Page 38 of Another Chance
Or should she know what Eric was up to? Theo shook his head. He had strict rules about getting involved with people who were already seeing someone, but he’d broken them, in this case. Well, now he knew just why he avoided these sorts of entanglements.
“I guess that’s fair enough,” Faith unexpectedly commented. She dug her heels against the faded boards of the patio and swung her legs, making the seat they both perched on rock slowly.
It was quiet, in a way that never, ever happened in New York City. Even in the middle of Central Park, it was possible to hear the sound of cars and other traffic, to hear people chattering away. Not here. The only sound Theo heard, other than the sound of his own breathing and the slight creak of the porch swing, was the rumble of a motor in the distance.
It was so peaceful here. But the problem was, sometimes it was good to have noise to distract from the thoughts in his own head, buzzing around like mosquitoes. In this case, he would love to think more about the sound of traffic and less about the fact that he was in love with someone who couldn’t love him.
Was that car coming closer? It was funny, in a way, what could fascinate him when he was so ready to be distracted. Anything rather than think about how much he’d lost in the last half hour or so. Or was that accurate? Could he lose something he’d never had?
“So what’s your story? I haven’t seen you around before,” Faith asked, her dark head resting back on the swing as she gazed up, seeming to look past the roof of the patio and into the dark leaden sky. “I would remember.”
Oh, great, because that didn’t make things even more complicated. The girlfriend of the man that Theo loved was now flirting with Theo. He could be completely oblivious about most things, but Faith’s style of flirting seemed to be the equivalent of a sledgehammer. Not subtle. Of course, Eric would like that, too.
Theo considered. He could tell her the truth, and maybe he should. Most of it, of course, was innocuous enough. He was here to fix up, and sell, a house. Not exactly state secrets requiring high-level security clearance to access.
Just as he had made up his mind, he saw a flash of brilliant yellow as, down the long, winding river of the road, he saw a vehicle turn and start to drive toward them. The yellow was so vibrant that it could clearly be seen against the dreary cloudiness of the day.
“Uh …” For some reason, Theo’s eyes wouldn’t come away from that car. From that … taxi. Yes, it was a taxi. He saw the light on the roof and the writing on the car doors. A sense of foreboding gripped him and made it utterly impossible for him to look away.
There was only one time that he’d seen a taxi in this town, and that had been when he had been the one in it.
“Theo?” Faith asked, and Theo shook his head, trying to clear it, waiting for his foreboding feeling to leave him, for it to come to nothing. Waiting for the cab to sweep past them, to have nothing at all to do with him.
Instead, the bright car slowed and then stopped, right in front of Theo’s house. From across the street, Theo watched, a feeling of horror gripping his stomach and making it impossible for him even to swallow down his fear.
He wouldn’t.
It was just too much. Too much effort to go to just for drama. And yet the man getting out of the cab had longish golden hair, just brushing his shoulders in artlessly over casual curls, just like Liam did.
“Theo!”
Two voices, both speaking to him at once, one low and husky but most decidedly female, Faith’s. The other coming from across the street, lyrical and sweet, but filled with suspicion.
“Who is that girl?” Liam demanded, and he bounded across the street, as graceful over the black surface as a gazelle, and ran up the stairs to stand in front of Theo and Faith with his hands on his slender hips.
“Huh,” said Faith thoughtfully, and she rose to her feet with a smooth grace which Theo, who had been awkward as a kid and who had never quite gotten over the impression that had made on him, envied. Small, slender, beautiful Faith. No wonder Eric liked her. “I guess I don’t need to worry after all.”
That was a highly interesting comment, but Theo didn’t have the time or the mental energy to think about it right then. He was too busy staring at Liam, who was standing right in front of him, just as slender and beautiful as he had always been. Liam, who was shooting Faith an incredibly dirty look, and who grabbed Theo around the waist and pulled him close.
“Go away,” Liam said, his tone rude and dismissive. Well, he was often like that, because he seemed to think it was funny more than anything else, but there was an edge as sharp as a knife in there. “I’m his boyfriend. I hope you weren’t thinking about trying anything.”
There were so many things wrong with that statement, and to Theo, it seemed like dozens of potential answers swirled around his head, making it impossible to think at all, or to pick any one of them. It was only a few minutes ago that Liam had come bursting out of the cab in the first place, and now, here he was, right beside him.
“I’m not …” Theo finally managed, and then two things happened at once. He heard the door to the house open behind him, and at the same time, Liam flung himself at him and even though he was so much smaller than Theo was, he was enthusiastic enough that he almost knocked him over.
Liam had to rise up onto his tiptoes to do it, but he pressed his lips against Theo’s, hot and dry and triumphant. The kiss only lasted a split second, but when Theo pulled away, he heard the slam of the door a split second after he saw a broad, muscular back disappear through it.
“Liam, oh my God,” Theo said, beyond furious. Eric had seen that, and maybe it shouldn’t matter to him because Eric, after all, did seem to be with Faith, but Theo still couldn’t quite let go. Even now, he couldn’t help but think that maybe there was a chance, or had been a chance.
Before Eric had seen him kissing another man. Not that Theo had kissed him back, but would Eric know that?
“Who was that?” Liam asked, tilting his head to the side and watching the door, which was firmly shut now. Theo heard it locking behind him, and it felt like hearing his own jail cell being latched.
“Just get out of here.” Theo turned to glare at Liam. Damn it! What had the man done? What had he been thinking? “I’ll text you later or whatever, but just get the fuck out of here, or I swear to God …”
“I’ll take him to the Roadhouse,” Faith offered, and Theo wasn’t quite sure how he felt about this woman, but right then, he decided that she had made up for quite a lot just by being willing to go, and to take Liam. “Get him a room.”
“I don’t wanna go,” Liam pouted, but Faith, as it turned out, had quite the way about her, and she probably mostly got what she wanted in life, which made it too bad that what she seemed to want was Eric, but he would have to overlook that for the moment.
Right now, what mattered most to Theo was trying to get Eric to let him back in, to talk to him. To try to figure out if anything, even a friendship, could be salvaged from all of this.
He was mad at Eric for Faith. It seemed to him that Eric wasn’t exactly thrilled about Liam, either. But Theo had just gotten Eric back, and he wasn’t willing to let him go just yet.
Or even again. He hadn’t fought for this relationship before, but he would now. So he turned to the door and started to knock on it, and then to hammer until even the solid wood door rattled in its frame.
“Eric! I’m not going away until you talk to me,” Theo called, and he meant it. He would fight, he told himself again, and he hoped deep down that it would be enough while suspecting very much that it wouldn’t.
