Just One Look (Castleton Hearts)

I turned the car off and heard barking coming from inside the house.

“Someone is happy you’re home,” I said.

“He wouldn’t let me go anywhere without him, if he could,” she said, but made no move to leave the car.

So we sat there in silence, with the exception of the barking dog and the crickets singing in the grass.

“You okay?” I asked. Maybe she was feeling sick?

“Yup,” she said, and then she was out of the car and slamming the door. It opened a second later and she stuck her head in. “Thanks for the ride.”

The door slammed again and then she was gone inside the cabin.

“Okay,” I said as I turned the car on and backed out, heading for my own house.

I decided to visit the working Castleton Crew for lunch the next day.

“So a very sexy birdie told me that you and Theo did a little duet last night,” Paige said as I ate my turkey sandwich.

Sasha, Hollis, and Hayden snickered.

“Would you be married to that birdie?” I asked her.

“Maybe,” she said, grinning and then taking a sip of her iced latte.

“I just went there for a drink and to get something to eat and the next thing I knew I was belting it with Theo and I’m still not sure that actually happened.”

“Oh, it did,” Paige said. “I have video.”

My mouth dropped open as she held up her phone.

“You do not,” I said, reaching for the phone, but Paige held it out of my reach.

“I wanted proof, so Esme filmed a little bit and sent it to me.”

I cringed, imagining how dorky I must have looked.

“Can I see it?” I asked.

“As long as you promise you’re not going to delete it when I hand it to you,” Paige said, still holding the phone out of my reach.

“Okay,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if I was lying or not until I saw how bad the video was. If it was horrendous, my finger was going to slip.

I watched the video without sound, but it almost didn’t matter.

A nervous smile spread on my face, but Theo was fully in her element, holding the mic and singing her heart out. I looked silly compared to her, but she was amazing. You could see the people in the room clapping and cheering even if I couldn’t hear it.

The clip was only a few seconds long, but it wasn’t bad, so I let Sasha, Hollis, and Hayden see it.

“Amazing,” Hollis said, shaking her head. “Was she good? She’s really selling it.”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “I had no idea when she opened her mouth that she was going to be that talented. Like, compete on a singing reality show and win level of talent.”

Paige took her phone back and said she’d send the video to me.

“I was just as shocked. She was never in chorus or anything in high school. She was kind of just there. I had no idea she was keeping that voice to herself.”

“I wonder why she got up and did it,” Sasha said.

“She’d had three drinks, so I’m going to assume that helped,” I said with a laugh. “I drove her home last night. I hope she’s okay.”

I’d sent Theo a message that morning asking if she was still alive but hadn’t heard anything back.

“She left her truck at the Grille, so I hope she got it back,” I said.

“I’m sure she did,” Paige said. “Esme said people haven’t stopped talking about it.”

“I’m sure. She was a breath of fresh air after all the awful singing,” I said, shuddering at the memory.

“Yeah, Castleton isn’t known for its singers,” Paige said. “Anyone who had any kind of musical ambition left after high school, and then some ended up back here when things didn’t work out.”

Hollis made a sound like a sad trombone.

“Exactly,” Paige said.

The topic of conversation moved on to stories about other memorable karaoke nights. The residents of Castleton apparently really like to let their hair down on karaoke night.

I sat at the café for a while longer and read, but I grabbed an iced coffee to go and headed over to Theo’s showroom. Instead of walking in, I headed right back to the workshop and banged on the door.

It flew open and there was a pissed look on Theo’s face until she saw it was me. Then the look got a little less pissed, but not by much.

“Checking for signs of life,” I said, handing her the coffee. Clearly, Theo hadn’t slept much, and her eyes were just the tiniest bit puffy.

I greeted Scout as Theo sucked down half the coffee.

“I’m not hung over,” she said.

“Sure,” I told her. “Just wanted to make sure you were okay after last night.”

“I’m fine,” she said through gritted teeth.

“You don’t have to bite my head off. I brought you coffee and came to check on you and see if you needed a ride to get your car.”