His fingers slipped between mine, and when he pulled back far enough for me to see it, there was a tentative smile curving his lips. Gratitude was written all over his features.
What the hell was going on?
“No glasses?” he asked, voice low and intimate. If I closed my eyes and forgot the past ten years in their entirety,Icould almost have believed we were dating.
“Contacts.” I shrugged. I never normally wore them—glasses were cheaper and more reliable and didn’t involve touching my eyeballs. The optometrist had promised me I wouldn’t feel the contacts at all.
She’d been lying.
“New outfit,” Theo added.
Ellie had helped me with what she’d called a capsule wardrobe for the weekend, halfway decent suit included. She’d always wanted to dress me up and she’d obviously had a lot of fun with it.
All the pants were too tight, I thought. She’d insisted they fit exactly right.
If the appreciative once-over Theo gave me was anything to go by, I’d been wrong to even contemplate questioning her wisdom.
“Didn’t want to embarrass you,” I admitted. I knew Theo’s family—his mom especially, but the rest of them, too—didn’t think much of me. I didn’t belong anywhere in the Hamptons, and definitely not at the sprawling mansion that served as theHargrave summer home. The last time I’d been here, I’d spent the whole time painfully aware of that.
I’d wanted it to be different this time. I couldn’t change who I was—or wasn’t—but I could make the effort of scrubbing up as well as possible. Which wasn’t very, but I knew that to Theo, the thought would count.
His was the only opinion I cared about, anyway.
“You look good,” Theo said, with more than a hint of surprise in his voice. I laughed as his fingers curled around mine. “I’ll explain later.”
“Can’t wait,” I said, squeezing his hand.
He tugged me over to his mother—who’d composed herself but still looked a little stunned—and another woman around our age.
“Mrs. Hargrave,” I greeted with a nod, offering her a polite smile. She and I were mortal enemies for the way she treated Theo, and I was fairly sure she felt the same way about me.
“Simon,” she responded, all warmth, and stepped forward with her arms open to fold me into the kind of hug rich people gave each other at galas. I accepted it without flinching, her familiar perfume filling my nose and sending goosebumps down my arms. “It’s been too long since we’ve seen you.”
“Likewise,” I said. I’d learned all the steps of this dance over the last ten years and I didn’t intend to miss any. Especially not now.
Theo’s fingers shifted in mine, the pad of his thumb tracing a circle over the back of my hand.
“And this is…?” I looked at the other woman.
“Oh!” Mrs. Hargrave said, looking genuinely startled.
Whatever was going on with Theo, it was all worth it to see his mom like this, even for a few minutes.
“This is Audrey Carfax. You remember Audrey, don’t you, Simon? You were both here for the Fourth of July… goodness, it must have been ten years ago now!”
I remembered the name Audrey. The Audrey in my memory was blonde, and this woman had glossy chestnut waves falling around her shoulders, but hair dye did exist.
“I remember,” I said, offering the hand Theo didn’t have a grip on. “You’re all grown up.”
Audrey’s smile made the theme fromJawsplay in the back of my mind. She shook my hand firmly, giving me an obvious once-over made all the more dramatic by what had to be false lashes. “That’s exactly what I said to Theo. What are you up to these days?”
I drew a breath to answer, but Theo got in first.
“Simon’s a museum curator,” he said.
Audrey’s brows rose.
It was a more impressive job title thanjunior archivist, I supposed. I could see why Theo had decided to gift me the career Iwantedinstead of the one I had in front of company like this. Especially if he was pretending to date me.