His airy chuckle is music to my ears.
“Theo,” I say, delighted at the sight of my favorite former tween heartthrob.
“Well. If it isn’t Ruby Wynne,” he croons, offering me a ridiculous wink. He must be walking home after his Curly’s shift. “I take it back. You’re allowed to be anywhere you please. And I’m happy to see you upright after the birthday wipeout of the decade.”
Theo Ford is a mess, but he’s my mess. I engulf him in a hug, and while we aren’t as close in reality, he’s all too happy to hug me back.
“Aren’t you a little overdressed for breaking and entering?” he asks.
Perhaps. I’m wearing my brand-new purple coat with jeans,leather boots, and a brightly striped purse. “I just got…a bit turned around,” I tell him.
“Is everything alright?”
I sigh. “Yes? Sort of? Maybe?”
“Want to talk about it? Step into my office?” He gestures to the dusty curb beneath us.
I smile at him. “Yeah. Actually, I do.”
We sit side by side on the curb. Theo offers me a mint, and it’s strange to see him in a Curly’s uniform again, but I’d bet he’s got aNoah and the WeekendersT-shirt underneath it.
“Can I ask you something, Theo?”
“Of course.”
“Why’d you quit acting?”
“You’re going to laugh,” he says, sliding me a look.
“I won’t. Promise.”
He toes the gravel with his sneaker, then turns to me and shrugs. “I was homesick.”
That’s not the answer I expected. In high school, rumors spread that he’d been sinking auditions. I’d always assumed he left Hollywood because Hollywood didn’t want him anymore.
“About a year afterThe Weekendersended, I had my biggest audition ever lined up,” he says. “I would’ve nailed it, too. It was that big surf movie?” I nod, because yes, Theo absolutely could’ve landed that low-budget surf thriller and won his very own Razzie. “I was on the precipice of something big, and I knew it, but my life was a circle: auditions, meetings, parties, trying to meet the right people. Be part of the scene.”
“The hamster wheel,” I acknowledge.
“Exactly. And I didn’t recognize the guy I’d become.”
“You didn’t like him?”
“No, he was fine. Had incredible hair,” Theo jokes, and I laugh. “I just felt sorry for him, to tell you the truth. I wanted to come back home and be with the people who knew me, so I could remember how to be me, too. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah.” My throat tightens. “I do.”
“I love it here,” he says, wistful. “I’ve been staying in Baker’s carriage house, but I’m moving out this week. Got my own place.”
“That’s great,” I tell him. “Congrats.”
“What’s your deal? Is it about work? A boy?”
He flashes me a playful smirk, and I laugh. Here I am, gossiping with Theo Ford on a Lakeville curb like we’re in middle school. We may as well be drinking slushies.
“Yeah,” I admit. “It’s about a boy.”
Theo clicks his tongue. “Uh-oh. What’s the problem? You like him, but you shouldn’t? He doesn’t like you back? He doesn’t know?”
