Page 166 of True Blue

“No need.”

“No. I need to say this,” I interrupt firmly, knowing I need to apologize. Knowing he should hear me apologize. I’m not his mother. I would never hurt him like that. “I’m sorry for testing you without discussing it first. That was wrong of me. And cruel. I’m incredibly sorry for my actions.”

Teddy smiles. “Apology accepted.”

“And I…” I meet his eyes. “I forgive you. For everything.”

Teddy’s face twitches. His shoulders drop. Then he smiles, before it falls slightly.

“Don’t forgive me just because you feel bad⁠—”

“I forgave you back in Florence,” I admit, smiling sheepishly.

“Oh, that’s it—” Teddy grins, pointing at me with narrowed eyes. “You were just in it for the free breakfast, huh?”

I hold out my hands like he’s going to arrest me. “Guilty.”

Teddy chuckles, and I feel myself melting, huffing a laugh.

“Will you… text me when you get home? So I know you’re safe.”

Teddy beams.

“Sure,” Teddy nods eagerly. “If you want.”

I smile softly, “I do—wait, where are you staying?”

Teddy answers me with a wink before turning and walking down the hallway, disappearing from sight.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

31

TEDDY

NOVEMBER

“Come on,” I growl, frustrated now. “It’s bread. It’s not even bread from the trash.”

I wiggle the piece of white bread out in front of me, but no dice. The stupid little creature just stares at me with its big eyes, using its tiny hands—why does it have tiny hands?—to rub at its nose.

I think it’s taunting me now.

Little bastard.

I’ve been hearing scratching in the attic, and it’s been driving me insane because I’d hear it while I was downstairs sanding the walls or working on the wiring, but every time I charged upstairs, pushed to the brink of my sanity, I couldn’t find anything but droppings.

When I landed at the Atlantic City airport, the first thing I needed was a bed to sleep in after a full day of traveling. I found a hotel where I slept for about sixteen hours, woke up, ate, and then went on a mission for an apartment.

While Luke and Heath were shipping my car here, I rented one at the airport and drove through my new home of Cape May to get familiar with it. It’s beautiful, and it makes me ache that I almost didn’t get this.

While driving through town, I passed by the house we toured back in January. That old fixer-upper blue Victorian with the good bones, that huge porch, and stained glass windows.

And I saw the sign on the front—FOR SALE.

And if that didn’t feel like a sign.

The next thing I knew, I was on the phone with the realtor, Gina. Not the woman who showed the house; apparently, this property had been passed along to a few different realtors and couldn’t sell. Some people didn’t like a challenge, and I was in the mood to roll up my sleeves and work.