I have no idea why he’s sad about it.
His small hands ball into fists on my shoulders. He wheezes as if grief has pushed all of the oxygen out and locked him down. He’s inconsolable.
“Y-yes. I would have said yes.” His dark eyes are intense on mine as he chokes down a sob.
“What has you so upset, sugar? You were magnificent tonight.”
“What you asked, before you left. I would have said yes, Matt. I would have taken the chance for more. I would have beendevoted.” He says this with a press of his clenched fist to his chest, like he’s making a pledge.
“Fuck, sugar. I know that. What you did tonight? I know what that was. But what’s all this past tense?” I give him a brief kiss on the nose, trying to coax back some of the Theo I know. Life has made Theo serious, but underneath that seriousness is something else. It’s the carefree guy who threw snowballs at me, who saves hopeless stray kittens, and who came apart under my hands. Who makes flawless crème brûlée.
Jesus Christ, that crème brûlée. I don’t even have the right words.
“I have togo.”
“You did all that for me, just to leave? I know you didn’t. That was an act of love, Theo.” I know why he hasn’t told me he’s a pastry chef, or Maxine’s baker, so I know taking over at Summit House tonight cost him. I just don’t knowwhatit cost him. I want him to say it. I want him to tell me his whole truth, not just these parts. We can’t try for what I want with him if he doesn’t.
He musters his resolve to read me this untold chapter of himself—the one most people have but never share. The darkest of the dark, the section we all hope no one ever reads aloud.
The thing that will render us unloveable.
His breath hitches.
“My family—the business I told you about, it was a bakery. I’m a pastry chef, school in Chicago, and I trained in Salt Lake City under the pastry chef at Glazed. I’m the one who did the work for Maxine.
“I didn’t tell you because my cousin—well, not my cousin, not by blood. He wanted me out of the business. Frank, he left everything to Nico when he died. The whole business, and I—” Theo’s voice breaks, the misery behind it a tidal force. Other than Mulder, who has heard this story? “I was left out.”
Theo takes a steadying breath. “Nico, that’s Frank’s grandson. He says that the family paid for culinary school, and I owe it to them. One day, I showed up to work at Glazed, and they told me I was fired. Nico’s attorney sent them a letter—it was either terminate my employment or be sued. They claimed the things Frank taught me, the techniques, were trade secrets that belong to Donahue’s, the business, I mean. Said I had a non-compete clause and I couldn’t work in another bakery.”
“Jesus, Sugar. We can fight this. Nothing sounds legitimate about any of that.”
Theo gives a sharp jerk of his head. “I tried to hire an attorney and do something. But there’s . . .there’s Deny.”
“Deny. Who the fuck is Deny?”
“He’s a guy Nico hired to make sure I pay. Deny was at my apartment after I was fired from my job. Said I would have to pay him what I owed Nico. Money for tuition, the money I made using what Frank had taught me.”
“Or what?”
“He trashed my apartment. Cleaned out my bank account somehow. And he showed me what would happen if I didn’t pay. With his fists. That’s when I ran. With the clothes on my back and the money in my pocket. Nico hired him, but he wouldn’t ever tell me more than that. Not how much I owed Nico, even.”
“This has been going on the whole time? Deny saying you owe him? What you made at Black Diamond?”
Jesus Christ, I wish I could just not have this conversation. Forcing him to lay it all bare. Defiance gleams in Theo’s dark eyes. He thinks this will drive me away, that the truth will allow me to walk away from him and not look back. “What can I do? Go to the police? That takes time and money, and I didn’t have either. Job gone. Savings gone. So, I pay him once a month. He followed me here. I had no choice but to try and pay what I owe so I can move on.”
“You don’t owe this guy or Nico Donahue anything.”
“If Nico knows I’m responsible for last night, he will ruin your reputation so I can’t bake anywhere. Nico has connections in the restaurant industry, and he isn’t afraid to use them. If I’m involved, he will make sure Stanton and everyone else never writes a single positive word about Summit House. But if I am gone, he will come after me and not Summit House. If I stay, he will take you down with me.”
“Nico spread the rumors that you stole recipes.”
“How did you—”
“I know people in the industry too, Theo. And I took a side trip on my way back home. It’s a very short flight from Dallas to Little Rock.”
“Little Rock? Why did you go there?”
I let my eyes roam over him, back straight and fists clenched like he’s ready for a fight.
