He couldn’t snuff it out like a cold gust of wind. She wasn’t one of his students or casted actors turning up their noses at criticism.
“Tell ya what, you get the walking down, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Really? Thanks, Mouse King.”
“Bested me again, Nutcracker.” Teddy bowed his head at her.
Frankie was all smiles by the time Finn came back. Teddy told her she could take another cupcake home if she wanted but that it was Finn’s job to make sure she didn’t pilfer more than that. The rest Finn could enjoy himself or pass around to his coworkers.
“Are you sure—”
“Enjoy them. I’ve ruined my diet enough,” Teddy said, heading out with a wave to Frankie as acknowledgment that he planned to take her advice. “See you Monday, Finn.”
Teddy would have followed through with his plan too, if on Monday, Finn hadn’t canceled his appointment.
Apparently it was another emergency with a patient. Maybe the same patient from Friday—maybe fabricated to have a longer break from seeing Teddy.
He was probably being paranoid, but it didn’t help that Rick and Erina kept texting him, asking how things were going with his “neighbor boy.” Teddy tried to stall by saying Finn had been busy with work, nothing of importance to report yet, but if come Wednesday’s appointment, Carlos or Meagan peeked out to see Teddy, transferring him from Finn’s care for good, he doubted he could recover from that.
They wouldn’t be friends, they wouldn’t be anything worth cultivating, just neighbors who occasionally waved in passing at the supermarket.
Teddy even went onto the beach, using the excuse of taking a walk to confirm that Finn wasn’t simply home and avoiding him, but all he saw was Nora, jumping and barking excitedly at him through the glass of the patio doors. Now he was just being pathetic and had riled up Finn’s dog for nothing.
After waving limply at Nora, Teddy turned back the other way, annoyed enough by the sand getting into his sandals that he stepped into the surf to let the water wash it away.
He’d forgotten how that made things worse walking back through the sand to get to the house, because now that he was wet, the sand clung to him in heavy clumps. He’d have to hose his sandals off later, but for now, he left them on the patio.
He really hated the beach.
Teddy’s phone was ringing when he got inside, and he rushed to grab it from where he’d left it on the kitchen island. He knew it wouldn’t be Finn, but it wasn’t Rick or Erina for once either.
“Hello, Mother,” he answered.
“Hello, sweetheart. Is now a good time?”
“Always for you.”
“You’re not upset I waited so long to check in, are you? I know how you like your space, and the surgery was a tough blow, don’t try to act otherwise.”
“It was, and I appreciated the space, but it’s good to hear your voice.”
“You sound sad. Still adjusting or is it something else?”
Someoneelse, she didn’t say, but Teddy guessed Erina had informed her about Finn.
“Tell me about it, dear. Let me help if I can.”
Laverne Scofield was a force of nature. She’d been a working single mother ever since kicking Teddy’s father to the curb over twenty years ago. She’d also been the biggest proponent of Teddy’s dance career.
Even though his perfectionism may have come from his father’s berating and belittlement throughout childhood, his devotion to dance had been one big middle finger when Edmund Senior’s last words to him were: “Should have known you’d be a queer.”
Settling onto one of the stools, Teddy told his mother everything. About how he and Finn met, the physical therapy, Smudge and Nora, all the ways their lives crossed in that small beach town, even down to them having the same taste in movies.
He didn’t mention specifics about Finn’s drunken confession; what happened to his parents was personal, something for Finn to share with people he trusted, not for Teddy to broadcast, but he explained the pain Finn had revealed to him that had driven them apart.
“So, that’s it?” Laverne said when he was finished. “You’re giving up?”
“He broke things off. He cancelled today’s appointment. He doesn’t want to see me.”
