He’s quiet for so long that I’m not sure he’s going to answer. Not that he owes me one, but finally he sighs. “Well… it was strange.”
“Strange?” I echo.
He nods. “I’m not really sure what I expected.”
“I haven’t talked to him much…” I reach out and run my fingers down Lila’s side. “Not since he moved back to town, anyway.”
“I’ve only talked to him a couple of times ever.”
I nod, not really sure what to say. “You’re in town for a week, right?”
Theo sighs. “That’s the plan. I might go home sooner. Or maybe I’ll stay longer.”
“What’s the deciding factor?”
He adjusts, shifting until he can look at me. He doesn’t look much older than me, even though, if I remember from his file, he’s in his early thirties. It’s just those sad fucking eyes. Every time I’ve seen them, they’ve looked that way, and I’m not sure what to make of that. Something about them… I wouldn’t say it ages him, but it makes him look more weary for sure.
“Well,” he says softly, glancing back at Lila, “it depends on Luca, I guess. I don’t really have any ties to where I’m living now.”
“Where do you live now?”
His lips twitch like he wants to smile, but they never fully shift into one. “Lots of questions.”
I bite my lip. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s nice having someone to talk to. I’m just a little rusty.”
Lila finishes her bottle, and Theo pulls it from her mouth with a small frown.
“You okay?” I ask.
He nods. “Yeah, why?”
“You’re frowning.”
He looks surprised that I’ve noticed, and okay, maybe it is weird that I did, but hey, what can you do? Nothing else in this barn is as interesting as him.
“I enjoyed feeding her.” His frown deepens. “It was nice to just… I don’t know.”
I can’t help but smile. “I’ll be back out here at 7 a.m. to do it again. You can join me if you want.”
Theo eyes me warily. “Yeah?”
“Sure. And maybe we’ll even get real wild, and I’ll show you how to feed the hens and the cows.”
“There are cows here?” he asks, his tone almost disbelieving.
I nod. “It’s a farm.”
Nibbling on his lower lip, he runs a hand over Lila, who has decided his lap is the perfect place to fall asleep. “Is she the only goat?”
“No. We have more in another barn. They have a separate enclosure, but she’s just a baby, so we gave Lila her own space. Ideally, we’d have her with another so she doesn’t get lonely. But… it just didn’t work out that way.”
He strokes her back again. “Yeah, we aren’t supposed to be alone.”
My heart aches at the raw pain in his voice. “No. We certainly are not.”
We sit together in silence, with Theo just rubbing his hand up and down Lila’s back. After a while, he sighs. “If you’re gonna be out here in just a couple of hours, I should let you get to bed.”
