Page 24 of Better Than Revenge

Theo stood now. “Abuela, this is Finley and her, uh…friends.” He obviously didn’t know their names. Why would he have bothered to learn those?

“Nice to meet you,” she said.

There were no more chairs at the table, but Theo pointed to a breakfast nook tucked at the back of the kitchen and raised his eyebrows at his mom. She gave a small nod.

“This way,” he said to us.

“Do we get the kids’ table?” Maxwell said under his breath as we made our way through the kitchen to the second table. It was surrounded on one side by bay windows. I could make out the ocean in the distance, the moonlight glowing on the surface of the water, but that was about it.

For a second, I thought Theo was going to drop us off at the table and rejoin his family, but he sat down. We did too. The noise at the other table, which had gone completely silent when we were announced, picked up again, a low vibration of voices.

“Theodore, huh?”

“Yes.” Theo laughed a little. “You actually came.”

“I thought it was a real party,” I said with narrowed eyes.

“You asked if I was having a party,” he said. “You didn’t ask what kind.”

“The wordpartyimplies what kind,” I said.

Max popped his eyebrows. “If you were looking for an excuse to getushere, you just had to say so.” When saying the wordus,he put his hand on my arm.

I batted it away.

“I’m Max, by the way,” he said. Deja and Lee introduced themselves as well. Deja had a look on her face that said she wasn’t happy. That this just confirmed he was a jerk and I needed to stay away from him. I agreed.

“Nice to meet you,” Theo responded. “Do you want to eat? There’s food on the island. You can help yourself. The plates are on the end.”

Lee and Maxwell exchanged a look, then rose simultaneously and headed for the food.

“They’re dating, right?” Theo asked.

“Do you have a problem with that?” I asked.

“No, I don’t. It was just a question.”

I took a deep breath. I was not going to let him get to me. Or at least not make it so obvious that he was.

“I’m getting food too.” Deja stood. She tried to pull on my arm, take me with her, probably not wanting to leave me alone with Theo. But she didn’t need to worry—there was no danger in leaving me with him, my irritation toward him was only growing. I gave her a slight nod, and she let go.

Then it was just me and Theo. He leaned against the back of his chair and nodded toward the Target bag I still clutched. “My grandma looked like a Harry Styles fan to you?”

“Believe me, it was the most appropriate gift in here.”

A lazy smile came onto his face. “Should I be worried about what else is in there?”

“It’s some stuff Jensen left at my house. I was going to burn it in the bonfire I assumed you’d be having.”

He chuckled. “Nice.” He sounded like he meant it. Like he was happy I was burning Jensen’s things.

“Why do you hate him?” I asked.

He narrowed his eyes at me like my question was some sort of test. Instead of answering, he asked, “Why doeshehateme?”

“You hogged his spot for three years. Didn’t even have a single sick day…until that last game. Are you the healthiest high school student on earth?”

Theo’s eyes flitted to the table behind me full of his relatives, then back to me. He held his arms out to the sides. “I mean, look at me.”