Chapter Ten – Theo

“Since you two managed to circle around the question like a good politician, I’ll ask you straight. How is Fern coping with the knowledge you are in love with her and you can change into a bear?” Teagan asked as they walked among the rows and rows of hops.

Theo stopped, and let his fingers trail over the leaves. “Looks like a good crop.”

“Yes, the position is perfect. Took a while to make the frames, but Walt supervised. He knows a thing or two about just about everything.” Teagan stood, surveying the plants. “He’s been a godsend to Carter. Just like you are a godsend to Fern.”

“I hope she sees things that way.”

“Evading the question again.”

“Sorry. It’s complicated.” Theo looked up at the hops, and then turned his glance to Teagan. “Carter Eden is a big part of all of your lives.”

“He is.” Teagan turned to walk away from him.

“Is he a good man?”

Teagan swung back around, a hint of fire blazing in her eyes. “He’s made mistakes, if that is what you are asking, but then who hasn’t? But if you are asking whether I trust him, then yes.” She took a step back toward him. “He never hurt Fern. She was already damaged before…”

“Before what?” Theo pressed.

“Please, talk to Fern,” Teagan insisted, but out of loyalty to whom, Carter or Fern?

“She’ll tell me when she’s ready,” Theo declared, but the question was beginning to gnaw at his mind. “What do you need me to do around here?” Theo decided a change of subject was in order. He was looking forward to getting his hands dirty in some real hard labor, pity it was on Carter’s land.

“How much time do you have?” Teagan asked with a wry smile.

“Today, not so much. I have to go and see my dad; he is having some tests run. And Cathy is on her way, so I’ll need to speak to her. But from tomorrow, until Dad comes home, I don’t have a lot to do. I started my Everest article, wrote most of it actually, since I couldn’t sleep.”

“I wonder why?” Teagan asked.

“Can’t get Fern out of my head.” He grinned and crossed his eyes. “I think I’m going crazy.”

“Crazy in love, I like it.”

“I think I can recommend it,” Theo told Teagan, who immediately pulled a face.

“Not for me. I have a career to build before I settle down.”

“Mine will be on hold for the immediate future. I can pick up some work online, writing about places I’ve already explored. I don’t have any writing jobs lined up. But once Dad comes home, then I’m going to have to see how much care he needs.”

“If I know Walt, he’ll be back here as soon as he gets out of the place.” Her face softened as she thought of Walt. “It’s like a second home to him.”

“So he’s taken on Carter as his adopted son?” He hated the sound of jealousy in his voice.

“Theo, please. Carter was trying to help Walt. He was a lonely man.”

“I know.” Theo sighed. “It’s easy for family to drift apart.”

“You can always drift back together again.”

“You are right. Time to make a friend of my sister. Wow, we’re quite the dysfunctional family,” Theo admitted.

“At least you had a family.”

“You didn’t?” Theo asked. “At all?”

“Drunk mom, absent dad. I am probably about as typical as a foster kid can get.” She shrugged. “But Fiona had my back.”

“The dragon?”

“Yes. She looks out for shifter kids in the system, tries to get them hooked up with understanding foster parents.”

“You mean shifters?”

“Yes. Or at least those that know about shifters.” Teagan breathed in the warm afternoon air. “I got lucky, had a decent education and probably turned out better than I would have if I’d have stayed with my mom.”

“Wait, what about your dad?”

“Never knew him,” Teagan said.

“Was he a shifter?”

Teagan shook her head. “My mom, hence the drink.”

“She lost her mate?” Theo asked, shocked. He could not bear to think how he would feel if he lost Fern, and he had only just met her.

“Yes,” Teagan said sadly, placing her hand on her heart. “Do you think it would hurt that much? You know, if you lost Fern, if she walked out of your life.”

“Yes.”

“Enough that you would let your child go. Not put up a fight?” Teagan’s eyes were bright, filled with tears.

“Maybe she knew you were better off without her too,” Theo told her gently.

“I’d never thought of it like that.” Teagan frowned. “I never thought about how she felt at all, only how it affected me. What a selfish idiot I am.”

“No, you aren’t. What you are is a child who lost her family, and made the best of what she was given.” He took a breath and then blurted out, “I’m the jerk who walked away from his dad. I got too involved in what was out there, never appreciating was in here.” He put his hand on his chest, covering his heart.

“You can put that right,” Teagan said. “You know where your family is.” She walked toward him and clapped him on both arms. “Go get ’em, tiger.”

“I’m a bear.”

“Go get ’em, bear, doesn’t have the same ring to it,” Teagan stated matter-of-factly.

“I agree.” He grinned at Teagan, stepped forward, kissed her on the cheek, and then turned on his heel. “Thanks for the talk, I’ll repay you by being here tomorrow morning at around nine.”

“Great. Thanks. Give my love to Walt.”

“I will,” Theo threw over his shoulder, as he left Teagan in the garden his father had spent so many hours working. He reached the end of the driveway and opened the big gates. As he closed them again, he looked back at the big house. Theo could almost see his dad here, among the flowers and shrubs, weeding, pruning, digging.

A wave of nostalgia hit him. Theo used to love helping Walt in the garden when he was younger. The child in him, the young boy who had come here to the house when it belonged to the previous owners, blamed Carter for tainting those memories. It was misplaced anger, wrapped up in his own sense of guilt.

Before Carter purchased the property, the Rothenburgs had owned the house for generations. The last of the Rothenburgs never had children. Theo knew them as an elderly couple who used to dote on him, as if he was their own. Cathy had been jealous, because they never showered the same attention on her.

A sudden smile crossed his lips; maybe he had uncovered the reason he and his sister argued so much. He had rubbed the fact he was their favorite in her face. She never knew, but sometimes he’d pretended they were his parents, and this was his house. Stupid, but he was young and longed to have a mom, like all the other kids in his class.

“Kids,” he said to himself, and then turned away, wanting to see his dad. The man who raised him, the man who loved him, in the small house where he belonged on top of a mountain. The Rothenburgs had been a dream, a fantasy, while Walt was real, with strong arms and a heart as big as the mountain.

Theo hurried across town. When he arrived at the hospital, he went inside and ran up the stairs two at a time. Theo reached his dad’s room just as the doctor was leaving. “How is he?” Theo asked.

“And you are?” the doctor asked.

“Theo.” He held out his hand. “I’m Walt’s son.”

“Oh, right. Well, your dad has just had some good news, so I’ll leave him to tell you. If you need to see me, get reception to page me.” The doctor smiled broadly. “Your dad promised me some Bear Creek Honey Beer if I made him well.”

“Ah, bribery,” Theo joked. “That’s my dad.”

“He’s strong. He’ll be all right,” the doctor said. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have rounds to do.”

“Sure. And thank you.” Theo stepped to the side and let the doctor pass before entering his dad’s room. “Doc said it was good news,” Theo stated, but he needn’t have bothered, since the good news was being broadcast all over his dad’s face.

“I can go home. Tomorrow.” Walt’s grin widened. “As long as you are there to babysit me. And I take my meds.”

“I will babysit with pleasure,” Theo said, hugging his dad.

“Which means I can come to the brewery with you.”

“Dad, I’m sure the doctors said you should rest,” Theo warned.

“They did. But I can rest in a chair over there, in the same way as I can rest at home.” Walt’s face clouded. “Truth be told, I don’t think I could sit inside the house for days on end.”

“Too many memories?” Theo ventured.

“That and the boredom.” Walt tried to make light of it, but his face was downcast. “It’s not the same since you and your sister left. Too many ghosts. Too many memories.” He pressed his lips together and swallowed hard.

“Hey, Dad, I’m home, and don’t plan to go anywhere. I have Fern in my life, so I’ve decided, if you’ll have me, I might hang around here for a while. I’ll take writing jobs where I can, but not any that mean disappearing for months on end.”

“You don’t have to. I’m fine.” Walt tried to wave Theo away. “You should be taking that woman of yours to far distant shores and showing her the world. Not making her stay at home with me.”

“She likes you. And she likes Bear Creek.” Theo hugged his dad. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“Never, but I don’t want you to feel you owe me anything. Raising you and your sister was the best thing I ever did.”

“It must have been tough raising us single-handedly.”

“I didn’t resent any of it,” Walt said, his voice breaking.

“We had a good childhood,” Theo told Walt, trying to reassure him, but a dam had been released and his dad’s emotions were spilling out.

“I tried, but without your mom, it was hard. Raising two kids alone is tough; raising two bear shifters, when you are not one yourself, is even tougher.” He wiped his eyes. “I always thought that was the reason you and Cathy never got along, because I didn’t know how to deal with all the shifter stuff that came up.”

“Dad, I never thought that way, and I’m sure Cathy didn’t either.”

“Cathy didn’t either what?” His sister’s voice came from the doorway.

“Cathy.” Theo went to her and pulled her into a bear hug.

“What, did someone die?” she asked, her voice as caustic as he remembered.

“No, no one died.” Theo grinned at her, happy that her city life and two kids had not changed her. “I was telling Dad we would not have gotten along even if Mom had been there to raise us.”

She snorted. “For once we agree. Oil and water.” She escaped Theo’s clutches and went to Walt, giving him a hug. “How are you, Dad?”

“Better now that you are here,” Walt said with a tired smile.

“Doug is flying in tomorrow with the kids,” Cathy told her father, still hugging him tight.

“Doug?” Theo asked.

Cathy turned her death stare onto her brother. “My mate. The man I married. Father to my children.”

“I was joking.” Theo said, putting his hands up defensively.

“Ah, you still have it. That brother-sister spark,” Walt said, settling down on his pillows.

“Sorry, Dad, Theo should know better.” Cathy threw him a hard look. “Anyway, Doug and I have been discussing things and we agreed you should come live with us.”

“What?” Theo gasped, and Walt made a choking sound in his throat. “Why would he want to do a thing like that? Are you trying to kill him?”

“No,” Cathy said defensively. “But he can’t live in that house on his own. It’s time it was sold and Dad lived with people close by.”

“I like it where I am. It’s my home,” Walt told his daughter, but Cathy had her mind made up.

“And you can make a new home with us. The boys will love having you around. And there’s a park only five minutes from the house.”

“What about the bees? What about my garden?” Walt said.

“We can find a home for the bees. And I am sure whoever buys the house will take care of the garden.” Cathy stood up and straightened her skirt. “As soon as the doctors say you can leave, we can pack up what you want to take, and the rest we can get taken away.”

“Get taken away?” Walt went pale.

“Enough, Catherine.” Theo said. In the five minutes since his sister had walked through the door, she had reminded him of exactly why they always fought. “Dad, calm down. Catherine, I would like to speak to you outside.”

He went to the door and held it open, staring his sister down until she followed him. “What?”

“What?” He held his hands out to the side, almost lost for words. “What was that all about?”

“That was about me taking charge. That was about me doing what’s best for Dad.” She took a deep breath. “That is why you called me, isn’t it?”

“No,” Theo said adamantly. He raked his hand through his hair, it needed cutting, and he could almost imagine what Cathy was thinking as she studied him. “I called you because I wanted you to know Dad was ill. That is all.”

“So it wasn’t because you wanted to unload the burden while you went off on some little adventure?” She folded her arms across her chest. “He needs care. I’ve already had this conversation with him, and we agreed if he got sick, he would come live with me—since you are never around. How long is it exactly since you were here last?”

“Don’t do this, Cathy,” Theo warned.

“Do what, tell you the truth? Tell you how it is.”

“No, don’t be a bitch.”

She snapped her head back. “How dare you?”

“I dare, because you seem to have made up everyone’s mind for them. Dad wants to stay in the house.”

“I know, but he can’t stay alone, and I have a life away from Bear Creek.”

“I’ll look after him.”

“Yep, until the wanderlust takes hold of you again, and you disappear up some mountain, or into the rainforest.”

“I’m staying here.”

“In Bear Creek?” She nodded. “From what I recall, since you left, you have hardly been back. You have never been to see your nephews.”

“Is that what this is about?” Theo asked.

“No, it’s about responsibility, it’s about knowing what it means to have another human being in your care.”

“I get that. I understand that. Which is why I already made the decision to stay. I’m ready to settle down and make Bear Creek my home.”

“I don’t believe you,” Cathy spat back. “It’s better for Dad to come with me now, not let you feed him some false hope.”

“It’s not false hope. I’m staying because my mate lives here too.”

“Your mate.” She shook her head. “Oh dear, poor thing. Are you going to drag her all around the world on a leash?”

“You know, this conversation is over. Dad gets to make a choice. Stay with me, or go with you.”

“And you are so sure he will pick you, because you are the golden child.” She leaned forward. “Like you always like to think you have been.”

“That’s not fair,” Theo said.

“It doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” With that, she turned on her heel and walked back into the room and sat down next to Walt.

He needed air, he needed to calm down. He needed to talk it over. He needed Fern.