by Noelle Adams
When Kent brought her a mug of hot chocolate over, he asked, “You need ice on your ankle?”
“No, thank you. It’s not that bad, and I don’t want anything cold touching me right now. But would you mind calling Scott?”
“Why?”
“He was with Olivia, and they were driving out in this snow too. I want someone to know where I am, and I want to make sure she and Laura are okay. I dropped my phone in the snow and couldn’t find it.”
“Is that what happened? I wondered why you called me and never said anything.”
“It was an accident. I wasn’t pranking you. It flew out of my hand as I fell and must have gone crazy far. But would you mind calling Scott?”
“I guess.” He was glowering again, but he went over and got his phone from the table and then brought it over to the couch to sit beside her. He connected the call and after a few seconds said, “Scott?”
Penny relaxed when there was clearly an answer on the other end. Obviously Scott was okay and answering his phone, which meant Olivia probably was too.
“Penny is here,” Kent said after a pause. “In my cabin. Her car got stuck, and I was the only one around, so she’s stuck here. She lost her phone in the snow, but she’s fine.” He glanced over at Penny then and said, “He’s telling Olivia. She’s been worried about you.”
“Tell her I’m fine.”
Kent didn’t do as she’d asked. Instead, he said into the phone, “So I guess you’re stuck just like we are. Who knows how long Penny will be stranded with me here.”
Penny poked him hard since that comment had just been rude.
He didn’t respond to her. Just said into the phone, “I am being nice. I’ll let you know how we’re doing, and you do the same. Have a good time cooped up with what’s-her-name.”
Surely he knew Olivia’s name, so he must just be teasing Scott.
Maybe he knew Scott was into Olivia the way Penny knew about Olivia’s feelings.
“Don’t do anything too bad,” Kent added after Scott must have responded. “Talk later.”
He hung up. “Olivia can tell your other sisters that you’re fine. It sounds like everyone is safe. Just stuck until the snow clears out.”
“If it ever stops snowing.” Penny turned her head to look out the big window behind the couch, and she couldn’t see more than a few feet into the white. “This is terrible. At this rate, I’ll be lucky to get out of here tomorrow.”
Kent made a face, so she poked him again.
“Don’t be like that. I’m not that bad to hang out with. You used to like me.”
“I still like you,” he grunted.
She was surprised by that and checked his face, but it seemed like he was telling her the truth.
“I do,” he said. “I just don’t hang out with anyone.”
“Why not? What’s so wrong with hanging out occasionally with people you like? I’m not going to make any demands on you or anything. I don’t do that.”
“I know you don’t.” He’d looked away from her now, like he was uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation.
“Then why not leave your cabin sometimes?”
“I do,” he said. “I go into Charlottesville a couple times a week. I go to church sometimes, and there’s a poker game with some guys we do once a week.”
“Really?” Her eyes were wide. “Everyone says you’re a hermit.”
“I’m not much into socializing, but I’m not totally a hermit.”
“But you never come to town. I mean, our town.”
“No.”
“Why not? People would still like you if you talked to them again. Why avoid everyone you used to know?”
She was asking sincerely, carefully so she didn’t sound pushy. But she really wanted to know.
It bothered her. That he’d been so nice, gentle, when they’d been friends, and then he’d gradually pushed everyone away.
He didn’t answer. Didn’t look at her. He was staring at the stove and sitting tensely.
“Kent?” she prompted softly. “What happened?”
“Nothing happened. This is me. Just drop it.” His words were brusque, dismissive. Then he jerked to his feet and strode over to the kitchen where he poured himself a cup of coffee.
She drew back into the corner of the couch and pulled the blanket up to her chin, feeling like she’d just been slapped.
He couldn’t have shut her out more clearly if he’d slammed a door in her face.
Which was fine.
He didn’t have to open up to her. He didn’t have to answer her questions. He didn’t have to do anything but let her stay inside with him until she could get back to her car and get out of there.
And that was just fine with her.
She wasn’t any good at being cool and dignified, but she would try. She wasn’t going to beg him to talk to her.
She was a very nice person, but she wasn’t going to waste any of her niceness on him.
Four
KENT STARED DOWN AT his cup of coffee and wondered what kind of asshole he’d become.
There’d been no reason to talk to Penny that way. He could have avoided her questions without being rude.
He’d spent too much time alone. He might not be the complete recluse his hometown believed him to be, but he’d forgotten how to do normal social maneuvers like changing the subject without hurting someone’s feelings. He glanced over toward the back of Penny’s head, which was all of her he could observe from his position, and he could see something was off.
She was wounded.
He had done it to her.
Penny had never hurt him in her life. Even when their fathers got into that huge fight and the two families were brutally ripped apart, she’d still smiled at him every time she saw him; she’d made an effort to let him know that she still liked him.
But he couldn’t stop hurting her.
“Sorry,” he burst out.
He’d clearly surprised her because she gave a little jerk as she turned around on the couch.
“For being rude,” he added when she just looked at him with those huge blue eyes. “Sorry.”
She flashed her dimple at him but didn’t really smile. “That’s okay. Anyone who hangs out with you for any length of time will have to get used to rudeness.”
“I’m not that bad.”
“Yes, you are!” She was almost laughing now. “You’re really trying to tell me that you’re not that bad? The last time I came here you wouldn’t even open the door for me.”
He winced with another twinge of guilt. “I know. Sorry about that too. I was afraid of what I might say.”
“What do you mean?” She was still bundled up in the blanket. There was no rational reason for her to be so irresistible right now, with only her head exposed, but she was. Her face was just as curvy as her body, and her cheeks were still pink from the cold. She had an adorable sprinkling of freckles on her nose, and her hair was a tousled mess.
He wanted to yank off her blanket, peel off her clothes, put his hands all over her body, press his lips all over her face.
Shit, he was losing it.
“Kent? Did you freeze or something?”
He put down his mug, which he realized he’d been holding at his lips for a full minute while he stared at her. “No. Sorry. Just thinking.”
“I’d asked you what you meant by being afraid of what you’d say to me that day.”
“Oh. Yeah. I guess I was... I was in such a mood that I couldn’t be a decent person with you. I thought it was better not to talk to you at all.”
“Really? Why didn’t you just tell me that?”
“I did.”
“No, you didn’t! You just told me to go away.”
“Didn’t I say I couldn’t talk right then?”
“Yes. But I thought you just wanted to get rid of me.”
“I did.”
“But I thought it was because you were mad at me, that you didn’t like me anymore.”
He rubbed his beard with one hand and smothered a groan. “Of course I still liked you. I’ve always liked you, Penny. I’m just not... fit to be around people anymore. Obviously.”
She shook her head and got off the couch, dropping the blanket as she did. She was still carrying her hot chocolate as she came over to sit at his worktable. “All you needed to say was you needed some space but you’d talk to me later. How hard would that have been?”
“I didn’t know if...”
“If what? You didn’t know if you’d want to talk to me later?”
“I didn’t know if you’d want to talk to me later,” he explained, feeling a tension unclench in his chest at the admission. “I’m kind of an asshole, you know.”
She chuckled. “You are an asshole.”
He was having a ridiculously hard time looking away from her sparkling eyes and luscious dimple. “Did you just call me an asshole?”
“You called yourself one!”
“I didn’t think you used language like that.”
“I don’t normally, but there are extenuating circumstances right now.”
“Like my being an asshole?”
“Exactly.”
They grinned at each other for just a little too long until Kent remembered that Penny was going to leave as soon as the snow cleared out and go back to her life while he’d be left alone in this cabin again.
No sense in getting too attached.
Penny cleared her throat and looked away, focusing on his laptop, which was still open on the table. “What are you working on?”
“Oh. I’m working on all the graphics for a company’s rebranding.”
“Can I see?”
Relieved to have something safe to talk about, Kent moved his computer and chair over to show her what he’d been working on.
Penny was both talented and encouraging, and she obviously liked what he’d done and also had some great suggestions. Then she asked to see some of his other recent work, and they spent almost an hour going over his projects from the past year.
“Do you draw and paint anymore?” she asked him when he’d finally closed his laptop.
“Occasionally. Not much.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged, feeling awkward even though it hadn’t been a particularly intimate question. “I don’t know. I just don’t.” He paused. “Do you?”
“Yes. Of course I do. I’ll occasionally sell a few paintings at craft fairs and in the store, but I’m not really good enough to go any further. But I still love it.”
“You were always really good. You won that contest when you were fifteen.”
He remembered the evening of that contest ceremony vividly. He’d felt so close to her for those few minutes, standing next to her parents’ van. He’d never felt so close to anyone before.
“Maybe I was good, but I was never great.” She didn’t appear even slightly downcast by the admission. “But you don’t have to be great at something for it to be worth doing. I love painting. It gives me pleasure. And sometimes it gives other people pleasure too. So I’m going to keep doing it as long as I can.”
“I’d like to see some of your work.”
She slanted him the most adorably teasing look. “In order to see my work, you’d have to leave this cabin and drive toward town. Are you prepared to do that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” He’d said the words instinctively, but then he heard what he’d just said.
He’d just said it was a possibility that he’d come over to Holiday Acres to see her paintings.
What the hell was he thinking?
Penny was evidently just as surprised by his words as he was. “Are you serious?”
“I don’t know.”
She put a hand on his forearm, and her touch was gentle, warm even through the flannel of his shirt. “I thought you still hated all of us for what Dad did to your family.”
Kent made a face, suddenly so uncomfortable that he wanted to close down the conversation. But that would hurt Penny’s feelings, and he wasn’t prepared to do that to her again. “I don’t know. I... I never hated you all. I was... really mad. At your dad.”
“You acted like you were mad at all of us. When we offered you the partnership in Holiday Acres, you cussed Laura out and told her hell would freeze over before you’d have anything to do with us.”
“Not with you personally. With Holiday Acres. It was all... tainted because of what your dad had done.”
She exhaled deeply and propped her head up on one hand. “The offer was sincere. We were trying to make up for what Dad had done to you.”
“I know. But I was still really angry. I couldn’t even... consider it.”
“You’re talking about it in the past tense.”
“What?”
“Being angry. You’re talking about it in the past tense.”
He rubbed his beard again, wondering how he’d stumbled onto this conversation, which was the last thing in the world he wanted to be talking about. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t you?” Penny was always this way, asking questions with bright interest and deep empathy in her eyes, making personal confessions feel easy, natural, even things he’d never want to admit out loud.
“I don’t know. It’s been years now, and I guess it’s hard to hold on to real, hot anger for that long. It turns into... something else.”
“What has it turned into?”
“I... don’t know.”
“You don’t know a lot of things. You realize that, right?” She was just barely smiling.
He couldn’t help but smile back. “Yes, I know that. What’s your point?”
“My point is for someone who has had years to sit by himself and think things through, you still haven’t really figured anything out. What have you been doing all this time?”
“Working,” he admitted. “Hiking. Fishing. Watching TV. Playing poker. Working some more.”
“Sounds okay, but wouldn’t it be better if you had some more people to talk to?”
“Are you offering yourself for that position?”
“Would you want that?”
“Maybe.”
He blinked when he heard his reply. Then blinked again when he realized he meant it.
She laughed out loud and leaned over to press a little kiss against his cheek, just on the top of his beard. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Kent. It hasn’t even been two hours yet. No reason to change your whole life just yet.”
He went hot as he felt her mouth against his skin, tickling his beard. She smelled delicious. Something fresh and peachy. And her soft hair fell forward, brushing against him. He wanted to bury his face in it. In her.
His whole body tensed up as he tried to hold himself back.
“Did I embarrass you?” she asked with another smile.
“No.” Then he realized it might be a better excuse than being hit with arousal this way. “Yes. Maybe.”
“Okay. I won’t do it again.” She stroked his beard. “When did you grow this thing out?”
“I don’t know. Years ago. Why? Don’t you like it?” The way he was feeling right now, it was entirely possible that he’d shave his beard off if she asked him to.
“No! I do like it. It gives you a kind of rugged, manly look. Very sexy.”
She was teasing. That much was clear. But the words did nothing for the state of his heart and body. “Yeah?” His voice was way too thick.
“Yeah.” She stood, picking up both their empty mugs and carrying them over to the sink to rinse them out.
Kent’s eyes lingered on her back. Even with the thick clothes, he could see how full and rounded her hips and ass were. He really wanted to see her naked.
The intensity of his desire genuinely surprised him. As a teenager, he’d always been aware of how pretty Penny was, and maybe her image would occasionally pop into his mind when he was masturbating, but that wasn’t something a guy could help. She’d always only been his friend.
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br /> Back then any feelings stronger than friendship had never been powerful enough to compel him into action.
He was having trouble holding himself back right now, however, and he was once again halfway hard in his jeans from the sight of her in his old flannel pants.
Ridiculous.
Absolutely ridiculous.
It must be from living alone for so long.
For the first few years after he’d cut himself off from the world, he’d gone into Charlottesville occasionally to hang out in bars and find women to have sex with. But eventually that started to feel old, kind of empty. It hadn’t seemed worth the trouble, so he’d just stopped.
Which meant he hadn’t had sex in almost two years.
That must be the reason. He’d been living like a monk, and a very sexy woman had just dropped into his lap unexpectedly.
Of course he was going to get turned on by her.
The fact that it was Penny, who’d been his friend for so long, should have put a damper on his lust, but it didn’t.
If anything, it just made it stronger.
When she’d finished rinsing the mugs, Penny walked over to the kitchen window to look out. “It’s never going to stop snowing!”
“I assume it will eventually. Maybe tomorrow—”
He broke off his words because just then the power went off in the cabin. The lights went out, the refrigerator stopped humming, and his modem went dark.
“Darn it.” Penny whirled around as if to accuse whoever had turned off the lights.
“I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. Power is always kind of iffy around here. I’ve got a portable generator we can use if it’s out for too long. We’ll be fine.”
“I know we’ll be fine. It’s just annoying because now we can’t even watch TV. What the heck are we going to do all night?”
Kent gulped. Reminded himself not to say out loud the thing they could do that immediately occurred to him.
“Maybe it will come back on soon,” he said, his voice thicker than it should have been.
“Maybe.” She was frowning as she sank down onto the couch and pulled the blanket up over her. “At least we still have heat.”
“Yes.” He came to sit beside her because he didn’t have anything else to do.