With a smile still on my lips, I took a seat and settled in to watch the rest of the game.
CHAPTER 3
Theo
Grabbing a small cart,I headed into Nature’s Basket Grocery. I was on my way to my parents’ place, and my mom had asked me to pick up a few things.
I whistled softly as I walked, steering around a woman who appeared to be lost in thought in front of the forty-seven different apple varieties. Slowing, I eyed the pile of big, juicy Honeycrisp apples, wondering what Penelope would do with them. Seemed like the sort of thing she’d put in a salad. But not a plain iceberg lettuce salad. One of those hearty ones she made that looked like an actual meal.
Her accusation that my lunches were always boring came to mind, encouraging me to grab a few apples. Maybe if I tossed one in with my sandwich, she’d stop giving me a hard time. Produce was healthy, right? An apple a day and all that.
Mom had said she needed dinner rolls, so I moved on, heading for the bakery. It hadn’t escaped my attention that my parents invited me over for dinner about once a week. And I was pretty sure it was because I was the last single Haven brother.
Well, the last single Haven brother in Tilikum, at least. Who knew where my older brother Reese had gone? He’d disappeared almost twenty years ago.
Family gossip had it that he called Mom every now and then to let her know he was alive. But that was it. No idea what he was doing, where he was living, or what was going on in his life.
Or why he’d left and hadn’t come back.
Thinking about Reese tended to put me in a bad mood, so I decisively pushed that jerk out of my head while I grabbed a package of rolls. I was still riding high from the previous night’s win and I didn’t want to start brooding over my brother.
My team had played their asses off, coming back from a two-touchdown deficit in the fourth quarter, squeaking out a win with a field goal. I was so proud of them. Morale had taken a hit and the vibe in the locker room at halftime hadn’t been good. But they’d turned it around—proved to themselves they could.
I glanced toward the deli, still thinking about options to improve my lunches, when a woman with long dark hair caught my eye. She stood in front of a refrigerated display of prepackaged foods, reading the label on a container of guacamole.
My mouth twitched in a grin. Penelope. She wore a sweater and jeans and pushed her glasses up her nose as she kept reading.
“Hey, Penultimate,” I said, walking over to her. “What’s so riveting about that guac?”
She gasped and the container flew out of her hands. Sidestepping, I reached out and caught it with one hand.
“You startled me,” she said as I handed it back to her. “Nice move, though.”
“I’m basically a ninja.”
She snort-laughed. “Sure, you are. It’s not riveting, I was just checking the ingredients.”
“Why? Isn’t it just avocado and jalapeño or something?”
“It should be. That’s why I’m checking. Some of these have a bunch of additives.” She grinned. “Not this one.”
I smiled back and felt a weird sense of shared triumph at her successful guacamole find. “Awesome.”
“It’s not like I don’t eat junk food. I do. But if there’s junk in the stuff you think isn’t junk, then it’s that much more junk in your diet. You know?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
Her smile grew. “See, you get it. I don’t know why Sean doesn’t get it.”
Maybe because he’s an idiot.
I didn’t say anything. Just shrugged.
“Congrats on the win last night, by the way,” she said.
“Thanks. They played their hearts out.”
“I was so nervous at the end, I was actually biting my nails.” She held up her hand, but I couldn’t tell if her nails looked any different. “And my throat is still scratchy from cheering.”
