to work for Theo. Now people would want to know why they were fighting, too.
She turned back to him. “I came out here to check on you,” she hissed. “Not to get in some competition over who has it worse.”
“I never said I had it worse than anyone!” As Oscar started to stretch and kick in his arms, Theo lowered his voice. “You said I was condescending to you.”
“You have been! You know you have been.” Kate stamped her foot, which was less than satisfying in the soft sand. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“I’m trying to create boundaries.”
“Why? Because you think I’m going to steal stuff?”
“No,” he said, sounding agonized.
“The other day you asked if I was going to.”
“I was overreacting. I apologized for that.”
“Then what are you so afraid of?”
“What do you think?”
As soon as the words left Theo’s mouth, he flushed a deep red that was visible even in the darkness.
For one beat, two, Kate didn’t understand what he meant. She stared at him, uncomprehendingly, until he looked away.
Then it all came together. His blush, his sharp tone. The shock almost made her fall over.
All this time, she had thought he hated her, but that wasn’t it at all. He liked her. He was attracted to her, too, and he was afraid of crossing a line.
“Oh,” she said.
She felt like she had been listening to their whole argument through a stereo whose electricity had suddenly been cut. She sifted through her memories of the past few weeks, trying to square them with this new revelation. That first encounter in the foggy backyard; his defensiveness about the sketchbooks, the stairs; how he had seemed to avoid her at all costs. She had sensed that the attraction wasn’t completely one-sided, but she had never imagined that he might be conscious of it—that he was trying to set her away from him.
She had an odd, dizzy feeling, as if she had held her breath to get rid of hiccups, and had thought they were gone, only to open her mouth and have her body jerk with a hup of air. Without meaning to, she began to laugh. Not cruelly: giddily, confusedly. Theo swung his head around.
“I’m sorry,” she said, covering her mouth. “It’s just … I thought you hated me.”
He threw her a baleful look. “I don’t hate you,” he said.
His voice was calm, but his shoulders had a slight defensive hitch. He didn’t want her to say anything else about it. Good. She had no idea what she would say. The surprise had melted away her anger, and maybe some ligaments in her knees, because standing up suddenly seemed exhausting. She sat down cross-legged in the sand.
When Theo didn’t move, she tilted her head up at him expectantly. After a moment, he sighed and sat down next to her, setting Oscar down between them. The boy immediately stretched out on the sand, his head cradled against his elbow.
“So loud,” Oscar said sleepily. “Shh.”
“Sorry, bud,” Theo said.
Kate turned her attention to the sand beside her. There was a little pink shell there, and she brushed sand over it again and again, until a small pyramid rose up over it.
“Listen,” she said to Theo. “Putting all that aside for a second, I came over here to say I’m sorry. I didn’t know what Louise was planning.”
“I know.” Theo’s lip quirked up at the corner. “The look on your face … I thought you might pass out.”
She laughed again, this time in relief. “I thought I might pass out.”
Theo scratched his temple. “It wasn’t the cake that bothered me. It’s just—it’s weird being back here. Where it all happened. All this stuff I try to ignore. We came down to this beach once for my dad’s birthday, when I was little. We brought a cake and everything. Lit the candles, sang him happy birthday, ate it. And then he…” He seemed to catch himself. “Well, it just reminded me of that, you know? The crowd, the candles. I got thrown back.” He sighed and dropped his hand. “That’s why I got upset in the stairwell that day, you know. I hadn’t seen those drawings in years.”
“I could tell you were surprised,” Kate said carefully.
“Growing up, we didn’t have people come to the house. So when I see you in there, sometimes there’s a reflex. That you’re not supposed to be there. I know that’s not an excuse.”
For a second, Kate was comforted by the apology. Then she remembered