Page 49 of Peach Tree Family

Once that was done, Seth stopped to stare at a plastic Christmas tree on top of a garbage pile. The tree was decorated with all sorts of garbage and topped with a broken clock. Stopping next to him, Theo saw it too.

"I'm taking a picture of that for Ace." Theo stepped away to get a better angle on it.

That's when Seth noticed that someone had parked so that a van ended up trapped between them and the truck. Seth rushed off to move the truck, but as he got there, a lady climbed out from the side of the van and started yelling angrily.

"Is this yours? Is this your truck? You move this piece of junk. You move it right now."

That's exactly what Seth was about to do. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. I'll move it," he said but she wasn't satisfied.

"Damn right you will, blocking me in! You got brain damage or something, you feeble minded, good-for-nothing..."

She got no further than that as Theo appeared right behind her. He came in hot, growling at her, "What is going on here? Why the hell are you speaking to him like that?"

She tried to say something, but Theo didn't let her.

"No! You are done being rude and abusive. He didn't block you. That other car blocked you. But since we're going now, problem solved!" He pulled the passenger side door open but waited for Seth to get in first and shut his door. Getting in himself, Theo glared at the woman the whole time.

Seth got them on the road, and after a minute he heard Theo sigh. "Seth, why were you apologizing to her when you didn't do anything wrong?"

"Habit?" He had accepted that he was always in the wrong as far as the whole world was concerned.

Theo sighed again. "Sorry I snapped at you before."

"Was it because you were wishing you could take back what we did?" Seth asked.

"No. I don't want to take it back. I just don't want you getting the wrong idea about me."

"Like that you're a slut? I don't think that. I would never think anything bad about you. I just don't know how to act around you now," Seth admitted but that only made Theo's expression turn even more gloomy.

By the time they picked up Ace, a light sprinkle of rain started. Theo told them that he got a text that the chimney had been cleared and they could use the fireplace. Ace was happy about that and full of stories about his soccer game with the dogs.

"That Lenny is a funny little dog," Ace said then he turned more thoughtful. "I was playing with three dogs today. You think Butter is gonna be jealous?" He looked from Seth to Theo for the answer.

"You're toast," Theo told him with a straight face and Ace gasped.

"Just give her some extra attention to make it up to her, and she'll forgive you," Seth told him.

Ace nodded and huffed while shooting a frown at his big brother.

A light but steady rain was falling when they arrived at the house, so they had to rush to unload the wood they got at the scrap yard. Ace went inside to make sure Butter didn't get mad at him, and Seth and Theo stacked the wood on the porch to keep it out of the rain.

They were a little wet and chilled when they went in. Seth was going to go to his room to change, but Theo stopped him.

"You can change into this." Theo handed him a big box that had the Stone Creek Inn logo on it. "As you can see, I got that from the inn gift shop."

Seth had seen him bring it in when they came to change before they went to haul away debris. He never imagined it was something for him. Opening it, he found a green, cable knit sweater folded under some tissue paper.

"Is this because mine's got a hole in it?"

"You won't need it much once the weather gets warm, but today proves you can still use it," Theo said.

"I bet it was expensive," Seth said feeling how soft it was.

"Employee discount," Theo told him.

"Thank you." Seth was touched that he got him something. "It's real nice. I'll save it for a special occasion."

He was folding it up again, but Theo didn't let him put it away. "No. I want to see you wear it. I mean I got it for you to wear."

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