Poked (A Standalone Romance) (A Savery Brother Book)

by Naomi Niles

  Her eyes were still shut tightly. I leaned down and kissed her on the tender part of her ears, then brushed my lips against her neck and cheeks. She stirred slowly and smiled as she realized where she was and whose breath mingled with hers.

  Penny sat up, blinking groggily and smacking her lips, her hair wild and uncombed. Her first instinct was to reach for a sheet or blanket with which to cover her tiny breasts; but not finding any nearby, she placed one arm across her chest and waved with her free hand, blushing but radiant.

  “Good morning,” she said, yawning. She reached to cover her mouth with her other hand, momentarily forgetting that she was using it to hide her boobs.

  “Hey, you. Did you sleep well?”

  “Mmmm, better than ever. Except I woke up to a weird tickle on the side of my neck and came to find out some boy was kissing me.”

  “Guilty,” I said, raising both hands in the air. “I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

  “I’ll think about it. I had the most horrible dream last night that I was separated from you and couldn’t find you. I think we were wandering through Boston and you got lost in the crowd in the subway. And I wasn’t carrying my cell phone, so I couldn’t call you. I hadn’t felt so anxious in ages. And then when I woke up and realized you were still there, it was the greatest feeling. Sometimes it almost feels too good to be real, the kind of thing that can’t last or I might end up being perfectly happy.”

  “Well, what would be wrong with that?” I asked.

  “I just—are we allowed to be this happy?” She shivered; goosebumps were forming on her bare arms in the cold gray light. “I guess in the back of my mind, I’ve always thought you were only allowed a certain amount of happiness, and if you used it up too soon, you were doomed to be miserable for the rest of your life.”

  “Nope, that’s not how it works,” I said, smiling. Even though we had just slept together not six hours ago, I still wanted her. It never stopped.

  “Maybe not. I just never expected to be dating the perfect person for me and living my perfect life.”

  “Believe it.” Taking her arm by the wrist and drawing it down into her lap, I kissed her softly on the lips. Every time we kissed, her eyes widened in surprise, as though she had forgotten we were dating—as though she had never been kissed before.

  ***

  And that was our life for the next month. Each morning we would take turns making breakfast. Penny continued to practice her pancakes, and within a few weeks she had smoothed all the lumps out. They were even beginning to form circles rather than misshapen blobs.

  Dickie was released from the hospital about a week after the accident, and with the aid of a physical therapist, he was learning how to walk again without any trouble. Although Penny had predicted that he would give up on fixing up racecars after his near brush with death, he was back in the shop by the end of the summer working on a Mustang I bought with my winnings from the first race.

  I wasn’t looking forward to having to explain to Penny that I planned to continue racing, but she bore the news more graciously than I had expected.

  “I hope you don’t mind,” I told her one morning as we were making crepes, “but I’ve already made plans for tomorrow night.”

  “You don’t have to apologize for wanting to do things without me,” said Penny. “Where are you going?”

  “Well…” I hesitated. “There’s another race on the strip, and Adam has been trash-talking me all week. I figured an easy win tomorrow night would deflate his head a little.”

  To my surprise, Penny smiled and kissed me on the cheek. “I think I would like that, too.”

  She went back to minding the crepes while I looked on incredulously. “You’re not going to try to stop me at all?”

  She shook her head. “I was never worried about you getting into an accident. You’re much too careful and more experienced than Dickie ever was. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised when I found out he had wrecked the Mustang. He was never good at navigating those hairpin curves, whereas you’ve never gotten so much as a scratch on your car. I’m fine with you racing as long as you don’t let him behind the wheel again.”

  “Well, it’s going to be a while before he’s behind the wheel of anything,” I replied. “He’s learning how to walk again, but it’s slow going.”

  When I walked into the garage that morning, I found Dickie sitting in a wheelchair in front of the new Mustang. The hood had been raised, and the smell of car exhaust mingled with the damp scent of the morning breeze. On the counter stood a gift basket and a small bottle of champagne with a chrome balloon attached.

  “Where did you find all these admirers?” I asked. “You’re really milking this whole wheelchair thing, aren’t you?”

  Dickie smiled a shrewd smile. “Is that any way to treat a poor cripple?”

  “How’s the car coming?”

  “I’m actually just about done here,” he said, rolling back a few paces. “You’ll need to take it out for a run before we can be really sure, but I think that ought to get you through tomorrow night.”

  “You sure you don’t want to come with me?”

  Dickie shook his head. He had been reluctant to use racecars even as a passenger ever since the accident. Privately, he had informed me that sometimes he still dreamed about the wreck, and awoke with the smell of smoke and singed hair in his nostrils.

  “I wouldn’t want to slow you down,” he said. “I’ll just watch from the garage, and you can tell me how it compares to the last car. In the meantime, now that this one is just about finished, I’ll be getting to work on our next project.”

  “Anything you need me to run to the store for?”

  Dickie smiled knowingly. “No, but I’m sure you’ll be over there again before very long. I’ll let you know if I think of anything.”

  He closed the hood and handed me the keys. I took the car out on the road and left the garage in a cloud of dust. The whole time, I kept thinking about what Penny had said—about how happiness is fleeting and maybe some things are too good to last. There were moments when I wondered if she was right.

  But there was no reason she had to be. Penny’s perspective was a darkly fatalistic one steeped in cynicism, the overflow of a gloomy mind. Yes, I had a job that I loved and a girlfriend who loved me. But who was to say this was the pinnacle of happiness? Maybe my life hadn’t peaked yet. Maybe it was just getting started.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Penny

  I left the house with Nic that morning at around 9:00am while Darren was still in the shower. We stopped for breakfast tacos at a local taco place, and as we were already running late, we ordered the food to go. I balanced the foil-wrapped tacos and hot sauce packets in my lap as we sped to work.

  We spent much of the morning interviewing prospective managers to replace Dad. Each one seemed nuttier than the last, and after Nic had finished showing the last one to the door, she turned to me and said, “Have you ever thought about maybe not hiring a replacement?”

  “And leave the store without a manager?” I replied. “I don’t know if we could carry on without one indefinitely. Unless you’re thinking of selling the store.”

  “Not exactly.” She pulled up a stool and sat down across from me. “But I was thinking maybe together we could be co-managers. We’ve been running this place long enough that we both know the ins and outs of management. And with your people skills and my business and administrative skills, we might not even need a third person. It’s something that I think you ought to seriously consider, at least.”

  I thought about it quietly for a moment as I finished eating my bacon avocado taco. On its face, it seemed like such a bad idea, but the only real objection I could think of was that we weren’t capable of doing it. “I’ll definitely think about it. If the rest of our interviews end up being as bad as those last few, we might have to just run the place ourselves.”

  “We’ve been doing a pretty good job of it so far,”
Nic pointed out. “Remember the week after your dad died, you were so worried we were going to run this place into the ground, but so far there have been no major disasters, and everything is ship-shape.”

  “It helps that we were basically running it on our own even before he died. I sometimes wonder if that was the reason he left us in charge during those last couple months. He could’ve easily brought in outside help, but he thought we were capable of running the place on our own.”

  “And he wasn’t wrong,” said Nic. “Your dad’s confidence in you has never been misplaced.”

  “No,” I said, smiling to myself, and a warm sense of reassurance flooded through me. “No, I guess not.”

  While I was throwing away the remains of my breakfast, the door chimed, and the hulking figure of Adam came into the room. Nic and I exchanged glances of irritation. Adam, however, whistled obliviously as he strode to the counter.

  “You know what I hate,” he said, “is when somebody knows your name but deliberately calls you something else instead. Ever since I started passing around flyers, people have started calling me ‘the flyer guy.’ ‘Hey, flyer guy!’ And I’m like, ‘You’ve known me for ten years, my name is Adam.’”

  “Mmmm, sounds tough,” said Nic.

  “I just feel very demeaned by it. I have a name. My parents did not christen me ‘The Flyer Guy Jenkins.’”

  “Did you actually come in here for something, or did you just want to complain?”

  “I’m just tired of being mistreated, you know. It seems like everywhere I go lately, people are making fun of me. I go to the gym, I shower at least five times a week, I have a steady girlfriend—”

  “You don’t have a girlfriend, Adam.”

  “I could have one.”

  Nic turned to me and smirked, and I burst out laughing.

  “For your information,” said Adam, puffing his chest out proudly, “I’ve been talking to a girl on OKCupid.”

  “Oh yeah?” I raised my brows in surprise. “When did she get out of prison?”

  Adam ran his hands through his hair. The only thing he hated worse than being teased was being teased by girls. “If that’s how you’re going to be, I can take my business elsewhere. I came in here for a part, but I just remembered there’s a store where I can get it cheaper on the other side of town.”

  “What’s the name of the store?” asked Nic.

  Adam was silent.

  “Anyway,” I said, “you might want to hold off on buying that part. After tomorrow night you’re not going to need it.”

  “Oh? What makes you so sure of that?”

  “Well, when a man has been humiliated by his opponent enough times, he usually has the good sense to retire and find something else to do with his time.”

  “That’s assuming Adam has any sense,” said Nic, keeping one eye on Adam who had turned brick-red.

  “You know, if this is how you’re going to treat all your customers, it’s a wonder you’ve managed to stay in business,” he snarled.

  “Well, this isn’t how we treat all our customers,” I said. “Only you.”

  He threw up his hands in the air. If there had been a wall nearby, I have a feeling he would have punched it. “That’s fine. If you want to tease and bully me, I guess that’s your right. But you’ve just lost a customer. I’m never coming back into this store. And I’ll be warning all my friends not to come here, either.”

  “Shame,” said Nic, snapping her fingers. “I’d hate to lose two customers.”

  By this point, I was having a hard time holding in my laughter. Adam didn’t seem to find it nearly as funny, for he turned around and stormed out without another word, letting the door swing shut behind him.

  “Oh, it’s going to be so satisfying seeing Darren beat him again tomorrow night,” said Nic as she watched him pull out of the parking lot in a cloud of dust.

  “Too bad he’ll probably never come back,” I said sadly. “I really enjoyed provoking him.”

  “One thing I’ve learned about Adam is that he makes threats, but he never follows through. I’m sure he’ll be back again next week. And we’ll keep teasing him, and he’ll keep storming out.” Nic shrugged. “It’s a shame, really: I only tease people I like, and I really like Adam. If he wasn’t so easily offended, he would have figured that out long ago.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Darren

  By now, I had begun to accept the fact that Penny and I were probably going to be married. One night, we had gone out with Nic and a couple other friends, and she lost her wallet. When she started to panic, I took her aside and stroked her shoulder reassuringly, talking to her in that voice we only used for each other. Then I helped her retrace our steps until she found the wallet.

  Afterwards, Nic said to me, “How did you do that?”

  “Do what?” I asked.

  “Get her to calm down like that. I’ve never been able to calm her when she starts panicking. You’re like the Penny whisperer.”

  “Yeah, I guess I am,” I said, smiling. “The Penny whisperer.”

  I was still thinking about that conversation on Saturday morning when I woke up with Penny beside me. I loved how her hair looked in the morning before she combed it, and the perfect look of calm on her face in the chilly dawn light. I used to wonder how spouses could bear waking up to the same face every day of their lives. Now I knew.

  As I lay there watching her breath rise and fall, she stirred and moaned softly. Before I could ask her how she had slept, she sat up and kissed my upper lip. “Hey, you. How long have you been awake?”

  “About half an hour.”

  “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

  I shrugged. “Sometimes it’s nice just to lay there with you.”

  “You’re too good to me, Savery.” Penny tossed her hair back. “I had a dream that you got to the race tonight, and they handed you a broom and told you it was a flying race. And then you and Adam had to fly through the air, but you had never ridden on a broom before, and your broom kept bucking you off. Adam was so glad to have finally won something that he kept flying around you in circles, laughing.”

  “That’s a terrible dream,” I said. “You have so little faith in me.”

  “I’m very confident in your skills as a driver,” Penny replied. “Not so much in your flying abilities.”

  “Well, you don’t have to worry.” I pressed my face close to hers so that my beard tickled her skin and she giggled. “Unless they changed the rules at the last minute, there won’t be any flying tonight.”

  “Thank goodness,” said Penny, with wide eyes.

  As it turned out, though, we needn’t have worried. When we reached the strip that night, we found only a long row of cars, their headlights blazing in the hazy, mosquito-filled twilight. Adam stood against the door of his Firebird. He glared coolly at me and Penny as we walked past him.

  “I can’t wait to wipe that smirk off your face, Savery,” he muttered. “You and your girlfriend both.”

  Presumably, Adam had intended this as a threat, but I didn’t feel remotely intimidated. “Keep it up, Jenkins,” I said cheerfully. “Soon your transformation into a cartoon villain will be complete.”

  As if to prove my point, Adam continued to fume and snarl as we walked away. “You know, I never thought about it,” said Penny, “but he really does remind me of a cartoon villain. I think he wants to scare us, but mostly I just feel bad for him.”

  “That’s because you still have a heart in your breast,” I told her. “I need someone like you in my life to remind me every now and again that guys like him are still human. Otherwise, he’d be totally insufferable.”

  “He probably just wishes he had someone to cuddle with,” said Penny. I leaned back against the Mustang and wrapped my arm around her. “I think sometimes loneliness can drive a person crazy. That’s the road I was heading down before I met you.”

  “That’s why we need guys like him in our lives: to remind us where we came from a
nd where we could have ended up if things had gone just a little bit different.”

  “I’m glad things turned out the way they have.” Penny turned to face me, her eyes shining in the floodlights. “You could be out here tonight making a ton of money and not having anyone to come home to. And I could be sitting in my room crying because my hero and heroine just confessed their love to each other and I’m all alone.”

  “So we’d both still be doing the things we love,” I said, “we just wouldn’t have each other. I’d like to think we could have still found happiness and fulfillment even without each other.”

  “Maybe, but being with you has made it a lot easier,” said Penny.

  By now the announcer’s booming voice was declaring the start of the race. I opened the door and climbed into the car. Penny leaned over and kissed me through the window. “Be safe,” she said, grabbing hold of my wrist. “I don’t want to have to spend the next week in the hospital.”

  “This will be over in moments,” I told her as I put on my helmet.

  And it was. I had been practicing for so long that the outcome of the race was never in much doubt. Within a few minutes, I had cruised to an easy victory, leaving my next closest competitor in a cloud of exhaust. By the time I emerged from my car at the end of the strip, a small crowd of spectators was racing toward me, Nic and Penny among them. Nic was pushing Dickie, who glowed with a look of triumph as if he had won the race himself.

  “That was exceptional,” he said, “really brilliant. What are we doing to celebrate?”

  I shrugged with a casual air. “Maybe go out for steak and seafood. Maybe take some champagne and go out to the lake, just the four of us. The weather’s cool, and I’m feeling glad to be alive tonight.”

  Penny must have noticed the relative indifference with which I had greeted my win, for she asked, “Aren’t you glad to have won?”

  “I guess.” I let out a long sigh. “Racing used to get me worked up like nothing else, but the happiest moment of my whole day was getting out of that car and seeing your shining faces. I don’t know if I want to race anymore. I think tonight might have been my last contest.”