He pulls back just enough to look at me. “I meant to text you a heads up after coffee and tell you how it went, give you some warning that she wanted to do pickup just in case. But then there was a disaster at the restaurant and by the time I came up for air it was already past three and I just completely forgot.” He shakes his head. “I didn’t think you were at school, so it didn’t even seem urgent.” He runs a hand through his hair.
“It’s alright,” I say, and I mean it, mostly. “Frustrating situation, but I know I told you I was staying home. I just ended up feeling better this morning and decided to go in. They were short staffed, and then I got asked to cover pickup duty, and it just sort of snowballed from there. You had no way of knowing.”
He pulls me in tighter and I breathe against his chest as his hand strokes slowly up and down my back. The tension and irritation that have been simmering under my skin since Victoria walked away with Chloe start to ease, replaced by the warmth of his body and the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath my ear. This is what I needed. Just to be held by him, to feel safe and wanted after an afternoon of feeling small and judged.
After a long moment, he pulls back and cups my face in his hands, tilting my head up so I have to look at him. His brown eyes search mine. “How did it go? Victoria said it went nicely, but I suspect that’s not the whole story. Whatactuallyhappened?”
I debated this the entire drive over, turning it over and over in my mind. Part of me wanted to rant, to tell him that Victoriawas a total mean girl to me, that she made subtle bitchy comments cleverly veiled as friendly conversation. Classic mean girl tactics, the kind I recognize from years of navigating my own sisters.
But the other part of me knows that making a big deal out of it would only cause problems. Victoria just found out her ex-husband is dating seriously for the first time since the divorce, and a twenty-four-year-old at that. Of course she’s going to have a reaction. Of course she’s going to be a little prickly about it.
The last thing I want is to make their co-parenting more difficult, to be the girlfriend who causes drama and tension every time Victoria comes to town. I can handle a few bitchy comments here and there. I’m tougher than that.
“It was fine,” I say, summoning a smile. “A little awkward and weird, but it went fine. I was just flustered because I wasn’t expecting to meet her like that, you know?”
Theo’s eyes search my face, like he’s trying to read what I’m not saying. “Emma.”
“Really,” I insist. “It’s okay. I promise I’m fine.”
He doesn’t look entirely convinced, but he lets it go for now, leaning down to press a soft kiss to my forehead. “Alright,” he says quietly. “But if she said anything that upset you, I want to know about it. You don’t have to protect her feelings, okay? You’re more important to me than keeping the peace with my ex-wife.”
“I know,” I say. “And I love you for it. But really, it was fine. Now are you going to feed me, or do I have to stand in this kitchen all night while that pot boils over?”
He laughs, some of the tension finally easing from his shoulders, and glances back at the stove where the pot is indeed starting to bubble aggressively. “Shit,” he mutters, releasing me to rush back and turn down the heat. “Come on. I made that pasta you like.”
I follow him deeper into the kitchen and slide onto one ofthe stools at the island while he moves around the space. He pours me a glass of red wine from a bottle that’s already open and breathing on the counter, and I take a long sip, letting the warmth of it spread through my chest and soothe some of the jagged edges left over from this afternoon.
I watch Theo stir the sauce with a wooden spoon, tasting it, adding a pinch of something from a small bowl nearby. There’s something deeply attractive about watching him cook. The focus, the competence, the way his hands move with such certainty. I could watch him do this for hours.
Once he’s satisfied with whatever adjustments he’s made, he sets down the spoon and comes back around the island to where I’m sitting. His hands settle on my waist, and he looks down at me with an expression that makes my stomach flip.
“I don’t think I even gave you a proper greeting,” he says, his voice dropping lower.
I smile up at him. “You didn’t.”
He cups my face in his hands and kisses me, slow and deep, the kind of kiss that makes everything else fade away. His hands roam over me, down my back, over my hips, up my sides, leaving heat everywhere they touch. One hand tangles in my hair and tugs, just a little, just enough to tilt my head back and make me gasp against his mouth. A teaser of what’s to come later tonight.
When he finally pulls back, I’m slightly breathless and more than a little flushed.
“That’s cheating,” I tell him, trying to keep my voice steady. “Kissing me like that to distract me from being annoyed with you.”
He grins, completely unrepentant. “Is it working?”
“Maybe,” I admit.
“Good.” He releases me and crosses back to the stove to check on the sauce, giving it another stir before lowering the heat to a simmer. Then drops in a handful of tagliatelle into thepasta water, setting a timer on his phone. “Ten minutes until we eat.”
I take another sip of my wine, watching him move around the kitchen, and realize there’s something I need to ask. Something I’ve been curious about.
“What really happened between you and Victoria?” I ask. “I know the basics. You told me about the affair. But if she’s going to be around more, I want to understand the history. All of it.”
Theo is quiet for a moment, leaning against the counter across from me, his wine glass untouched beside him. I can see him thinking, deciding how much to say, how far back to go.
“We got together in our early twenties,” he says finally. “Met through mutual friends, dated for about a year, got married because it seemed like the next step. But also she had super intense, strict parents who put a lot of pressure on us. They were old school, and it felt like the thing to do.”
“How old were you?” I ask.
“Twenty-four,” he says. “We both were.”
