Page 14 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
“What? No. I…”
The doorbell rings again. This day is about to get wackier.
I shush Thane with a finger in the air and open the door. To my surprise, I find Kara and a man I’ve never seen before, but I instantly want to ask him what the hell he’s doing wearing a sweater-vest in Tennessee during the summer.
“Lottie!” The little girl’s face lights up with pure joy as she barrels into me for a hug. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, no. No, you didn’t,” the man says, staring over my shoulder. He’s still standing on the porch, so I wave him in before the Carvers catch sight of him. Gossip runs faster than the rapids around here.
“Didn’t what?” I ask.
Kara looks between me and her brother. “You’re in big trouble, Thane. You said I crossed lines when I snuck out to go to the movies with Orla. Well, newsflash,Brad, this is so much worse.”
“Who’s Brad?” I ask.
“Him.” Kara hitches a thumb toward her brother. “It’s brother and dad together since he’s trying to act like my dad lately.”
Oh, crap. This family dynamic is exactly why I can’t get close to either of them. I’m not emotionally equipped for it.
“Time out.” I cross my hands in a T-shape in front of my face. “That’s not exactly nice, Kara. And Thane, for the love of God, please tell me why the hell you’re standing in my house.” I didn’t mean for my voice to rise three octaves, but frustration is controlling everything.
“Check your app, Thane,” the strange man says.
Thane huffs but pulls out his phone.
“I’m sorry. Who are you?”
“She’s a cross between disbelief and anger.” Thane stares at the phone in his hand with a deep-set scowl. Someday, the inflections in his words will make sense to me. And I’ll never admit that his cool, detached tone is somewhat comforting.
What would it take to make him lose that calm exterior?
“Lottie.” Thane inhales a deep breath. “This is Rafe, and I moved here because I require close proximity to you so you can help me and Kara.”
“You—you moved here to be close to me?”
“That’s what I said.”
“The judge said Rafe has to work with us for a month to help Thane identify emotions after I snuck out. We’re just lucky that he’s him and he could have someone fill in for him since he’s the boss. And when Brad dragged us here, Rafe came with us.”
“Ran away, not snuck out,” Thane grumbles, to which Kara rolls her eyes.
“I was gone for three hours. Three. And I came home.”
“After the police showed up at the movie theater.”
“Whatever, Brad. Rafe’s on vacation. Sort of. He’s helping Thane learn how to communicate better.” Kara crosses her arms over her chest, and we appear to be in some sort of standoff as everyone stares at someone else.
The entire conversation makes me feel a little bad for Thane though. I remember what he sounded like when he called the night she ran away, and that’s a tone I’d like to never hear from him again.
“I’m his emotional support person.” Rafe grins, but I sense that he’s more than that. “Thane’s using an app that will help him decipher expressions. Tone will take longer to figure out.”
I nod as if that makes total sense, then focus on Thane, who stands stoically with his hands clasped beneath the dog carrier.
Thane is in his early thirties, and by all accounts, one of the smartest people in the country, so why wouldn’t he be able to decode facial expressions or tone?
“You understand that this is completely unprofessional and borderline stalkerish, correct?” My voice cracks, and it sounds like weakness, so I stick out my chin and straighten my back.
“The house next door became available, so I purchased it.” A muscle ticks in Thane’s jaw, and now that he’s studying my face, he barely blinks. “I don’t see what the problem is.”
