Just One Look (Castleton Hearts)

Esme breathed a sigh of relief as she finished. “What can I get you?”

“Whatever Moscow mule you’ve got,” I said.

“How about strawberry lime?” Esme asked.

“Perfect.”

Esme made my drink with practiced efficiency and I almost didn’t want to drink from the cup she slid toward me. It was too pretty.

Esme waited for me to take a sip. I gave her a thumbs up as I tried not to down the whole thing because it was so good.

She was called away to deal with other customers and a new singer took the stage, which was really just a tiny platform in the corner of the room with the screen in front of it.

Judging by the cheers coming from another table, her friends had urged her on. She took a while picking a song, but when it came on, her friends cheered even louder.

This time, she had some actual vocal skills, but I feared her alcohol consumption was affecting her talent. Still, she went for it and her friends almost drowned her out with their support.

I clapped for her as she took a bow and almost fell over.

“Three stars,” a voice said next to me and I swiveled around to find Theo sitting on the stool next to me. Where had she come from? I blinked for a second, wondering if she’d appeared out of thin air.

“Out of five,” she said.

“Theo?” I asked, as if I needed confirmation that she was here.

“Hey,” she said, sipping her drink.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Same thing as you,” she said, pointing to my drink.

“Oh,” I said.

“You want to share some potato skins?” she asked, and I didn’t know how to respond.

“Sure?” I said after a few seconds.

“You want anything else?” she asked, raising her hand to flag down Esme.

“Another round?” Esme asked.

“I’m good, you?” Theo asked me.

“I’m good for now,” I said.

“Could we get the potato skins, and the grilled romaine, and did you want anything else?” The last part was directed at me.

“Uh, spinach and artichoke dip?”

“You got it,” Esme said, going to the computer to put the order in.

“How’s the furniture business?” I asked, leaning close so she could hear me. She smelled like wood again and lemon from furniture polish, and there was another smell layered in there that reminded me of cool forests and green leaves. In short, Theo smelled amazing, and it was messing with my brain.

“I didn’t slice off any of my fingers today, so I’m calling it a win,” she said, flexing her hands in front of her.

Those hands. I was sure she could do all kinds of wicked things with those hands. Would she be gentle or aggressive? How would those calluses feel brushing along the side of my neck or the skin of my stomach?

“That’s good,” I finally said when I stopped ogling her hands.

Theo downed the rest of her drink and then sipped on a glass of water.

“You drinking for any particular reason?” I asked.

“People,” she said, and I laughed.

“You do know you’re in a bar full of people. On karaoke night.”

I looked around and the bar was filling up more and more and the volume of the room had gone up significantly, and that was without the singing.

“Well, sometimes I make bad decisions,” she said, frowning into her empty glass. Esme came back and Theo pushed her empty glass toward Esme without a word. Esme made her another drink and plunked it down in front of her.

A couple got up and started doing a love song duet and Theo cringed.

“Bad decisions,” she repeated.

Our food arrived and I found myself sharing several plates with Theo, and she acted like this was a thing we did all the time.

“So what’s your story? Apart from the inheritance?” she asked, licking some dressing from the potato skins from her thumb. I was distracted for a second and didn’t hear what she said.

“I’m not that interesting, I promise,” I said, and for some reason I opened up and told her about how I grew up near Boston and was close with my mom and how I’d been just fumbling around in my life for the past few years.

So much for trying to impress her. I was going to blame it on the drink for making me show her the truth, and not a dressed-up version.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admitted.

“No one does. Everyone is bullshitting, all the time. Some people are just more honest about it than others.”

“I guess I need to get better at bullshitting,” I said.

Theo shook her head. “Don’t lose your honesty, Kendra.”

The way she said my name did things to me.

Theo finished her drink and asked for another.

“You’ll drive me home, right?” she asked.

“Yeah, sure,” I said immediately. If the choice were between her driving home and not being safe and me driving her, I’d take the latter. I also really, really wanted to see where she lived.