Page 2 of Penance
Like they have a mind of their own, my eyes slide to the couple again, hoping to find them distracted by the crowd, but when I find them, Hayes’s eyes are already on me while his bride whispers in his ear. The couple steals glances this way, and I force myself to return my attention to the people standing with me.
With the weight of Hayes and Mallorie Jade’s stare, I let Theo keep his arm around me, but I’m punching him in the gut as soon as I can.
“We’re just friends,” I say to Abigail, stopping her from creating a story where there isn’t one. “And we didn’t come here together.”
Theo is undeterred, though. There’s mischief in his eyes when hesays, “For now, at least.”
Pulling my lips back from my teeth, I force a smile as if I find him funny.
Abigail’s eyes bounce between us, and she sucks in her cheeks as if she is trying not to laugh.
“Lily, let me know how that denial works for you six months from now. Just ask my daughter—the things you run from always catch up to you.”
Then she walks away, her tinkling laugh floating back to me as she goes, and I’m left with a sense of foreboding because she can’t possibly know how scared of that I am.
With the smile still on my face, I reach up and grab Theo’s wrist. I drag him behind me until we are in a corner of the room where no one is paying attention to us. And once I’m sure no one is watching, I rip his arm off me, drop my smile, and spin so fast to face him that I stumble in my heels. Theo’s hands shoot out, catching me around the waist with a self-satisfied smirk on his lips.
“Are you crazy?” I hiss, trying not to think about how the heat of his hands seeps through the silk of my dress to my skin. “You can’t start rumors like that.”
His thumb strokes lazily across my hip, and I grit my teeth to keep from shivering.
“Cold, sweetheart?” Theo asks in a voice that is all gravel and grit.
“It’s December,” I say, not an ounce of emotion in my voice.
His lips twitch like he’s fighting off a witty remark, and I wonder how much it would hurt if I dug my heel into his toe.
He steps forward, crowding into my space. “Dance with me, hopeless.”
I scoff. “That’s a stupid nickname. Don’t call me that.”
Humor glitters in his eyes. “Okay, Lily. Dance with me.”
His lips caress my name, deepening his voice and increasing the heatin his eyes. I would have been better off sticking with the nickname. “Is that a question or a demand?”
“Whichever one gets you on the dance floor?” he says, shrugging.
“And why would I do that? The only thing that will achieve is to start the gossip train.”
Theo turns his head, staring pointedly at Hayes and Mallorie Jade. There’s respect and a little bit of hatred in his eyes as he takes the couple in. “Seems to me that rumor would be beneficial to you. Your face is an open book when you look at him.”
My shoulders stiffen when Theo looks back at me, his dark eyes piercing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His answering laugh is dark and jaded. “Sure you don’t. Everyone loves Hayes Miller—my own son included.”
His voice holds a bitter edge, and my annoyance fades a little.
As much as Theo irritates me, the truth is, he’s a good dad—even if he doesn’t let himself think so. I don’t know much about the situation with him and Tanner, his son, just that Theo wasn’t around for a while, but based on the way Theo stepped up this year for Tanner, I’m not entirely convinced that his absence was by choice.
Although, if you ask his ex-wife, it was.
Last year, Tanner received a major concussion while playing football. His mom and stepdad tried to pretend that Tanner had healed from that, and I think Tanner felt pressured to pretend, too, so that he could play football. But this year, Hayes took the head football coaching position, and between him and MJ, the school nurse, both quickly realized that something wasn’t right. Once Theo understood the severity of Tanner’s injury and what it could mean for him going forward, he stepped in, getting emergency custody of Tanner. And since that day, Tanner has been like a new kid at school. He’s doing better in his classes again, and even though he doesn’t get to play football anymore, he seems lighter.
I think most of that can be chalked up to having the right kind of parent in his life.
Theo’s face tightens as Hayes’s laughter floats over to where we are standing, and even though I try not to let them, my eyes are drawn to him.
He’s standing with Mallorie Jade in his arms. Her head is tilted back, and his lips dip to hers. I snap my eyes away, not wanting to see the next part. I might not have dreamed of being in love, but I got caught up in the idea of being safe—forgetting that safety is just an illusion, too.
