“Come on.” Grace put down her water, and reached for the next box. “If we keep at it, we can get to at least nineteen sixty-four!”
It was past five by the time Brandon called time on the sorting. He insisted on walking Grace to her door, despite her protests. “You never know who’s lurking around here,” he warned her. “And my mom would kill me if I let you go home alone.”
“Well, thanks,” Grace told him, reaching for her keys. “I guess chivalry lives on.”
She moved to open the door, but it swung open; Hallie breathless on the other side. “Finally!” she cried. “Where have you been?”
“Out —” Grace yelped as Hallie dragged her inside. “Bye, Brandon. . . .” The door slammed in his face. “Oww.” Grace pulled away, rubbing her arm. “Did you have to be so rude? You didn’t even say hi to him.”
Hallie rolled her eyes. “Never mind Brandon!” She began pushing Grace through the entrance hall, back toward the kitchen. “You have to come see!”
“What?”
“Wait.” Hallie stopped dead, not answering Grace. “Let me do something with your hair first.” She fussed at Grace’s braid. “Why couldn’t you get it relaxed last week, when I did? And your outfit! Maybe you should go change . . . ? No, there’s no time, you’ll have to do.”
“Do for what?” Grace exclaimed, equal parts frustrated and confused. She batted away Hallie’s hands, now trying to smear lip gloss on her face. “Will you please tell me what’s going on?”
Hallie beamed at her, and resumed the dragging until Grace stumbled out onto the back patio. Her mom, Amber, and Uncle Auggie were taking their seats at the dinner table, with . . .
Grace froze.
“Look who’s come to visit!” Hallie cried, throwing out her arms like a game show hostess. “It’s Theo!”
“Hey.” Theo grinned at her. “Surprise.”
Grace stared at him in shock. His hair was shorter, she noticed, and he had new glasses with black frames; wearing a crimson college sweatshirt and khaki pants. But for all the changes, he was still so unmistakably Theo — vivid and real in front of her for the first time in so long — that it made Grace’s heart leap.
“Theo!” She flew toward him, arms outstretched, but Theo’s answering hug was weak, and he stepped back almost right away. Grace stopped, confused, and dropped her hands to her sides. There was a pause.
“So what are you doing here?” she asked, recovering. “I thought you were slammed with classes all semester.”
“Some of Theo’s friends were driving down for the UCLA game,” Hallie answered for him, “so he thought he’d drop by and say hi. Isn’t that great?”
“You should have come down sooner,” their mom added. “You’re always welcome. After all, you’re still part of the family!”
“Thanks, Mrs. W.” Theo turned to Amber and Uncle Auggie. “And thank you both again for inviting me to dinner.”
“Oh, look at you, so polite.” Amber giggled. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay the night? We have the room!”
“No thank you, I have to meet the guys after the game, and head back up to campus,” Theo explained. “But I couldn’t come to town and not see you . . . all. See you all.” He caught Grace’s eye for a second, then looked away, almost bashful.
Grace paused. Why was he acting like they’d barely even met, when just yesterday they’d spent a half hour arguing over word scores on an Internet Scrabble game? Was something the matter? Had she done something wrong? Grace grabbed a nearby seat, her happiness fading.
“No, silly, you go sit over there.” Hallie shoved her around the table to a chair beside Theo. “I bet you’ve got tons of catching up to do!”
Grace dutifully slid into the chair. Theo reached for his water glass and began gulping steadily. “Easy there,” she teased. “You know there’s a global shortage, right?”
Theo put his glass down so abruptly it splashed.
“Well, isn’t this great?” Amber cooed, beaming from the head of the table. “Theo here’s been telling us all about Stanford, and your baby brother.”
Theo nodded. “Dash is doing well,” he told them. “He’s getting really big now, you wouldn’t believe. And Portia . . .”
Grace laughed. “We know Portia. What is it this week, baby Pilates classes? Early-years algebra?” She shot him a conspiratorial look, the kind they used to share all the time, but Theo just stared down, his gaze fixed firmly on the plate of lemon chicken Rosa had just deposited in front of him.
Grace felt her heart slip.
“Theo, Theo . . .” Uncle Auggie mused, furrowing his bushy eyebrows. “That’s with a T, right?”
Grace froze.
“Uh, yes.” Theo frowned.
“Yum, this chicken is great!” Grace said quickly, trying to derail the subject. “Do you know where Rosita got the recipe?”
They ignored her. “Theo with a T,” Auggie told Amber meaningfully. She looked blank for a moment, and then brightened.
“A T!” Amber looked from Theo to Grace and back again. “Of course! Welcome!”
Theo looked truly baffled. “Sure. Thanks for having me.”
To Grace’s relief, Amber’s phone buzzed; she glanced down, distracted, and Grace leaped at the chance to redirect conversation away from the various consonants that made up Theo’s name. “How’s college?” she asked quickly. “Is that history professor giving you a break yet? Theo has this one guy who’s a real dictator,” Grace explained to the table. “He keeps springing tests on them with no warning.”
Theo paused. “He’s OK, but, my course load just doubled.” He looked uncomfortable. “I decided to double major in business, as well. To keep them all happy back home.”
“Oh, you never told me that.” Grace frowned, but Uncle Auggie nodded.
“Smart move, keeping your options open. And in this economy —”
“No one cares about the stupid economy!” Hallie interrupted. “Theo wants to hear all the latest news. Like my acting career.”
Finally, a smile tugged the edges of Theo’s lips. “I’d love to hear about your acting,” he told Hallie. “Tell me all about it.”
Grace sat quietly through the rest of dinner, her first burst of joy long forgotten. This was all wrong: Theo had barely even looked in her direction all night. When it came to her mom, or Hallie, Theo laughed and joked like nothing had changed, but all of Grace’s questions were met with awkward, half-hesitant replies until she gave up on trying to talk to him at all. What had happened?