Chapter 16 Mac
16
MAC
Thursday morning had arrived, which meant one thing: my penciled-in appointment with Aspen at the bar.
I’d been doing my homework—literally. The stack of romance novels Penny had helped me check out from the library sat in a neat pile upstairs on my little dining table, their spines already worn from how often I flipped through them. I had to admit, they weren’t half bad. Actually… they were kind of addictive.
Some of them were funny as hell, and even though I wouldn’t say it out loud, I’d caught myself lying in bed last night, laughing like a damn fool. I never thought I’d relate to a guy in a romance novel, working to win back the girl, but here we were.
Aspen had insisted I use little sticky tabs to mark the parts that stood out—lines I liked, things I could maybe steal and adapt for my own version to use on Penny.
I went overboard, of course. There were tabs everywhere. Bright neon slivers stuck out like confetti from every edge of the pages. Dialogue that made me smirk. Scenes that sparked ideas.
I hadn’t expected so much sex. These sweet little covers with pastel colors and sun-dappled fields? They were hiding a lot of heat.
It made me wonder—if these were Penny’s favorites, did that mean she’d fantasized about all this? About being wanted like that?
My chest tightened, pulse picking up. The thought of her reading those pages, biting her lip, cheeks flushed—it was enough to scramble my focus.
The book was still open on the bar top, one arm propped beneath me as I hunched forward to keep reading while I waited for Aspen. I brought the cigarette I held in my fingers to my mouth, taking a long drag and then exhaling. My eyes scanned the paragraph again, but I wasn’t really processing the words anymore.
Before I could make it past the next page, the front door opened with a familiar chime. Aspen strolled in like she owned the place. Her blond hair was clipped up in a messy twist, and she wore a cap-sleeved dress with worn-in sneakers that somehow made her look effortlessly put together.
I straightened to my full height, closed the book, and placed both hands on the bar.
“I see you’re already getting to work,” she teased, sliding onto a stool and tossing her tote onto the seat next to her.
“Already finished two,” I said, holding up the book I’d just been reading like a trophy. “This is number three.”
Aspen let out a low whistle. “And?”
I tilted my head, rolling it side to side in a noncommittal shrug. “First of all, I wasn’t expecting that much sex,” I said with a laugh. “But hey, I’m not complaining.”
The bell above the door chimed again, and before I even glanced up, instinct took over. I grabbed the book and tucked it under the bar like it was contraband. The last thing I needed was anyone catching me reading that and trying to figure out why.
When I did look up, adjusting myself like I hadn’t just been hiding something, I saw Theo walking toward us.
My brows pulled together in confusion. I turned to Aspen, expecting her to glance behind her to see who it was—but she didn’t. She was already looking at me, that pained, guilty smile written all over her face.
“You knew she was coming,” I whispered, my voice low and tense.
Aspen didn’t deny it. “I had to tell her, Mac. She’s my best friend.”
I groaned. “You gossip.”
“I had my fingers crossed!” she said, trying to sound innocent.
Theo slid onto the stool beside Aspen, propping her chin up with her hand and sighing dramatically. “Oh, Mac… you’re in some serious trouble, I hear.”
I dropped my head forward, groaning again as my shoulders sagged.
“I’m aware,” I muttered. “Not that I had any control over you hearing about it.”
Theo rolled her eyes.
“But yeah.” Sighing, I leaned against the back of the bar. “I’m in deep. Now I’m just trying to climb my way out of the hole. Please tell me you came with advice and not just to enjoy the show.”
Theo grinned, unapologetic. “I’m fully up to speed on the plan.”
Perfect.
“The books,” she added with a nod. “That’s genius. If there’s one way to get back into Penny’s heart, it’s through her love of literature.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah, well… being creative is the problem.”
Following instructions? No issue. Showing up and doing the work? Fine. But coming up with something heartfelt and original, something that actually stood a chance of reaching her? That’s where I froze.
“That’s why we’re here,” Aspen said with a grin.
I let out a humorless laugh, more exasperated than amused. “Great. Because if there’s something better than one opinion, it’s two,” I said, my tone laced with sarcasm
Aspen and Theo exchanged a look.
Immediately suspicious, my eyes bounced between them. “What did you do?”
Like I summoned them with my words, the door chimed again.
In walked Boone, his worn cowboy hat sitting perfectly on his head like always, followed by Rhodes, who had a baby strapped to his chest.
I snapped my gaze to Aspen. “You’re kidding me.”
“I tell Boone everything,” she said defensively, lifting her hands.
“And I don’t hide anything from Rhodes,” Theo added smoothly. “Maybe you should try it sometime.”
I scowled, pushing away from the bar and standing up straight, frustration crawling over my skin.
Boone was the first to approach, sliding behind Aspen and leaning down to kiss the top of her head. Rhodes joined Theo’s side, wrapping his arm around her shoulder as Frankie let out a happy coo.
Was this some kind of intervention? All my friends gathered here, watching me like I was a lost cause.
My hands dragged down my face as I groaned again, this time wishing I could rub them all out of existence. But when I looked up, they were still there. Still watching. Still waiting.
They all wore the same expression: gentle sympathy. And somehow, that was worse than judgment.
“You really didn’t have to come,” I muttered to Boone and Rhodes.
“We wanted to,” Boone said, his voice steady and calm. “Aspen told us what happened. We’re here to help.”
Yeah, well I wish she hadn’t.
But there was no going back, so whatever was done was final, and I might as well use it to my advantage.
“So,” Rhodes said, leaning on the bar, a smirk tugging at his lips. “You gonna start, or should we?”
I blinked. “Start what?”
“If we are going to help you, we need to know what happened,” Theo said.
So, this was an intervention. They were cornering me, forcing the truth and wanting me to admit my problem out loud.
At this point, there was no avoiding it, no beating around the bush, because I had four pairs of eyes staring at me from four people who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
With a mutter of expletives and a roll of my eyes, I spoke.
“I was married. Years ago. She showed up at my apartment, and Penny answered the door while I wasn’t home.”
Those four sets of eyes bore into me even harder, widening slightly.
Blink.
Blink.
The silence was creeping up my spine, coiling in my gut as the nerves set in. I needed someone to say something.
“You were married, Mac. Married. And you didn’t think to mention it? Not even to us?” Rhodes finally broke the silence.
I hadn’t. I’d told no one—not a single soul—about Vegas. There wasn’t a reason to because it was nothing. A blur of neon lights, too much whiskey, and a choice I regretted as soon as the liquor dried and the truth came out. If I’d known it would come back years later to bite me in the ass and become a hot topic for my entire friend group, I might’ve handled things differently.
Like I told Penny, if I could go back and rewrite that chapter, I would in a heartbeat.
“It was nothing,” I muttered, my voice low and tight. “She was nobody, a coworker. A stupid, drunken mistake I clearly really regret now.”
Right about now, embarrassment felt like a second skin. The one thing I wanted to keep buried, locked away and forgotten, had become front-page news among my closest people… and apparently, even my sister, judging by what she’d implied the other night.
How the hell did it get this far?
If Mimi had just called me instead of showing up out of nowhere…
The papers were signed, and I delivered them back to her. Everything was settled, on its way to being okay.
“I just can’t believe you were dumb enough to actually go through with it,” Theo said with a laugh, the kind that was half disbelief, half amusement.
I shot her a look. “Whiskey will do that to you,” I said flatly. “Most of my dumbass decisions involve alcohol.”
I’d always loved the party scene—the noise, the music, the laughter echoing through crowded spaces. It was my comfort zone. People cutting loose, losing their filters, letting the night take over… yeah, that was a part of me I never really tried to change.
Then came Penny.
She fit right into that world without ever needing to prove anything. She could sit at a bar with a cocktail in hand and talk circles around anyone. Or she could hit the dance floor like she owned it. I’d spent too many nights pretending I was focused on working, when really, I was watching her. Admiring how effortlessly she moved through the very culture that shaped me.
“So,” Boone said, arms crossed. “What’s your game plan?”
That question punched the air right out of my lungs.
Game plan? I didn’t have one. I was so early into this whole thing that formulating a plan still felt so far off.
The silence that followed was deafening. My friends stared at me like they were waiting for some brilliant, heartfelt strategy, but I had nothing. Just two romance novels down, a cluttered head, and a heart that couldn’t stop chasing a girl who, right now, was really testing it.
Boone gave a slow nod, like he already knew. He pulled out the stool with Aspen’s tote bag, set it aside, and took a seat.
“Well,” he said, settling in, “we’re gonna be here a while.”
My friends and I huddled together in that dimly lit bar like we were planning the heist of the century—except what I wanted to steal back was a heart I’d already broken.
We’d scribbled on napkins, scratched out bad ideas, circled the good ones, and laughed harder than we had in weeks.
The apprehension I felt when I first saw them all come in here had vanished and been replaced with comfort. As badly as I hadn’t wanted more people to know, maybe it turned out to be a good thing.
My hand ached from gripping the pen too tight, and my knuckles were smudged with ink. But damn, my heart… my heart felt full for the first time in a long time.
Somewhere between Theo’s teasing, Boone’s practical suggestions, Rhodes’s side commentary, and Aspen’s relentless optimism, I found it—that flicker of.
As I looked around the bar top at the chaos of our ideas and the unwavering support in my friends’ eyes, I felt something I hadn’t expected. A fragile, reckless kind of feeling that maybe, just maybe, things in my life would work out for the better.
The last thing I needed?
Penny Hudson—messy, stubborn, brilliant, beautiful Penelope—to be mine.
Not just for tonight.
Not just in memory.
But for good.
Forever.