Page 34 of The Sunday Brothers Novellas

Everyone moved off in different directions.

I turned on a holiday music station before moving between the two craft activities to help out.

Time passed quickly, the way it always did on Fridays, and I made sure to check in quietly with a few of the kids who might struggle at home with the upcoming school vacation.

I appreciated the distraction because otherwise, I would have been thinking of nothing but Theo. What was he doing? Was he remembering what I’d said about coming for him when the semester was over?

When it was finally time for us to clean up and get ready for the parents to pick the kids up, I felt a strange vibe in the room, like the kids were expecting something.

While the faculty had provided bags of food and small gifts for each family, they weren’t the kind of gifts that would make these kids feel very pampered.

I hoped the anticipation wasn’t about that.

Had I built it up too much by mentioning it?

“Porter! Someone’s here asking for you,” Laci said with a singsong tone in her voice.

I turned around from where I’d been cleaning up the last of the shredded tissue paper leftover from the star suncatcher project and saw a very nervous-looking Dr. Theodore Hancock standing in the doorway, holding a giant bouquet of colorful flowers.

My heart leapt into my throat, and all I could think was He remembered. He definitely remembered . “Theo—uh… Dr. Hancock?”

“It’s Theo, Porter,” he said, clearing his throat. “For you… just Theo.”

Everyone stood still and watched with knowing smirks on their faces. None of them looked confused about who he was or what he was doing there. “What… What’s going on?”

He walked into the room and held the flowers out to me. “I wanted to ask you to dinner. Last night, I mean. But you weren’t here at the Hub, and when I called, you didn’t answer your phone. ”

My face heated. “It was turned off. I was… out with friends. Celebrating.” Making plans.

He scraped his lip with his teeth, a nervous gesture I’d never seen him do before. It was endearing as hell. “I thought that might be it. So I… made alternate arrangements.”

Laci bounced on her toes and made a muffled squeal sound. Kyrie let out a giggle. Raquon elbowed her.

“Okay…” I said, looking around. “Yeah. I’d like that. Dinner, I mean.”

Edgar rolled his eyes. “This is excruciating. Get to the good part, Doc.”

The edge of Theo’s lips twitched up. “I brought dinner to you. Well, to everyone. There’s a taco truck outside. And since it would be a little excessive to bring it here just for the two of us, I?—”

Laci blurted, “He invited all our families! Isn’t he the sweetest!”

“ Unlimited tacos ,” Edgar clarified with an awed voice.

“For all of us. They’re already parked out there next to the basketball court.

And just sayin’, Doc, if Porter won’t date you, I’ve got a single uncle and two older cousins you could check out.

Because seriously, nothing says love like unlimited tacos. ”

Laci and Raquon grabbed my hands and pulled me down the hall and out the door to the parking lot. Sure enough, Hannabury’s most popular food truck was happily twinkling like a beacon with its strings of fairy lights while the mouth-watering smells of fresh tacos wafted in the crisp winter air.

I looked back at Theo in shock as his gesture sank in. “You did this? For me? Why?”

He handed me the flowers and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek. “Because I figured if I wanted to get your attention, the best way would be by taking care of the kids you love.”

“You were right,” I agreed softly.

The kids raced past us to get in line at the truck’s serving window. Parents got out of their cars to join them. Music poured from the speakers on the truck and filled the area with a festive atmosphere.

I turned to Theo, flowers in one hand, and looped a finger into his belt buckle. “Hi.” I breathed him in. “ Hi .”

“Hey. Congratulations on no longer being a Hannabury student,” he said with a teasing grin.

“Thank fuck,” I whispered against his cheek.

“Porter… I have a lot of things to say to you, but first and foremost…” He glanced around at the kids and the impromptu party atmosphere he’d created. “Will you come home with me tonight?”

I laughed, so relieved I couldn’t stand it. “I was planning on it. I, uh… might have already picked out a sonnet to scream at your house if I had to.”

He pulled back and smiled at me. “You were planning on coming to me?”

“Seven weeks and one day, remember?”

Theo’s smile lit up the parking lot even more than the food truck’s twinkle lights and the giant floodlights over the nearby basketball court. “Seven weeks ago, I wanted to ask you to wait for me, but I couldn’t. I needed to make sure you didn’t feel obligated or pressured.”

“I understand,” I admitted. And I did, when I wasn’t under tequila’s dubious influence. “You were in a difficult position. And we didn’t know where I’d be after the semester was over either.”

“And now?” he asked eagerly.

“Now… I’m going to be program director here at the Hub,” I said with excitement I couldn’t conceal.

“I wrote a whole bunch of grant proposals exactly as you said I should, but it turned out I didn’t need to because the Hannabury Fund got an endowment from a local foundation.

Turns out this former Hannabury physics professor was an inventor, and… ”

I blinked as several pieces of information slid into place in my brain.

“Theo,” I began calmly. “What did you say your grandfather’s name was?”

He ran a hand through his hair. Took his glasses off to buff them against the hem of his shirt, then set them back on his face. “I, uh… I’m not sure I mentioned it.”

“Sutton,” I supplied. “As in the Sutton Family Foundation?”

Theo looked uncharacteristically sheepish. “Maybe?”

“You… you did this?” My eyes widened, and my face went hot. “You… you endowed me ?”

“It wasn’t for you,” he said quickly. “I mean, it was . I hoped it was. But the endowment was for the Hub. I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to pressure you.

If you changed your mind about anything, like wanting that big-city job or…

or being attached to me, I wanted you to be able to make that choice free and clear.

But, if you wanted to stay… I wanted you to have that option. ”

“Oh. My. God. You… you gave me my dream job, Theo. You… you made it possible.” I swallowed hard as tears threatened.

“The job is yours, Porter, because you earned it. I have no say in who the Hannabury Fund chooses to run their program, and I swear your name was never mentioned during the entire process of the endowment. Whatever happens with you and me, whether you want to be with me or not…”

“Stop talking,” I whispered.

Theo frowned. “But…”

I shook my head and pressed a finger to his lips.

“I thought words were power. You taught me that. But actions speak a thousand times louder, don’t they?

You haven’t just given me a gift. You’ve given a gift to all of the kids in this community.

If I wasn’t already half in love with you, Theodore Hancock, I would be now. ”

“Love?” His gaze flicked between my eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Frantic-madly,” I promised in a whisper, twining my arms around his neck, flowers and all. “I can’t believe you did all this, and I didn’t even have to yell Sonnet 147 at you to get your attention this time.”

Theo’s hands grasped my waist like he never wanted to let me go. “You’ve had my attention all along, Porter Sunday. Do you remember the first line of that sonnet?”

I felt light-headed and managed to nod jerkily.

My love is as a fever, longing still.

“Good,” he said, his voice deep and full of want. “Because that is how I feel about you. And I’m going to prove it to you day by day.” He leaned down until his lips rested against mine.

“Starting tonight?” I asked with a grin.

“Starting now ,” he said, and then my terrible, brilliant, generous, amazing jerk of a professor, my Doctor Hot-Cock, the love of my life, kissed me right there in the middle of the impromptu taco party…

And for the two of us, there could be no happily ever after more randomly, wonderfully poetic than that.