Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
PENNY
On Saturday morning, I awoke to the scent of coffee.
Grandma was sitting on the edge of my bed, holding a steaming mug as she blew that steam towards my nose. When she saw my eyes open, she grinned. “So…isn’t tonight the night? Whatcha going to wear to go out with Ryder?”
“Oh. Um…” I sat up and sipped the coffee. “Something came up.”
Her face fell. “He canceled on you?”
“Actually…”
“ Penelope . You bailed?”
“Not bailed…not exactly. I just…” I sighed. “Okay, yes. I bailed. But only temporarily.”
Grandma nodded and stood, looking down at me, her eyes warm and kind despite her disappointment. “I know you don’t want to talk about it, so I’ll just say this one thing. If you let fear run your life, you’ll never know what you missed out on.”
I thought about that as I showered. Fear wasn’ t holding me back. It was more about trust. But I trusted Ryder, more than I thought possible.
It was myself I didn’t quite trust.
Twenty minutes later, I was in the kitchen going through some color samples Ryder had left for us when my phone chirped an incoming call from an unknown number. I’d long ago blocked Mitch’s cell. It could be anyone calling, maybe one of Grandma’s doctors, so I forced myself to connect the call.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Penny.”
At the sound of Ryder’s voice, I nearly sagged in relief. “Hey.”
Long pause. “You okay? You sound…off.”
I put a hand to my racing heart with a mirthless laugh. “You want the short or long answer?”
There was a beat of silence, like he was checking my pulse and mental health through the phone. “With you, I always want the long answer.”
Had I ever met anyone like him? “When my phone buzzed, I didn’t recognize this number and for a minute, I thought…” I took a gulp of air. Why was I telling him this?
“You thought it might be someone you didn’t want to talk to,” he said carefully.
I nodded, then realized he couldn’t see me. “Yes.”
“Has someone been…bothering you?”
“No.” I touched my jaw. “Sometimes my mind just likes to rake me over the coals.”
“Understandable,” he said quietly. “Do you think you could do something for me? If you ever feel like you’re in danger, I want you to call 911, and then me immediately after. I’ll come to you, no matter what I’m doing, I promise you. Can you do that?”
My throat tightened. He always took me seriously. No “there, there” pats on the head, no empty platitudes. And it meant more to me than I could ever explain.
“Penny.”
“Yes,” I said softly. “I can do that.”
“Thank you,” he said, sounding relieved.
“Did you win your game last night?” I asked, desperately needing a subject change now.
“We did. Got a fancy trophy and everything.”
I found a smile. “You going to carry it around to show it off ?”
“No, but only because Tucker snatched it first. I plan to steal it back—if Caleb doesn’t get to it before me, like last year. Almost got arrested too, when a neighbor mistook him for a cat burglar breaking into Tucker’s place.”
I was boggled. “You break into each other’s places?”
“Sure. It’s gotten trickier since the time Tucker set up sticky mouse traps in the closet where he’d hidden the trophy. Caleb still bitches about having to throw away his shoes.”
“Your own brother set up traps for you.”
“Yep, and he’s damned sneaky about it too. So I’ll probably wait until Caleb steals the trophy, then break into his house, because his traps are easy to beat.”
“Unlike, I assume, yours.”
“You got it.”
I laughed. “Wow.”
“Was that ‘wow, I’m impressed’ or ‘wow, you dodged a bullet’?”
My face was beginning to hurt from smiling. “I mean…maybe both?”
He laughed then too, the sound making my day, but I didn’t want to keep him from his. “Did you call just to make me laugh?”
“No, but it was a nice bonus. Just wanted to let you know I’ll be over tonight to work on the kitchen, if that works for you.”
Like I’d turn down the opportunity to see him in that tool belt again… “See you then.”
Later that evening, I was out front watering grandma’s flowers and making a mental list of what needed to be done outside now that spring was here. We needed to paint the trim, clean the bricks—and the biggie—replace the roof…
Ryder ambled up the walkway, stride loose-limbed, every lean hard muscle shifting with easy grace. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, hair still damp and curling around his ears like he’d just showered. I didn’t realize I was staring until water soaked into my sneakers. I’d accidentally watered them.
“Dammit!”
He smirked, and it was only because I knew him now that I could see the exhaustion behind it. “Long day?”
“Felt like a month,” he admitted.
“We don’t have to do this tonight.”
“I want to.”
I nodded, biting my lip because I wanted to do a lot more than renovate the kitchen tonight. And when had this happened? When had I stopped being able to think about anything other than seeing him naked?
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yep. One hundred percent okay. In fact, I’m two hundred percent okay.”
He raised a brow.
“You know what? I’m going out back to water. Let yourself in.”
His smile was slow and sexy as hell. “Trying to avoid me?”
More like trying to avoid jumping him. Not that I could say so—it’d go right to his big, fat head.
“I just think it might be best if we’re not alone.” Ever…
His eyes lit like it was Christmas morning. “You don’t think you can control yourself.”
I grimaced, and he tipped his head back and laughed.
“I don’t see how this is funny,” I muttered.
His grin remained. “I’m going inside. To put on my tool belt. And get all dirty and sweaty. You know where to find me if you need anything.” And then he sauntered into the house.
Ugh, he was so smug. And…and I couldn’t stop smiling, so ridiculously comforted that this thing between us, whatever it was, wouldn’t stop just because I was a chickenshit.