Page 37 of For You I'd Mend
I laughed so hard I snorted. “Because I’m such a prize?”
Mom gripped the steering wheel but didn’t say anything. I turned in the passenger seat to face Rowan. “Is she angry or sad?”
“Both,” Mom shouted. “What kind of people disown their son because of a tragic accident? Logan Hendricks’s mother testified on Theo’s behalf, but his own parents scurried off to Greece because they were embarrassed. Who does that? And you, Poppy,” she added, taking one hand from the wheel to jab a finger in my face. “Where did I go wrong raising you? How can you think so little of yourself?”
“Geeze, Mom,” I said, as we turned onto Maple. “Reel it in. You raised Rowan and Chris into bright shiny stars of humanity. You did the best you could for me with what you had.”
“She’s kidding,” Rowan chirped from the back seat.
Mom pressed her lips together and shook her head as we pulled up to the Jenkins’s place.
I guess I had to start calling the rancher Theo’s place since his black truck was in the driveway and would be from now on. Lauren’s beater sat across the street. Aiden’s beastly new truck was parked in front of us. This one was even bigger than the boat he drove when we started hanging out together last summer. He claimed he needed it to move his crew between construction sites, but no doubt he was compensating for something.
“Let’s just treat Theo like anyone else who moves here,” I said. “Give him dinner and a plant, or twelve, welcome him to the neighborhood, have a little chat, and leave.”
“Fine,” Mom said, slamming the station wagon into park. “But we are not done with this conversation, young lady. I will make you see the beautiful, amazing person you are if it kills me.”
“Pretty sure I’ll die of embarrassment first.”
“Poppy!” Mom and Rowan shouted.
“Let’s go,” I said, flinging open the passenger door. “Any longer and the chicken will need to be zapped in the microwave.”
Mom gasped, and Rowan did her best not to laugh. Before we could divvy up everything, Cal and Chris came running to help us.
“For heaven’s sake,” Rowan said, swatting Chris’s hand. “I can carry the biscuits. You’ll eat two before we get inside.”
I sauntered up the walk empty-handed since I wasn’t entering the pissing match between Cal and Chris to see who would carry more, and Mom would be mortified to enter the house without something to hand Theo.
“Hell Cat,” Aiden shouted, when I walked in the open front door.
Mrs. Jenkins had left her couch, but there wasn’t anything else in the room except a single box markedBooksin Theo’s neat handwriting. No rug. No lamps. The floral curtains were still on the windows, so at least the neighbors wouldn’t be able to see Theo painting at night with his shirt off.
“Stop calling her that,” Lauren snapped. She waved a burning sage stick in his face before passing it over the couch. “It’s mean.”
“Lighten up, Lauren. It’s just a nickname,” Aiden said, but his voice lacked its usual cockiness. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was blushing.
“It’s OK,” I said. “I call him Hammer Dick.” I didn’t, but the name just popped in my head.
Aiden smirked and Lauren hurried down the hall, leaving a trail of smoke in her wake. “Great nickname.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
Theo smiled at me from the arched doorway that led to the kitchen, which made me feel warm and miserable at the same time. Theo’s smiles were rare, and I treasured every one he gave me, locking them in my memory like a miser guarded his gold.
“Come look at this,” he said, grabbing my hand. My chest tightened; my stomach danced. I hated how my body reacted to him still. He pulled me through the large, dated kitchen to the glass sunroom Mr. Jenkins added to the house for his birds. The man was obsessed with cockatoos. I’d made a couple bucks bird sitting a time or two in high school, which had actually been pretty fun, despite Mr. Jenkins’s three-page instruction guide. All the cages, plants, and toys were gone, leaving a room with three glass walls and a linoleum floor that had weathered a decade of bird droppings.
“What do you think?” he asked, dropping my hand and holding his arms wide.
“I think you may never get the smell of bird shit out of here.”
Theo waved his hand. “Turpentine smells worse. It’ll cover that up.”
“You’re making this your studio,” I said, turning in a circle to admire the room with new appreciation. The light was fantastic. The floor easy to clean. The one interior wall even had built-in cabinets Mr. Jenkins had used to store his bird seed and whatever other crap birds needed. They’d be perfect for storing paint and brushes. Theo had already stacked several canvases in the corner beside a box labeledArt.
“We could add a sliding door to the back yard for ventilation. That space over there is directly behind the kitchen sink. Aiden said he could easily put in a utility sink and a counter so you wouldn’t have to drag anything into the kitchen to clean.”
“Theo, you just moved in. There’s no rush for Aiden to renovate the house. It’ll be years before I can buy it.”
