entire night that you’d be remotely interested in hearing, never mind talking about.”
“How would you know what I’m interested in hearing about?” I cried, not caring who heard anymore.
“Because I know that you don’t give two shits about the time he crashed his dad’s car in high school,” Will matched my volume, “or how his football team is doing this season. Or how they did the season before.” I scoffed, wishing I could tell him he was wrong.
“And,” he continued, “I’d bet money you can’t remember a single thing he told you about his personal interpretation of the true meaning of Fight Club.”
His eyes blazed, daring me to prove him wrong. But again, I came up short.
Being me, I felt like I had to say something, if only to prove to him that he couldn’t get away with acting so superior over matters he had nothing to do with.
“Again I ask, how the hell would you know what I find interesting or not anyway?”
“Because I know you, Elsie. And he doesn’t.”
Hazel eyes bore into mine, waiting for me to deny it. But it turned out that he did know me.
At least, he knew me well enough to know I wasn’t a liar, and not very good at pretending, either. So, he didn’t wait long before he shrugged, put his hands in his pockets and left me to dwell on things I’d already realized.
I’d never seen a fire so big in person (aside from the one currently consuming my personal life), and didn’t know how close I was supposed to get.
I’d never been to any event like this before.
A bonfire like the one in front of me was enough to break at least a thousand fire codes back in Boston.
But I guess since the sheriff was here, looking untroubled with a beer in his hand as he chatted up the locals, I figured it must be safe enough by Colbridge’s standards.
“So, what do you think?” Theo asked, sitting beside me on a massive log. “Pretty cool, huh?”
“I’m definitely not cold anymore,” I agreed, wondering if the sparks that kept flickering out from the base of the fire might set me ablaze any second.
The fire let out a thundering crackle, and I flinched. Theo picked up on it with an easy laugh.
“So, you’re not much of a camper, then?”
“I wasn’t allowed to be much of a camper,” I specified. “My parents and the woods? Not a combination that would ever happen, even if my very existence relied solely on them becoming besties with Smokey the Bear.”
“Noted.” He nodded with a smile that would make any dentist proud. “But what about the rest of the night? I know it’s just a lame local fest, but—”
“Colbridge isn’t lame,” I said defensively, somehow protective of this town I’d only been in for two months. “It’s wonderful.”
“Wonderful?” He laughed. “I don’t know about that.”
“Why not? You have a community. Families who’ve been here for decades. You can walk anywhere you need to get to. You get to see your neighbors every day—”
“That’s just it,” he said. “It’s almost as if we’re in a bubble. We see the same people. Go to the same places. Live the same lives our parents lived. Nothing new ever happens.”
“If nothing ever changes here, you could always change. Go somewhere new, I mean. Start a life from the ground up in some foreign, exciting city.”
“I guess I could.” He shrugged halfheartedly. “It’s just…Colbridge is all I know. I know that sounds stupid—”
“No.” I shook my head. “It’s not at all. It’s hard to leave what you’re used to, even if it’s familiar in the worst way.”
He laughed, taking a sip of beer.
“You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”
“Maybe I am.” I sighed. “I never said it was easy to uproot my life and come here.”
“I doubt that it was,” he said in a way that endeared me toward him more than ever before. “But whatever it cost, I’m glad you were brave enough to do it anyway. This town has been different since you got here. I think we all needed a change of pace.”
“Yeah?” I asked hopefully.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I mean, you were like this brand new hurricane that rolled into town. You gave everyone something new to talk about. Hell, you even got Will to drop the chip off his shoulder.”
At the mention, we both turned to stare in his direction from across the fire, where he was glowering into the flames while someone sat beside him, trying to engage him in what seemed to be a one sided conversation.
“I mean, at least some of the time,” Theo amended.
I smiled, staring into the fire, lost in thought.
“You know, it’s really nice actually getting to talk to you for once, Elsie. It’s been sort of a weird night.”
I cringed internally, feeling even sorrier for what I was going to do.
“Can we talk for a minute?” I asked suddenly, the guilt that had been gnawing at me all night finally coming to a head. “Away from here?”
I nodded a few feet away from the fire, where groups were scattered, making conversation in the dark.
It wasn’t exactly private, but it would be away from Ava’s listening ears, which had been on us all night.
“Sure,” he said easily, getting to his feet. “Need a hand?”
I accepted his outstretched hand, letting him pull me to my feet.
“Watch your step,” he said, leading me away from the light, over the twigs and roots that I certainly would’ve tripped over if it weren’t for his steadying hand.
He was a really nice guy. He just wasn’t the guy for me.
“So,” he said, hands slipping into his pockets once we were a safe distance from the fire. “Were you as desperate to escape Ava and Will as I was?”
I laughed. “They’ve definitely made their presence known tonight.”
“I’m sorry about that. They’re usually not so intrusive. Hopefully, our next date will be more private.”
I winced and immediately regretted letting it play out on my face before I’d even found the words to explain it to him.
“Oof.” He laughed. “There won’t be a next date, huh?”
“This is totally and absolutely going to sound like a line, but I promise I mean it from the bottom of my heart when I say—” I paused, sighing at myself. “God, it’s such a cliche, I can’t even get the words out.”
“Oh, no. You’re not really hitting me with the ‘it’s not you, it’s me?’ I haven’t heard that one since college.”
I groaned, “Theo. I am so, so sorry. I am the worst. I agreed to come out on this date with you, when I really shouldn’t have. Not because of you, but because I—” Am lusting after your friend. “Am not in a place to try dating. And I probably should’ve figured that out earlier, but—”
“Elsie, breathe.” He laughed. “Relax. It’s cool. I promise. I mean, it was just supposed to be a casual thing. I just thought you were cool and fun to hang out with. No harm done.”
“So, I’m not completely breaking your heart, then?” I teased lightly, immensely relieved at his easy-goingness about it all.
“Would it make you feel better if I pretended you were?”
“A little bit.” I nodded. “It would fluff my ego.”
“Then I’ll let you have that.” And with that, he clutched his chest, as if he’d been fatally wounded, and lamented: “Oh, Elsie. The dearest object of my yearnings. How will I ever get over this agonizing ache left behind by the unrequited nature of your love?”
“Hey.” I laughed. “That was pretty good. Are you watching period dramas in your free time?”
“I did a theater class in college.” He shrugged, almost embarrassed. “Romeo and Juliet was one of them. I never really understand all the bitching and moaning, though. It seemed a little dramatic to me. But I aced the class, anyway.”
“No way!” I gasped. “I never would’ve guessed.”
A guilty pang went through me over having sort of misjudged him.
“Hey,” he said hopefully, “maybe now that I’m not trying to woo you, maybe we can try being friends? There’s plenty about me that might surprise you.”
“Were you really trying to woo me?” I rolled my eyes playfully.
“I never got the chance!” he exclaimed. “My damned friends were always popping up.”
I snorted and then exhaled in relief as the last remnants of anxiety dissipated.
“You know, being friends sounds really great.” I beamed. “Thank you.”
“Great.” He grinned, and then his smile turned knowing. “So…as a friend…you’re into him, aren’t you?”
“Into who?” I asked, voice high-pitched and squeaky as if I’d just sucked all the helium out of a balloon.
He smirked, turning his gaze directly to where Will sat by the fire, glaring at us.
Geez, he really hates the idea of me dating his friend.
“Will?” My balloon voice apparently wasn’t going away anytime soon. “What? No. He’s just—” The look on Theo’s face made me pause, my expression curling up in a wince. “Am I really that obvious?”
“No, but he is.” Theo laughed. “I have to tell you. I was really slow to catch on, because, hell, I’ve never seen the guy have so much as a crush on anyone in the last five years.
It just wasn’t even in the realm of possibility for me.
But after tonight?” He snorted. “Well, yeah. I’d say the two of you are pretty damn obvious. ”
He thought Will liked me?
“No, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong. I like Will,” I admitted, pointing a finger at myself. “And Will?” I looked in his direction again, his face illuminated by the glow of the fire. “He likes…helping people. And well, I happen to be people.”
“Helping people.” Theo nodded and laughed. “Right. Specifically, girls with red hair. Green eyes. An addiction to coffee… Does that sound about right?”
Did Will like me?
“I don’t know,” I said doubtfully, playing it all over again in my mind.
He knew I’d wanted to kiss him, and he still left that night, anyway.
He could’ve brought it up the next day, but instead, encouraged me to go out with his friend.
Signs were at best inconclusive, and I wasn’t getting my hopes until I heard it from him firsthand.
“You guys are hopeless,” Theo said, looking somewhere past my shoulder and laughing to himself. “Come on, I’ll walk you home.”
“No need,” Will said, suddenly appearing in the dark beside us. “I’m heading out anyway. I can give her a ride.”
I stared at him in shock. Everything about his words seemed sensible and calm, but the rigidness of his body, the intensity in the narrow set of his eyes, made me think he was anything but.
“Oh, are you sure?” Theo asked, a teasing gleam in his eyes. “I mean, it’s rude to let another man drive my date home, after all—”
Will didn’t let Theo get another word out.
“I’m sure.” He smacked him on the back harder than I thought a friendly tap would entail. “I’ll get her home safe.”
Theo shrugged, took a tentative step away from us, and winked in my direction.
He passed me to head back to the bonfire, leaning close so only I could hear his last comment.
“You’re welcome.”