Page 5 of Penance
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“I’m coming up to get you, hopeless. Just sit tight.” Despite the heat, Theo’s warm voice sends shivers over my skin, and I hate him for it.Hate the way a spark ignites inside my chest when he is around. It’s highly annoying.
“Don’t call me that,” I grit out between clenched teeth, trying not to move. The nickname stuck around after Hayes and MJ’s engagement party. I’d avoided him like the plague afterward, but there are only so many ways to dodge a person in a small town, especially when their kid attends your school. “And I don’t need you to come get me. I can get out of here perfectly fine by myself.”
Theo’s grin turns into an all-out smile. “I see you’re still lying to yourself.”
I open my mouth to deny it, but a loud pop resounds through the air, and the branch shifts beneath me. The words become a scream as panic grips my chest. My eyes squeeze shut, and my heart thunders.
“Hopeless, look at me.” Gone is the teasing lilt Theo had moments before. Now, he is hard. Demanding. Professional. His voice is still the same smooth comfort even with the hardened edges, but there’s also panic in the cracks of it. But even with that comfort, I don’t look at him. Looking at him means facing my stupidity. I’ve spent my life trying not to be like my mother—making bad decisions over a man—but in one moment of desperation, I’ve done just that.
I shake my head, wincing when the branch snaps a little more.
“Lily, look at me right now.” There is no room for disobedience in that tone. My eyes pop open, going straight to him. Even though other men are rushing around, trying to extinguish the fire, all I see is him. I don’t know what draws me to him like a moth to a flame. Maybe it is the hard set of his jaw or how his eyes look a little sad when he thinks no one is looking. Or perhaps it’s neither of those things, and I’m just a glutton for punishment.
Theo stands looking up at me, his dark eyes glowing with the reflection of the fire. The lines of his face are soft, or as soft as they can be for a man like him.
“I’m coming up to get you. I want you to keep still while we get the truck into place.” He pauses, searching my face with that watchful gaze of his. “I won’t let you fall, Lily.”
The careful way his tongue curves around the sound of my name almost makes me forget the situation I am in. But then he gives me a cheeky wink, and I’m back to regretting my decisions.
Clenching my teeth, I refuse to let him see how those six simple words affect me. Instead, I jut out my chin, pulling my gaze from his, and offer a terse nod, accepting that my only way down from this tree is through him.
As the truck backs up to the tree, a crowd gathers at the edges of the sidewalks. To my dismay, several elderly women stare at me. Their mouths are practically salivating as they look from me to Theo.
Why worry about a fire at the community building when a woman stuck in a tree is the juicier gossip?
Benton Falls is a great town. When I first moved here, I knew it was where I wanted to stay for the rest of my life. The people are friendly. The scenery is beautiful, and best of all, it’s miles away from the toxicity I grew up in. But the elderly people are—quirky. They can’t stay off social media to save their lives, and no secret escapes their attention.
Up until today, there was no need for me to worry about that. No one knew me—not really. Benton Falls was my place to start over. A place where I could be anyone I wanted to be. Now, this will be how I’m remembered.
So much for my fresh start.
A camera flashes in the hands of one of the town’s most notorious gossips—Ethel Thatcher. Her partner in crime, Muriel Sanders, stands beside her, gawking at the firemen as they rush around trying to put out the flames. Those two women are at least eighty years old, and they cause more trouble than any of my high school students everthought about.
The camera points my way, and I groan. This will be all over social media before I make it out of the tree.
With the truck in place, the ladder extends, and I watch Theo’s fingers wrap around each rung, climbing up. He does it so easily that an irrational fury burrows deep in my gut.
I don’t need a man to save me. I can do it myself.
My eyes fall on the bucket under the limb where I’m lying. If I can just stretch my leg out a little further, I’ll be able to slip it over the side before Theo gets up here.
With my mind made up, I slowly unwrap one leg from around the limb, keeping my eye on the bucket the whole time.
Theo must have noticed my movement because his deep voice rings out above all the other noises. “Don’t even think about it, hopeless.”
But I don’t listen—not to reason and definitely not to him. It’s the use of that stupid nickname that spurs me on, causing me to readjust my arms and slowly lower my other leg until I’m dangling from the limb with only the strength in my arms to keep me from falling.
There’s a gasp from the crowd, but I block it out, concentrating so I don’t screw this up.
“Dang it, hopeless,” Theo growls, and then I hear him moving up the ladder quicker than before. He’s closing in, but my foot is inches from the bucket. I just need to reach alittle further.
I point my toe, hoping it will give me the extra length I need. It does, but only because the limb has gotten tired of holding all my weight. With a sharp crack, I’m falling. My foot meets air instead of the safety of the bucket. There’s no time for me to scream, but even if there had been, I wouldn’t have been able to anyway. Air lodges in my throat as I start to fall. I squeeze my eyes shut, not wanting to see the ground rushing to meet me.
This is going to hurt.
But the pain never comes, at least not the kind I’m expecting. A strong hand wraps around my wrist, grabbing me at the last second. My shoulder aches from the force of my fall being stopped, but it’s minimal compared to what it could have been. Stiff fingers hold on to my wrist, digging into the tender flesh to keep me from falling, and ever so slowly, I lift my gaze to meet that of the man above me.
