by Aly Martinez
She held my unwavering gaze.
And I held hers, making silent promises I prayed I would be able to keep.
After several beats, she squared her shoulders, straightened her back, took my hand, looked me straight in the eye, and lied, “I think I liked it better when you were avoiding me.”
“Bullshit.”
“Okay, okay, fine. You’ve got a deal.” She gave my hand a sharp pull, tugging me closer. Not that I fought her or anything. “Under one condition: You actually accept my invitation to dinner this time so I can properly thank you for cleaning up Angela’s apartment.”
She’d been lucky I only cleaned it. My original instinct had been to burn the place to the ground. Had it not been filled with sleeping women, I’d have done just that.
“It was nothing.”
“Fine. Then it can be a nothing-thank-you dinner. And for the love of all that’s holy, bring Drew. I figure the only thing that can counteract the formaldehyde he consumed in those nasty hot dogs he ate for breakfast is, like, broccoli or carrots or… Shit, I may need to bring out the big guns. How do you feel about Brussels sprouts?” She paused, her gaze dipping to my mouth. “Shit, you’re smiling again.”
I was. And it was radiating throughout my entire body.
I pointed to my mouth. “This? Nah. It’s a medical condition that flares up every now and again. I’m sure you learned about it in nursing school.”
She laughed, and I felt that too, deep down in places I’d long since forgotten about. Places she had no business being.
“So, is that a yes to dinner?” She peered up at me, batting her lashes and smiling huge.
Alarms screamed in my head, dread planting roots in my stomach.
It was wrong to touch her. To steal her warmth when I’d never be able to offer it to her in return—not honestly, anyway. But I couldn’t stop myself. Finding the curve of her hips, I pulled her off-balance until she stumbled into my arms.
I couldn’t see her face, but her body melted against me as if I’d answered her one and only prayer.
If only I still believed in God.
“I’ll be there, Cora,” I whispered into the top of her hair.
Cora
“Please tell me we don’t have to eat this?” Savannah complained, carrying a baby-spinach salad to the table.
I swallowed a sip of beer and set the bottle on the counter beside the pan sizzling hand-molded turkey burgers. “Vegetables are not the devil. And your thirty-year-old metabolism will thank me for teaching you that.”
River walked by, snagging a piece of bacon off a plate and popping it into her mouth. “Doesn’t bacon defeat the point of making turkey burgers?”
“Probably. But I like to think they cancel each other out.”
Crunching on another strip, she propped her hip against the counter and gave me a once-over. “You look nice tonight.”
Twisting my lips, I gave her the side-eye. “It’s jeans and a tank top. Practically my uniform.”
“Nooo,” she drawled. “It’s jeans that have been ironed, a silky tank top with spaghetti straps. And you’re wearing wedges and”—she reached up and gave my silver chandelier earring a jingle—“jewelry.”
I swatted her hand away. “We have company coming over.”
She shot me a who-you-trying-to-lie-to glare. “Penn gonna show this time?”
I looked away to hide my smile. “He said he was.”
“Ah, so he’s finally speaking to you? Makes the whole obsessing thing a lot easier.”
I turned to fully face her, my spatula hovering over the pan. “I haven’t been obsessing about him.”
“Pssshhh.” She rolled her eyes so hard that I thought they might roll out of her head. “I think Drew might be the only one in the building who doesn’t realize you’ve been obsessing about Penn.”
My mouth fell open. “What?”
Savannah came up and stood behind River, reaching over her shoulder to grab a piece of bacon too. “Oh, come on, Cora. Don’t play dumb. Drew’s got it for you bad.” She took a bite and spoke around it. “Only problem is you’ve got it bad for his brother. Dun. Dun. Dun.” She grinned as she finished chewing.
“Okay, first of all—”
“Truth or lie?” River interrupted.
My mouth clamped shut. We’d been playing this game for years. It was simultaneously the best and worst thing I’d ever thought up.
On one hand, it gave us a way to communicate about the hard stuff. On the other, it gave us a way to hide the even harder stuff.
In our lives, lies were sometimes necessary. She was just a kid; she didn’t need to know all the horrors that happened on a daily basis. But our little game made discussions safe for us. If you told someone you were lying, was it really a lie?
I swallowed hard. “What do you want?”
“Truth.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “I wouldn’t say I’ve been obsessing about Penn. But…I have certain…well, feelings about him that… Fine. He’s…piqued my interest.”
Savannah grabbed another piece of bacon. “It’s because he’s hot.”
I turned back to the stove, catching River’s smirk on the way around. “No. It’s because he’s nice.”
River barked a laugh. “And hot.”
“Hey! You are not old enough to be calling anyone hot. Unless it’s a twelve-year-old boy from school who makes straight A’s and has plans to become a priest but just so happens to have a giant trust fund but he needs a wife to inherit it when he turns twenty-one.”
“I see you’ve given this some thought.” She scoffed and moved past me to the pantry. “And I’m thirteen, Cora.”
“Yeah, but I liked you better when you were twelve.”
She laughed. “Do we have any cookies?”
“You know I don’t keep that junk in the house.”
Savannah assumed River’s position and leaned her hip against the counter. “Is that the truth or a lie?”
See, it was times like these—when my precious sweets were in jeopardy—that our little game backfired on me. But that was the thing about games: When you made them up, you got to make all the rules.
“Hey, hey, hey. You have to have good grades before you’re allowed to play.” I arched my eyebrow. “I saw that C in your bookbag.”
She looked away sheepishly. “I’m not good at math.”
“That’s crap and you know it.”
She opened her mouth to object, but a knock at the door silenced us all.
Nerves rumbled in my stomach as I stared at the locked door. He was right on time.
“You want me to get that?” Savannah whispered.
“No,” I whispered back, but I kept staring at the door.
River sauntered through the small kitchen, a bag of my prized chocolate chip cookies in her hand. “Right. This is you, totally not obsessing.”
Coming unstuck, I plucked the cookies from her hand and tossed them onto the counter. “I swear to God, if either one of you embarrasses me in front of Penn, I will wash all of your white clothes with red socks. Got it?”
They glanced at each other and grinned. Savannah made a zipper motion across her mouth.
Blowing out a calming breath, which coincidentally wasn’t calming at all, I smoothed out my shirt and did a quick pat-down of my hair. I was being silly. It was just Drew and Penn. They’d been in my apartment every day for going on two weeks. This was no different.
Except, when I pulled the door open, finding Penn standing completely alone on the other side, wearing a pale-blue button-up that made his eyes so bright that they might as well have been glowing, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, showing off thick muscles covered by black ink, a six-pack of beer, and a store-bought tin of brownies in his hands, I knew I wasn’t overreacting.
I was seriously, seriously underreacting.
“Wh…where’s Drew?”
His brows pinched together. “Couldn’t make it. That okay?”
“Yeah,
of course!” I exclaimed—entirely too loudly.
And we stood there. Me a statue. Him waiting to be invited inside, but, again, I was a statue so…
In the awkward lull, his gaze dipped from my head to my toes and then back again. And, as if he’d reached out and touched me, I felt it from my nipples to my toes—and everywhere in between. My skin exploded with chills, and my mouth ran dry, rendering me unable to speak. Not that I had any words. A crazy combination of anxiety, fear, excitement, and maybe even a touch of desire bloomed within me as I continued to stare at the beautiful man standing in my doorway.
“Hey, Penn,” River chirped, sidling up beside me, no doubt running to my rescue. And God bless her because I seriously needed it. “Come on in,” she said, pulling me out of the way.
I teetered on my wedges as I shuffled to the side.
Penn tipped his chin in gratitude as he walked inside. “I noticed you liked chocolate the other day, so I grabbed this from the grocery store.”
“It’s perfect. She loves chocolate,” Savannah said, pulling up the rear in mission Rescue Cora. “Good choice in beer, too.” She winked, taking them both from his hands and carrying them to the kitchen.
Okay, I was acting like a madwoman. I’d invited him to dinner. He was drowning in it. He felt me. He’d been losing sleep while sitting outside my door and protecting me from the inevitable.
Also, I felt him. He caused sparks to flare inside me. And, according to him, I was risking being burned.
This was what was supposed to happen!
But he was bearing gifts of brownies and beer like he had truly read my soul, and he’d dressed up like he was trying to impress me.
“Why are you just standing there?” River hissed in my ear.
“Why is he dressed like that?” I hissed right back, watching him as he followed Savannah toward the kitchen. Which, given the size of my apartment, wasn’t far.
River twisted her lip and then turned to look at him, offering him an uncomfortable smile when he caught her.
“He’s wearing jeans and a shirt.”
“Yes, but it’s a nice shirt. He always wears plain white T-shirts.”
“And?”
“And he looks like he’s going on a date.”
She leaned away to catch my eyes and whispered, “Uh…he is on a date. With you. So stop acting like a nut job before he jumps ship.”
Oh, shit!
She shook her head as if I were insane. And the longer I stood there, the more I thought she might have been right.
“I haven’t been on a real date in a hundred years.”
She slapped my arm. “Well, then you’ve aged nicely, Granny.”
I shot her a glare.
Suddenly, Penn cleared his throat. “Is everything okay?”
I peeked up, finding his handsome face filled with a healthy dose of concern—and amusement.
Damn it! Savannah was right. He was incredibly hot. Not exactly a revelation, but still worth noting.
Abandoning my hysteria in lieu of annoyance, I snipped, “It’s rude to eavesdrop, Penn.”
He smirked, all sexy and crooked. “You’re standing three feet away. It’s hard not to eavesdrop.”
Double damn it! He had a point.
“Right.” I ran my fingers through the underneath of my hair, stopping before I caused any tangles. “I’ll just…finish up with the burgers.” Finally remembering how to walk, I started past him.
But he gently caught my arm. Bending at the hip, he aimed his lips at my ear and rumbled, “Relax. You don’t want this to be a date, it’s not a date.” Then his voice grew husky as he finished with, “Though, if at any point you change your mind, you won’t hear the first complaint from me.”
My lungs seized as I slanted my head so I could see him. He was no longer smirking, but his heated gaze locked to mine like a missile finding its target.
“Okay?” he pressed.
Hypnotized, I nodded an embarrassing amount of times before breathing, “Okay.”
Releasing my arm, he drew a deep inhale in through his nose. “It smells great in here. I’m starved.”
He grinned down at me, cool, calm and flirty, like he and Drew had experienced some Freaky Friday personality transplants before he’d come over.
Staring at his mouth, I asked, “Is that medical condition of yours flaring up again?”
His smile grew. “It seems to happen a lot around you.”
God. This. Man.
“So, did I hear something about burgers?” he asked.
“Turkey burgers, actually.”
“Oh,” he said, sounding rather let down.
“With bacon,” I amended.
This got me a much more upbeat, “Ohhh!”
At least he had good taste.
And, with that, I put one foot in front of the other and focused on dinner—but only so I didn’t have to admit that I was one hundred percent, totally, utterly, and absolutely obsessing about Penn Walker. Again, not a revelation, and this time, probably not even worth noting.
Over dinner, we all loosened up. Penn didn’t quite talk as much as his brother, but he was still far chattier than I’d ever seen him. His eyes never strayed far from me, not even as the girls gave him a meet-the-parents-style interrogation.
He was thirty-seven. (This I knew.)
Grew up in Florida. (This I did not know.)
The tattoos on his arms and hands did not travel any farther south and he had no piercings. (Thank you, Savannah.)
He loved football—mainly pro rather than college. (I had no interest in either.)
And he had shut down completely for a solid five minutes after River asked if he’d ever been married. (Interesting! Though it kind of answered the burning Lisa question.)
Much like Drew, he ate a ton. Two turkey bacon burgers, two sweet potatoes complete with butter and cinnamon, and over half the spinach salad later, there were no leftovers for me to put away. As he leaned back in his chair, a satisfied expression pulling at his lips, my only regret was not cooking more.
“I can’t remember the last time I ate that well. Thank you.”
“I’m glad you liked it,” I murmured, wiping my mouth before discarding my napkin onto my plate.
“Truth or lie,” River announced out of the blue, her dark eyes and wicked grin landing on me. “If me and Savannah give you guys some privacy for the rest of the night, you won’t force us to wash the dishes?”
“That sounds great,” Penn answered for me. “You ladies cooked. I’ll handle the cleanup.”
“You don’t have to do that.” I rose to stop him, but he was already on his feet, collecting plates. “Penn, really. Tonight was my way of saying thank you. To you.”
“It’s okay. I got it.” He winked before adding, “Wouldn’t be much of a date if I made you do everything.”
The girls started laughing and I shot them a glare that probably left burn marks on the wall behind them. Though, much to my dismay, it didn’t faze them. Savannah even had the audacity to waggle her eyebrows.
Lord, raising teenage girls was the second ring of hell.
Penn continued gathering plates and cups as the girls fled down the hall. Their door shut, followed by the click, tick, and slide of their locks.
“Sorry about that,” I said as soon as we were alone.
He breezed past me to do another round of Molly Maids on the table. “Don’t be. They seem like good kids.”
“Good might be an overstatement. But kids is definitely accurate.”
He chuckled, carrying four glasses sandwiched between his large hands.
I stopped at the edge of the kitchen without entering, the space suddenly feeling too small for the two of us.
“Truth or lie?” he asked, depositing the dishes into the sink.
“Lie,” I answered instinctively, too afraid of what he was going ask.
His head popped up, his mouth splitting beautifully. God, I loved it when he smiled.
“No,
I was asking what it means… Truth or lie? River said it.”
“Oh!” Out of habit, I toyed with the star around my neck. “It’s a game we play.”
“You want to teach me?”
There was only one answer. “Lie. And yes.”
His mouth fell open. “So that was what your lie bullshit was about when I asked you to stay away from me.”
“Lie. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He laughed. “Now, you gotta tell me.”
“No. I really don’t.” Cursing my luck, I nabbed the laundry basket off the floor and set it on the counter. “Put the dishes in here. I’ll carry them down to the first floor and wash ’em in the morning. No water, remember?”
His handsome face filled with apology. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.” I slid the basket in his direction. “Last I checked, you didn’t take a magical wand of rust to my pipes.”
“No. But I’ll get it working again this week. I promise.”
“No pressure.”
“Cora, look at me.”
My gaze snapped to his and then my body locked tight.
He was only a few steps away, but as he moved closer, there was no mistaking his prowl. “I’m gonna take care of it.”
“Okay,” I breathed as he stopped, his large chest filling my vision. I had no choice but to crane my head back to see his face.
Just like he did so often, his hands found my hips.
And, just like it always did, it set me ablaze.
“I’m gonna take care of a lot of things from here on out. You just gotta trust me.”
Unable to stop myself, I rested my hands on his firm biceps and shuffled closer. “I appreciate it, but, Penn, you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He searched my face. Then his gaze lingered on my mouth as he whispered, “I know enough.”
With a fluid movement, he slid his other hand around to my lower back, two of my fingers slipping under the hem of my shirt to tease my skin.
Oh wow. A soft gasp escaped my mouth as the most delectable chill rolled through me. God, how did something so simple feel so incredible?
“Penn,” I breathed.
He shifted me deeper, our fronts becoming flush. “Say you understand me, Cora.”