Just One Look (Castleton Hearts)

Esme brought me a soda and I waited for Theo to talk about herself, but she didn’t.

“What would you sing, if you got up there?” I asked after a string of short answers to all my questions.

“Well, I wouldn’t sing alone, and I’d sing a crowd pleaser that doesn’t need a good singer. It’s less about the singing and more about the performance.”

I absolutely could not picture Theo getting up and singing, which was why I wanted it to happen.

“What if I would get up with you? Would you sing with me?”

I mean, it wasn’t on my list of things I wanted to do in my life, but why not? I was always sitting on the sidelines and stepping back and not doing things. I wanted to do things. I wanted to live my life.

“You’d get up and sing with me?” she asked, skeptical.

I finished my soda. “Yeah.” The idea terrified me, but that fear was kind of exciting.

Theo downed the rest of her drink. “Fuck it, let’s go.”

I squeaked as she got down from the stool and lifted me off, setting me on the floor. My legs wobbled and it had everything to do with how close she was.

Theo dragged me toward the machine, which was currently not being used.

“Okay, what are we picking?” she asked me. “Obviously a duet. And it needs to be classic.”

“That one,” I said, pointing.

“Fuck yeah,” Theo said, selecting “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It was an old song, but my mom used to belt it when she’d clean the kitchen, so I’d grown up knowing all the lyrics.

“You know it?” I asked.

“Eighties music is classic,” she said, handing me a mic. “I’ll take lead, if that’s okay? We can always switch.”

I was absolutely fine with that, if she wanted to take the lead. It meant I’d sing less on my own. Sure, this wasn’t a vocal competition, but I wasn’t a rock star. I could sing, but not impressively.

I started, and then Theo came in and I almost fell off the platform. Theo could sing, sing. Her voice was deep and smoky and almost had a jazzy edge to it, like an old lounge singer. It was completely at odds with her flannel shirt and ripped jeans that were still covered in sawdust. Where had that voice come from?

I struggled to keep up, but every head in the room was turned toward Theo, and people started cheering because they recognized she actually had some talent.

And she hadn’t been joking about the performance. Theo threw herself into the song, really going for it. This grumpy woman might as well have been on a stage with a stadium of screaming fans. She was giving it all she had, and I tried to match her energy, but she was too good for me.

When she really belted it, the entire room cheered and even people in the restaurant craned their necks to see what was happening.

When we finished, Theo took a bow and made me take one too.

The applause made me blush, and I was a little out of breath. People tried to come up to Theo and tell her how good she was, but she just vanished into the bathroom and didn’t come back for a few minutes. I almost went back to check on her.

“Now that I wouldn’t mind hearing every week,” Esme said when Theo finally came back. Her ears were still red, and she looked like she wanted to bolt from the room.

“Congrats on the pipes,” Esme said. “You want another round, or are you good?”

“Water,” Theo said with a croak.

“What the fuck?” I said when she sat back down with me at the bar.

“We will never speak of this again,” Theo said, taking the glass of water from Esme and chugging it.

“You ready to get out of here?” she said in a way that didn’t give me an option.

“Uh, yeah,” I said, and she slapped my hand away when I tried to give Esme my card to settle my part of the bill.

My face got hot and so did a few other parts of my body. I guess everything Theo did made me hot and bothered.

“Don’t even try it, princess,” she said. The nickname made me even more hot and bothered. I hoped I was going to be able to drive.

I followed Theo out of the restaurant, but then she stopped.

“Which car is yours?”

Right. I was driving. She was steady on her feet as she followed me to my little sedan and got into the passenger seat.

“What about your car?” I asked.

“I’ll get it tomorrow,” she said, but she didn’t seem concerned. Okay then.

I turned my car on and asked Theo where she lived. She gave me directions, and it was right near the furniture showroom.

In fact, when I pulled in, it was right next door. It was too dark to really see it, but I got the impression of a cozy wood-shingled cabin with a dark green door and a sweet front porch.