Just One Look (Castleton Hearts)

She thrust the cupcake at me, and I hesitated just a moment before taking it from her and peeling off the paper. I took what I hoped was a dainty bite.

“I guess that’s acceptable,” I said.

Theo smiled one of her rare smiles. “You have frosting on your nose.”

Before I could do anything about it, Theo lifted her free hand and wiped at my nose before licking the frosting off her finger.

“All better,” she said, and I forgot what we’d even been talking about.

“But we need to keep things platonic, okay? I’m not doing relationships. Not with you, not with anyone.”

Her tone shifted and I didn’t like it.

“I can do that,” I said, even though I wasn’t so sure about my ability to refrain from flirting with her. I’d just have to tone it down. No big deal. Totally doable.

“Thanks,” she said, and I had another bite of my cupcake.

“I’m going to get you a napkin,” Theo said and returned with one. I’d been too distracted by her to grab one with my plate.

Theo came back and I finished my cupcake and wiped my face.

“Good?” I asked.

“Perfect,” Theo said.

“Hi,” a little voice said, and Mia appeared as if conjured from thin air.

“Hi Mia,” I said, looking down at her. She grabbed Theo’s hand.

“Teetee, will you show my friends your flips?” she asked.

“Teetee?” I asked her and her face went red.

“Please?” Mia begged, trying to drag Theo over to her friends.

Theo huffed out a sigh. “Fine.”

This I had to see.

Mia pulled Theo over to a group of kids who had all started doing flips and cartwheels and rolls in the grass.

“Everybody move!” Mia announced in her little voice. That kid had no problem with confidence.

Once Theo was sure there were no kids in the way, she did a standing tuck, jumping backwards and doing one flip in the air and landing on her feet. My mouth hung open. I’d seen her do that stuff on video, but it was different seeing her in-person in regular clothes.

“More, more!” Mia demanded, clapping.

Theo did another flip that looked like a cartwheel with no hands, and then when there was enough room, she did a whole pass down the lawn to claps and cheers.

“And that’s enough of that,” she said once she landed, a little short of breath.

She was mobbed by kids begging her to do more flips, or to teach them how to do flips.

“She’s my coach,” Mia said.

“Hey,” Theo said to her. “You don’t need to have that attitude.”

Mia pouted but was slightly chastened.

Theo gave tips to a few kids on their cartwheels and spotted some for forward rolls.

“Okay, I don’t want anyone to break anything, so that’s all for today,” she announced to a bunch of protesting and groans.

She made her way back over to me.

“Not a word,” she said, pointing to me.

“I didn’t say anything!”

Theo shook her head and walked to another part of the yard that was in the shade and had a few chairs set up. She dropped down into one and I took the other.

Mia had moved on to blowing bubbles as Amanda brought out a bunch of wands and bottles of bubble stuff.

“That was seriously impressive,” I said. “You did all that without even stretching. I hurt my wrist holding a book too long.” My doctor had told me to switch to ebooks.

“I’m going to pay for it later,” she said, touching her back. “I shouldn’t have done it.”

“But it was really cute to see you with the kids,” I said. “I told you that you weren’t as much of a grump as you pretend to be.”

“I’m going to be grumpy when my back starts spasming later,” she said.

“Hey, how about I get you a drink?” I asked. “You sit.”

I went and grabbed Theo a beer and a fruity boozy one for myself that had a slice of fresh pineapple in it.

I handed Theo her beer and she took it from me. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” I said. “How’s your back?”

“This is helping,” she said, taking a swig.

“How was your week, by the way?” I asked.

Theo told me about all the most annoying customers, the good ones, and a strange request she’d gotten.

“Oh, it was definitely a sex chair,” I said when she told me what the person had said.

“Absolutely,” she said, shuddering. “I’m not against sex chairs, in general, it’s just not what I make. Now, if someone happens to have sex in one of my chairs, that’s between them and their higher power.”

I snorted and resisted from making any kind of dirty jokes that could be construed as flirting.

“Humans are weird,” I settled on.

“Isn’t that the truth.”

I lied and told her that I had gotten a lot of business stuff done when what I’d really been doing was lying in bed and wallowing over her.

I did have a meeting with a local lawyer to help me with establishing my LLC. I could do it online, but I’d looked at the process and had immediately decided that I didn’t want to mess this up and wanted an expert to walk me through it.