Chapter 4
Penny
“What are you doing here?” I screech as I come face to, well, boobs, with the man whose shirt I was just sniffing.
I’m trying and failing to hide my boobs behind my hands.
In books authors always say, She’s more than a handful, and, in my case, add and then some.
There’s no way my hands could cover my breasts even if I pushed them together and butterflied my fingers.
I know because I just tried. Instead of hiding my boobs, it looks like I’m pushing them up to give Monty an even better show.
While I flail about like a baby bird who can’t fly, Monty remains perfectly calm. I’m not sure he’s even blinked.
“Monty!” I attempt to call him out of his trance. “What are you doing?!”
Finally, he shows signs of life as he pulls off his glasses, rubs at his eyes, and places the black frames back on his face.
What the hell? Does he think I’m an apparition? And is this the kind of apparition he’d conjure up? Me? Naked?
My skin heats to an impossible degree.
“Monty,” I grit out.
He shakes his head and then his lips work up slowly, hitching to one side in a cocky smirk.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here, Xuxuzinho? This is my bedroom.” He motions to the shirt that’s dropped to the floor.
The one I’d just been sniffing like a freaking addict. “And that is my shirt.”
The door swings wider and then another voice cuts through. “Is everything all right?” Mr. Montgomery asks as he steps inside. The second he sees me he mumbles, “Meu Deus,” before stumbling back into the hallway, attempting to cover his face.
“Oh my God, your dad just saw my boobs!” I almost-scream at Monty. “Your dad just saw my boobs!”
Monty slams the door, and while I appreciate the gesture, it’s also unnecessary as I’m pretty sure Mr. Montgomery ran downstairs and jumped in the harbor to cleanse himself of the sight of me naked.
“Get out,” I whisper-hiss, finally gathering enough sense to grab the shirt off the floor to cover myself.
Once I’m not completely bare, I take the opportunity to get my fill of Jake Montgomery.
I am struck anew by just how handsome Monty grew up to be.
He still has the same jet-black hair that flops to the right every time he smiles, and those green eyes that remind me of gemstones plucked from deep at the bottom of the ocean.
But the chiseled jaw now covered in dark scruff?
And the jagged scar above his lip? He didn’t have those when we were growing up.
And don’t even get me started on the tattoos that cover his arms. Are they anywhere else?
He was always muscular in high school because of playing football, but he was also a boy. Now, Jake Montgomery is all man and he has the shoulders to prove it.
A man who is still staring at me. Or maybe smirking. No, smoldering. He’s most definitely smoldering as I stand naked in front of him.
“Shoo.” I point toward the door. “Out.”
“It’s my room,” he says with a coy grin.
I motion to my half-dressed body. “And I’m naked.”
“Yes, I see that.” His hot stare rolls over me. “I definitely see that.”
“Well, don’t. Face the other way. Go”—I scramble for words—“out there.”
Monty remains for a beat before finally walking out and shutting the door, taking his heated stare and slutty glasses with him.
I throw on his shirt, pulling it over my naked chest and breathing a sigh of relief when it covers me properly.
Unsure of my next move, I pace from one end of Monty’s room to the next.
Pushed into one corner beneath a large window is a twin-sized bed, decorated with a simple blue-and-red comforter.
Tucked underneath a second window, a spot that affords a view of the empty street out front, is a desk where I imagine he probably wrote my favorite book of his. Shit. I didn’t drive here.
“Penny?”
I whip my head toward the door; Monty must be waiting for me outside.
“Be right out.”
Panicking—I can’t possibly face him after what just happened—I turn toward the window again and question whether I might be able to fit through it. But then what? Am I going to catapult down two stories? I don’t think so.
So I do the next best thing; I pull out my phone and dial my sister.
Her voice blares loudly through the quiet room when she answers, practically knocking me back on my ass.
“Hey, so what type of cleanse do you think we’re doing tonight? I’m hoping it’s not something we have to drink, because I really need wine. It’s been a long day and after the way Walker just worked me over—”
“Oh my God, Tally. Shut up!” I hiss, staring at the door, imagining Monty with his ear pressed against it. I tug the phone tighter to my lips. “I’m locked in a room and I need you to get me out.”
“What? Like locked in a room because the Liberty Ladies set you up on a bad date or like the door is stuck and you can’t get out of your apartment?”
“Neither. Do I really seem like the type of person to lock myself in a room? And I’m not dating. Remember?”
“Okay, point taken.” She hums. “Can you explain, please?”
“What’s happening?” Rosie’s voice cuts through the call. “Who’s locked her up? Penny, do you need me to save you?”
Chin to my neck and mouth covered by my palm, I whisper, “I’m locked in Monty’s bedroom.”
“You broke into Monty’s bedroom?” This time the scream comes from another voice—Babs? “Oh, honey, this is worse than I thought. Thank God for the cleanse tonight.”
I squeeze my eyes tightly shut. “Tally, take me off speaker!”
“Calm down. I’ve just texted Billie; she’ll be there in two minutes.” My sister lowers her voice. “This is a little weird, Pen. I thought the Liberty Ladies were off base, but if you sniff his underwear we’re going to have to have a serious conversation.”
“I am not sniffing anyone’s underwear!” I all but scream before slapping a hand over my mouth.
“All right, all right. But do we need tools to break you out?”
“No. I just need a ride.” I grit my teeth as I look back out the window. A sense of total relief rolls over me when I see Billie’s blue sedan pulling down the street.
Billie is Tally’s boyfriend’s little sister and recently moved to my family farm to help run the events and weddings my mom and Walker organize.
“Okay, she’s here. Gotta go.” I hang up before my sister can say anything else to embarrass me.
Then, steeling my spine, I grab my bra and wet shirt and march toward the door.
I expect Monty to be leaning against it, so I open the door slowly.
When I find the hallway empty, a split second of disappointment hits me.
Filing that emotion away for another day, I rush down the staircase, call out a trill goodbye, and sneak out the front door before running straight to Billie’s car.
I’d imagine I’m quite the sight to behold—my bosom heavy, bouncing and unconfined, and my skin likely beet red from utter embarrassment.
When I reach the car, breathing heavy and sweating, my heart feels as if it’s working double time.
“Woah.” Billie frowns as she studies me. “You okay?”
“Go!” is all I manage between choking breaths. I point forward and thankfully Billie does as I ask.
“Do you want to go to the brewery—”
“Home, please,” I beg.
“Want to talk about it?”
“No,” I reply quickly. Then when I remember she’s doing me a favor, I soften my response. “Swear you won’t tell the girls?”
Billie glances my way quickly, hands still on ten and two. She may be two years younger than me, but she seems far more mature. Though I guess she doesn’t have a choice but to be responsible; Billie had Quinn, her seven-year-old, at nineteen and now raises him mostly on her own.
“Of course.” She flashes me a wink. “Your secret shame is safe with me.”
My jaw drops at her teasing, and then I let out a laugh, the tension I’ve been holding releasing in one loud guffaw.
“I just flashed Jake Montgomery.”
Billie’s eyes bulge but she keeps her face forward as we turn onto Maple Lane. “Isn’t he the author Tally always teases you about?”
I roll my eyes and sigh, leaning back into the seat.
“Yes. But he was also one of my closest friends growing up.” My best, really. Tally had Rosie and I had Monty. Until I didn’t.
There’s no sordid story behind it. He went to New York for school while I went to Boston, and because of his parents’ divorce right before our freshman year of college, he didn’t return home that first holiday like the rest of us.
I guess he felt like he needed to be with his mom, who had moved to New York, where her side of the family lives, after the divorce.
If he came home that year at all, I never saw him.
Then he stayed in the city for summers, too. We drifted apart.
If not for my inconvenient secret crush on him all throughout high school, it might not have hurt so much.
But it did. The crush was epic and very one-sided.
“Okay,” Billie says slowly. “Is this the first time you’ve seen him since high school?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I saw him a few months ago.”
“Sounds ominous,” she teases.
“It’s not, really. It was at the Spring Fling.”
She parks in front of my store and turns to give me her full attention. “I swear I miss all the good stuff.”
“You should come out more.” I give her a warm smile. “You know my mom would be happy to watch Quinn whenever.”
Billie nods, but I get the impression she won’t take my mom up on the offer. Walker had a hard time persuading Billie to move to the farm. He had to convince her he needed her help—and he does, but I know he also wanted her to have support raising Quinn.
“So, after you saw each other at the Spring Fling, what happened?” Billie prods, changing the subject.
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“I mean, we’ve texted, but outside of that I haven’t seen him until approximately ten minutes ago, when he walked into his bedroom and I flashed him.”
“Oh, Penny, I’m so sorry.”
“And then I called Tally to tell her what happened and she put the phone on speaker. Which means that there will be a rumor flying around the entire town that I broke into Monty’s house to steal his underwear by this evening.”
“Did you?” she asks carefully.
“Billie!”
“I don’t know what you girls get into when I’m not there!”
I huff out a laugh. “I promise there was no sniffing of underwear. But God,” I whine, hiding my face in my hands. “How the hell am I ever going to face him again?”
“Look at it this way, things can’t possibly get any worse.”
Oh, sweet Billie. Things can always get worse. Especially when you’re me.
Hope Harbor Happy Chat
Tally: Did you change the NAME of the town chat?
Rosie: What? It makes me happy.
Rayna: I approve. Also, I heard a rumor that Penny was locked in Jake Montgomery’s bedroom. Is this true?
Babs: Definitely true. I heard it with my own ears.
Babs: I also heard that Jake is moving back to Hope Harbor.
Stew: Mr. Mayor!
Fletcher: Ladies, we cannot change the name of the town chat.
Fletcher changed the name from Hope Harbor Happy Chat to Town of Hope Harbor Informational Chat
Penny: I DID NOT brEAK INTO JAKE MONTGOMERY’S BEDROOM
Babs: Okay, don’t get your panties in a wad. We said you were locked in there.
Stew: Mr. Mayor!!!
Fletcher: Ladies!
Babs: Just make sure you bring that bra tonight that you lost in his room. It will help with the cleanse.
Rosie: Bahahahha
Penny: I hate all of you.