Page 12 of Seven Lost Summers (Broken Oasis #3)

At that moment I notice movement past the statue.

Theo. Hood dragged so low the shadow cuts across half his face.

His shoulders are caved in, hands shoved deep into his pockets as though he’s holding himself together by force.

He looks half his size, as though, if he makes himself small enough, he can stay the fuck off everyone’s radar.

Make himself invisible. But I catch the truth for what’s there.

He’s trying to slip through the world without anyone noticing he was ever fucking here.

When he reaches me, he finally looks up. I nod toward Bianca and Quinn.

He turns.

Lifts his head.

In that instant, I catch the shift.

The way his spine straightens. The slow drag of his hand out of his pocket. He pushes the hood back only enough to catch her. His eyes lock on Bianca and I watch it happen, the tension on his face shifting, the twitch at the corner of his mouth softening.

For one second, he lets himself want.

“She’s beautiful,” he mutters.

I don’t even realize I’m staring at him until his gaze flicks to mine.

“You wanna go over?” I ask.

Theo doesn’t answer right away. His eyes stay locked on Bianca, and I catch the war playing out behind them. He wants to. But he’s fighting the urge…fighting her, fighting whatever the hell’s coming apart inside him.

“Not if you’re gonna open your mouth and ruin it with one of your sleazy pickup lines,” he mutters, cutting me a sideways glare.

“Hey, they work.”

Theo rolls his eyes, but I catch that flicker of amusement, the reluctant twitch of his lips he tries to bury. “Yeah, and hand jobs work too. Doesn’t mean they’re satisfying.”

“Got me a few dirty favors.” I add, my smirk widening, knowing full well that I’ve got him. Every dirty detail, I’ve told him all of them. Every meaningless fuck. He knows.

He exhales through his nose, shaking his head. “Yeah when girls suck your dick just to shut you the fuck up it doesn’t count.”

I laugh out loud. Can’t help myself.

That’s the thing about Theo; he barely says shit, but when he does, the words are fucking gold. Dry, filthy, and sharp enough to cut through whatever heaviness is hanging in the air.

I clap a hand on his shoulder. “You’re such a dick, you know that?”

He grins up at me, one of those rare smiles. The kind only Mom or Scarlet usually pull from him.

“Come on,” I say, stepping away, heading for the table where Bianca and Quinn are still deep in conversation.

Theo follows and I fall in beside him, his shoulders still curled inward like he’s trying to disappear into himself.

I keep my eyes on Bianca, trying to figure out what the fuck about her is throwing me off.

Quinn spots us first. Her sharp, knowing gaze snaps to mine, eyes narrowing like she’s already bracing for impact. She’s waiting for my smirk, the cocky line, the lazy drawl I always throw her way, designed to get under her skin long enough to test whether I’ll push my luck with her.

But today, she’s not the one I’m focused on.

Today, it’s Bianca.

Right as we reach the table, Theo’s steps drag, only enough to hover on the edge of hesitation. He stops short of awkward, but I catch the shift. The way his body stiffens. The way his fingers clamp the hem of his hoodie like that fabric’s the last anchor holding him steady.

Quinn’s gaze shifts to him and something in her expression softens.

“Hey, Theo,” she says, her voice smooth and casual, like she didn’t catch him glitch.

I watch him fidget and the truth sinks in—he’s way out of his comfort zone. This isn’t small talk for him. This is a fucking war. Every second he stands here, he’s battling himself. Wrestling with the instinct to turn around and walk the fuck away before anyone sees too much.

Suddenly Bianca looks up.

First at him.

After that, at me… and fuck.

Her dark brown eyes meet mine and the hit lands as hard as yesterday in that room. That quiet, unreadable expression tells me she already sees through every part of me and couldn’t give a fuck whether or not I approve.

I don’t even realize I’ve stopped breathing until Quinn speaks.

“Bianca, this is Theo.”

Theo hesitates. Only a beat.

After that, he does something I’ve never seen him do. He drags his hand out of his pocket and holds it out to her.

“Hey, Bianca,” he says. His voice is steady, but I can hear the strain. That tight edge underneath. The way speaking costs him something simply to stand there. “Great guitar playing yesterday.”

She smiles. Not some forced, polite bullshit. Not the kind you toss out to be nice. The smile is real. Warm.

“Do you play?” Bianca asks, voice effortless. Her eyes stay on Theo, waiting for him to answer.

But he doesn’t get the chance.

“Theo taught himself bass,” Quinn says, cutting in before he can open his mouth.

Her comment throws me. How the fuck does she know that? I didn’t think anyone besides our family did.

Bianca smiles. “We’ll have to jam together sometime.”

Theo nods. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Quinn looks at me. “And this is Nate.”

Her tone is flat, like she’s bored just saying my name. And fuck, it shouldn’t bother me, but it does. I glance at her, catching the flicker in her eyes she tries to hide. She knows exactly what she’s doing.

“That’s it?” I say, my voice low. “No smart-ass comment? No warning label?”

She shrugs, lips twitching like she’s fighting back a grin.

“Didn’t think you needed one. You usually do a good enough job ruining your own reputation.”

I force a grin and reach for Bianca’s hand.

The second we touch, fuck, it feels like something short-circuits inside me.

Static races up my arm, heat pulsing through my chest, burning into places I never realized existed.

This isn’t only chemistry. It’s heat behind my ribs.

Something waking up that’s been buried too damn long. A hit straight to the system.

Quinn smirks, all teeth and knowing eyes, like she finally caught the first crack in my armor. “I was warning Bianca who to stay the fuck away from.”

I shoot her a slow grin. “Let me guess. I’m top of the list?”

She tilts her head, lips twitching.

“Not yet,” she says, voice laced with amusement. “Still deciding.”

“Good to know,” I murmur, dropping into the seat beside Theo.

Bianca tilts her head, curiosity flickering in her eyes. “Are you two friends or brothers?”

I open my mouth to answer, but Theo beats me to it.

“Brothers,” he says. “Not by blood, but in every other way that matters.”

My eyes shift to him. He never says stuff like that.

Bianca watches him and a flicker runs through her eyes. Not pity, but something real.

“Teaching yourself bass is pretty impressive,” she says.

Theo shrugs, dragging a hand over the back of his neck. “Most of the time, it sounds like shit.”

“I’m sure it doesn’t,” she replies, and that’s when it happens.

He laughs.

And I haven’t heard that sound in a long fucking time. Not since the day I fell out of a tree and broke a bone in my foot, when he stood over me, laughing his ass off while I cursed him out. Or when Scarlet wipes the floor with me in our drum battles and he laughs like he’s bursting with pride.

But this?

This isn’t the same laugh.

The sound comes softer. Almost like the laugh slipped past his guard. And the way Theo’s staring at her…fuck. This isn’t only about the laugh being different. He is the one who’s changed.

I glance at Quinn, catching the way she’s watching Theo, her lips curving slightly. It’s the look that says she sees him too.

But then her eyes flick to me and whatever softness was there disappears in an instant.

The smile’s gone.

Her expression hardens.

That cold, steady stare she saves for me locks into place, and I meet it without flinching.

We hold the stare, tension stretched tight like a wire ready to snap.

Something lingers in the space between us, and neither of us calls it out, but we both fucking feel the pull.

It shows in the way she challenges me without speaking.

In the way I push back without trying. Some twisted line we keep toeing but never cross.

Bianca’s voice cuts through the silence, dragging my attention back.

“I don’t know too many people here, so it’ll be good to jam with someone,” she says, her gaze still fixed on Theo.

Her gaze shifts to me.

“Do you play, Nate?”

I barely get a breath in before Quinn answers.

“Yes to both those questions,” she says, voice smooth, almost sweet, but laced with something sharper underneath. “He plays the drums…and he plays the field.”

And there it is. That bite. That smirk buried in her tone like she’s practically daring me to rise to the challenge. Daring me to deny it.

“I don’t have anything going on most afternoons so I’m free anytime you want to jam,” Bianca says.

“We can do this afternoon if you want?” Theo replies, eagerness creeping into his voice. He rarely sounds like that. Open. Hopeful.

“Yeah, that sounds great. Where do you live, Theo?”

His eyes drop to the table. Fingers twitch at the hem of his hoodie like they always do when something unsettles him.

I am certain of what’s running through his head. He doesn’t want her to judge him or catch the parts of his life he’s spent years trying to outrun.

“Theo lives at Nate’s place,” Quinn answers, as if sensing the shift in him too.

I can’t help wondering how much Quinn really knows about Theo’s life. What they really talked about at those parties, when I’d catch them tucked in some dark corner while I was off drinking and chasing the next girl to fuck.

He told her he taught himself bass. That’s not nothing. That’s a crack.

What else did he tell her? Did he talk about the life he left behind? The shit he never says out loud to anyone.

Does she know about the nights he can’t sleep, when the memories get too loud and too heavy, and he slips into my bed without a word? Just needing to be close to someone. To feel like he’s not completely alone.

“Okay,” Bianca says, turning her attention back to Theo. “So that’ll be bass and drums. Do either of you sing?”

Theo lifts his head and for the first time since this conversation started, the tension bleeds from his shoulders. Relief softens his face, glad she didn’t push and dig into shit he doesn’t want to talk about.

“Nah,” he says. “We both sound like shit. Honestly, I think the neighbor’s dog has better range than us. Hits a solid high note every time the mailman shows up.”

Bianca bursts out laughing, her head tipping back as she gasps for air between the cracks of it. Tears gather at the corners of her eyes, and she clutches her stomach like she’s genuinely in pain from laughing too hard.

“Fuck, Theo,” she says, still wiping her eyes. “You just made my whole shitty day better. Seriously, I needed that.”

Quinn’s laughing too.

Smiling, I turn to look at Theo and his whole face shifts. It’s like her laughter cracked something open in him. He’s not carved in on himself anymore, not bracing for the next thing to go wrong. He’s here. In it. Holding on to the fact that he’s the reason she just laughed.

Fuck, maybe it’s nothing.

But the way he’s looking at her…it sure as shit doesn’t feel like nothing.