After the Storm

by Amy Knupp

  After staying with Nadia at the Silver Sands most of the past week, they’d come home to get his pills and decided they were too tired to go back. That’d been a mistake. Sharing his twin bed had apparently been the wrong decision. In spite of his being cautious, he’d managed to twist wrong, sleep wrong, God only knew what else wrong, and he felt as though he’d been compressed into a too-small box all night long. The physical aches had seeped into his mind and put him in a foul mood even before he was fully awake.

  He eased away from Nadia, who’d curled her backside into him and was still sound asleep facing the wall. Sitting on the side of the mattress should have been a relief but it did nothing to ease his discomfort—physical or otherwise.

  Nadia shifted as he watched her, rolling on her stomach and turning her head in his direction. He waited for her eyes to open, but she slept on.

  The sheet, twisted around her, went only partway up her torso and he admired the curve of her breast, spilling out from under her. The skin of her back looked as silky smooth as it felt. Blond curls fell over her cheek and he had to rein in the urge to brush them back.

  He didn’t want to wake her. She’d likely slept as poorly as he had last night, thanks to his endless tossing and turning in search of a comfortable position. She had a marathon schedule today, the day of her best friend’s wedding. The alarm was set to go off soon but he’d let her sleep for as long as possible.

  Penn pulled on a pair of shorts and left the room as quietly as he could. The condo was silent, so Cooper and Zoe hadn’t returned from the hotel room they’d splurged on last night.

  He headed to the kitchen, deciding he’d make Nadia breakfast so she could get her hectic day started out right.

  Fifteen minutes later, he was regretting that decision.

  Maybe it was lack of sleep but his reactions seemed to be off. Everything he did was clumsy. He’d burned his hand on the pan when he was frying hash-brown potatoes. Knocked over the entire container of salt and had to sweep half the contents into the sink to get rid of it.

  He hated his damn nonfunctioning body.

  A minute after seven-thirty, when Nadia’s alarm had been set to go off, he heard the shower in the bathroom turn on. Egg time. Imagining her smile when she found breakfast waiting for her lightened his mood considerably.

  Unfortunately, that lightness seemed to fly out the window in no time at all.

  Penn took out three eggs to use for an omelet. Proving he was the clumsiest idiot this side of the Gulf of Mexico, he somehow knocked his arm on the counter. Two of the eggs flew out of his hand and cracked on the floor in front of the stove. He managed to hold on to the third—too tightly. That one cracked right in his hand.

  Dammit all!

  * * *

  NADIA REGRETFULLY PULLED on the clothes she’d worn to the party last night. It would have been more fun to meet Penn with nothing more than a towel around her, but she was pressed for time. She followed her nose toward the kitchen.

  The aroma of food had wafted to her as she’d woken up and her stomach had been growling ever since. Now, however, it smelled as if something was starting to burn. She wondered if Penn had stepped out or something.

  She rounded the corner into the kitchen and all her questions were answered simultaneously. As she watched helplessly, Penn slipped on something and went down, his leg not moving in time to stop his fall. She rushed forward.

  “Penn!”

  He landed on one knee. It wouldn’t have been a bad fall for the average person, but with Penn’s injuries it could do all kinds of further damage.

  He yelled out in pain and pushed himself fully to the floor, leaning his back against the cabinets. “Dammit!” He rammed his elbow purposely into the cabinet door behind him.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Do I look okay?” he snapped, his teeth gritted.

  “What can I do to help?”

  “Just…leave me alone.”

  She stared at him, racking her brain for what to do. Looking next to them, she discovered the puddle of egg goop that Penn had slipped on. Without a word, she stood and went for the roll of paper towels. Penn’s eyes were closed as she began mopping up the mess.

  “Leave it,” he said when he finally realized what she was doing. “I can do it.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to point out he could barely get off the floor, but she stopped herself in time. Without saying anything, she continued to clean.

  When the egg mess was just about under control, Penn still hadn’t moved. Nadia began to wonder if he’d reinjured himself.

  “Do you need help getting up, Penn?”

  Before he could answer, the smoke detector started beeping. She noticed heavy smoke floating above them and she jumped up in alarm.

  “The pan’s on fire, Penn!” she yelled.

  He swore and tried to get up. “Get the lid,” he said. “And an oven mitt, in here.” He moved to the side and indicated a drawer.

  Doing her best not to panic, Nadia picked up the lid from the counter. She located the mitt and put it on.

  “Use the lid to cover it and turn off the heat,” Penn yelled over the racket.

  She did as he said, terrified that her arm would catch fire as she got the lid in place. As the lid fit over the pan, the flames died down. Nadia exhaled in relief and reassured herself the element was turned off.

  “What now?” she asked, shaking from the inside out.

  Penn stood several feet from her, his arms braced on the counter, his face contorted. She could feel anger coming off him in waves from where she stood.

  “Penn? What do I need to do?”

  “Nothing.” He answered without looking at her. “Just go.”

  “Quit it, Penn. Everything is fine.” Taking another deep breath, she calmed herself, realizing he was probably embarrassed on a dozen different levels.

  “There’s no reason to beat yourself up. The fire is out. Eggs are cleaned. You can apparently stand, right? Is there any other damage?”

  Instead of answering, he picked up the oven mitt and threw it across the room.

  “Penn, stop it. Stuff like this happens to everybody—”

  “How many times do I have to ask you to leave, Nadia?”

  She glanced at the clock on the microwave, biting down on her frustration. “I’m going to be late. You’re sure you’re okay?”

  He narrowed his eyes and answered in a low voice. “I’m just peachy as hell.”

  Nadia stared at him helplessly. “I have to go. I’ll see you at the wedding tonight, Penn. You’ll feel better by then and everything will be fine.”

  She rushed out of the room before he could snap at her again, trying to believe her own words.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING here at this hour, Nadia?”

  Crap. Nadia hadn’t expected her mom to be in this part of the hotel this early on a Saturday morning. If she had, she would have made a point of closing the door.

  “Just double-checking things for Faith’s reception.” She replaced a white flameless candle into the Red Hots candies at the bottom of the hurricane vase after testing to make sure the battery was good.

  “That’s pretty,” her mom said.

  “Faith wanted a firefighter theme without being overt. And Joe refused to have real candles anywhere besides the unity candle,” she explained in as indifferent a tone as she could muster.

  They hadn’t yet cleared the air after the hotel-sale conversation. Truth be told, Nadia had kept out of her mom’s path as much as she could. It hadn’t been difficult, since in addition to her usual workload, she’d been meeting with Faith and Mercedes almost every evening to take care of last-minute wedding details. Thursday night, for instance, they’d worked on the table centerpieces and the favors until three in the morning. Add in the time she’d been spending with Penn, which was almost every night, and she’d barely had a moment to eat, let alone argue.

  The thought of Penn tightened the kn
ot in her stomach and she promised herself she’d make sure things with him were okay later.

  “Makes perfect sense. What doesn’t make sense is that you’re here doing something the wedding planner or our staff should be doing.”

  “You’re here, too,” Nadia said defensively.

  “I was just passing through.”

  Nadia moved to the next table, took the candle out, tested the battery and put it back in. She leveled out the candy and stood back to make sure it looked okay. “It’s Faith’s wedding. I want it to be perfect.”

  Her mom chuckled unconvincingly. “We have a very capable events staff to do that.”

  “Yes. And they’ve done well. But these are battery-operated. I’m making sure they haven’t died yet.”

  Her mom looked around the ballroom at the round tables and chairs. “It does look perfect. Faith will be thrilled with it all, I’m sure. I imagine she’d even forgive you if one of the faux flames didn’t light up.”

  “Probably. But it would bug me.”

  Still taking in the setting, Joyce shook her head, then she went to the next table and picked up the centerpiece. “You’re just checking the batteries on these, then turning it back off?”

  “Right,” Nadia said.

  Her mom got busy checking, moving systematically down the row of tables. Nadia started on the next row over and they worked in silence for several minutes.

  When they were at adjacent tables, her mom spoke. “So who’s the lucky man you’ve had in your room here at the hotel almost every night the past week?”

  Nadia faltered for a moment, ridiculously forgetting she was an adult who could have a guy overnight if she wanted to. She laughed at herself. Narrowed her eyes at her mother, curious. “Who told you?”

  “I’ll never reveal my sources,” her mom said smugly.

  Nadia finished one centerpiece. Walked to the next table and checked another. “It’s Penn. The firefighter with the back injury.”

  “Oh? And am I ever going to meet Penn, the firefighter with the back injury?”

  “I’ll introduce you at the wedding.”

  “I can’t wait. Is this serious?”

  Nadia shrugged. “I like him. A lot. But…I don’t know.” She didn’t feel like going into the nuances of their relationship with her mother.

  Her mom had stopped a few tables down the row and was staring at her with a half grin. “I’m happy for you, Nadia. I meant what I said about living more, and if Penn helps you do that, I’m all for it.”

  At the mention of their last discussion, Nadia tensed and focused on her task.

  “Incidentally,” Joyce said, “after thinking about it all week, I’ve decided to tell Hennington we’re not interested in selling right now.”

  Nadia swung her gaze to her mother. “Really?”

  “You were right. This is our place and I’m not ready to let it go yet. I don’t think I ever truly was, but sometimes you have to look into your options....”

  Nadia felt as if she could breathe freely after more than a week of being underwater.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you beforehand,” her mom continued. “Things have been off between us lately and maybe that was my way of lashing out. I don’t know. At any rate, it was the wrong thing to do.”

  “It’s okay. Some good actually came of it, I think. You made me realize how badly I needed to find more balance in my life.”

  “That sounds promising, honey. We both do.”

  They went through a couple more rows without talking. Nadia just wanted to get done. She was supposed to meet Faith and Mercedes to start the marathon day of wedding activities soon.

  “So tell me more about Penn. What don’t you know?”

  “We go a few days and get along so well and I start to think…maybe he’s it.” She thought of the nights they’d spent together, the conversations they’d had. There’d been moments when she was able to forget all of the bad stuff, times when he seemed to act more like the pre-accident Penn. Her throat swelled with emotion and she tried to swallow it down. “I think I’m in love with him.”

  The second the words were out, she became more sure. Nodded. “I do love him.” Warmth spread through her and she realized she was smiling.

  “Color me not surprised,” her mom said with a sappy grin on her face. “Any man who manages to drag my workaholic daughter away from her job a few evenings a week… He must feel the same about you.”

  Nadia set the last centerpiece down and sighed. “I don’t know. We have some things to work through.” The lump in her throat had turned acidic with fear. While the past week had been amazing, they’d been avoiding issues. Namely, his anger. She’d tried so many times to help him work through it, tried to suggest ways for him to move beyond it, beyond the accident, but he didn’t seem to want to move on.

  “If it’s important to you both, you’ll get through them,” her mom said.

  Nadia nodded. It was important enough to her, but the jury was out regarding Penn.

  She turned around and surveyed the room as a whole. The red-and-white theme was simple and beautiful. The centerpieces looked perfect.

  Her mom walked up to her and hugged her. “Love you, honey. I hate when we disagree.”

  Nadia leaned into her mom. “Me, too, Mom.”

  There was nothing in the world like a mom hug. She held on for extra seconds, wishing she could take this comfort and cling to it for the rest of the day, until she saw Penn again.

  * * *

  PENN WAS NOWHERE to be found.

  Nadia had held out hope through the chaos of the ceremony, pictures, the dinner, the toasts and all the official bits that she just hadn’t looked hard enough. They’d agreed to meet at the reception since she had ridden to the hotel with the wedding party.

  But no.

  He’d stood her up.

  After everything they’d been through, after the progress they’d made, he’d let this morning’s anger get the best of him. And she could admit it—it was getting the best of her, as well.

  As far as Faith knew, everything about the evening had turned out perfectly. All the faux candles had stayed on at dinner—and yes, Nadia had checked them—the unity candle had lit on their first try. Faith looked absolutely beautiful. Joe was killer handsome in his dress blues, and when they stood together, so undeniably happy as they posed for pictures at every turn, Nadia could easily imagine a little one joining them. A gorgeous little one with his or her mama’s eyes and daddy’s olive complexion.

  Nadia stood against the wall, watching people dance but no longer really seeing anything. When one of Joe’s stepbrothers asked her to dance, she tried to smile and shook her head. Then she decided to find a better place to wait out the rest of the party.

  She couldn’t, absolutely would not, leave her best friend’s wedding early, but at the first opportunity, she was going to have a word with Penn.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  PENN REALIZED HIS MISTAKE when he saw Nadia approaching his front door from his spot by the window: he should have left the condo. That or locked the door.

  When she knocked, he didn’t move from his trusty straight-back chair. He continued to stare from the dark living room out toward the deserted swimming pool.

  She knocked two more times, then tried the knob and, of course, came on in.

  “Penn?” She hollered loudly enough it was evident she couldn’t see him sitting there six feet away. She walked into the hallway and flipped on the light. He watched her reflection as she continued toward his room and said his name again.

  After verifying that he wasn’t in his room, she turned in his direction. The second she noticed him, she stopped and put her hand to her chest.

  “What are you doing?” Anger was evident in her voice.

  She came to the doorway of the living room and stopped. Leaned against the wall, one arm to her side, the other gripping her own forearm.

  He still hadn’t stirred, instead watching her reflection in
the window. She wore a fire-engine-red dress that hugged her body like a second skin. Thin straps gave way to a deep vee that revealed captivating cleavage. He’d explored that part of her body countless times and still had trouble pulling his gaze from it.

  Below the narrow waist, the skirt flared out to highlight her hips and ended just below her knees in front, slightly lower in the back. Killer red stilettos finished off the look that made him almost regret not going to the wedding.

  Almost.

  Had he shown up, it would have been more of the same: avoiding the dance floor, feeling out of place, wishing he could be more of a date for Nadia.

  “You don’t have anything to say?” Nadia asked. “Nothing?”

  “What do you want me to say, Nadia?”

  She scoffed. “‘Sorry’ would be a decent place to start, but only if you really are.” She paused. Waited for him to speak. “Well, there’s one answer for me.”

  “Turned out I wasn’t in the mood for a party.”

  Before he could register what she was doing, she rushed toward him and kicked his chair. “Dammit, Penn! You can’t even look at me while we have this discussion?”

  “What discussion is that?”

  She was fuming next to him, staring down at him. And son of a bitch that he was, he received a small amount of gratification that someone besides him was finally pissed off.

  Penn stood up and turned to face her.

  Nadia shook her head, slowly, deliberately, with a coldness in her eyes he hadn’t seen before. “I can’t do this, Penn. You’ve pushed and pushed and I’ve taken every last bit of it. I’ve been on the receiving end of your blame and anger for weeks.”

  “Probably all true,” he said much more calmly than he felt. His heart hammered in his chest and, once again, he wanted to lash out.

  “As long as you have such resentment about everything you’ve lost, you’re going to hold the accident against me. I’ve played your guilt game. I’ve had bone-deep guilt eating me alive ever since I first saw you lying in that hospital room.”

  He flinched inwardly and then thought how screwed up that was.