Page 166 of On A Manhunt: Complete Series

MALLORY

I didn’t work the rest of last week after the accident. Today, Monday, was my first day back. I was tired but feeling better. If sad and depressed and droopy was feeling better.

I came out of school, expecting Bridge to be waiting to pick me up. I’d texted her a half hour ago to give her a heads up on when I would be done. My car had been totalled and I hadn’t finalized the insurance paperwork to get a replacement.

It wasn’t Bridge though, but Theo.

I pulled my coat closer around me as I went over to him. He was leaning against his car door, patient as ever. As handsome as ever, too. His beard was trimmed so he didn’t look too unruly, giving a balance to his doctor persona and his new small town life.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I tried to keep my heart from beating out of my chest–to try to get to him–but it was hard. He looked good, as if he was a piece of cake I hadn’t had in a while but knew was delicious.

“To give you a ride home.”

“Is Bridge okay?”

He nodded. “She’s fine.”

“She’s in trouble,” I muttered.

He shook his head. “I’m the one in trouble, aren’t I?”

I went around the car to the passenger side and he followed, opening it for me.

Climbing in, I set my bag on the floor at my feet.

Theo slid into the driver’s seat and shut the door, cocooning us in quiet. And his scent.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, doing his body scan again. I felt heat wherever his gaze went.

“Fine. I slept most of the weekend. Just some bruises left.”

“Headaches?”

I shook my head.

He grabbed three little leather balls and held them up. “I was going to juggle for you when you came out.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “You juggle?”

Nodding, the corner of his mouth tipped up. “Silas and I learned one summer. Thought we might go and join the circus and needed a talent.”

My smile faded. “You mean run away.”

“Yes.”

“Because of your dad.”

His eyes were on mine. He barely blinked, barely looked away. Just looked into me.

“Yes. He was never around. When he was, he used our affection for him as a weapon. Critiqued everything we did. If we played soccer, we had to win. If we didn’t win, we sucked. He told us that, then gave us the silent treatment. Silas and I picked up juggling and it was… fun.”

“Fun?” I asked, smiling.

“Until he said that Silas was better than me. Made juggling a competition. My brother and I hated each other by the time the summer was up. My dad laughed and said we were failures, that we couldn’t even really juggle.”

“Oh, Theo,” I said, aching for the young child who’d been cruelly used.

“Love was conditional, Mallory. He used it as a weapon. It was when I realized he’d used it to pit me against Silas, that I saw him for what he was. Then I shut down.”

I swallowed hard, tried not to cry.

“Fun isn’t fun for me because of what that bastard did. I got serious and stayed that way. I… maybe, went to med school just to see if, one last time, he might be proud of me.”

I took his hand. I couldn’t not touch him.

His gaze dropped to our joined hold.

“Medical school and residency is not fun. It’s grueling and only made me more the way I am. It went on from there. Working, no life, not caring or feeling for patients. Being serious and closed off. I felt nothing.”

His eyes lifted to mine. “Until you.”

“Theo,” I began, but he shook his head.

“I stopped your date because of Tom’s… situation, but I really did it because I didn’t want anyone to have you but me. I was possessive of you even then. When I heard you wanted to have sex, I… I got jealous. Crazy. You were mine, Mallory, even then in that paper gown.”

My heart beat frantically.

“You think we had sex every day at six because I made you nothing more than an appointment, but I started thinking of it as…” He stopped talking and I could have sworn his ears turned pink.

“As what?”

“Sex o’clock.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. He smiled, but sheepishly. “I loved knowing I would have you every day, that it was guaranteed. That if you were penciled in, it wouldn’t be yanked away.”

“Oh,” I breathed, starting to understand.

“I bought you the house and met you in Vegas because you were mine to take care of. It was my way of telling you how I felt about you.”

I swallowed. “How… how do you feel about me?”

“I’m not saying this because Mav wants Bridget to go home and stop staying with you.”

“Okaaaaayy.”

“I… I think I love you, Mallory.”

Happiness gushed from me. I couldn’t help but smile, to feel… glowing. “You think?”

He shook his head, unsure. Awkward. Completely unlike him.

“I don’t know what love feels like. I care for my brothers, of course, but this is different. I want you to be safe in a house that’s yours. I don’t want you to fret or worry or work shifts with your brother to try to pay for it.”

“But I–”

“I know you want to pay your way and I love that about you.” He laughed. “See, that word again?”

I grinned.

“I’m going to buy you things to make your life easier.

Starting with a car, of course. Not because you can’t do it, but because it’s how I will show you I care and want you to be happy and safe.

I’m going to offer you the plane because I have one.

I’m going to be grumbly and cranky and hate yoga and people and only want to be a crazy uncle.

But I want to do all those things with you because you make me, make life… fun.”

Tears fell now. I couldn’t stop them.

“I can’t give you anything like that in return,” I admitted. “Unless I take up prostitution. I seem to be quite skilled at that. The first BJ I give, I get a house,” I replied playfully.

His eyes heated, narrowed and I wasn’t sure if he was angry at what I said or turned on.

“I only want you. Just like you didn’t want the house from me. I get it now. You wanted me, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“You have me, Mallory. If you’ll take me.”

“Don’t you want to know how I feel about you?” I asked.

He studied my face, then frowned. “I do. I really do. I think I was just hoping for scraps of affection from you because that’s what I expect.”

I shook my head, cupped his jaw. “No. No, you should have more than scraps. You should have a woman’s whole heart because you’re deserving of it.”

He set his hand on top of mine. “We have fucked up parents.”

I nodded. “We leave them behind. We move forward. Together, because I think I love you too, Theo.”

He pulled me in and kissed me then. And kissed me. And kissed me some more. There was tongue involved and roaming hands. And more kissing.

“No prostitution for you,” he said finally. “I like you sweet and slutty. You can be my little whore anytime you want. I don’t share.”

Oh my. Theo, my dirty talker.

“Except with Mr. VanMeyer and the Hunter Valley Police Department,” I reminded.

He groaned. “We’re moving into the little house I bought you that you gave me. It’s our house now and we’re sharing it together. No Mr. VanMeyer, no police. Just you, me and–”

“Sex o’clock.”