Page 86 of Henhouse
Theo sidled up to Effie, dropping a kiss to the top of her head, the scent of herbal mint wrapping him in a calm embrace. “What’s goingon?”
“I asked Ellen if shemightconsider moving into the main house so I could try living on my own in the apartment.”
Theo raised his brow; the carriage house wasn’texactlyliving on her own, but he guessed it was within Effie’s comfort level to be a few steps away. He tried not to worry over what it meant for them that she still wanted her own space. That living together hadn’t even crossed her mind. Maybe that was a line she wasn’t willing to cross until they were married . . .well that could be arranged.
He shut it down. They may have said forever and meant it, but he was still a little gun-shy about suggesting such monumental changes when their reconciliation was still fresh. “And she just started hauling stuff over?”
“Yes!” Effie exclaimed.
Ellen returned from Beatrice’s room, arms crossed. “Did you expect me to say no?”
“Well, kind of,” Effie confessed. Ellen laughed but rolled her eyes at Theo like they were in on the same joke.
Ellen turned her attention to Effie. “Look, the alternative is that you move out completely, yes?” Her eyes flicked to Theo but he kept a lock on his words.
“Eventually . . . maybe,” Effie said, a bit of that trepidation from beforeforeversneaking through. “I don’t want to have to choose.”
“I know this,” Ellen said, and Theo thought it sweet how matter-of-fact she was about the whole thing. Logically, Ellen could take over Beatrice’s room, the girls could take Effie’s and Hope’s rooms, and Effie could have the apartment for whatever life she was building. Ellen seemed resolved. “I don’t know where we’ll all be in a few years,but if it makes everyone happy to move around and make room now”—again her eyes flicked to Theo—“then that’s an arrangement I can get behind. Besides, the girls are excited to have their own rooms. And if a little bit of Aunt Bea can rub off on me, I’ll consider myself lucky.”
Effie looked at her sister through lowered lashes. “You still didn’t have to start moving tonight,” she challenged.
Ellen waved her off before continuing on in the moving march. Tibby and Pamela joined the fray, and Effie and Theo helped too, a line of worker ants trudging from one building to the next. He grabbed Effie’s stained glass on their last trip out, an idea brewing about Effie’s new home.
When everything had been moved, they sat down to the meal that Tibby had prepared. Dinner was a vastly improved experience. Theo got to know the Thatcher women without their fears and disappointments talking. They’d swapped stories about favorite concerts and must-read novels over roasted chicken, baby potatoes, and green beans like Theo had never tasted. He saw the deep threads that wove between the women around him at the dining table and felt lucky as hell that they viewed him asbreaking the curse.Even though Dorothea retorted rather animatedly that there wasno fucking curse. He decided during post-dinner cocktails around the card table, playing poker with Grams and all the rest, that he was going to enjoy being a part of this family. His cast was really shaping up.
After the festivities, Theo found himself in the nearly emptied two-bedroom carriage house apartment. All that remained were the girls’ beds, stripped and left behind because their new rooms were already furnished.
It was outfitted with a galley kitchen on one wall in the main livingarea. Plenty of room for a sofa and television where the girls play rug and toys used to live—no need for a real living room when they were always in the main house anyway. The front bedroom that had been Ellen’s was smaller, a good size for an office or guest room or miniature hobby room for Effie. The back room that the girls shared was larger, with closets built into the eaves on either side.
Theo finished touring the apartment, only smaller than his in terms of the kitchen, and circled back to where Effie stood in the main room. Her clothes, vanity, rocking chair, rug, and bedding were piled unceremoniously in the center of the space. Laundry baskets filled with the books and crafts she’d kept in her room littered the floor. She seemed unsure of what to do, so Theo lifted the electric kettle she’d kept in her bedroom out of a box and set it warming on the kitchen counter. He found a couple of cups and saucers that were hers as well and went about brewing a pot of tea.
By the time it was steeped and ready to drink, Effie had settled against the wall beneath one of three windows facing the street—the one he’d hung her stained glass in. She lifted the cup but stopped before bringing it to her lips. She frowned at Theo and he wondered what she was thinking. Maybe she already regretted the spontaneous move or felt odd having him stay the night here. He didn’t have to wait long to find out.
“If I don’t ask the answer is no,” she said.
“True . . .” Theo replied wondering where this was going.
“Would you want to live here . . . with me? I know it’s kind of like moving in with my family but maybe we can see how it goes—”
He interrupted her prattling before she could get too worked up. “I want to be wherever you are.”
Her smile undid him. She lifted her teacup. “You can drink now. Our first cup in our new home.”
Theo loved the sound of that. But he was distracted by wisps of satin draped over the edge of a laundry basket to his right. “Are those what I think they are?” He held up a lacy camisole, his devilish grin matching his rising desire at the thought of her strutting throughtheirhome in her barely there pajamas. Effie snatched them from his grasp and silenced his rebuttal with a kiss.
The tea and pajamas were forgotten as they tangled on the floor, both breathy and eager for another first in their new home. It turned out to be a night of firsts, seconds, and thirds, as Theo showed Effie the upside of his years of sexual exploration.And the sounds she’d made?He hoped they couldn’t be heard in the main house, but he almost didn’t care, because they were followed by her gasping his name as she careened over the edge. That was the benefit of Effie’s synesthesia, it made her say his name in a way that had never sounded so good.
Theo cradled Effie, naked in his arms beneath the sheet they’d thrown on the bed in the bigger back room. He propped himself on an elbow. “You think my bed will fit in here? I did not have enough room to work on this queen-sized bed,” Theo teased.
“I think you worked just fine,” Effie laughed burying her face in her hands. It was cute as hell, and Theo’s heart exploded with so much fucking joy he might have been confused for a less broody sun sign. “But yes. It should fit.”
Theo combed his fingers through Effie’s hair, brushing it back from her flushed cheeks. “You know it’s a magic bed?”
Effie rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah?”
“I bought it knowing that the other half belonged to my soulmate.”
“You manifested me with a bed? Is that what you’re saying?”
