Damn. And they couldn’t go back around through the trellis door, because there was nowhere to go from there but down to the lake without being seen.
“All right. Let’s just wait here for a while until they—uh—go somewhere else.”
Until they come for us.
His suggestion was punctuated by a distant roll of thunder, and that reminded him of the plans Misty and Rob had made for them. Oscar reached for Teddy’s hand with his good one and squeezed tight. “Is there a closet or somewhere we can hide in case they start looking for us?”
She shook her head, her eyes narrowing in the dim light. “I don’t think so. There isn’t one in my room, and the one in the bathroom is much too small for even one of us.”
“All right. We’re safe here for now. Let’s just…wait.”
They sat next to each other, leaning against the wall in the small, dim, and dingy hall. Oscar turned off the flashlight, for it seemed to be a little dimmer than it had been.
“Oscar,” she said, tilting her head onto his shoulder. “I just want you to know, there’s no one else I’d rather be stuck in this situation with.”
He caught himself before he laughed. “I’d rather not be stuck in this situation at all,” he said. “But thank you for the sentiment.”
Then he drew in a breath, because there were things that needed to be said, and in case he didn’t have the chance to ever say them, he knew he’d better now. Before whatever happened happened.
“Teddy, I…realize that you were in a particularly festive mood last night. When I got back here. And you were probably a little bit—um—relieved not to be alone—or having to learn the hard way there wasn’t any water after the power went out.” She gave a soft, muffled laugh, and he smiled. “Anyway, look…I…”
How did he say this?
“I—uh—well, I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you were so—um—”
“Oscar?”
“Yes?”
“I have no idea what you’re trying to say.”
“Neither do I.” He sighed. He wasn’t good at this sort of thing—putting his emotions into coherent words. “Look, I guess I just want you to know that I came back last night because I was—am—really falling for you. But I don’t know whether you were so, well,exuberantand, um, not so very mad at me for leaving and coming back because you were just glad not to be alone and you were celebrating your book being turned in, or…or not.”
“Is that your way of asking if last night was just me being celebratory and not really about you and me?”
“Well, yeah.” For once, she’d been remarkably succinct—and he’d been the one floundering around with random phrases and clauses.
“Well, you’re right about one thing. I should have been more annoyed with you for leaving and then just coming back like—like some prodigal son,” she said. “You really were a jerk.”
“Right.” He wasn’t certain whether this was going well or not.
“I mean, I didn’t make you grovel or anything,” she said contemplatively, “and you really probably should have been made to do so, considering that youleftme to go back to your former fiancée aftersleepingwith me for the previous two nights.”
“Well, we didn’t technicallysleeptogether—”
“And if it hadn’t been for nosy old Maxine and Iva and her love for ghosts, we probablywouldhave actuallysleptslept together before you found out that Marcie wanted you back—”
“She never said she wanted me back—”
“Oh,phfffft.Of course she wanted you back, Oscar.”
He swore he actually heard her roll her eyes. “Well, we’ll never know because I… Well, the simple fact is, Teddy, I’m falling in love with you, and I don’t give a damn what Marcie wants or thinks. I only care what you want or think.”And I hope it’s me.
“Oh, Oscar.” Now he heard her smile, and the knots in his belly loosened. “The reason I was so mad at you—and I was, and I really did give you a break by not making you sweat it a lot more—was because I’m feeling the same way. And youleftme in the middle of it. But mostly I was glad I hadn’ttoldyou how I felt before you left, because that would have been even more awful.”
“Right.” Hethoughthe understood what she was saying. But even if he missed some of the subtler nuances, he got the gist of it.
And now he wasdamnedcertain he was going to get them both out of this mess, alive and safely.
