Chapter 14
RAQUEL
By Friday morning, I was packing up my renovation supplies. With the future still so uncertain, the only thing I knew for sure was that for this weekend, at least, I wouldn’t be getting anything done at the house.
Since Avery would be out of town, there was no one else to check on Dad and I didn’t want to be stuck on the roof or in a drainpipe if he needed me.
I also wasn’t sure yet what to do about the house long term, but for now, I’d decided to keep fixing it up as and when I could, which meant neatly boxing up the supplies until I had time to dig back in again.
I was packing paint rollers into a plastic storage bin when I heard tires crunching along the dirt road. At first, I assumed it was Avery, coming to say goodbye, but when I looked out the window, it was Frieda’s fancy little car bouncing to a crooked stop beside my truck.
“What the hell?” I muttered, straightening up and heading to the porch to find out what on earth she was doing here.
As I got there, she climbed out of her car wearing a giant grin, oversized sunglasses, and a string of fake pearls so large, they were blinding in direct sunlight.
Almost immediately, she slid a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it, then propped a hand on her hip and looked around from behind the massive glasses.
“This old place is finally starting to take shape,” she commented as if I’d been waiting years for her verdict. “The fencing is looking good and the barn is still standing. Lord knows what you did to get that right.”
“Duct tape and prayers,” I said dryly. “Also known as reinforcement. What are you doing here?”
“Oh, nothing.” She smiled and finally pushed the sunglasses up into her silver-gray hair, only the faintest hue of its original vibrant red remaining. “Just saving you from yourself. It’s my good deed for the day.”
“Awesome.” I nodded slowly, then frowned. “What exactly what I was doing to myself that required being saved from?”
“The camping trip,” she said as if it was obvious. “You’re going. Have you packed yet?”
“No, I have to watch my dad.”
“You’re not staying with Clyde,” she said firmly. “I am and you don’t have to worry, I’ll be there all weekend. No one will take better care of him than me. I’m experienced at that kind of thing. Are you?”
“No, but?—”
I cut myself off when she marched right past me, motioning at the door of the Airstream with her cigarette. “Avery told me you were planning to sit around, martyring yourself instead of having fun, so here I am, saving you from making that particular mistake.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not martyring myself.”
“Darling, wanting to hang back to take care of your dad is admirable, but it is also an act of martyrdom. I’m not having it. I’m staying with Clyde this weekend and you’re going camping, so chop-chop. Go pack.”
“This really isn’t necessary.” I crossed my arms, not moving a muscle toward the trailer. “Dad will be fine on his own for a weekend and I’m more than capable of bringing him food or whatever. Experience doesn’t matter.”
“If he would’ve been so fine, why weren’t you going on the trip until I got here?
” She smirked, but her features softened before she turned to drink in the expansive view, her voice now gentler too.
“I can take care of Clyde, Raquel. I’ve known that man since before you were born and I swear, he’ll survive two nights of my cooking.
We’ll watch old westerns together and reminisce.
It’s just a weekend, for God’s sake. You should go. ”
“Should I?” I asked quietly, assuming that either Avery had told her or the town gossip mill had already been churning.
However it had happened, Frieda clearly knew, but that didn’t surprise me.
She knew everything that happened in this town and then some.
“It might be the weekend, but that doesn’t mean Dad doesn’t need me. ”
“I know how scared you are right now, darling,” she said after a beat, finally turning back to me.
“That’s exactly why you should go camping with your brother.
Go sit by the lake. Go pretend to be irresponsible.
Most importantly, go kiss the pretty boy before he leaves town without you ever having another opportunity. ”
Mortification smacked into me like a bus. “What?”
“I might be old, but I’m not blind,” she practically purred. “He looks at you like you were personally responsible for inventing oxygen and you’re not much better. All this pining is going to kill even me eventually.”
“We’re not pining.”
She took a few steps closer and cupped my cheek, the scent of cigarette smoke and musky perfume moving with her like a cloud. “Make sure you smile this weekend, okay? It makes you ten times prettier.”
“Oh my God.”
Strangely, Frieda softened again, her hand sliding from my cheek to my shoulder. “Life is for the living, Raquel. None of us ever know how much time we have, but we do know your father would be furious if he knew you were using him as an excuse not to use your time wisely.”
“It’s not an excuse. I just need to finish packing up my renovation supplies. Then I’m going to spend the weekend with him. Quality time.”
She physically blocked the porch steps when I tried moving around her. “Right now, you think that if you stop moving for five minutes, life as you know it will collapse around you, but the truth is that it’s already started collapsing and you need to pace yourself.”
I blinked hard, feeling like she’d just lassoed my chest and was tugging sharply at the rope. “It really has, hasn’t it?”
“Yes,” she said, eyes level on mine. “You’re in this for the long-haul, darling.
For now, your dad is still the same man he was last week when you started planning this trip, but that won’t always be true.
Take the weekend. Think. Process. Have a bit of fun.
If you don’t take care of yourself too, you won’t be able to take care of him, the shop, or anything else.
” She finally dropped her hands away from my shoulders and jerked her head toward the Airstream again.
“Alright, now get in the trailer and pack before I go do it for you.”
I exhaled a long, slow breath before finally giving in and turning toward the trailer.
Frieda followed directly behind me like a prison escort, afraid of what I might get up to if she let me out of her sight.
“Avery and Theo are at the motel, getting ready to leave. If you hurry, you can still catch them.”
My stomach gave another one of those silly little flutters, but I breathed through it and headed inside to pack a bag, too busy ignoring Frieda’s advice about tiny bikinis and loads of smiling to really focus on what I was tossing into it.
If I thought I stood a chance at getting out of this, I might’ve admitted to her how torn I was about it, but I also knew she would take care of my dad.
His health and well-being weren’t at all at risk with her. It was more just about me, uncertain about whether I should be leaving him right now.
In the end, she once again proved why she had a reputation for never taking no for an answer. She’d waved away every last one of my protests between the Airstream and my truck, assuring me that she and my dad would be fine, and then literally watching me leave until I’d driven out of her sight.
By the time I pulled into the motel parking lot, Avery’s old pontoon boat was hitched behind his truck while coolers, tents, fishing poles, and crates of beer were scattered across the asphalt. Theo was shirtless, securing straps over a pile of camping gear on the boat.
Sunlight warmed his tanned skin, dark tattoos winding over one shoulder. I nearly swallowed my tongue at the sight of them. I hadn’t known he had any, and while I shouldn’t have been surprised, I was.
Part of me couldn’t wait to see them up close. Possibly lick?—
No. No, Raquel. You’re not licking him. For God’s sake.
All that thick brown hair was pushed back from his face and curling a little at the ends, slightly damp with sweat. He was laughing when I pulled in, his head tipped back. The lean muscles in his arms flexed as he tugged at the strap.
Both he and Avery grinned when I parked beside them, and unfortunately, my knees went the tiniest bit weak at how genuinely happy Theo seemed to see me.
Immediately, I realized it would be completely unacceptable for either of them to even guess at the state of my legs right now, so I rummaged around the glove box for my sunglasses and slid them on before climbing out of the truck.
“Well, well, look who decided to join us after all,” Avery called. “Frieda got to you, huh?”
“She manipulated the hell out of me,” I said as I slammed the door behind me and strode over to them. “Do you know she can actually be nice when she’s trying to get you to do something?”
“I’m surprised she didn’t just tell you that you were coming and let that be it,” Theo said, but he was still smiling like I’d made his whole weekend. “That’s what she does with me.”
“Yeah. It’s what she usually does with me too, but when that didn’t work, she got all sentimental and stuff. Needless to say, I didn’t even realize what she was doing until I was packed and halfway into town.”
Avery laughed. “Well, we’re just happy to have you. We’ve got enough beer and camping equipment to start our own government if we need to, but I hope you brought your own toothpaste. I don’t know how many people will remember that.”
“You guys really do go full Neanderthal on these weekends, don’t you?
” On that note, I pulled out my phone and opened the cabin rental site for the lake.
“You know I don’t mind getting dirty, but there’s no way I’m sharing a tent with someone who hasn’t packed toothpaste and I’ll be damned if I don’t have access to AC for two days, so you guys enjoy the camping, but if I’m coming, I’m getting a cabin. ”
I clicked to confirm payment for one of the tiny, one-bedroom units and grinned. “There. Money well spent. Happy sweating.”
Theo laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he shook his head at me. “I thought you were tougher than that.”
“There’s being tough, then there’s being smart. I’m smarter than I am tough. Trust me, you’re going to be wishing you had my AC around bedtime.”
He nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. “Yeah, I’m definitely going to be thinking about you when I go to sleep.”
I felt a definite flush creeping into my cheeks, and this time, I didn’t even try lying to myself. I, Raquel Thompson, was blushing. It was ridiculous, but shit. The things I felt because of what he’d just said were unreal. I couldn’t not react.
Thankfully, Avery was too busy wrestling a folding chair into the boat to notice, but Theo did. A faint smile formed on his lips as he turned to tighten another strap across the supplies.
Frieda might’ve told me to smile more, but it wasn’t smiling I was thinking about when I walked back to my truck once they were ready to roll.
It was moaning, grinding, and all sorts of things I really shouldn’t have been thinking about when the star of the show was none other than my brother’s apparent new best friend.