Chapter 20
CHAPTER
TWENTY
GUNNER
I dig my hand into the plastic bag Sebastian handed me, pull out a fresh scone, and take a bite.
“Motherfucker, Bash,” I say through a mouthful of heavenly goodness. “We’re going to have to think of a new nickname for you because you can make way more than cookies.”
“It’s good, right?” He grins.
“Fuck, yeah. I always thought scones were dry. This isn’t dry at all.” I take another bite.
“Well, the key to making sure it doesn’t come out dry is to…”
I hold up a hand, halting what was sure to be a very long-winded explanation on how to make the perfect scone. “Dude, you know I’m never going to make these myself. Don’t waste your baking knowledge on me. Are they cinnamon?”
“Yeah, apple cinnamon.”
“These would be good with coffee,” I say, though I myself am not a coffee fan. Yet I know a sassy redhead who would love these with her coffee. I make a mental note to save her a couple even though I could easily devour this entire bag.
As if he can read my mind, Bash says, “Penny will love them.”
I nod.
Not taking the hint, he continues, “So you and Penny, huh?”
If he were anyone else, I might tell him to shut his mouth in a non-polite way, but it’s not easy to be a dick to Sebastian Calloway. At twenty-four years old, he’s the youngest on the team, and he embodies the baby brother role. He looks younger than his age with his floppy sandy-blond hair, big blue eyes, and dimple. Plus, he just seems young and innocent. I’ve seen him with some puck bunnies, so I know he’s anything but innocent, yet I can’t help but feel protective over him.
I toss the remainder of the ziplock bag of scones on the top of my clothes in my duffel, careful not to squish them before I zip up my gym bag. I got my lifting in early today, and now that practice is finished, I have a few hours before Penny leaves work. Since I’ve been staying at her place, I’m going to run home and grab some more clothes before she gets off.
“How’s that going? You guys hitting it off?” Bash asks.
I raise a brow. “How about we talk about whoever you’ve been secretly texting over the past six months? You know, the one who makes you smile like a schoolboy when you text her? We should take a deep dive into that conversation.”
Bash’s eyes go wide. “Oh, gotcha. Penny questions are off-limits. Got it. See you later, Gun.” Turning on his heel, he hikes up his gym bag and heads for the door.
I chuckle. “Thanks for the scones, Cookie.”
He waves without turning back.
The truth is, I don’t care who Bash is seeing. He has his right to privacy. If anyone gets that, I do. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know he’s secretly talking to someone. The kid is constantly on his phone, though he’s never mentioned a word about the person he’s texting, which is different for him because I usually can’t get the kid to shut up. He’s not one to be hush-hush about anything. It’s clear he doesn’t want to talk about his current relationship or whatever it is with the team, just as I don’t. Only with me, it’s impossible to date Penny in complete secrecy, given we work together. However, I’ll be damned if I’m going to participate in conversations about my dating life.
After a trip home to grab more clothes and run a few errands, I head over to Penny’s place, and thankfully, she’s home.
I knock a couple of times on the front door.
She swings the door open. “Hey, I told you that you don’t have to knock. Just come in.” She steps to the side, inviting me in.
“Yeah, I know, but that feels weird.” And it does. As much fun as I’m having with Penny, this whole dating scene is still very new, and just walking into someone’s home feels strange.
Penny scrunches her wet hair with a towel. She wears a baggy T-shirt and cotton shorts. Her makeup-free face reminds me of our time in Vancouver. Something about Penny in this state, without her power suit, hairdo, and done-up face, is so attractive to me.
“You showered without me.” I follow her into the living room.
She chuckles. “Yeah, and it was nice. I actually got to shave my legs. When you’re in there, we get distracted.”
“I like getting distracted.”
“Yeah, our distractions are pretty nice.” She hangs the towel on the back of the chair and grabs the remote from the side table before plopping on the sofa. She taps the spot next to her.
“One second. Let me put this away.” I hold up my duffel. I grab her damp towel from the chair as I make my way to the bedroom. I hang her towel on the towel bar in the bathroom and retrieve the bag of scones before leaving my bag beside the bed and returning to the living room.
I groan when I see the TV. “Again? Do you watch anything else?”
“No. Why would I? Friends is the best.”
“You’ve seen all the episodes a hundred times. Don’t you get tired of them?”
She shakes her head. “Nope. Love ’em.”
I hold up the clear plastic bag. “Bash made cinnamon scones. They’d be great with coffee. Want them now or tomorrow with your coffee?”
She claps her hands. “Ooh, one now and the rest later.”
I toss her a scone and put the rest on the kitchen counter. “This is amazing. Seriously, are we sure that kid went into the right field?”
Sebastian is only three years younger than Penny, but she even refers to him as a kid. “Yeah, he’s quite the baker, but he’s a damn good center, too.” As the rookie on the team, it’s not common to be a starter, but Bash has been a starter since his first day on the team. He’s that good.
“I think he was Betty Crocker in his former life,” she says.
I join Penny on the sofa. “Is Betty Crocker a real person? I thought it was just the name of a cookbook.”
“I don’t know.” Penny shrugs, picking up her phone. “Ah, Google says that Betty Crocker is a brand, but there is a real woman behind the brand named Marjorie Child Husted. Weird. I always thought the name of the woman behind Betty Crocker was Betty Crocker.”
“Well, is this Marjorie lady still alive?”
“No, she died in 1986.”
“Well then I suppose Bash could be Marjorie reincarnated.”
“Or some fancy pastry chef that we don’t know about.” She plops the last bite of the scone in her mouth.
I circle my arm around Penny’s shoulders. “I guess we’ll never know, just as we’ll never know if Ross and Rachel end up together. These two have more back-and-forth than anyone should. Watch her end up with someone else, like Chandler,” I tease.
Penny rears back, her brows furrowed. “Wait, you really don’t know who Rachel or Chandler end up with?”
I chuckle. “No, why would I? I told you I’ve never watched the show.”
“I know but even people who haven’t watched the show have watched the show. You know? Everyone has seen bits and pieces of it throughout the years when it’s playing in hotels or in the background somewhere.”
“I really haven’t seen any episodes besides the ones I’ve watched with you, so I don’t know how it all ends.”
“Oh my gosh. We have to start from the beginning so you can get the whole experience.”
I shake my head. “No, we really don’t. It’s okay. I’m fine with a limited experience.”
She holds the remote toward the TV and goes to the menu. “No, if you saw it from the beginning, then you’d get the hype.”
“Pen…I really don’t…” I say as Penny clicks on season one, episode one. “Okaay, we’re starting at the beginning.”
She grins wide. “You are going to love it. Next, I’ll get you to love coffee.”
“Neither of those things are happening.”
“Maybe coffee is an acquired taste, but everyone loves Friends .”
“I don’t think that’s true, Pen.”
She pauses the show and puckers her lips. “Oooh, what should we order? We need something good to start our marathon. Chinese?”
“That works for me. Make sure to order extra crab rangoons.”
“Done.” She nods, tapping away on her phone to create an online order for the local Chinese restaurant. “I hope Willa is delivering tonight. She never forgets any of the sauces.”
I chuckle. Penny is a condiment girl. While she orders, I grab my phone and Venmo her some money, which she’ll complain about later, but my date isn’t paying for my dinner.
“They must be busy tonight. Delivery is in over an hour.” She unpauses the show. “That gives us like three episodes.”
“Is this what dating couples do? Watch Friends and eat takeout?”
“I have no idea. This is all a first for me, too. But, this is what we’re going to do,” she says with sass.
“Oh really?”
“Really.”
“I know something else this dating couple is going to do.”
She pins me with a stare. “We have food coming.”
“In an hour. That gives us plenty of time.”
Leaning in, I pepper kisses over her neck, and she releases a content sigh. I pull her earlobe into my mouth, and she hums in pleasure. I continue to trail kisses across her skin. When she lifts her arm, remote in hand, and clicks the TV off, I know I’ve won.
“Good choice.” I take hold of her waist and lift her on top of me so she’s straddling my legs.
“It wasn’t much of a choice,” she says as I take hold of the bottom of her T-shirt and pull it over her head.
“No, it really wasn’t.”
I flick her nipple with my tongue. “Now, this is what dating couples do.”
She giggles. “Less talking, more action. Make me feel good.”
“Now that I can do.”