Page 23 of Sweet Summertide

“Obviously, or you wouldn’t have plotted against me in the first place.” Teddy removed her hand from his shoulder. “I’m done.”

“But … that kiss,” her skin warmed just thinking about it.

“I was trying to distract you from your plan. It worked.” Teddy chuckled without humor. “As for that agreement to calm things down? Well, that was before we ended up in jail for trespassing.”

Words ricocheted around her mind. All the things she wanted to say to ease her guilt refused to coalesce into sentences, and she gave up. Nothing he said was particularly wrong, and everything he articulated was the truth no matter how much she disliked hearing it. His cold shoulder and tense jaw made it clear that he had slipped away from her. Only now, did she see how much she wanted to have him.

“Saint Theo,” a voice rang down the corridor. “Congratulations, you’re cleared to leave.” The female cop stood in front of the doorway and let him pass. This time, no cuffs were dangled in his face, and no chains rattled. He didn’t even look back at her as he made his way down the corridor.

“Wait! Teddy, you can’t leave me in here. I haven’t had a chance to call anyone. What am I going to do?” She pleaded for him to turn to her. He paused and glared over his shoulder, andshe applied a soft smile and sorry eyes to her face. “Teddy?” She shrugged; scared that she was all alone again.

“Actions have consequences, my dear. I hope you learn from yours.”

The bars slammed shut against each other and sent vibrations through the floor. She leaped towards him and shoved her arms through the cracks. He was just out of reach and the cop gave a warning with her eyes—the way a mother looks at a toddler and the child knows they’re about to be in trouble.

“I’ll never forget this, Saint Theo!”

“I bet you won’t! I’m pretty unforgettable,” he shouted into the air without even turning his head.

“Come on, Teddy! You’re really going to leave me here. Seriously?” She put on her saddest sounding pouty voice, the one that always worked to get her way with her father, but this time, she got nothing but shouts from another holding cell telling her to pipe down.

She plopped down onto the bench seat and stared at the place where Teddy had been sitting. Hurt that he had blamed her, when it was both of them trespassing where they shouldn’t have been—out there in the woods—his hands on her body, playing in her hair.

“Ugh!” she cried out and stomped around the ten-by-ten space. Every thud of her heel let out a small modicum of frustration. She just wanted to be mad—at Teddy, at her parents, at herself—but all she could do was feel the lingering thrill of the way he had touched her. She was mad that even after their fight, she wanted him more than ever. She needed to get out of there fast.

“Blake Hollis. Phone call,” the cop said and not a moment too late as she was about to descend into lunacy.

CHAPTER 12

In additionto Theodor’s hungry stomach vibrating with growls in his belly, his phone was buzzing with an angry rhythm too. He took his ringing phone from a generic gray bin where he had placed his personal belongings upon booking. He took a deep breath before answering his dad’s call. “Hi, Dad.” Theodor didn’t get any more words out before the yelling began.

“Do you know what strings I had to pull to get you out of there?”

“Dad, please. It wasn’t my fault?—”

“Do you know how often I hear that in my courtroom? I may be a good judge of the law, but I have misjudged you for far too long, thinking you would pull yourself together?—”

“I am pulling myself together. I’m opening my new shop in a couple of weeks. No thanks to the girl that got me arrested.”

“There’s a girl? I see. And I’ve heard everything I need to hear about the situation.”

“It’s not like that. You’re not being evenhanded here,” Theodor tried to explain but was cut off again.

“I’m your father. I don’t have to be anything. What I am is disappointed, once again. So, you run along and play with yourlittle chocolate bars and don’t you dare call me to bail you out again.”

“Dad, I was working a deal. You didn’t need you to do anything.”

The line went dead.

That’s when he looked up and saw two cops shaking their heads at him. “Don’t you judge me too,” he said and placed his wallet and phone in his pants pocket. He retrieved his Peugeot timepiece and slid the gold band over his hand. Last, he replaced his favorite hair elastic—the one he was forced to remove when getting his photo taken—on his wrist.

“You’re free to go, Saint Theo,” the female officer said, but he knew the drill from attending a criminal law class and waited at the exit door for her to buzz him out to the lobby while wondering how his dad knew about the arrest anyway.

Teddy stopped at a bank of vending machines. He scanned the selection for whatever had the most caffeine and settled on Big Buzz energy drink.Whatever that is. He retrieved his credit card from his wallet and shoved it in the slot. He pressed the corresponding button, and nothing happened. “Oh, come on!” The side panel shuddered under the force of his palm, and he bumped the glass with his hip. That’s when the scrolling word,DECLINED, caught his eye. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” His dad wasn’t playing around this time, it seemed.

With no caffeine, no money, and no way to get home, he passed through the outside doors and cringed at the bright, mid-morning sun. Taking a deep breath of clean air, cooler and more pleasant than the atmosphere had been inside the jail, he filled his lungs with the essence of freedom.

No amount of relief at being out could squash the anger that was strangling his heart. He hated his father for cutting him off, and he hated Holly for causing him to feel so mad and disappointed.

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