Chapter 53 A Storm About To Hit
THEODORE
Alice insisted on cleaning up the kitchen by herself, so her mother and I were still seated at the table. She was smoking and I was finishing my third cup of coffee while trying hard not to stare at Alice blatantly.
I knew she was upset that I was here, and honestly, sometimes I asked myself why I ever decided to tell her mother that we were engaged.
It was my first instinct. I heard from the conversation she had with her ex that her parents were very religious, so it felt like the right thing to do. Was I crossing a line? Absolutely. But I'd already decided that, after this, I would give her the freedom she asked for and keep my distance.
Her mother spoke, interrupting my train of thought. "So...Theo. How'd you meet my Alice?"
I cleared my throat and told her the first lie that popped into my head. "Well, we met at a conference. She was there with her boss and I was there with my...my supervisor."
She nodded slowly. "You have a supervisor?"
"I do."
"Hm." She tapped the side of the ashtray with the cigarette. "That's interesting."
I didn't understand what she meant by that, but I didn't comment. My gaze slid to Alice and her brother, who'd joined her side and was packing away the dishes. She bumped him with her shoulder and said something, smiling. He nodded.
"You know, Alice is very special to us. We don't know what we would've done without her."
Helen had tears in her eyes as she spoke. I kept my eyes on her face this time around. She quickly dried her tears and took another drag of her cigarette. "She helps us with everything we need. She supports us financially. Her daddy...he went through a rough patch, you know? He gambled and drank a little too much. Now that he's decided to change, we don't have any money to support ourselves and it's hard for him to find a job at his age."
As I listened to her, I couldn't help but feel a little resentful toward her. Her husband seemed perfectly fine and strong when I met him at the hospital. Why did the burden of having to care for an entire family have to fall on Alice's shoulders?
How did she even manage to survive?
I knew she was a strong woman. A fighter. But I had no idea that this was what she went through. Now that I was here, having a full view of where she came from and what she had to deal with, I admired her a hell of a lot more.
"What I'm trying to say is that if you hurt her, you hurt all of us," she concluded, crushing the butt of the cigarette on the ashtray. "Alice is special. She's all we have in the world."
"I would never hurt her," I assured her. "I'd give her the world if she let me."
Her eyes filled with tears again and she reached for me. "Oh, son. Thank you. Thank you for loving her."
We left shortly afterward to pick up her father from the hospital. I kept my eyes on Alice the entire time. I knew what would come next and I was already preparing myself for it.
She'd be pissed.
While I followed her mother to her father's room, I noticed how she lingered behind, most likely to approach the front desk without being seen. Her father greeted me warmly. He seemed much better already. Her brother moved to sit close to him, and I stayed by the door, keeping an eye on the end of the hallway.
Sure enough, I saw her practically storm toward me. That was when I decided to distance myself from the room and meet her halfway so we could talk about this without her family noticing.
"What did you do?" she asked in a harsh whisper.
I did not doubt that she knew by now that her father's bill had been paid for in full. I made the payment myself using my phone. I took note of the reference number on the bill she received since I'd been standing behind her when it was given to her, the full amount, and the patient's name.
"It's the least I could do," I assured her. "You know, for putting up with me this whole time."
Alice folded her arms. She looked genuinely upset. "You shouldn't have. I'm going to pay you back every cent."
"You really don't have to do that."
She stepped toward me. "That was a shit ton of money!"
"Not for me," I assured her. "I figured it was about time I put my money to good use. If you try to pay me back, I won't accept it."
She opened her mouth to say something, but her mother appeared in the doorway and asked us if everything was alright.
"Of course, Mom," she lied before heading inside the room to greet her father.
Fifteen minutes later, we were heading toward the car. I helped her father leave the hospital and sit in the car, and he slapped my arm gratefully. "Thanks, son."
"Sure, Dad."
Alice's glare didn't escape my notice, but I was finding this entire situation too amusing to care about her anger. Soon enough, she wouldn't have to deal with me, and I wasn't okay with that now, but I would be.
I had an issue with attachment. I knew that. Usually, I avoided getting my emotions involved in anything because I knew how it would end. A younger version of me suffered because of this, but afterward, I learned to make myself cold. To not care enough about anything that wasn't a profit to me.
With Alice Rhodes...what could I say? She caught me completely by surprise.
When we got home, her father insisted that he was fine enough to start the grill and asked me to follow him there. The backyard was small and the grass was tall and in need of mowing. The grill was old, but clean, and he started it with no issues at all while his wife and Alice made preparations for lunch. The sky was a clear blue, and though it was a little cold, it was a beautiful day.
David cleared his throat, then said, "Firstly, I'd like to thank you for being there for my family. It means a lot to me. Helen was telling me how you made Rory drink his first cup of coffee."
I shrugged. "He just took a bit of pushing in the right direction."
David chuckled. "Yeah, well. Most people wouldn't get such a reaction out of him. He's a stubborn one, I assure you."
A few beats of silence passed between us before he said, "You love my daughter."
I didn't hesitate. "I do."
He smiled again. "You know, it's hard for a man to watch his little girl be carried away by some other guy, but you're alright, Theo. Better than that Benjamin ever was for her."
"Benjamin?"
His dark eyes widened as he met mine. I was toying with him, but he didn't know that. "Well...uh...he's nobody. Don't worry about that. Share a beer with me, will you? I'll go get a few."
He went inside the house, then returned a minute later with cold beers. I wasn't much of a beer drinker, but here, so far away from home, I wasn't Theodore Linden-Hawthorne. I was just Theo. a cool guy.
A man devoted to his fiancée. Who loved her to death.
"My girl is special."
"Don't I know it," I agreed with him as he handed me an open beer. "Cheers."
I gulped the drink down. The taste reminded me of being young and wild. Free. I hadn't felt this way in a long ass fucking time.
But this wouldn't last, because Alice Rhodes was a storm waiting to hit. I knew hell was coming. Not now, because her parents were around, but it would come eventually.
All I could do was sit back and wait for it.