Laney does.
I won’t take that from her, because if anyone can find a way to be happy and work through the problems, these two can.
I know they still have secrets from each other, but not malicious secrets. More like I forgot to tell you I was the one who started the rumor that you didn’t wear underwear in high school, which will not come as a surprise to Laney at all when Theo confesses.
Nor will it bother her.
She knows who Theo was and how much he’s made right since high school. And I know all the dirt there is to know about Theo, even if I don’t want to remember it anymore, and I have no concerns for them.
None.
They’re one of the few couples that I honestly expect to make it.
They both know relationships take work and are willing to do it.
And tonight, when she’s perfectly capable of using her crutches to compensate for the leg in the cast, he’s carrying her in here instead. The one thing Theo’s not short on is energy. Next up is utter and complete loyalty and dedication to the people he loves. Followed very closely by basically lives to test boundaries.
Put it all together with him secretly being in love with Laney nearly his whole life, and that makes a recipe for Theo being the best boyfriend on the entire planet right now.
Swoon.
Also, fuck you, Greyson Cartwright, for being nothing like the man you were in Hawaii who would’ve understood why I had to go.
Even though I should be thanking him.
If he were the man he’d been in Hawaii, beans only know if I could’ve resisted him.
If he were the man he’d been in Hawaii, he would’ve walked into my café and asked how we could work together to make it even better instead of being Mr. Grumpy Pants Secretly Plotting To Change Everything all day.
Jitter scrambles to his feet and wags his tail, then presses his body against me and whines softly as Theo approaches with Laney. I scratch his neck while I hold his collar. “Sit, boy. Theo will love on you in a minute.”
Jack and Decker both rise on either side of me. “Here, Laney, take my seat,” Jack says while he snaps his laptop shut.
“Mine’s better,” Decker says while he tucks his laptop under his arm. “More room to prop your leg up.”
“You get a chance to take a DNA test yet?” Jack adds.
Called it.
And now I’m realizing I have one more regret.
In Hawaii, I told Duke that the high school English teacher, Ms. Crackerjack, had an affair with one of the parents of one of her students, Mr. Arbys, that resulted in quintuplets.
He’ll probably figure out the whole truth on that story pretty quickly, though maybe not that Laney’s father is the man we suspect of having an affair with my uncle’s wife. The triplets’ dad definitely isn’t their biological dad, but we have yet to nail down for one hundred percent sure if Mr. Kingston is.
And I definitely need to stop in to see my neighbor down the street.
The new twenty-three-year-old high school English teacher that Grey will suspect has quintuplets if he bothers to think about all of the gossip I told him at all.
“Let a woman get settled before you pester her about who your father is.” Theo sets Laney down in an empty barrel chair across from us, then pulls the entire low table closer to her and helps her prop her cast on it. “Mai tai?” he asks her.
She tips her head back and laughs. “No.”
“Save that for home,” Decker agrees. “None of us want to see her lose her clothes again. No offense, Laney. It’s just like…seeing your cousin naked.”
Laney’s average height, with brown hair, blue eyes, a tan still on her white skin after our week in Hawaii for the wedding that wasn’t, and the cutest butt on the planet. Her wardrobe is entirely functional business casual, but today, she’s in a super baggy pair of Theo’s sweatpants to accommodate her cast, with a bright blue-and-green patterned blouse that would be appropriate on a video conference call. Her future involves taking over the online custom photo gift empire that her parents built as we were growing up, and she’s going to rock it when they retire and hand over the reins.
She brings the best surprises since she can have anything custom-made.
“You okay?” she asks me after Theo leaves for the bar to get her a glass of wine, leaving Jitter brokenhearted at having to wait even longer for love from Theo. My dog has favorites in town. “You’re very…still.”
“I’m processing.”
“Hear anything new?”
Hear? Yes. But more—pick up on?