CHAPTER TWENTY: CHLOE

“Keys.”

I blinked at Theodore’s outstretched hand. “Pardon?”

“Give me the keys. I’ll drive us back.” He reached forwards and plucked them from my grip. “You’re exhausted.”

“You’re tired, too, and this is part of my—”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” He pressed the button on the key fob to unlock the car, then opened the passenger side door. “You’ve been running around like a blue arse fly all afternoon. Get in.”

All right.

Fine.

I was a bit tired.

I got in, and he closed the door behind me before joining me by getting behind the wheel. He started the car and pulled out of the parking spot, leaving me to fiddle with the radio.

“Plus, it’s past seven,” he pointed out, tapping the screen on the dash. “So, your work hours are over now.”

“Well observed,” I said, rolling my head to the side. “I can’t believe how busy it was in there today.”

“We should have left ninety minutes ago, but it was worth staying for those extra bookings. We already have a lot of interest in the lakeside cottages.”

“Do you think any really will be completed by the time we leave?”

“Yes. Two or three of them are in relatively good condition, and you know we’re prioritising cottage one as a show home since they all have similar layouts.” He tapped his fingers against the wheel as we pulled up to a red light. “Let’s leave that conversation for tomorrow.”

“Mm. What are we doing for dinner since we turned the staff down?”

They’d asked us to go for an office dinner and a couple of drinks to celebrate such a successful opening day, but Theodore had seen how tired I was from running endless errands and had politely rejected their offer.

This considerate version of him was enough to make even the coldest heart flutter.

“Don’t worry, I have it handled,” he said.

“Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the effort, but I’m not sure your famous cheese on toast is going to be a sufficient meal for tonight.”

That was the one thing he could manage without burning, after all.

Well, mostly. Sometimes the toast was touch-and-go.

He shot me a dark look. “If you must know, I called Auntie Pat at lunchtime and asked her to put something in the slow cooker for us because I suspected we might be home late.”

“What did she make?”

“Chilli con carne.”

“Sir, are you flirting with me right now?”

He laughed, taking the turn out of the town centre. “Would you like me to be flirting with you, Miss St. James?”

“Not particularly,” I mumbled. “I just like chilli.”

“Relax. If I was flirting with you, I’m fairly confident you’d be aware of it.”

Mm.

I was quite sure that would be the case, too.

I turned my head back to look out of the window with a yawn. Today truly had been long and tiring, and the one thing we hadn’t accounted for was how many kids would be coming with their parents. Because of that, I’d had to make an emergency trip to a printing shop to have some colouring and activity pages rushed through, and I all but cleared the high street out of wax crayons in the process.

It was just one of the many errands I’d undertaken today that had required me to stop in somewhere to buy some cheap flats for my poor feet.

Thank goodness we didn’t have to go anywhere tomorrow with it being Saturday. If anything, we’d just have to stop into the store to check on things in the afternoon. I could really soak my feet and treat the blisters on my baby toes.

In the end, I probably should have just stuck with the heels instead of risking new shoes altogether.

“Chloe.” Theodore’s hand was on my shoulder, gently shaking it. “Chloe, we’re back.”

I jolted up, quickly bringing my hand to cover my mouth as I yawned. “Huh?”

“You fell asleep.” A gentle smile spread across his face. “I even took the long way around.”

I glanced at the clock. We were back fifteen minutes later than we should have been. “You didn’t have to do that. I was going to get an early night.”

“No, we have to talk.” He opened his car door. “Go in, get changed, and let’s get dinner. I just need to put some rice on.”

I got out of the car. “Are you sure you can manage that?”

“From anyone else that would be patronising, but from you, it sounds like a genuine question.”

“It is a genuine question.” I retrieved my bag from the footwell and closed the car door behind me. “Use the glass bowl and put it in the microwave for twenty minutes. Don’t forget the water.”

“Now I can manage it.” He grinned, opening the door to the house. “Go on, I’ll handle it.”

“All right, thank you.” I kicked off my shoes and put them on the shoe rack, then headed straight up the stairs and into my room.

Talk.

We had to talk.

I’d almost forgotten about that with the chaos of the day. Since everyone else had arrived at the office our dynamic had been as normal, and it’d slipped my mind that the hand that had shaken so many today had been wrapped around his penis before my eyes just twenty-four or so hours ago.

Shit.

Now all I could think about was a naked Theodore in the shower.

This was going to be the worst conversation I’d ever have in my life; I was certain of it. I was going to have to pull on my professional persona to get through it and brush it off as a genuine mistake that wouldn’t happen again.

I changed out of my work clothes, tossed them in the laundry basket, and pulled on an oversized jumper dress with a hood. My tights were exchanged for thick slipper socks, and I tied my hair up into a loose bun before removing my makeup. I grabbed my phone out of my bag before I made my way downstairs to where the rich smell of chilli assaulted my senses.

“That smells so good,” I said, stepping into the kitchen.

Theodore had also changed during the time I’d been in my room, but he was missing one important component of his outfit.

“Please put on a t-shirt.”

He looked over his shoulder at me. “I’ll put one on before we eat.”

Him not wearing a t-shirt wasn’t really the problem.

The problem was that the smooth, muscular shirtless top half of him was directly complimenting the grey sweatpants covered bottom half of him.

I cleared my throat. “I’d really rather you put one on now.”

“Why? What are you envisioning over there, Chloe?”

Mhmm.

What was I envisioning about, indeed? Surely not tracing his stomach muscles with my tongue.

Nope.

Not at all.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I replied, walking to the fridge and pulling out the open bottle of wine. “Would you like a glass?”

“Do you think you could handle the sight of me shirtless, in these sweatpants, drinking wine while cooking for you?”

Putting a bowl of rice and water in the microwave couldn’t really be called cooking, but I wasn’t going to point that out.

He was so proud of himself, bless him.

“There’s no need to test the limits of my patience where you’re concerned,” I said, pouring two glasses. “I already know it’s pretty much infinite after working for you this long.”

“Maybe I was wrong about you knowing if I was flirting with you or not.”

“I’m not that dense. I simply chose to ignore it.”

The microwave beeped, and he took out the rice. “Mhmm. If you say so. Go and sit down, and I’ll bring it over.”

“Gladly.” I carried both wine glasses to the dining table and sat down in my usual spot.

He better put on a damn t-shirt.

“Here.” He put my plate down in front of me.

“Thank you,” I said, taking the cutlery he also held. “I see you did actually put on a t-shirt.”

“A promise is a promise.” He sat down opposite me and met my eyes. “Eat first. We’ll talk after.”

I nodded and unlocked my phone to doom scroll while I ate. I couldn’t believe how used to this silence I’d gotten since we’d arrived here. Aside from maybe two nights, we’d eaten dinner together every evening, and we rarely spoke during that time.

There wasn’t much for us to talk about, after all. We’d agreed to actively avoid talking about work outside of the designated work hours, and I think we both enjoyed the comfortable silence we naturally settled into during this time.

Which meant I could doom scroll Reddit and judge whether people were assholes or not based on the highly biased stories they were posting.

Like this man who was asking if he was the asshole for leaving his wife after she said there were four possible dads for their two-year-old son.

“What are you reading that has you so shocked over there?”

I raised my head, swallowing as I met Theodore’s eyes. “Um, will you judge me if I say I’m on Reddit?”

“A little bit.” His lips tugged to one side. “Depends what you’re doing on Reddit, really.”

I spun my phone around and pushed it towards him. “This guy wants to know if he’s an asshole for leaving his wife.”

“Why is he leaving her?” He peeked at the screen.

“There are four possible dads for their two-year-old.”

He coughed, dropping his spoon into his bowl and thumping his chest. “Four? How does one have four possible fathers for a child?”

“Easy,” I said, reaching for my wine. “Orgies.”

“Wow. You didn’t even have to think about it.”

“It’s all that came to mind, really.”

“I’m alarmed how quickly it did come to mind.”

“I’ve spent far more time on this website than I’d ever like to admit. You’d be surprised what pops up after a while.” I pulled my phone back towards me. “Anyway, looks like he’s not the asshole. That marriage is probably over whether it’s his kid or not.”

“Wouldn’t he have had to partake in the orgy?” He stopped, then rubbed his hand over his chin. “I cannot believe that sentence just came out of my mouth.”

I grinned. “Wow. If only everyone at the office could see you now. Can you say that again so I can get it on camera?”

“Are you trying to get some kind of blackmail folder pulled together? Between that just now and you trying to sneak pictures of my socks, I’m getting a bit scared.”

Ah. Shoot. He’d caught me. “Maybe I’d just like a souvenir of my time as your assistant.”

“Then I’ll buy you your own hot dog socks if you really like them that much.”

“It’s really not the socks,” I muttered, putting my spoon down in the bowl. “I’m so glad I didn’t have to cook tonight.”

He glanced down at my bowl. “Are you done?”

I nodded. “I’ll do the dishes.”

“Just put them in the dishwasher.”

“No, it’ll be full if Auntie Pat came today, and I can’t be bothered to empty it right now. It’ll be quicker to just wash the dishes we’ve used.”

“Good point. I’ll dry them, then. Go ahead if you want to get started, I don’t mind.”

I paused before nodding and getting to my feet. “Come out when you’re done.” I took both my wine and my bowl and carried them out to the kitchen.

If we were done, it meant we were going to talk about yesterday.

Ugh.

My stomach flipped at the mere thought of it. Could I really play it off coolly? Was it possible for me to brush it off as if it were nothing?

Possible or not, I had to try.

I poured the last of the wine into my glass while the sink filled up. Talking while doing the dishes was going to be far less awkward than sitting there across from one another, so maybe I’d just have to get it started as soon as he came in.

It was fine.

I was an adult.

I could do this.

“Are you trying to flood the kitchen?”

I jerked out of my reverie and reached for the tap before the water overfilled the sink. “Shit.”

Theodore chuckled, putting his bowl down. “I guess not.”

“Psh,” I muttered, rolling up my sleeves so I could reach down into the water and let some of the water out. “I was thinking about something else.”

“Let me guess: your little peep show yesterday?”

My cheeks flamed, and I shoved the plug back in the hole and turned to look at him. “Listen here, you—”

“Why are you blushing so hard?” He leant in, his grey-blue eyes twinkling. “I’m the one who got peeped on. Shouldn’t I be the embarrassed party here?”

“It was a mistake!” I grabbed the cloth and stepped back, putting some distance between us. “I didn’t know you were in there.”

“How could you not know? I told you I was going up there, the shower was on, and I closed the door.”

I stilled. “You… told me?”

“Yes, while you were doing yoga. I told you I was taking a shower in the main bathroom because the one in my bathroom wasn’t heating the water properly. Someone is coming on Monday morning to look at it. You said okay.”

Ah.

So, that’s what he said.

“Um.” I turned my attention to washing the dishes. “Actually, I had no idea you said that. I had my earbuds in and was listening to music, so I didn’t hear a thing.”

“So, why did you say okay?”

“Because you were in my face while I was trying to plank, and only masochists hold a conversation while planking. I wanted you to go away.”

Theodore sighed, reaching back for the tea towel to dry the dishes as I washed them. “That explains so much. Is that why you didn’t hear the shower?”

“Well, I switched to a podcast when I was done working out, but the water was so faint I just assumed it was in your en-suite.”

“What about the closed door?”

“The door was open.” I stilled, then turned my head slightly. “Oh, you don’t use the tub, so you probably don’t know about the latch.”

He met my gaze while drying one of the bowls. “What about it?”

“It’s a bit finickity. You can’t just push the door shut; you have to give it a proper good shove. If you don’t, it pops right back open.”

“This seems like a series of extraordinary coincidences.”

“Call it what you want, but it’s all true. Go and test the door right now if you don’t believe me.” I shrugged. “And my earbuds are noise cancelling, so it’s not that weird that I couldn’t hear anything.”

“All right, fine. How you ended up there was unfortunate.” He leant sideways towards me. “But that doesn’t explain why you stood there watching me.”

I froze.

Shit.

He saw me.

“I have no idea what you mean,” I eked out, forcing myself to scrub the bowl.

“You can lie all you want, but I saw you in the mirror. You watched me, and you only left because I turned towards you.”

Shitshitshitshit.

My whole body burnt with embarrassment.

“I… I…”

“You locked yourself in your room pretty quickly after that, didn’t you?” He put down the bowl, dropping all pretence of drying it, and wrapped one arm around me. He gripped the edge of the counter, trapping me in place in front of the sink. “Do you know why I texted you I was done instead of knocking on your door?”

My heart pounded against my ribs.

“Because,” he whispered, lowering his mouth to my ear. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”