Chapter 9
THEO
Practically dead inside.
Theo collected a bunch of papers on his desk and shoved them into one of his drawers, doing his best not to think about what Harper had said to him on the phone last night.
After all, what did she know? The two of them weren’t friends.
They hardly knew one another. She couldn’t speak to him like that, as if she knew anything at all about him.
She couldn’t pass judgment. Who did she think she was?
Practically dead inside.
No, he damn well wasn’t! Theo had plenty going on emotionally.
But he couldn’t help being reminded of his father, of his decision to abandon the family when they were young.
He had asked his mother once, after the divorce, why Dad had left.
Where he had gone. His mother had smiled sadly and tousled his hair and said, “Don’t worry about it, Theo.
You and your brother and me, we love one another.
Your father just doesn’t have as much love in his heart as we do. ”
I’m not like him. I’m not. And Harper can’t say that I am, because she doesn’t even know me.
He gritted his teeth. He was not a cold and uncaring person.
Just because he understood that love was a societal construct, a story that people told themselves to feel better and more secure about the partnerships they chose to form, that didn’t mean he had no heart.
He did love his brother, after all. He was doing all this because he cared about Max.
But she would say I’m not doing it. She would say I’m doing the bare minimum, that I’m not really invested and I don’t really care.
And even though that isn’t true — I do care!
— I guess I have to admit that I can see her point.
I’m not doing as much as she is for this wedding.
I am just trying to get the whole thing over and done with.
That certainly didn’t mean he cared any less for his brother, and he would never allow anyone to say so. But it bothered him that she even seemed to think it, and suddenly he found himself wanting to do something to prove how much he cared for Max. To set the record straight.
He grabbed his phone and dialed Harper’s number before he could overthink it.
She answered on the second ring. “Theo?” she asked. “What is it? Is something wrong with the invitations? I’ve gotten some RSVPs, and no one has mentioned any problems, but maybe they’re just being polite—”
“Nothing is wrong with the invitations,” he cut her off.
“Oh. Then why are you calling?”
“I wanted to talk to you about the venue,” he told her.
“You did?”
“I thought we should go look at a couple of places. We want to get that choice made quickly, right? Before places book up and we don’t have as many options?”
She was silent for a moment. “I didn’t realize you would have thought about that,” she admitted.
“Well, I’m not completely heartless,” he said pointedly.
“I don’t want to drop the ball and let my little brother say his vows in a parking lot somewhere.
But I’m not surprised you’d think that about me, because anyone who doesn’t believe in marriage couldn’t possibly give a damn about their family either, right? ”
“Come on, Theo. You know I never said that.”
“Anyway,” he said loudly, because he didn’t want to hear whatever excuse or apology she was going to make, “why don’t we each come up with an idea, and then we can go and look at them together?”
Harper was quiet.
“Or does that not work with your schedule?” he asked her. “Do you want me to just handle this task on my own? I’m happy to do it, if you’re too busy.”
“I’m not too busy,” she said.
“Good, then. Saturday?”
“Theo… listen. I shouldn’t have said those things to you the other day. I didn’t mean them.”
“You said what you wanted to say,” he told her gruffly.
“And you have every right to say it. What you think is none of my business. Maybe just keep it to yourself next time, because I really don’t have time to get into arguments with you.
It’s better for Max and Tara if you and I are getting along, don’t you think? ”
“Of course I do.” She sounded abashed, and a petty part of him was glad. She should feel bad after talking to him so harshly.
“Okay,” he said. “So, from now on, we keep it business. No personal comments or judgments. Whatever you don’t like about me, you can tell your mom or your therapist about it.
You don’t need to tell me. It’s not like we’re going to be spending time together once this wedding is over, so we don’t need to know everything each one of us thinks about the other.
We just need to be able to work together. ”
She cleared her throat. “You’re right,” she said, her voice more brusque and tough now. “Nothing personal. We keep it business.”
“Good, then. So, I’ll pick you up at your house on Saturday morning — say, nine o’clock? And we’ll each make reservations at one place that we can go and check out together. Does that work for you?”
“That works fine.”
“Good. I’ll see you then.” He hung up the phone.
Then he sat back in his chair and bit his lip. She had been trying to apologize. Should he have let her do it? Accepted her apology a little more gracefully than he had?
They had enjoyed one another’s company the other day, when they’d been tasting the food for the menu.
And telling her about their family vacations, the trips they had taken in the old days before the divorce…
that had been really nice. He hadn’t thought about those times, much less spoken about them, in years.
He didn’t know how clear Max’s memories were of the divorce.
The two of them never spoke about the fact that they’d gone from having such a privileged life to growing up with a single mother who, while she had worked hard and done all she could, simply hadn’t been able to provide the same luxuried they had enjoyed in their younger days.
Things had gone from comfortable to difficult for the two of them.
That wasn’t the way Max’s wedding was going to be.
Theo had taken to heart — because I do have a heart — what Harper had said about reflecting on the finer points of their upbringing, and one thing childhood had included, and adulthood hadn’t, was having to worry about money.
Not until Theo had become the owner of the Houston Stallions had he felt as financially carefree again as he had in those pre-divorce days.
Well, now he had the power to devote all the money at his disposal to making this wedding perfect for his brother.
And once he had done that, no one would be able to imply that he was coldhearted, or that he didn’t care.
No one would be able to suggest that he was anything like his father, who had left the family behind for greener pastures and had taken his money with him, leaving his mother struggling to support her two sons.
Theo would never treat his loved ones like that.
He went online and did a search for wedding venues.
If this topic had been raised yesterday, he would probably have offered the ballroom here at the baseball club, which was a beautiful place to host a party and had been the site of many glamorous events.
But now he felt the need to make a point.
He wasn’t just going to offer up a room that he already owned.
He was going to find something really nice — something special — for his brother’s wedding.
I shouldn’t be worrying about what Harper thinks of me. We just said that everything from this moment on was going to be professional.
He shook his head. This wasn’t about Harper’s opinion.
He didn’t care what she thought. This was about his own peace of mind.
It was about demonstrating to himself that he was nothing like his father, the man who had wreaked such havoc on their lives.
He knew he was different, of course, but Harper had gotten into his head.
He needed to settle his thoughts about it.
Here. The Crystal Ballroom. He’d heard of it before, though he had never actually been to any events there. He clicked on the website and opened the page.
It was beautiful. Floor-to-ceiling windows. A massive dance floor. Wide French doors that opened out onto a glittering patio. There was a picture of the tables and place settings that could be provided. It would be the most beautiful wedding Houston had ever seen. No one would forget it.
This is the kind of thing Harper is always going on about, Theo thought.
She wants it to look good in pictures, so they’ll have something to look back on years from now.
So when they look at their wedding album, they’ll remember how amazing it was.
Having the wedding here will do that. This place is perfect.
There was a form on the website to fill out if you wanted to make an appointment, but Theo wasn’t going to do that.
Filling out online forms meant putting the ball in someone else’s court, and that was no way to show that you were invested in what you were doing.
He picked up the phone again and dialed the number at the bottom of the site.
“Is this the Crystal Ballroom? My name is Theo Davenport. I’m the owner of the Houston Stallions, and I need to speak to someone about an event I’d like to host in your space. Yes, I’ll hold.”
The hold would be short. It always was, once he had told the person on the other end of the phone who he was. And sure enough, less than a minute had gone by before a voice answered on the other end of the phone.
“Mr. Davenport?”
“Yes, hello?”
“My name is Genevieve Wallace. I understand you’re interested in hosting an event at the Crystal Ballroom?”
He assessed her tone. She sounded eager, excited. Good. If she was eager to have him, it meant that he had the upper hand. That was always important in negotiations like this one.
“I might be interested,” he said. “This is going to be a very high-profile event, and we’re expecting a lot of big names to attend.
” He had no idea whether that was true. It probably wasn’t.
He hadn’t looked at the guest list yet. But he did know that a statement like that would get attention.
Genevieve Wallace would now be thinking about sports stars — that was who she would associate with Theo Davenport.
She would be thinking about the press, and about publicity for her venue.
“I think you’ll find we’re perfect for your needs,” she said.
Perfect. She was pitching to him now. “I need to see the place before I make my final decision,” he said. “My associate and I would like to come by on Saturday morning at nine thirty, if that will work for you.”
“Oh, of course. I’ll be here all day on Saturday. I’ll have our lookbook out and ready for you, and I can give you a tour as well.”
“That’s perfect,” Theo said. “We’ll look forward to seeing you then.”
He ended the call, smiling to himself. The Crystal Ballroom was the perfect venue. Once she saw it, Harper was sure to agree
I’m not trying to impress her. It doesn’t matter what she thinks.
But he couldn’t deny the fact that he was looking forward to seeing how she would react when she saw what he’d come up with.