Page 6 of Crumbling Truth
Slowly, my lungs inflated again and the tension seeped out of my limbs.
“Esther?” he murmured, though he didn’t come any closer to me.
If he had, there was a distinct chance I’d either flee or throw myself into his arms. The fact that both seemed equally likely was disconcerting.
“I’m okay,” I said finally. God, I was mortified, but I was definitely okay.
Theo studied me for a long moment before he gestured to the fridge. “Can I get you something to drink?” he asked again.
“Water would be great.”
When he set a glass of filtered water in front of me, he didn’t look pitying or morbidly curious or even annoyed—all expressions I’d seen on people around Spruce Hill whenever they’d caught me in a weak moment. Even Anita, only once in the years we’d known each other, but it was less pity and more motherly sympathy.
Theo had been gone for so long, though, that maybe he had no clue what exactly he’d missed. The fact that I’d been married to a narcissist and had spent the years since his death relearning how to trust my intuition, especially around men, was not likely a topic Anita would have brought up to her out-of-town son.
The pot pie smelled amazing as it thawed in the oven, settling my nerves moment by moment even while Theo and I sat in awkward silence. I took another sip of my water before I glanced up and caught him studying me with a rueful smile playing across his lips.
I arched a brow. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You’re not what I was expecting, that’s all.”
“What were you expecting?” I asked, curious.
I hadn’t grown up in Spruce Hill, but I’d lived here since I started college. After all these years, I was used to everyone knowing practically everything about everyone else. It felt strangely freeing to realize that Theo didn’t fall into that category—even more so when I realized I knew next to nothing about him, aside from the fact that he was handsome as hell and had just a touch of a southern drawl after spending half his life in North Carolina.
He stretched out his long legs as he leaned back in his chair and tipped his head to one side. “This is going to make me sound like a first-rate idiot, so I’d be very grateful if you would refrain from telling my mother about it, but I will admit I was under the impression my parents’ tenant was an old lady.”
Oh, this wasgood.
I burst out laughing because I could absolutely imagine how vague Anita would have been in telling him about my existence. Even in a town full of busybodies, she never stooped to gossip. Her respect for my privacy was one of the biggest reasons I had taken her up on the offer of renting the guest house rather than finding myself an apartment.
“Did you, now?” I asked finally, still grinning. “If it’s any consolation, I’m actually ninety-three, you know, but I made a deal with a swamp hag to keep me looking young and spry.”
“Top notch swamp haggery, if I may say so. I shouldn’t have made assumptions. Being back here is throwing me off my game, I’m afraid.”
I wasn’t sure if that was an opening to question him, but I would never have taken him up on it even if it was. Instead, I simply hummed and offered a smile as a token of forgiveness for his mistake. The oven timer saved me from having to figureout how to respond without sounding like I was digging for information.
Theo waved away my offer to help serve dinner in a gesture nearly identical to his mother’s. As I settled back into my chair, I watched him move around the kitchen with an easy sort of grace, the kind that came from being comfortable in one’s own skin. Part of me wished Anita had been speaking from a place of motherly love rather than objective observation when she’d described her firstborn son.
He really was beautiful.
With nothing else to occupy my mind, I reflected on the little that I knew about him. By the time I started college here, Theo had been gone for several years already, so the rumor mill had mostly moved on by then. Respect for Anita, one of the college’s most beloved professors, reduced the chatter even further. All I really knew was thatsomethinghad happened in his senior year of high school and that he’d left town immediately following graduation. From what I gathered, this was the first time he’d come back.
When Theo set the plate in front of me, he narrowed his eyes. “You’re smiling,” he said cautiously.
“I do that sometimes,” I replied, shrugging.
In truth, not very often, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
He sat down across from me and shook his head. “No, there’s something going through that head of yours. What is it?”
“I was just thinking that it’s funny, us sharing a meal,” I replied.
“Why is that funny?” Theo asked, cocking his head at me.
“Because we’re two of Spruce Hill’s greatest mysteries, sitting right here in one room.”
Chapter Three
