Hearts & Minds | WATTY Winner

Chapter 9 | A Visit | Part 1

     "Who cares if he tangoed with the po-po? If anything, it ups his hotness factor." Rainey forked some scrambled eggs into her mouth while Nora absorbed her sister's reaction. Rainey seemed unperturbed by Margaret's revelation about Theo's shaded past.

Unbeknownst to Nora, Rainey was already in the know. She'd kept her promise to their mom and not said anything about Mr. Mysterious's possible juvie-hood to anyone. Maybe she should have, because Nora was acting all wiggy. Maybe she would have taken it better when Theo was still around, and she could still observe and judge him with her own eyes, but now it was like this tidbit was adding to his deadbeat cred. He'd been MIA for so long.

Out of a mild form of what might pass for guilt, Rainey insisted on lending Nora her new herringbone cardigan with the faux fur collar accented by an oversized Kewpie doll brooch. To be sure, Rainey had also tired of seeing her sister clothed in a daily uniform of sensible long-sleeve Gap tops in a rainbow of depressing earth tones.

"Well, we don't know the details—" Nora started to say.

"So what?" Rainey interrupted as she clattered her empty breakfast plate in the kitchen sink. "Just ask him."

"It's not my business." Nora removed the cardigan and handed it back. Rainey shook it at her.

"It is if you're worried he's a serial killer of cute young ladies!"

True. But also, how could she ask him? Nora hadn't heard from Theo in ages.

That was about to change.

#

     Tallying receipts after hours that evening, Nora sat alone at the back of the Cottage when she heard a tapping on the front door glass. Looking up from her calculator, she needed a second to process. Theo Furlan was peering through the window. When he saw that she'd noticed him, he stopped tapping and gave a small wave. Nora's whole body became a prickly sensor.

He was here! He was back.

Her heart beating like a hummingbird's wings, she made her way swiftly through the tables, their chairs propped on top. Her hands were unusually clumsy as she unlocked the front door.

After saying hello, they just looked at each other with shy, awkward smiles. What should she say? He spoke first, and she almost sighed in relief.

"Sorry to just show up like this. Is it okay if I come in or are you busy?"

"No! I mean, I'm not really that busy." She stepped back and extended her hand into the room.

"Yes, it's okay. Please, come in."

She shut the door and relocked it behind him. As she turned, Theo moved forward, closing the small space between them. He enfolded her in his arms, and her head rested against his chest. The thump of his heartbeat. He kept her wrapped up like that for a long moment, as he had when they'd said goodbye months ago.

"I missed you," he whispered into her ear, his breath so, so warm. She wished his lips would touch her skin like last time. He bent her back slightly in his embrace. Thank goodness he was holding her tightly or she might fall.

Nora pulled away to look up at his face. "Me too."

They were pressed against each other, and she became aware of his scent—something sweet under the perspiration on his skin and coffee in his hair. She hoped she wasn't too gross, and he answered her worries by saying, "You smell like sugar and butter."

The blush rose quickly to her cheeks, along with a hesitant grimace, and he laughed. "That sounded more perverted once I said it out loud. In my head it was totally innocent."