Page 117 of Peach Tree Family

Chapter 31

Seth and Theo were on their way back from work with Ace. He was telling them what he had been up at school and afterward when he went to Lara's with Gloria. They made something called cake pops, and Seth had to admit, his ears perked up. He was ready to ask for a recipe if Theo wasn't giving him a look.

As they were making their way down the driveway to the house, Ace suddenly went silent and Seth saw why. Their aunt's car was parked in front of the house. It looked like she was alone as she leaned against the hood with her arms folded.

Getting out to go talk to her, Theo told Ace, "Go inside with Seth."

Ace didn't say anything, but he looked unhappy as they went in. Butter greeted them at the door, and she took some of the gloom from his face. While Ace took care of her water and food and petted her, Seth rummaged in the fridge for what to make for dinner, but the whole time he was worrying about what was going on outside.

He stopped when he heard the car outside start up and waited for Theo to come in. Ace was the first to ask, "What did she want? I don't want to go with her."

"You don't have to," Theo said and he cupped his face and kissed the top of his head. "It sounds like she has given up on that, and the lawyer is making sure of it. OK?"

"OK," Ace said.

"You said you didn't get all you homework done at Lara's. Go get started on that. Me and Seth are going to make dinner," Theo told him.

With him gone, Theo told Seth more about what went on with their aunt. "She was telling me how she was washing her hands of us, and doing some ranting, saying Ace and I were a curse on her family, that we ruined Mom's life and some stuff about dad."

"Good thing you sent Ace inside," Seth said and took his hand.

"I'm afraid he might have already heard that kind of thing from her." Theo sighed. "She didn't mention the house, but she did say we better not lie about her. I'm pretty sure she was talking about how she hit Ace. The main thing is that she said she didn't ever want to see us again, and I consider that good news."

"I hope she'll be gone for good," Seth said. Though it seemed wrong to him to wish away family, for her he made an exception.

"There's nothing here for her. With all the trouble her boyfriend has had here and finding out there's no buyer for the house, she has no reason to stick around," Theo said.

Seth hugged him and felt relief pass through both of them. He just wanted Theo and Ace to finally be happy.

During dinner, Seth talked to Ace about the wedding they were going to that Sunday. They made bets about how big the cake was going to be. Theo wasn't interested in the cake at all, and the two of them just didn't understand it.

"I'll look up the record for the biggest wedding cake ever. Good enough?" Theo asked trying to make up for it with research. "Hey, there's a cake that cost 50 million bucks."

"No way," Ace said and rushed over to look at Theo's phone.

Seth couldn't believe it either. When he and Theo were in the kitchen doing dishes, he had a look for himself.

"Well I'll be..."

Theo laughed at him then kissed him. "I'm done talking about cakes, alright," he told Seth.

"You taste better than any cake," Seth told him and he put his arms around him. Then he kissed Theo just as Ace came in.

"I saw you! You were kissing!" Ace said pointing an accusing finger at them though there was no one else around he could be talking about. "You didn't tell me you were boyfriends."

"We're boyfriends. There, now you know," Theo told him.

Seth blinked not sure if he meant it, and when Ace ran off, Theo turned to him and explained, "It's easier for Ace to understand it that way."

"So you didn't mean it," Seth said, disappointment hitting him hard.

"I don't want to explain the concept of friends with benefits to him," Theo said and Seth's heart just kept sinking.

"Is that what we are?" Seth asked.

"I... We're something. I don't have a word for it," Theo said looking away. If he didn't know, how was Seth supposed to?

When they were alone and Ace was asleep, Seth thought about talking to Theo, trying to get some kind of answer out of him. But he only wanted one answer – for what he said to Ace to be true.

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