“And stair railings?”
He turns to look at it, then back at me. “What is this about?”
I wait for a beat. For a sign from the universe—a divine voice, a lightning strike, or the ghost of Christmas past—anythingto warn me this is a bad idea. But it never shows. “And what did you tell Arthur about... us?”
Pink stains his cheeks. “I haven’t told him yet. He wasn’t at work yesterday afternoon, but I promise to tell him the truth today.”
I walk to the kitchen and fill the kettle, needing something to do with my hands while I gather possible plans.
Theo joins me. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking... about a trade of sorts.” Turning the knob on the gas stove, I watch it ignite.
“What kind of trade?”
I wave a hand around the room. “A-frame work for... girlfriending?”
Hope flares in his eyes. His answer is immediate. “I’m in.”
“Well,Idon’t know if I’m in yet. I’m still thinking.” Blowing out a breath, I reach for my spiral notebook on the counter. “What exactly does the fake girlfriend role involve?”
“Um...” He leans back against the counter, crossing his arms. “I hadn’t really gotten that far into it.”
“What was your plan then?”
He drags a hand through his hair. “I didn’t have one yet.”
The kettle squeals and I grab my hand-painted cat mug from the drying rack, dropping an Earl Grey tea bag inside. Theo opens a few cabinets until he finds a forest-green mug and sets it beside mine. Igive him a tea bag as well.
We work in silence making tea together, and once our mugs are ready, I motion toward the living room. “Come on. Ihave ten minutes before I need to leave for work.”
After moving the rest of the wet books, I nestle into the corner of the couch, tucking my legs under me. When Theo sits sideways on the opposite end, I tighten my grip on my warm mug, hoping it’ll calm my racing pulse. Whatever I’m on the precipice of right now, it feels big. And slightly terrifying.
Maybe I’m just nervous that someone is here at all. I’ve kept this place to myself for months, not wanting anyone else to see that it’s a husk of what it used to be when Gramps lived here. It’sa space for grieving. Being alone. Thinking. Letting the darkness swallow me up sometimes.
But now Theo’s here, sitting across from me in this quiet,barely furnished room, beside piles of unfinished projects and haphazardly stacked boxes of books, with a cup of tea on his bent knee. Morning sunlight floats through the wide windows at the front of the A-frame, reflecting off his smooth, sharp jaw and making his eyes shine even brighter.
And this place somehow feels less lonely with him in it.
Knocks hops onto the couch and curls himself up on Theo’s lap. Itake a sip—to avoid looking at how adorable they are together—and end up burning my tongue. “Okay. How are you going to appeal to Arthur?”
“Well, after you said no, I moved onto the rest of the plan, which involves settling into the community a bit more than I have been.” He trails a hand over Knocks’s back. “Sign up to coach Little League, rejoin the Volunteer Fire Department. Look into buying a place.”
“A little performative, don’t you think?”
“This whole concept is essentially a performance.” He sips his tea, eyeing me over his mug. “But they’re all things I’ve been wanting to do anyway. This is just my push to get them going, I guess.”
“And you can still do all that, even if you and I make an... arrangement?”
A slow smile curls over his lips. “You’ll be the icing on the cake, Fabes.”
For some reason, my ears feel hot. Iblame the tea and set it on the ground. Pulling the pen from the spiral of my notebook, I flip past at least eighty-seven pages full of random lists and turn to an empty one. “Soifwe were going to do this fake relationship thing, what would it look like?”
He thinks for a moment, fingers tapping on his mug. “A few public outings? We’d have to make it believable to the town, I think—not just Arthur—but with the efficiency of the Fern Rivergossip train and phone tree, I don’t think it would have to be much. Not to mention the fact that it’sus,” he says pointedly.
“Us?” As soon as the word leaves my mouth, I realize what he means. “Oh.”
The kids from the incident that put this town on the map. The kids who spent four years publicly competing over class elections and GPAs.
