CHAPTER 17 Penny Calloway
Dinosaurs
Last week went faster than I imagined it would, but this week is dragging. I figured last week would be the drag with all of us being sick, but it gave the kids a chance to get to know Liam.
I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
They weren’t introduced to him as the man in my life. To them, he’s simply fun Uncle Liam.
But it feels like he’s the man in my life.
It’s a ridiculous notion. Or maybe it should be a ridiculous notion…but at the same time, it isn’t.
I think about him nonstop.
We have a text chain a mile long. We talk nightly before bed, and sometimes during the day, too.
He’s coming home tonight. It’ll be late, after the kids go to bed, and I want to do something special for him.
He changed his flight to come home a day early. He was supposed to fly out tomorrow afternoon, but he said he missed me and changed his flight to get back to me.
I swooned.
It feels like I have a crush on my best friend’s younger brother, so when her name pops up on my screen with an incoming call on Friday morning on my way to work, my heart starts to race a little faster as I try to figure out how to keep up the story.
“Hey, Ev,” I answer.
“Madden said the mansion construction is delayed, and I need to know how bad it is. Liam said he’s in San Diego. Can you stop by, or do I need to bribe Ivy? Or even worse, do I need to cancel my weekend and fly to Chicago?”
She’s babbling, and she didn’t even greet me with a hello.
“Good morning to you, too, bestie,” I say calmly.
“Good morning,” she mutters back.
I laugh. “I’m happy to swing by the mansion either on my lunch break or after work, but Stuart’s got me in a nine o’clock I can’t get out of.”
“Ugh, Penguin. I need you to quit Stuart and come work for me.”
My brows dip, and I slam on the brakes. To be fair, the car in front of me did, too, but I might’ve done it anyway at her words. “Come work for you? Like…in Vegas?”
“I mean, yeah. Why not?”
“Because I have kids who attend schools here in Chicago, and I can’t just pack them up and move them away from their father.”
“Why not? He’s a deadbeat, and you have primary custody, right?”
“They don’t really call it that here in Illinois, but yes. I have the primary decision-making ability or whatever the new age legal term is, but they still go see him every other weekend.”
“So decide to move in next door to me and Mav.”
I laugh. “As fun as that would be, Vegas has never been on my radar.”
“Yeah, mine either. But there’s something about palm trees and mountains. You know?”
“I know. And ocean. I’d live by the ocean. I need water. I can’t be landlocked.” You know…like San Diego.
“I get that. Do you have the kids on wedding weekend?”
“No. I’m supposed to, but since your wedding is next weekend and Brent had a work thing out of town this weekend, we swapped. And honestly, I was shocked he agreed to a swap. He’s been such a dick about every other little thing,” I say.
“I know he has. And I get if you can’t move to Vegas, so then you can work remotely for me from Chicago. I don’t even care. Just quit Stuart and go check on the mansion.”
I giggle. “If only it were that easy.”
“Babe, I don’t even need references. I know how amazing you are at everything you do.”
“You’ve never seen me working from home in pajamas while I eat Cap’n Crunch all day.”
“God, if Liam wasn’t my little brother and you were like a decade younger, I’d swear you two were cut from the same cloth.”
I wrinkle my nose. A decade younger? I’m only seven years older than him. Six when his birthday happens before mine does. I open my mouth to say that, but I realize I shouldn’t get defensive.
“Anyway, I get that work calls, but if you’re able to stop by, I’d appreciate it so much,” she says.
“I’ll stop by, babe. I just got to work. I need to go. Love you!”
“Love you, too. And thanks. I know I’ve been a giant pain in the ass, but I appreciate you more than you know.”
“You’re not a pain in the ass,” I say softly. “You’re a bridezilla. Bye!”
She’s giggling when I hang up on her, and I can’t help my own laugh.
I walk into the office still smiling, and I slip into the meeting five minutes early. Stuart walks in, and thus begins my day.
I don’t get a chance to check out the mansion during lunch since I’m still making up for being out of the office all last week. But once I pick up the boys, I swing by with them.
It actually doesn’t look delayed at all to me. I snap a few photos, stop Benji from knocking over a gallon of paint, and stop Sammy from hitting Benji with a two-by-four.
I should have done this without the two of them, honestly. I sit one boy in one corner and the other boy in another corner so I can call Everleigh.
“How bad is it?” she answers.
“Babe, it’s fine. It actually looks ready to me. I texted you some pics before I called. There’s a bit of construction stuff to pick up, but it looks like they painted today, and the first floor will be ready a week from tomorrow for you and your man to get married here.”
“Oh, thank God. It sucks being in a different city from where you’re getting married. Write that down. If you ever get married again—”
“Just hold it right there, lady. I’m not even officially divorced yet. I’m certainly not jumping into marriage anytime soon.”
I thought the boys were preoccupied in their respective corners, but apparently not since Benji yells, “Not even with Uncle Liam?”
My cheeks turn red as I hope Everleigh didn’t hear that, but her next words tell me she clearly did as she starts to laugh. “Oh God, imagine you and Liam.”
I laugh, too, and I hope it’s real enough to pass the best friend vibe check. “Can you imagine?” I say over the laughter.
“Oh, man. I needed that,” she says. “Okay, back to business. I’ll be in town on Sunday night, and remind me what days you’re taking next week so we can do all the wedding stuff.”
I clear my throat. “I’m, uh—”
“Penelope Lane Wade Calloway, tell me you’re taking some time for the wedding!” she demands.
“Ev, I can’t,” I say softly. I walk outside to say this part out of earshot of my kids. “You know how Brent is. I’m working my ass off for a steady paycheck so I can support the boys.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just so caught up in all this wedding stuff. What can I do to help?” she asks.
“Nothing. It’s fine.”
“Right, but you know I come from a family with money and means, and I want to help.”
“You know how I am. I don’t ask anyone for anything.”
“You asked Liam if you could stay with him,” she points out. “Come work for me. I’ll keep begging you until you say yes.”
I laugh. The truth is that I adore Everleigh. She’s my best friend in the whole entire world. And I want it to stay that way, which is why working together, having her as my boss…it’s not a good idea.
I just don’t know how to tell her that without hurting her feelings.
“I’m fine at Langford for now, but I’ll keep your offer in mind. In the meantime, is there anything else you need me to do?”
“Yeah, so I got a list of things from Madden that are supposed to happen tomorrow at the mansion, so can you check tomorrow after six that the pavers are done in the backyard and the landscaping is complete, and make sure the parking area is usable? I can take care of the rest during the week.”
“You got it, Foreverleigh.”
She laughs. “Thanks, Pencil.”
I giggle. “Anything for my bestie. I’ll call you tomorrow when I’m here, and I’ll send pictures, too.”
“You’re the best, best, bestest bestie ever.”
“I know.” Though I wonder if she’d still be saying that if she knew I was fucking her younger brother on the side.
We hang up, and I stop by McDonald’s for some Friday Happy Meals, and by the time we get back to Liam’s place, I’m ready to get the kids in the bathtub and then to bed.
I let us in, and both boys are still holding their vanilla shakes when I see a little movement over by the fort they built last night here in the living room.
A second later, Liam jumps out of the fort and yells, “Surprise,” scaring all three of us.
I scream, and both boys yell and jump, but they both manage to hold onto their Happy Meal toys and their shakes.
Shocking, really, since Benji seems to drop just about everything that he ever holds in his slippery fingers.
The yells turn to laughter as Liam crawls across the floor and rears up on his knees with his hands in the air, mimicking a dinosaur.
I laugh and look fondly down at the man on the floor who is such a natural with my kids in a way their own father never has been, and my heart swells just a little more.
It’s not good. It shouldn’t be swelling.
I’m deceiving my best friend, who trusts me so much with her younger brother that she actually laughed at the prospect of the two of us together. What would happen if I told her the truth?
I mean…seriously, what would happen?
Best-case scenario, she’d be happy. We’ve always been so close, and maybe someday we’d become actual sisters if this turned out to be something real and serious and not just for fun.
But worst-case, I’d lose her. Especially a week before her wedding.
It’s her time to shine, and I refuse to steal any sort of thunder from what will be the happiest day of her life.
She deserves this happy ending with Maverick.
They both deserve it. He has a traumatic past, and she had a bad breakup with Billy, who I still occasionally see when I’m going to the office since he works on a different floor in the same building.
I’d wait until after the wedding, but even then…what would I say?
I’m sleeping with your brother.
And what would she say?
She’d point out all the obvious things. He’s too young for me. He’s moving to San Diego to continue his unstable career. I’m going through a divorce. There are kids in the picture.
Kids who love him already.
Maybe she’d be angry I didn’t tell her from the start, or maybe she’d feel betrayed by two people she loves and cares about.
No, it makes no sense to tell her now, especially not when there’s no definition here. We’ve slept together a few times. We’re having fun. That’s all it is.
But why am I saying it in my own head like I’m trying to convince myself that it’s true? That I’m not developing feelings for him at a concerningly rapid pace?
I watch as the kids laugh hysterically while he continues acting like a dinosaur, and the kids join in, too, setting their stuff down on the end table.
Sammy chooses to be a T-rex, pulling his elbows inside his shirt so just his hands stick out the sleeves, while Benji’s preferred dinosaur is a pterodactyl, so he starts flapping his arms and screeching through the living room.
Liam roars loudly, and honestly, it’s reminiscent of when he’s on top of me and about to come, and an ache presses between my thighs.
Yes, from watching this fool act like a goddamn dinosaur. What is wrong with me?
Oh, right. I’m falling for my best friend’s little brother, and seeing how good he is with my kids is pushing me past the falling stage and into a territory I’m definitely not ready for.