Page 28 of Craving Theodora
They snickered as they moved past.
“Nice, Dad,” Dylan complained. He was standing near the tailgate with Isla, who I was pretty sure hadn’t moved a single box in her entire life but was waiting patiently to get on my good side by helping.
Dylan’s girlfriend was sweet. I’d always liked her, and I thought she was good for my son, but she was a princess. As the youngest in her family, she’d been pampered and spoiled since the moment she was born, and I figured it was lucky that instead of turning into a brat, she’d become the kind of kid that Dylan fell for as soon as he was old enough to date.
The kind of kid who’d run away from home…yeah, maybe she was more of a brat than I’d realized.
Fuck.
Teddy hopped down as Dylan lowered the tailgate.
The next twenty minutes were a hive of activity as we carried all of Teddy’s boxes into the house. The ones that were labeledwith Jesse’s and Finn’s names were carried up to their rooms, but the rest of the boxes we stacked against the wall in the living room. Teddy’s name wasn’t anywhere, and without her opening them to check the contents, we weren’t sure what room they belonged in.
While everyone else was inside, Draco opened up the garage, and I went back out to set up the ramp Teddy brought with her. I released the tie-downs she’d used to keep the large toolbox steady and pulled on the toolbox, stopping almost immediately. I glanced at the house.
“What is it?” Draco asked, coming up the ramp.
“Feel this,” I muttered, gesturing to the toolbox.
He reached out and pulled it out from where it rested against the cab, then looked at me questioningly.
“Teddy loaded it.”
“What?”
“Teddy said she loaded it all herself.”
He looked at me and then back at the massive toolbox. “No shit?”
“How the fuck did she load it herself?” I asked, pulling it out a little further. The toolbox was on casters, but even with the wheels, the thing was heavy as fuck. I could load it myself, and so could Draco, but I had no clue how Teddy had.
“Careful,” Draco said with a huff as we moved it toward the tailgate. “If she can move this thing, that woman’s stronger than she looks.”
“You think?” I grunted as we braced ourselves behind it and slowly lowered it down the ramp. “Holy fuck.”
We wheeled it into the garage and set it up against the wall.
“Never know what someone’s capable of when they’re desperate,” Draco reminded me as we moved back out of the garage.
I nodded. I still didn’t understand how she could’ve done it. The thing easily weighed as much as a fridge.
“Your TV is newer,” Teddy was saying to Dylan when we walked back into the house. “So maybe we could put it upstairs—”
“In my room,” Finn announced excitedly.
“Yeah, right,” Jesse scoffed. “That’s not gonna happen. If anyone gets the TV, it’s me. I’m the oldest.”
“That’s not fair. I called it,” Finn argued.
“Neither of you is getting a TV in your room,” Teddy said, shutting it down. “We’ll put it in the bonus room.”
“That’s a cool painting,” Isla said suddenly, looking at the painting of…I actually had no idea what it was supposed to be. The colors were vivid, though, and itwaspretty cool.
“Oh, thanks,” Teddy said with a smile. “Jesse did it.”
“Seriously?” Isla asked, turning to Jesse. “You painted that?”
“When I was twelve,” Jesse mumbled dismissively.
