Page 16 of Change of Plans

“I never said they were,” Sam said, taking a step back so I could walk into the hall and downstairs to the living room and the door.

Brian followed, but kept pace with Sam instead of me. “I still wish I’d seen it.”

I was ready to get my date started, but as I grabbed the doorknob, I wondered if I needed to stay behind to chaperone Brian and Sam. Then again, it wouldn’t have been the first time Brian had come over to the house I shared with my brothers, the one that belonged to our parents before they signed the business over to us and retired to Florida, when I wasn’t home and had decided to stick around just because. I had a feeling I knew why Brian liked to hang out, but I wasn’t going to go there when I had what promised to be a big night ahead of me.

“You kids behave,” I told Sam and Brian in a mock scolding tone before opening the door.

“Have fun,” Brian called after me as I left. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

I laughed as I crossed the porch and walked down the path to the sidewalk. I intended to do whatever came naturally, butthat’s exactly what Brian would have done, so it worked out in the end.

Our house was closer to Common Grounds than Keswick, but I didn’t mind the walk to get to Closed Mondays. It was another beautiful night, and I breathed it in with the thrilling feeling that tonight might just be the beginning of the rest of my life.

Yeah, I was a little sappy sometimes, but could you blame me? After all these months, I was finally going out on a real date with the guy who’d turned my head and given me a little something extra to look forward to every morning.

Unsurprisingly, Theo was already at the restaurant when I arrived.

“I should have guessed you’re the kind of guy who shows up to things early,” I teased him, and also greeted him with a warm hug.

Theo tensed for a moment, then hugged me back. “There’s nothing wrong with making sure you’re on time for important events,” he said, smiling once we let go of each other.

“So you’re admitting this is an important event?” I asked with a sly look.

“I, um, I didn’t mean?—”

“I’m just teasing,” I said, nudging Theo with my arm. I then let him off the hook by looking around and saying, “This place looks great.”

It was pretty cool. The whole place was painted with bright colors and decorated with art from local artists. Some of that was sculptures made from trash. I happened to love that stuff and thought it was incredibly creative, but Theo stared at it with a more critical eye once we were seated and looking over the menu.

“I’m not sure I really understand art,” he admitted once the server had come to take our orders. “How do people decide toweld random pieces of bicycles and garden tools together like that?”

I shrugged. “How do you decide what a building will look like?” I was genuinely interested in knowing why he loved what he did.

“That’s different,” Theo said like he was about to teach a class on the subject, which I was totally down for. “Architecture has rules and standards. You need to make certain any structure you’re designing is sound and safe as well as aesthetically pleasing.”

“And you like doing the calculations and figuring all that out more than you like designing?” I asked, hoping to learn more.

“Not necessarily,” Theo said, his whole face lighting up as he explained. “I like to look at things as a whole. I consider function as well as form. “Like, there’s a retail space I’ve just finished designing that’s about to be built that I’ve put a lot of work into.”

“Oh yeah?” I reached for the bottle of wine Theo had brought with him and that the server had opened for us and poured us each a glass. “What do you like best about that building?”

“The space, really,” Theo said, his brow creased in concentration. “The challenge was to make the interior and exterior space blend into its surroundings, but also be functional so it can contain everything that will need to be displayed.”

“And you figured it out?”

“In the end, yes,” Theo said with a proud smile. I loved the fact that he could at least enjoy the fruits of his labor. I had the feeling he was hard on himself most of the time.

I would have much preferred to be hard on him, or maybe under him, I wasn’t picky.

I was just about to say something totally inappropriate to that effect when our server came over to let Theo know the fish he’d ordered was out of stock. He took a few minutes to help him decide on something else. Everything on the menu lookedamazing, so I didn’t see how he could go wrong, but Theo was nothing if not precise about every decision he made.

By the time he and the server had everything sorted, my brain had already moved on to a different topic of conversation.

“So, forgive me if this is too much of a question, but I kind of got the impression the other day that it’s been a while since you’ve been on a date?” I asked, praying I wouldn’t scare him away again.

Theo huffed a humorless laugh. “It’s been months. I was with a guy for a while, but we broke up about four months ago.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, instantly jealous, though that was ridiculous of me.