Bad Case of Loving You

by Deborah Cooke

  Lyssa smiled but she felt taut inside.

  He’d figured it out.

  She felt exposed, then told herself she was being silly.

  All of Justin’s old threats seemed to find new life, even though rationally, she knew that she could trust Theo. He wasn’t going to run off with Logan. It was Justin she couldn’t trust, apparently, and she wished again that she knew the extent of what he hadn’t been telling her.

  “Okay?” Theo asked with concern.

  Lyssa forced a smile. “Just planning my afternoon,” she said.

  “But the butterfly show is sold out this week,” Logan supplied. “That’s what they told us...” He fell silent as Theo fanned out three tickets. The boys hooted, not so much because they loved butterflies, but because they wanted to see every inch of the museum and every item in its collections.

  “Our time is in twenty minutes, which gives us time to get up there,” Theo said. “Ready?”

  “Then we can visit the whale,” Logan said.

  “And Hayden Big Bang gallery,” Simon said.

  Theo nodded. “We’ll have to see how much time we have. After we go through the exhibit, one of the curators is going to take us behind the scenes and explain more about the butterflies and the collection.”

  “Awesome!” Logan said. “Do they have the larvae here, too?”

  “You’ll have to ask Cate,” Theo said. “But I think she mentioned something about the cocoons being shipped in regularly.”

  Cate.

  “We’ll ask her,” Logan said.

  “I want to see one being born,” Simon said.

  “Hatched,” Logan corrected. “I think they hatch.” He looked at Theo.

  “I don’t know the right word. Maybe they emerge.” The boys stood up, leading the way to the entrance and Theo glanced back. “Wish me luck,” he murmured.

  “You don’t need it,” Lyssa said, struggling for composure. “Meet you here later?”

  “Four-thirty?”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Kyle recommended a restaurant on Columbus so maybe we can all get a bite.”

  “That’d be great.” Lyssa said. “See you then.”

  Theo studied her for a moment. “Everything okay?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  Lyssa was tempted and decided to follow her impulse. “Maybe after dinner.” It would be good to talk to someone she trusted.

  “Why don’t you come with us?”

  “Because you have three tickets, and it’s your time.”

  Theo held her gaze for a minute, then Logan shouted at him to hurry up. He bent down and brushed his lips against her ear, sending delicious shivers through her. “I won’t steal him away. Promise.”

  Lyssa forced herself to smile. “I know.”

  “But you’re afraid.” His gaze locked on hers and his voice dropped low. “Trust me, Lyssa.”

  “I’m trying.”

  “That’s a good start.” Theo stole a kiss then, surprising her when his lips touched hers. He grinned at her response, then strode after the boys, trotting up the stairs to meet them. “You two must know the way already.”

  “We know everything about the museum,” Logan said.

  “Maybe not everything,” Theo countered and then they were out of earshot. “I mean, they must have some secrets. Everybody does.”

  Everybody does.

  What was Theo’s secret?

  Lyssa touched her lips and dared to hope he’d gotten that tattoo for another reason than the obvious one.

  Something was wrong.

  Theo had sensed it as soon as he’d met Lyssa, and he was relieved that she might talk to him about it. He wondered how many friends and confidantes she had in town, and had to guess she’d chosen New York because of personal connections. Still, he’d be glad to listen to her and help in any way he could.

  For the moment, he had more questions to answer than he could believe. The boys never seemed to fall silent and it was a challenge to keep up with both of them.

  It was fun, too.

  Simon was tall and thin, and seemed intense, but that might have been because his glasses had thick lenses that distorted his eyes. He was at least partly Asian, and Theo guessed his dad was Jewish given his surname. It was also clear to Theo pretty quickly that Logan was the outgoing one of the pair. Logan asked all the questions and led the way, while Simon hung back a bit and listened as if he was memorizing everything. He started to think that Logan got the pair into trouble and that Simon figured out how to get them out of it. It was clear that they were really close, which reminded him of himself and Aidan when they were about the same age.

  The boys were given big magnifying glasses at the entrance to the exhibit, and they read the explanations together. The doors opened automatically and they laughed that one of the butterflies was caught between the paired doors. The air was surprisingly warm and humid, and that was before they went through the second set of doors. Theo was startled by the scent of flowers and the sound of running water—and the incredible number of butterflies. They were everywhere, in multitudes: flying, landing, eating from dishes of fruit, fluttering and having sex. The boys, perhaps predictably, wanted to find a butterfly of each and every kind listed to be there. It took them a while to work their way through the exhibit, and they stopped to examine many of the butterflies on the dishes of fruit. They spent a lot of time at the incubator, where butterflies were emerging from cocoons or drying their wings. There were some birds in the exhibit, as well, and it felt like a tropical paradise.

  Cate met them and took the boys into the back room. She was obviously used to kids, because she answered all their questions and was unfazed by how many they had. When they parted, she suggested to Theo that he consider some of the kids’ programming offered in the summers. He thanked her again, then ushered the boys out.

  It was surprisingly easy to keep track of them, Kyle’s rules being in play, and Theo enjoyed himself. They stopped to see the big whale again on the way out, and Theo was surprised by how quickly the time had passed. “No time for the planetarium,” he said to Simon. “We’re meeting Logan’s mom in just twenty minutes.”

  “That’s okay. We saw it last week.”

  “And we can come with Theo next time we’re here,” Logan said. “Mom and I will have our apartment by then and it will be awesome.”

  “Did you pick one yet?” Theo asked.

  His son nodded. “Mom’s going to the bank before we buy it, but she’ll make it happen. She fixes everything.”

  His confidence in Lyssa was complete and Theo was glad. They sat under the whale, staring up at it, speculating on what it was like to see one swimming.

  “If you’re from England, how come you live here?” Logan asked suddenly.

  “I came for college and stayed,” Theo explained.

  “But they have colleges in England. Don’t they?”

  “They do. Lots of them.” Theo considered the two boys and decided to tell them the story. “But I wanted to go somewhere different.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, when I was a kid, we lived in London and I had friends there. But then, when I was about nine, my dad got another job in another town and we moved.”

  “You left all your friends behind,” Simon suggested with a wise nod.

  “I did, plus it was different in my new school.”

  “Were you the only one?” Logan asked and Theo guessed his meaning.

  “Not quite. What was more important was that I was new, and I didn’t know all the things that had happened there before.”

  “Like what?” Simon asked.

  “Well, I liked to play football.”

  “Soccer,” Logan informed Simon. “They call it football in England.” Simon nodded.

  “Soccer,” Theo agreed. “And at the first game I played, I scored a goal.”

  “Yay, you,” Logan said with a smile.

  “I thou
ght so. But the guy who was goalkeeper had not allowed any goals the year before. He wasn’t very happy that this new guy got a goal in the very first game.”

  “So he was mean to you,” Logan said. Theo wished he hadn’t been able to make that guess, since it probably came from experience. “As if being a good player was a bad thing.”

  “He had two good friends and they were big kids, bigger than me. They gave me a hard time. They were pretty careful to make sure none of the teachers ever saw or heard them, but it wasn’t any fun.”

  “What did they do?”

  “Lots of things. One made monkey noises when I came into class. One used to trip me whenever he could. Stuff like that.”

  Logan wrinkled his nose. “I bet you wanted to beat them up.”

  “I was a skinny kid in those days, though. I didn’t have a chance.”

  “And there were three of them,” Simon added.

  “Plus my dad has no tolerance for fisticuffs.”

  “Fisticuffs!” Logan repeated with delight, then pretended to box with Simon. “What does that mean?”

  “Fighting with your fists. It’s an old word and my dad likes old words. Plus he doesn’t think fighting solves much of anything. He’s a police officer, so he thinks that people often find trouble when they’re looking for it. The best plan, to his thinking, is to be your best self and stay out of trouble.”

  “But sometimes trouble finds you,” Simon said. The boys exchanged a glance and again Theo wondered what experiences they’d shared.

  “My dad has rules and no fisticuffs, by which he means no fighting for the sake of fighting, is a big one.”

  “Rules like Gibbs,” Simon said.

  Theo smiled. “But not numbered.”

  “What happened with the jerks at your school?” Logan asked.

  “They were waiting for me when I left school one day, on the road that I always walked to go home. They followed behind, taunting me.”

  “Why?” Logan asked. Simon let him ask most of the questions but he was listening intently.

  “They wanted me to strike out first, because then they’d just be defending themselves and I’d be the one who started the fight.”

  “That’s sneaky,” Simon muttered.

  “It is. I figured I’d lose, but I was ready to stop it.”

  “Even with fisticuffs?” Logan said the word with glee.

  “Even so. But then this guy from the football—soccer—team showed up.”

  “He saw you get that goal,” Logan said.

  “He did. He was the team captain and he told them to leave me alone. They were afraid of him, because he was taller and also one of the most popular guys at school. Everyone liked him. He was a good kid.”

  “And he stopped those bullies,” Logan said with satisfaction.

  “He did. Without fisticuffs.”

  “Yay!” Logan said and Theo laughed.

  “We became good friends after that. He was my best friend, just like you and Simon are best friends. We hung out together all the time, played football together, rode our bikes all over the place, all that stuff. There were all these things that we were going to do together, like go to the same college.”

  “And get an apartment together,” Logan said.

  “And live next door to each other forever,” Simon said.

  “We were going to start a company together, too, although what kind of company kept changing.”

  The boys nodded understanding of that, and Theo wondered what they had planned.

  “So, where does he live?” Logan demanded, looking around as if he expected Aidan to just turn up at any minute.

  “That’s just it. He doesn’t.” Theo swallowed. “The month before we were going to go to college, he was riding his bike home from work and a truck hit him from behind. He died right away.”

  The boys looked as shocked by this as Theo had been. He pulled out the necklace that was tucked inside his shirt and showed them the silver medallion that hung on it. “He used to wear this. His grandmother gave it to him.”

  “I want a grandma,” Logan muttered, much to Theo’s surprise. He assumed his own mum would step up, but kept silent on that for the moment. What had happened to Lyssa’s mom?

  “What is it?” Simon asked, leaning closer.

  “It’s a St. Christopher medallion.” Theo turned it so the boys could see the image. “It’s supposed to protect travelers. It was given to him one birthday, and his mum gave it to me at his funeral. I’ve worn it ever since.”

  “Because he was your best friend.” Logan touched the medallion with his fingertip.

  Theo nodded. “And because he wasn’t going to be at that college, I decided to come to America instead, and just do something different.”

  “So you wouldn’t be at the college where he was supposed to be,” Logan said.

  “Plus you had the medallion to protect you on a trip,” Simon said.

  “And you made new friends here, like Kyle,” Logan concluded.

  Theo smiled. “Exactly. We decided to start Flatiron Five together, so I stayed here and we did it.”

  Logan frowned, his gaze fixed on the medallion. “Do you think your friend knows?”

  “I hope so.”

  “Do you miss him?”

  “Every day.” Theo hesitated for a minute, then told the rest of the story. “His name was Aidan.”

  Logan glanced up in surprise. “That’s my middle name.”

  “Because I told your mom about him a long time ago.”

  “And she gave me his name because you might have done that if you’d known about me,” Logan said softly.

  “I certainly would have.” Theo watched Logan studying the medallion, then knew what he had to do. He wasn’t usually impulsive but maybe Lyssa’s influence was showing. He removed the necklace and offered it to his son. “I think this should be yours now.”

  Logan’s eyes widened. “Can I wear it?”

  “I’d be glad if you did.” Theo slipped the chain over Logan’s head and watched his son touch it with wonder. It looked right on him and he didn’t need a talisman to remember Aidan.

  “Thank you, Theo.” Logan tucked it inside his shirt with care, just as Theo had worn it. Then he leaned closer, eyes shining. “I saw the billboard with the guy without an arm.”

  “Nate.”

  “Can we climb that wall?”

  “Of course, you can. There are rules and there’s gear you have to wear, but we can do that together.”

  “Before we go back to school?”

  “It doesn’t have to be that soon,” Simon said, showing some trepidation.

  “You can’t fall, Simon,” Logan said. “There’s a harness and everything.”

  “It’s time to meet your mom.” Theo tapped his watch. “Let’s see what she has to say about it, then we can talk to Simon’s parents, too.”

  “Tell me more of your dad’s rules,” Logan said.

  “Be your best self,” Theo said. “Always be polite. There’s no such thing as coincidence.”

  “And no fisticuffs!” The boys hurried ahead of Theo but stayed within sight and he dared to take a breath. He thought it had gone okay, especially for a first time together. They waited at the door for him and they all left the museum together, the boys talking excitedly about their time with Cate as Theo urged them to zip up their coats and put on their hats.

  “Mom!” Logan shouted and dashed down the steps to Lyssa. She was looking at her phone but recognizable by that huge fur hat. She turned to face Logan and smiled at the sight of him. The way her features lit told Theo everything about her feelings for their son. “Look what Theo gave me! It was Aidan’s!”

  And Lyssa looked to Theo in obvious shock.

  He smiled as he caught up with them. “It seemed right,” he said to her in an undertone.

  “It seems impulsive,” she said as if that was unthinkable.

  Theo smiled. “Maybe it was. It still feels right.”

  Their
gazes held for a long moment, then she took off her hat and Theo was the one surprised. Her hair was cut very short and dyed back to its natural ash blonde.

  His Lyssa was back.

  And he felt shaken, stirred, and excited about the future.

  “What do you think?”

  “I love it.”

  “I do, too,” she said, pushing her hand through it. “I feel like I’m getting myself back.”

  “You really are retiring,” he said, and touched a fingertip to the freckles on her nose.

  She laughed and stepped back, but he saw the glimmer of awareness in her eyes. “Yes! It’s really happening.” Their gazes clung for one of those moments that stole his breath away, then Logan tugged at Theo’s hand.

  “Hurry up. I’m starving!”

  Oh, those simmering looks. Funny how time hadn’t diminished the effect of Theo’s undivided attention—and the power of his approval. Lyssa couldn’t doubt that he liked the change to her hair, or that he approved of her choice to retire to New York.

  There had been a time when he’d been almost inscrutable. Had he become more open, or was she better at reading his thoughts? Either way, she felt more strongly connected to him than ever.

  And he’d impulsively surrendered his memento of Aidan. Lyssa was sure he’d never even taken it off since his friend’s funeral. But he’d given it to Logan.

  Plus he’d taken the lead in those pop-ups.

  Maybe Theo was less conservative and rigid than Lyssa had always believed. Maybe he’d changed. It was an intriguing idea. She walked beside him, letting him guide them to the restaurant he’d chosen, savoring her sense of relief. He was making this transition easy for her, showing the grace she remembered so well, and she wished again that she knew why he had that tattoo.

  She should ask him outright.

  Maybe she would.

  Clearly, Theo’s afternoon with the boys had gone well.

  Clearly, the fears that Justin had fostered in her imagination were groundless.

  Lyssa felt good with her hair cut short and back to her natural color. It made her feel lighter and younger, and more in charge of her own life. She’d forgotten how good that could feel. It was true that she had no entourage and no one to check that everything was perfect, but she also had no schedule or obligations, beyond the important ones to Logan. It was liberating and easier to get used to than she’d feared.