Finding Carly (SEAL Team Hawaii #5)(28)

As they entered, Carly immediately saw the huge mural on the back wall. Theo had painted the inside of a fancy restaurant kitchen on the entire surface, which looked amazingly lifelike.

“Holy crap,” Carly muttered.

“Right?” Elodie said with a smile.

“I painted Elodie a kitchen,” Theo said proudly.

“Yes, you did,” Carly agreed. “And it’s marvelous.”

She could practically see Theo’s chest puff out with pride. And he should be proud; what he’d painted was so realistic, she expected the scowling head chef in the corner to start barking out orders any second. There were sous chefs bent over dishes, plating them in one section, and in another, a large flame was shooting up from a pan over a gas burner on a stove. He’d captured the chaos and excitement and beauty of a fancy restaurant kitchen perfectly.

“I showed him some pictures,” Elodie said. “And he wanted to know all about the restaurants I’d worked at in the past. What went on and how many people were cooking, things like that. We talked about it for a week straight, then he didn’t ask any other questions. I thought it was just a passing curiosity for him. Apparently he’d talked with Lexie, and they arranged for him to come in one afternoon after I left. It took him almost all night, but when I came in the next morning, this is what I walked into.”

“It’s seriously amazing,” Carly said with a smile.

“Yeah, it is.”

“Do you miss it?” Carly blurted. The look of pleasure and longing on Elodie’s face had prompted the question.

“Miss the chaos? Miss being yelled at when I did nothing wrong? Miss people sending a meal back claiming their steak wasn’t cooked correctly when it certainly was? Miss the late nights and the stress? No, absolutely not. I do miss the people I worked with though.”

“Yeah.” Carly got that, one hundred percent.

The two women shared an understanding look.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” Elodie said gently.

Carly wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about that, but she straightened her shoulders. As Jag had said, and as Jack in the movie Speed told Annie, Shawn was the asshole here. Not her. “Thanks.”

“Are you… Never mind.”

“No, what?” Carly asked, curious as to what the other woman was going to ask.

“Are you back? I mean, Kenna’s missed you something terrible. And Lexie and I had just started to get to know you when all that shit went down. And we’ve told Monica all about you, and while she doesn’t talk much, she’s interested in getting to know you too.”

“I want to be back,” Carly admitted. “But I’m scared. Everything scares me lately. The last thing in the world I want is something happening to any of you guys. I think that’s why I stayed away for so long, I felt as if I was protecting you. If something had happened to Kenna…” Her voice trailed off.

But it wasn’t Elodie who comforted her, it was Theo. He hadn’t left and was listening to their conversation intently. He walked over to Carly and stood right next to her, in her personal space. He didn’t touch her, didn’t even look at her, but said, “Nothing happens on my watch.”

Carly smiled and squeezed his arm. “I heard you stopped those robbers recently.”

He nodded.

“Know what my favorite line from Home Alone is?” Carly asked.

Theo finally turned to look at her. He met her eyes for a moment, then dropped his gaze once more. “What?”

“‘When I grow up and get married, I’m living alone!’ Then he stomps on the floor and yells, ‘I’m living alone’ to the beat of his stomps.”

He smiled. A huge smile that lit up his face. “That’s a good one. ‘I’m gonna give you to the count of ten to get your ugly, yella, no-good keister off my property before I pump your guts full of lead,’” he said in a deep voice like Gangster Johnny did in the old-time movie Kevin McCallister liked to watch in Home Alone.

Carly laughed. “I love that part!”

“And this one,” Theo said solemnly. “‘You can be too old for a lot of things, but you’re never too old to be afraid.’”

Carly stared at the man next to her. Sometimes he acted as if he were seven years old, and other times, like now, he seemed to be an old soul. “That’s true,” she said softly.

“Are you scared a lot?” Theo asked.

He still wasn’t looking at her, but Carly knew he was definitely paying attention to her every word.

“Lately? Yeah.”

“Because of the bomb man?” Theo asked.

She shouldn’t have been surprised that he knew what happened, and yet she still was. “Well, he can’t hurt me anymore…but of whoever was working with him, yes.”

“I’m scared of needles,” Theo said.

Carly would’ve laughed, but he was completely serious.

“And cockroaches. Especially the ones that can fly,” Theo added.

“They’re icky.”

He nodded in agreement. “Jag’ll make sure no bad men hurt you. And Baker.”

“What do you know about Baker?” Elodie asked.

“He’s my friend,” Theo said, his chin lifting a bit. “He said it was my job to watch over Food For All.”