Page 58 of For You I'd Mend
Once he’d folded his tall frame into the passenger seat and closed the door, he gripped his knees and blew out a breath. “I don’t want you to leave,” he said to the windshield.
“For fuck’s sake, Theo. I stormed off. I can’t go back inside now. First rule of storming off is to stay gone until whoever you left has time to think about what they did.”
“I don’t want you to leave me,” he said, finally turning to face me, his eyes soft. “Ever.”
Oh.
He wrapped his long fingers around mine and gently pried them from the sketch so he could clasp my hand. I watched the paper flutter to my lap.
“I’ve been fighting myself,” Theo said, and I lifted my eyes to his. “I thought I was doing the right thing, keeping us apart. I thought you’d be better off with someone else, anyone else. The truth is I’ve had feelings for you for a long time, and if you’d let me, I want us to be more. To be us. Just you and me and no more lines to cross.”
I felt my head nodding, but I couldn’t find the words I wanted to answer him. “OK, sure.” OK sure? What the hell was wrong with me? After a year of waiting for this man to leave the friend zone, all I had was OK sure? “I mean, I’d like that too.”
Theo’s grip on my hand tightened, and his eyes filled with the heat I’d come to crave. Both of us started breathing like we’d just run for miles. “Will you go to my house?” he asked in a tight voice. “Aiden put a key under the garden gnome in the flowerbed. I need to smooth things over here, but I won’t be long.” He lifted his chin toward the classroom window where the entire class had their aged faces pressed to the rapidly fogging glass.
My stomach squeezed at the thought of being alone with Theo, knowing he would touch me in ways I’d never known, if I wanted. “OK sure.” I guess I left half my brain in the community center. I glanced at the window again, like I’d find part of my IQ there and winced. “Good luck.”
“They might let me leave faster if I kissed you. Otherwise, there’s no telling what they’ll do to me when I get inside.”
I fought the smile tugging at my lips. Just like that, he’d made me feel completely at ease. “Theo Makis, are you afraid of a bunch of senior citizens?”
“Yes,” he said, without hesitation. “I also can’t wait another second to kiss you.”
I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him close. We kissed to the sounds of muffled cheers and clapping, his hand cradling my face like something precious.
“See you soon,” he said. The smile he gave me would have stolen my heart, if he didn’t own it already.
Chapter eighteen
Theo
The lights were oninside when I arrived home. I grabbed the paper bag from the passenger seat and opened it. Condoms. Mr. Wilson had handed me a 12-count box of condoms in front of everyone. Apparently, he’d had them in his bookbag for months, waiting for me to break. No wonder there were so many smirks and raspy laughs when he handed me the bag at the community center. My first instinct was to laugh as well, but then I realized what they meant.
Since I hadn’t bought condoms from the pharmacy in years, Mr. Wilson had made the correct assumption that the single rubber in my wallet was long expired. I opened the new box and shoved the ribbon of condoms in my pocket. It’d be a miracle if I lasted long enough to get inside Poppy tonight, assuming things went that far. At least I might have more than one chance to be a decent partner.
I walked inside, more nervous and excited than I’d been my first time. Poppy wasn’t in the living room, but a bang from the studio led me to the back of the house.
She was so intent on organizing her tools, she didn’t notice me in the doorway. Her salvaged supplies had sat untouched since she brought them over. I’d worried she’d never use them again, at least not here. She looked adorable, placing each chisel and wire brush on the worktable like a surgeon preparing for an operation. I leaned against the doorframe, admiring her graceful hands, the slight flush in the cheeks, until she saw me.
“How long have you been there?” she asked, the red in her face deepening.
“Not long,” I said, pushing off the door frame and walking toward her.
I stopped short when she crossed her arms over her stomach. Shit. Maybe she’d changed her mind. Maybe she liked Aries enough not to start something with me.
I reached out, not realizing I was recreating her sketch in reverse, until she did the same. I quickly stepped closer and laced her fingers in mine.
“Sorry,” she said. “I don’t know why I’m making this awkward.”
“We both are,” I said, dropping one of her hands to push her green strand of hair behind her ear, so I could see her eyes. “Want to go to the living room and talk?”
“Good idea,” she said and took off so fast, she ended up yanking my arm with her. She dropped my hand completely when she settled on the far side of the couch, her tiny body pressed tight against the frayed armrest.
I’d cage her in if I sat right next to her, but sitting on the opposite side of the couch was something I’d have done before, when I needed to be as far from her as possible. I sat smack in the middle of the couch, far enough away she had room to breathe, but close enough she knew I wanted to be near her.
“I have a confession to make,” I started.
Her gaze snapped to mine, and she seemed to melt further into the sofa. She nodded, the lovely pink draining from her face.
