“Oh, wait. I see Junior,” she said. What a relief. “Toto must be here somewhere.”
They wove around a family in lawn chairs and joined Dorothy and Junior. A picnic basket lay on the blanket along with two glasses, so Toto had to be around. Penny could have danced with joy, though that probably would call her injured ankle into question.
“Hi,” Dorothy said and took the cooler from Brad’s hand. “Didn’t Aunty Em come?”
“Turned out Sam Spade was on cable tonight. Hi, Junior.” Penny let Brad help her down onto the blanket, then smiled at him as she settled, giving his hand a squeeze. “Thanks. I’m afraid I’m such a burden. I should have stayed home with Gran.”
“Don’t be silly,” Brad scolded as he sat down next to Penny—on the side away from Dorothy. Yes! “We don’t mind, do we, Dorothy?”
Dorothy was watching Penny with a strange look in her eyes, her smile sly and speculative. “Not at all,” she assured Penny. “We’re happy your sprained ankle isn’t keeping you home.”
Penny bad the feeling that Dorothy knew exactly what Penny was doing, but Penny didn’t let that stop her. She gave her friend a bright smile. “This is a great spot. Where’s Toto?”
“Right here.” Toto sat down between Dorothy and Junior, handing Dorothy a tube of insect repellant. “Glad you both could make it.”
Toto’s voice was a touch cool, probably from worry over Brad being here at the same time as Dorothy, but Penny would show him he had no reason to fret. She took Brad’s hand in hers.
“Remember how we used to laugh about these free concerts when we were kids?” she asked Brad. “We couldn’t imagine anything more boring than sitting around on the grass listening to old music.”
“Guess we’ve grown up,” he said.
“In lots of ways.” She let her voice be soft and ripe with meaning.
“Want some wine?”
Toto sounded rather sharp and she turned to him in surprise. “Sure. We brought some snacks, too. Gran sent some brownies and we picked up some chicken wings.”
“Oh, I love Aunty Em’s brownies,” Dorothy said.
While Toto poured glasses of wine, Dorothy reached over to open the cooler and take out the dish of brownies. She offered one to Toto who took it grudgingly and then to Penny and Brad. She started to put it down in front of her, then frowned at Junior.
“Chocolate’s bad for you, Junior. You’re supposed to have dog cookies.” She looked over at Toto. “Didn’t you bring any cookies for him?”
Toto looked about as impatient as Penny had ever seen him look, which wasn’t all that bad considering Toto normally had the patience of a saint.
“I have some in the car,” he told her.
“Good.” Dorothy got to her feet and pulled Toto up to his. “Let’s go get them.”
Toto’s impatience vanished in the blink of an eye. “Okay.” He looked astonished, mesmerized. Like a man who’d just been granted his fondest wish. “Come on, Junior.”
Penny watched them leave with a smile, but then turned to find Brad watching her. Her smile sagged. Some time alone with him was just what she wanted, just what she needed to further her plan. Yet the look in his eyes made her nervous. Made her stomach tie up in knots and her mouth go dry.
“Sure is nice weather,” she said, then wanted to groan. That was hardly seductive conversation. “But even a storm can be nice with the right company.”
“Speaking of the right company,” he said. “I’m surprised you weren’t coming here with Alex.”
Alex? Why had Brad brought him up? Penny inched a little closer to Brad and sipped at her wine. “Alex doesn’t come to these things.”
“Not intellectual enough for him?”
She shrugged. “He just doesn’t.” She reached over and traced a soft line along his jaw. “Why do you want to talk about Alex?”
“I don’t,” he said and with a muffled groan, pulled her hand away, but kept a tight hold of it.
The band was starting to warm up and she was grateful for the slight distraction to catch her breath. She was doing great Better than she had dreamed, though her heart was racing and her cheeks felt warm. Brad probably thought her blush was due to his nearness or the touch of his hand. But it was from the thrill of her success and the warm summer air. She was immune to Brad Corrigan’s charm.
Toto and Dorothy and Junior came back just as the concert was starting. They settled themselves on the blanket, but off to one side. Penny relaxed and let the music swell around her, concentrating on just enjoying the old show tunes that the band was playing.
Except that she kept losing track of them. First it was Brad’s hand on hers that kept distracting her. Then it was the touch of his thigh against hers when he shifted position slightly. She should have worn jeans instead of shorts. He should have worn jeans, too. And a sweatshirt so his arm wouldn’t jolt her with electricity each time it brushed against her.
A brownie and some chicken wings brought her sanity back, but then it left again, blown away by his breath on her neck when he leaned close to ask her if she wanted more wine. Wine was the last thing she needed when her wits seemed to be scattered, but she agreed to some anyway, then sat sipping it and counting the number of times Brad accidentally touched her. Ten. Twenty. Fifty. She forgot how to count, too.
Suddenly the concert was over, much to Penny’s relief, though she wasn’t sure how it got to be almost eleven. Her confusion had to be because of the night air. Or too many saxophones in the band. Or Junior’s flea soap. Once she got away from here, she would be fine.
“Gee, this was fun,” Penny said brightly as she got to her feet. “We’ll have to do it again. When’s the next concert?”
“In two weeks, I think,” Toto said. He and Dorothy folded up the blanket.
“What a shame,” Penny said. “Brad’ll be gone by then.”
“Who knows where any of us will be?” Dorothy’s voice was offhanded.
“True,” Brad agreed. “Maybe I’ll come back for it.”
“Wouldn’t that be great?” Penny packed up their cooler, her heart smiling while her brain froze in horror. This was a short-term plan. One to distract him for the few days he had left here.
“Sure,” Toto said. “Just like you’ve come back for all our reunions and festivals.”
They all laughed with him, though Penny’s did have more relief than humor in it. She was worrying for nothing. Brad wouldn’t come back. He was here for a few days and then they would never see him again.
The idea was suddenly depressing.
They walked back to their cars, Brad carrying the cooler and letting Penny lean on his arm. Toto and Junior walked ahead, with Dorothy lingering behind to talk to both groups. She hadn’t seemed enamored with Brad though, Penny had to admit. Maybe she was pretending. Or maybe she had seen the light and knew Toto was perfect for her. But why then was she laughing with Brad like that?
“Want to come on over to my place?” Dorothy asked as they all stopped at Penny’s truck. “We can play some Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit or something.”
And remind Brad how dumb she was while giving him a chance to be awed by how smart Dorothy was? No way. “I’m pretty tired,” Penny said.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Pen,” Dorothy said, all apologies. “I wasn’t thinking. Yeah, Brad’d better just take you on home. We’ll do it some other time.”
Penny just smiled and leaned a little more on Brad. “But you and Toto can still do something. I’d hate to think I broke up everybody’s evening early.”
“I think I’ll call it a night, too,” Toto said. “I’ve got the early shift tomorrow.”
Rats. Penny let Brad help her up into the truck, then leaned out the open window while he went around to the driver’s side. “What a shame. Now I feel so bad.”
Dorothy just laughed and stepped away from the truck. “Take her home, Brad, before she really gets guilty and feeling maudlin.”
Brad did as he was told, and pulled the truck fro
m the parking spot. As they drove from the lot, Penny couldn’t help turning to watch Dorothy and Toto walk back toward their cars. They didn’t walk like lovers or even close friends. Darn. Hadn’t this night accomplished anything?
“Your ankle bothering you?” Brad asked.
Her ankle? Oh, she’d almost forgotten. “A little,” she said. “Not too bad.”
He just looked at her, his lips in a straight forbidding line, then he turned onto Calumet Road. “I remember that time you fell from the ladder in the barn and broke your arm.”
She remembered it, too. She had been watching him work on the tractor with his shirt off, his back all tanned and muscled, and her foot had slipped. “Yeah, so what?”
“You insisted you were fine, that nothing was wrong, and it turned out your arm was broken in two places. The doctor said it had to hurt like hell.”
His memory was too damn good. “It was a little sore,” she admitted.
“So, if your ankle is bothering you a ‘little,”’ he continued, “it must hurt like hell, too.”
There was a big difference between that time and this one. Not that she could point that out to him. She just leaned back in her seat and watched the lights of town diminish in her side rearview mirror as they drove farther out into the country. Little by little her tensions drained away.
It was so peaceful here. She had no desire to live anywhere else. And she couldn’t imagine not having a place to call home, either.
She turned to look at Brad. She couldn’t really see him, except in quick flashes when another car passed them, but her heart could see him. See the loneliness that rested in his eyes in unguarded moments. That boy she had loved years back was still there, and still alone.
Brad turned the truck into the drive and Penny sighed. She wasn’t sure she had accomplished anything with her ploy. Dorothy and Toto didn’t look any closer and Brad was still a mystery to her.
Brad stopped the car and she slowly got out. Strangely enough she did feel tired. Almost exhausted. As if—
“Hey,” she cried as Brad scooped her up into his arms. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you inside,” he said though he didn’t move.
“Oh, are you?”
But her arm had gone around his neck and she held him tight enough to feel that the racing of his heart matched hers. She looked up at him, so tall and strong and safe, and their eyes danced a strange and wonderful dance she’d never known before.
She had no idea how long he stood there holding her. Long enough for the moon to pass from one end of the sky to the other. Long enough for the crickets to play a dozen symphonies. Long enough for her to grow light-headed from lack of oxygen.
Then suddenly she realized they were in her room and he was gently setting her on her bed. How could he have carried her upstairs and she not have noticed?
“You okay now?” he asked.
Okay? She wanted to laugh but she didn’t have the strength or the air. All she could do was nod yes.
He leaned forward then, drawn almost it seemed against his will, and lightly touched her lips with his. The heavens rocked and the earth moved. And her heart opened up to him, blossoming like a flower touched by the sun. This was what she had dreamed of in the dark lonely hours of the night—of a need so strong that reason was forgotten. Of a fire so hot it scorched all thought.
She sensed an uncertainty in him, a drawing back of his soul. Afraid his lips would follow, she slipped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her heart. He hesitated for a second, then slowly, almost reluctantly, his arms slid around her. For a long perfect moment, their lips whispered magic into the other’s soul, their hearts soared as one and their dreams were close enough to touch. Then just as suddenly, words were forgotten and they both pulled apart. Shaken. Unsettled. Uncertain.
Brad didn’t speak as he straightened up and left the room, shutting the door softly behind him. A relief, since she couldn’t have answered him to save her life.
Damn. She tried to catch her breath and slow her heart. Okay, so she couldn’t breathe. Or move. Or think. Or even talk. But at least, Brad hadn’t mentioned Dorothy the whole ride home.
Brad slowly sat up on the edge of the bed the next morning and rubbed his eyes. What a night it had been, tossing and turning and reliving that kiss. Wanting Penny with a desperateness that defied reason.
It couldn’t be just that she was beautiful—he’d been around beautiful women before and had never lost his head as he almost had last night. It wasn’t just that she was nice—the world was filled with nice women whose touch never set him afire. And it couldn’t be because he used to have a crush on her—he used to like marshmallow and banana sandwiches and now the thought turned his stomach.
So, what had it been? The moonlight? The music? A bug bite?
Sometime after the birds had started their predawn chorus, he’d fallen asleep but he hadn’t really slept; it was more like he’d fallen into a coma for a couple of hours. Thoughts of Penny had still haunted him, but in his stupor he seemed unable to flee. Brad shook his head and pushed himself up.
Enough was enough. He had to get out of here—out of this house and out of Chesterton. He’d been back only a few days and things were getting out of hand. He was feeling like he had in high school, but with the reactions of an adult this time. Or perhaps the overreactions would be more accurate.
A chipmunk jumped onto the outside window sill and chattered at him. “Shut up before I call the cat,” Brad growled, throwing a pillow toward the window.
The little rodent went squeaking off somewhere but continued its scolding. Probably Penny’s guard these days. Took over when Brad had left and now wanted him gone. And rightly so. Brad had proven he wasn’t to be trusted. He claimed he only wanted the best for Penny and then hadn’t been able to control himself when she was near. Brad ambled over to the window and stared outside.
The rose fields were to the north of the house. Another few hours and they’d be a sea of color, light yellows to brilliant reds. Like his life felt since he’d come back here. Over to the east were the peony fields, a deep dull green. Like his life back in Los Angeles. Damn. Since when had he gotten so poetic?
He wiped his hand over his face and sighed. What was happening to him? He couldn’t seem to be near Penny without his heart wanting to explode. Without his hands wanting to touch her and his lips needing to taste her. He seemed to lose all sense when she smiled at him. He had no willpower, no strength around her at all.
He should leave, but he couldn’t. Not until he knew what was going on with Alex. Once he knew she wasn’t being taken advantage of or about to make some big mistake, he’d go. Hopefully that would be in a day or two. Not that long of a time to be stoic. Not that long at all.
And in the meantime, he would change. He would take himself in hand and control all those urges. And he could. Maybe it wouldn’t be easy, but it was possible. And necessary.
Both his attitude and steps were purposeful when he walked into the kitchen a little while later. Aunty Em was at the table, eating a bowl of chili. Einstein was in the window, giving himself a bath.
“How are you this morning?” Aunty Em asked.
“Just fine. Super.”
Aunty Em raised an eyebrow at him and even Einstein turned to give him a look, but Brad ignored them both as he went to the cabinet for a bowl and some cereal. He wasn’t about to let two people—or one person and one cat—derail him from his positive attitude.
“And how are you this morning?” he asked Aunty Em.
The old woman shrugged. “Tolerable. Tolerable.”
Brad remembered enough of his Indianaese to know that meant as good as could be expected. He filled his bowl with cereal, poured some milk over it, then sat down.
“Looks like another hot one today,” Aunty Em said, looking outside over the backyard and toward the equipment yard.
“That’s summer in Indiana for you.”
It didn’t matter how hot it
was going to be outside. He was going to stay cool. Cool enough to be unaffected around Penny and cool enough to get the goods on Alex.
“You have a nice time last night?” Aunty Em asked.
He thought of the wonder of Penny’s kiss, of the heaven of holding her in his arms, of the hell his sleepless night had been. “It was okay.”
The old woman snickered. “Just okay? Then why were you pacing all night?”
How could she know that? “It was rather warm,” he said.
She laughed outright. “I guess. And not just for you. Penny must have been hot and bothered, too.”
Brad frowned. She was getting the wrong idea. “Her ankle was probably bothering her.”
Aunty Em nodded. “I’m sure that was it. Why else would she be walking around all night except that it hurt to be walking?”
Brad concentrated on eating for a long moment. His logic had been faulty, but he was sure something had been bothering her. If Penny had been pacing most of the night in spite of her sore ankle, she was fretting over something.
“Penny told me the business doesn’t work on Sundays,” Brad said when he finished up his breakfast. “So I thought I would take the Jeep and do a little investigating on Alex.” Maybe he would just go talk to him and see what was going on. Anything to get to the bottom of this and get out of town while he could.
Aunty Em looked all too interested. “You want to bug his house?”
“Bug?” Good night. She was really into this investigating stuff. “Wouldn’t that be illegal?”
She gave him a disgusted look. “For a big strong guy, you sure are a wimp. Isn’t Penny more important than some legal technicalities?”
“I can hardly help her if I’m in jail,” Brad drawled.
Aunty Em snorted rudely. “In jail? You only get tossed in jail if you get caught. Though on second thought, you haven’t exactly proved your capability yet, have you?”
“Hey, that’s not fair.”
“A good PI doesn’t get made on a tail.”
“I never said I was a good PI,” he argued. “I’m not a PI at all. I’m just all you’ve got.”
If I Only Had A...Husband (The Bridal Circle #1) Page 12