Chapter 6
Penny
Please let the earth swallow me whole. Pretty. Freaking. Please.
What did I ever do to deserve this type of humiliation?
I work hard. I spend time with the elderly—not just the joy that is Vovo but also Babs and her wild crew.
I volunteer at community events: bonfire nights, the Maple Festival, the Fall Ball.
I even read at the elderly home and have served Thanksgiving dinner at the food kitchen a few times.
I am not a terrible person. Terrible people deserve to have their high school best friend—someone they have a deeply buried crush on—walk in on them sniffing his shirt while half naked.
Terrible people deserve to have said crush witness crazed middle-aged women swing giant, floppy blue dildos around in their face.
Terrible people deserve whatever Babs is planning.
But not me. I must have been quite the asshole in a past life.
“Sorry,” Rosie whispers across Tally’s body before addressing the room in a louder voice. “Okay, I’m game. I need to know about the path to good sex.”
“Rosie!” my mother scolds.
I cover my face and avoid looking at my mom or the man seated directly across from me in the semicircle. As Babs prepares to deliver whatever it is she’s been planning, Tally makes a move to stand. “Where do you think you’re going?” I hiss, grabbing for her leg.
She bites her lip as she glances from me to the door.
“I just have to check something outside.” She rushes past me before I can stop her.
I huff out a frustrated breath. How could she leave me in my moment of need?
When she was crawling on the floor in our childhood home trying to prove Walker was stealing our family farm, where was I?
Right beside her. When she needed a website for her new bakery, who made it for her?
Yeah, that’d be me. But when I’m stuck in a room with Babs waving a dildo in my face and openly discussing my lack of sex life, she’s out the door without a backward glance. Rude.
“It’s all about burning off the bad juju,” Babs is saying now, waving the blue peni toward her friend Viola.
The fiftysomething woman stuck out the moment she arrived.
Her dark hair is pulled back into a ballerina bun, and she’s wearing a black leotard under her long red skirt with several layers that swish loudly when she walks.
The outfit is completed with bright red lipstick.
Before Monty arrived and stole all my damn focus, I was writing a story in my mind that she was newly widowed and had just moved to Hope Harbor to start afresh. In my imagination she was a ballet teacher, not a sex whisperer. Whatever the hell that means.
Viola stands and hesitates before taking the alien dildo.
“It’s not exactly about good sex.” She eyes the jiggling toy in her hand. The blue tentacles seem to swing toward one another, and I realize it’s because her hand is trembling.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I can’t have a woman terrified in my damn bookstore. Knowing I’m going to regret this, I stand up and hold out a hand.
“Can I have my toy back?”
Monty’s surprised whoosh of air as his eyes widen is hard to miss.
Viola practically throws the dildo at me and the silicone peni wobble through the air. Before I can get in position to catch them, they clobber me in the face, knocking me back.
My mortification is officially complete. R.I.P. me. I can see it on my tombstone now: Penelope Darling died of embarrassment on the first of September.
I never even got to enjoy my favorite time of year.
“Oh shit!” Rosie yells as I fall backward into her chair.
I don’t say anything. I don’t plan on opening my eyes. Maybe if I pretend to be knocked out, they’ll all just leave.
“Is she okay?” Rayna asks.
“Penny!” my mother screams.
Rosie jabs me in the side but I remain a deadweight.
“Are you okay, Xuxuzinho?”
His voice—deep with a hint of smoke—coaxes my eyes open without permission.
I blink up to see Monty above me, wearing a slightly concerned but mostly amused expression.
He’s so handsome with those green eyes set behind impossibly thick lashes, and that little scar above his lip that bounces when his mouth tips up into a friendly smile.
“Just leave me here to die.”
He chuckles as he grabs the blue toy and hands it off to someone then holds out a tattooed arm toward me.
Black ink snakes beneath his wrist—a compass and a wave—and I find myself wishing I had hours to study all the designs on his body. I want to know whether they mean anything. I want to know why he got his first one. Whether any were inspired by a woman, or someone who broke his heart.
I shake my head. My brain needs to stop running away with stories.
Monty’s grin only grows when I don’t make a move. “You going to make me pick you up?”
Oh, God no. I’d break the guy’s back.
I finally take his proffered hand, allowing him to pull me to my feet.
I underestimate his strength and practically knock into his chest on the ascent.
Monty’s warm hands settle on my arms to steady me as a shiver works up my spine at the feel of him and his familiar scent.
The smell of him shouldn’t be etched into my memory, and yet.
Monty’s brows tug together. “You good?”
Still, I don’t say anything. Being this close to him—the center of all his attention—is making me heady.
Monty’s rough hands slide up my neck before he cups my cheeks, peering closer still. My mouth waters at the feel of his warm breath so close. I lick my lips and those green eyes drop lower as I do. Is he—
“Here, I got you a cookie,” Babs says, pushing one of Tally’s biscuits between our faces.
Monty steps back at the gesture and disappointment sweeps through me. I’m pretty sure the man was just about to kiss me. The man who—for all of high school—I pined for.
To mask the emptiness I feel over distance between us, I grab the cookie. It’s only then, as I raise it to my lips and look up, that I realize the entire room of people is staring at me. At us.
I shoot Babs a glare. “Can we discuss this week’s book now?”
Her shoulders fall and she whips her blond hair over her shoulder. It barely moves, though, because of all the hairspray.
“Fine. But you have homework.” She shifts so that she’s standing in the center of the semicircle. “You all do.”
The group shuffles back to their seats. I settle next to Rosie just as Tally reappears and takes the seat opposite me.
“Where did you go?” I whisper.
She shakes her head and points to the middle of the semicircle, silently telling me to focus.
“What kind of homework are we talking?” Ruby Simmons asks. She’s another one of the Liberty Ladies, and at six feet tall, with bright red hair, she’s hard to miss in any room.
“Viola, can you explain?”
Babs offers Viola the floor again and the woman, though still clearly flustered, is slightly better at talking now that she isn’t holding the blue toy.
“We’re going to make candles,” she explains. “The idea is that you put a meaningful object inside the wax—maybe something that you haven’t moved on from—”
“Like an ex-fiancé,” Babs interjects, looking pointedly at me.
I roll my eyes in response and don’t miss Monty covering a laugh with his mouth. I shake my head at him and he grins wider.
“Yes. It could be,” Viola agrees. “But it doesn’t have to be about a man. Maybe it’s something in business that’s been stopping you from moving up in the world. Or a family issue.”
“Ha,” Rosie grumbles. “What about an egotistical man who is obsessed with himself and with making everyone believe he’s just perfect?”
Viola’s eyes light up. “Oh yes. That works.”
I cough out a sarcastic laugh and mutter, “Wonder who she’s talking about.”
“Couldn’t possibly be a certain mayor who drives her batty,” Tally teases.
Rosie glares at us both, though she’s the one who brought up Fletcher in the first place. I swear those two just need to bang and get rid of all the pent-up anger simmering between them.
“What about a mole that’s causing you trouble?” Ruby chimes in.
“Sure.” Viola gives a halfhearted nod. “Maybe?”
“And then we just burn the candle with the stuff in it?” Eli asks. “Isn’t that like throwing an ex’s shirt into a bonfire?” He glances my way. “That was in that fake-dating book we read recently, right, Pen?”
He’s right, though I don’t have a chance to respond because my eyes get caught on Monty, who is shooting daggers at Eli. What is that about?
“No,” Babs replies just as Viola says, “Exactly. But we add some healing wax and oils to the candles so that when you burn them you are not only freeing yourself from the items, like you would in a fire, but you are freeing your chakras. Removing the barrier that keeps you from moving forward in your life.”
“Oh, that sounds perfect for you, Pen,” Rayna says with a grin.
“I told you it was a great surprise,” Babs preens. “Go on, Penny. Get one of Dick’s old shirts so you can finally move on and then we can find someone to take you out.”
The way she makes it sound—like I’m some pathetic spinster—makes me want to sink behind my bookshelves and disappear. My book boyfriends would never treat me this way.
“I have moved on,” I reply pointedly.
Babs raises a brow. “Then why won’t you go out with anyone we try to set you up with?”
When I sputter, unable to come up with a response, she smiles. “Exactly. Go on upstairs and find an old card, or a piece of jewelry.”
The only thing that comes to mind is the engagement ring still sitting in my top drawer.
I really should get rid of that; maybe pawn it and use the money to buy myself some more fall decorations.
I smile just imagining all the sweet things I could buy: pumpkins and scented candles.
Or pumpkin-scented candles! And one of those pillows that reads, Happy fall, y’all, and a really expensive deep orange knit blanket, the kind you can curl up with on a cool day with a good book and a spiced cinnamon latte.
Or I could just pay myself. Something I haven’t done in months because I’ve got all this stock and a bunch of women waxing on about candles rather than the books I desperately need to sell.
“We’ve lost her again,” my mother says.
A familiar chuckle makes my head turn. When I see Monty watching me with amusement, I let out a frustrated huff.
“Okay, enough about me. Let’s talk books!”
***
“Don’t forget your homework!” Babs calls on her way out.
Ignoring her comment, I shut the door and fall against it with a groan as the last of the Liberty Ladies depart, along with my mother, for a game of cards.
The only people left in the room are Eli and Monty, who are standing, deep in conversation, by the dessert table, and Tally and Rosie, who are whispering conspiratorially to each other—probably about my humiliation.
“Want us to help you put the shelves back?” Monty asks when he catches me looking around the store.
“I can do it after you all leave.”
“Don’t be silly,” Eli says. “We’ll have it all cleaned up real quick.”
My sister nods. “Let me just run out to the truck and then I’ll help.”
I watch her disappear out the door as I go to grab containers to put the rest of the desserts in.
“She’s acting weird, right?” I say to Rosie when I hand her Tupperware to help.
She nods. “Most definitely.”
Tally reappears and we finish cleaning up. When I offer to help Tally bring the desserts out to the truck, she shakes her head. “That’s not necessary, I can carry it.”
She stacks the containers on top of one another but they don’t stand a chance. The tower of treats begins to tip, and Eli runs over to save them before everything clatters to the floor.
“Okay, what’s up with you?” I glance out the door but can’t see anything on the darkened street. “What are you hiding in the truck?”
Tally lets out a sigh. “You’re going to find out anyway. Might as well come see for yourself.”
The five of us shuffle out and I am dumbstruck by what greets us.
“Is that…” Eli starts. “A cow in the back of the truck?”
“Oh my God! Is it one of the mini ones?” Rosie coos. “Hello, little baby.”
The furry animal’s head pops up from the bed of Walker’s truck and gives a long mooooo. It’s about the size of a small golden retriever with white and copper fur that sticks out in all different directions. It is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
“It’s a mini Highland cow,” Tally says with a grin. “I bought her for my cowboy.”
“You bought Walker a cow?” I ask with a laugh.
“Yes, how can he be a cowboy without a cow? It’s like a mailman without mail, a baker without cakes, a—”
“How did Walker react to the cow?” Rosie asks, and Tally bites her lip.
“Oh my God, you haven’t shown him yet?” I squeal. “I need to be there!”
Eli raises his hand. “I also would like to be there.”
“Send me a video.” Rosie snorts. “I have to get back to the bar.”
“I knew I heard a moo earlier,” Monty mutters from behind me. He’s staring at the cow with a look of confusion. I’d imagine our small town has thrown him for quite the loop today.
If he only knew this is just a regular day in Hope Harbor.