Hearts & Minds | WATTY Winner

Chapter 10 | Cuddle Pup | Part 1

     It was all she could think about—Theo's secret. Nora puzzled over her reaction. What had she felt as he told his story? Repulsed? Not really. Disdain? Perhaps for a fleeting moment. Doubt? Yes. Doubt. She had definitely felt doubt. But that seemed natural. What did she know about Theo, really? He had confirmed her mother's story—there had been a reason to guard her heart. Nora could not help that she had pulled away, put on a frosty chill—even if it was simply an involuntary reflex, a base reaction to death and its cause. Theo was the cause. Children had died because of him, their young lives, their promise, gone forever. There was no coming back from that devastating, unchangeable fact.

She sat up one night, unable to sleep, the hours slipping by. Finally, she flipped open her laptop and searched for news stories going back ten years. There was an AP report of the accident on a Napa throughway. It had been dark, the intersection of a road barely lit. Theo was only described as a teenager who had been speeding. A typical stupid boy, she thought. Adolescents believed they were invincible. They drove too fast. Rainey still often drove like she'd live forever. Taking his father's car, driving without a license—well, that was hardly the worst crime in the world. As long as no one got hurt.

Nora opened a new search on Theo's father, whose name he'd once mentioned was Gene. He had his own Wikipedia page, and was vice-president of a division of Moorehaven Consulting having to do with "international chemicals" industries, whatever that meant. He was handsome, olive complected like his son, with salt-and-pepper hair, a smirking smile, and sharp, rather cruel eyes. Formidable—that was the word that came to mind when looking at Gene Furlan's headshot. There was a link to his LinkedIn page. She clicked on it, but it was mostly the same info as his wiki, probably the main source.

After giving it some thought, Nora sent Theo a text: Thank you for dinner the other night. And for trusting me. Just so you know, you are worth it. She used proper spelling. She thought it was important to do that, even if it was just a text. He responded a little while later: Thanks. Followed by a string of flower and dog emojis.

The next day, she had a double surprise—a postcard from Theo, this time from Kirkland, Washington, depicting Lake Washington's shoreline. She also found a notification on her phone that Theo had accepted her Facebook friend request and sent her a message. Thanks for your text, Nora. Sorry to lay all that on you. Didn't mean to be overwhelming.

She responded immediately. You weren't. But your kisses were, she thought.

Eagerly, she explored his wall. He rarely posted and had few friends, even fewer than Nora, who had just eked over the one hundred mark, most of them Cottage customers. Rainey, on the other hand, had nearly eight hundred "friends." Theo's last post was from his Burgundy trip almost three months ago—a photo of a rainbow over a vineyard with no caption except the location. In his profile photo, his face was obscured by swim goggles, but that was his heart-melting grin all right. As she gazed fondly at it, his response came through.

So you say.

Nora stared at the words on her screen. Cryptic. Disappointing. She clicked the app closed and tucked her feelings away.

To avoid an interrogation, she told her mother and Rainey about her dinner with Theo, but said nothing about his secret nor his overwhelming kisses. It was bad enough to get their hopes up over a mere last-minute date that smacked of after-thought. Still, they wouldn't stop asking about him. Rainey sent him her own Facebook friend request, which he accepted. A mild yet unsettling sense of jealousy over how fast he had responded to her sister disconcerted Nora.

She decided to post more often. Maybe he was a lurker, and would keep track of her that way. Kind of an odd idea, but also comforting, to think about communicating with him indirectly. Every time she posted a funny anecdote or photo, she tacitly addressed it to him. She put up a photo of Rainey making rabbit ears behind Sam Brandon's head. Margaret cheek-to-jowl with Bart. A moody, filtered Instagram-ed cup of tea. Fog seeping over the Golden Gate Bridge, shot from the Warming Hut. That one got a "like" from Theo.