Penny & Royce (Taylors of Copper Creek #2)

Chapter 1

PENNY

“So, this is my life.”

Penny sighed as she dropped her legal pad on her desk and shoved her hands into her hair. “It’s definitely not what I expected.”

Her gaze drifted to the save-the-date card propped near her computer. Her brother’s wedding was approaching fast.

No one expected Jason to be the first one happily married.

True, Mathew had been married before, but Victoria was hardly happily-ever-after material. The woman had wanted the status of being married to a doctor in a large city. Not necessarily for the money—her family was loaded—but for the prestige. All she’d wanted was eye candy.

At least Mathew seemed to finally realize what he wanted out of life. It had only taken losing their father for him to get some sense.

Penny sighed again and plucked the card from her desk.

Jason and Isabelle had their issues, but every time Penny saw them together, she could tell how good they were for each other.

Jason hadn’t become jaded by their father’s workaholic nature.

And he seemed to be taking their mother’s diagnosis in stride.

It must be nice not having to worry about anything but planning a wedding.

Penny longed for that sort of freedom.

Right now, she felt everything but happy. She was in a rut. All she had going for her was her practice. The people who came and went from her office needed a listening ear, and she gave it to them. Her hours were long, and she was booked months out.

For all intents and purposes, she should be happy.

Her father would have told her as much. A person’s value could be measured by how hard they worked, right?

“Thanks for that, Dad,” she grumbled, tossing the card to the side.

Ever since her father had passed, things felt different. The spark was gone. It wasn’t that she’d had a close relationship with him. Far from it. But the loss had done something to her. She couldn’t stop thinking about how short life was. How precarious.

Her mother seemed to be taking the loss better than most, but then there were days when she forgot her husband had died of a heart attack.

Penny got to her feet and folded her arms as she wandered her office. She moved to the window and stared down at the street.

Copper Creek was drastically smaller than the city, but it still felt big in some respects.

Those who grew up here knew everyone else.

The gossip mill ran every day from sunup to sundown.

Penny had heard names and stories about people she would likely never meet, and maybe that was part of the problem.

She’d never felt like she belonged.

Never felt like she had a home.

Her cousins insisted she was an honorary Taylor. They’d taken her under their wings when she first moved to the small town, but there was so much chaos out at the farm. Penny preferred smaller groups.

Yet another one of her flaws, according to Rose.

Something had to change. That much was certain. How many times had she told her clients they couldn’t expect their lives to get better without putting in the work?

Countless.

So if she was this unhappy, there was only one thing to do.

Penny would have to stop living like the woman everyone expected her to be and do something different.

Maybe even something a little reckless.

Her eyes snagged on a man across the street leaning against a motorcycle. Clad in worn jeans and boots, he clearly didn’t live in town. He had the look of a cowboy without the hat. His hair was mussed, probably from riding his bike through town, and he wore a faded leather jacket.

He was the kind of man her mother would warn her about.

Mystery man was on the phone, nodding as he spoke.

As ridiculous as it was, Penny continued to drink him in.

She’d never been the spontaneous sort. Everything about her life was planned to the letter.

But that didn’t stop her from longing for a time when she could throw caution to the wind and toss aside any care for the consequences.

She lifted her gaze back to his face only to find him looking right at her.

Penny startled and looked away.

She was only on the second story, and her window was nice, large, and clean. It wasn’t tinted either. She waited for what felt like several minutes before glancing back.

The man was still there.

Still looking her way.

Her lips pressed into a thin line, and she turned from the window. Her hands trembled as she reached for her office chair and sat down. She didn’t know why that single look had rattled her so much. It had felt too direct, too knowing, like they’d met before.

Crazy.

And she’d been foolish enough to stare.

Whoever that guy was, she would steer clear.

For now, she needed to focus on what her therapist brain was telling her to do. She needed to find her happy place again. She needed to find a purpose.

So what did that look like for Penny Klein?

Picking up the legal pad, she flipped the page and placed it on her desk once more. Then she grabbed a pen and tapped it against the paper.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap, tap, tap.

If she was stuck in a rut, she needed to do something she never did.

Maybe she could go out tonight. She didn’t exactly have close friends.

She’d gotten to know Isabelle a little, but not enough to ask her to hang out.

Besides, if Penny was intent on making a change, maybe she needed to do this on her own.

Nodding, she wrote down, Go out and have fun on my own.

Then she tapped the desk some more until a few more ideas came to her.

Dance with a stranger.

Do something out of character.

Get a puppy? Or maybe a cat would be better…

Be reckless.

Fall in love.

She stared at that last line and snorted to herself.

Love didn’t come easy. It was one of those unattainable things in life that only a select few found.

Her brother Mathew was a prime example. He’d thought he loved Victoria.

That marriage had gone up in smoke, and now he was chasing some other girl.

At least River seemed to be good for Mathew. She was getting him out of his shell and pushing him to his limits in a healthy way.

“I hope they make it work,” Penny murmured.

She glanced at the time. Five o’clock on a Friday.

There was that country club people liked to flock to. Memberships weren’t required for most of what was offered, and the owner was wealthy beyond all reason. From what Penny had heard, all he wanted to do was help the community.

Why were all the good ones taken?

She opened her desk drawer but paused before tossing the legal pad inside. With a huff, she tore her list free, then dropped the pad into the drawer. After folding the list and slipping it into her purse, she rose to her feet.

A glance out the window confirmed the mystery man was no longer standing across the street.

The strangest flicker of disappointment moved through her.

Oh well. He wasn’t the kind of man she needed in her life.

What she needed was to find someone who could make her heart race with one piercing look but also make her laugh again.

Yeah. Totally easy.

Penny arrived at the country club in fitted jeans and a blouse.

Most of her clothes were business style, and she didn’t think a pencil skirt was the best idea.

She’d only been here once before, and she hadn’t stayed long.

Her cousins liked to spend their free weekends here, and that was about all Penny knew.

She couldn’t decide if she hoped they were here tonight or if she hoped she wouldn’t bump into anyone she knew.

At least that was the case before she stepped over the threshold and collided with a tall, firm body.

The man wore a jean jacket, a cowboy hat, Wranglers, and boots. When she lifted her gaze, an apology already on her lips, she sucked in a breath.

“Aiden! What are you doing here?”

One side of his mouth quirked upward. “If it isn’t Little Klein. Bring it in.”

He opened his arms, and Penny let him pull her into a hug.

This felt… nice.

She hadn’t had a good hug in a long time. And there was something comforting about the way Aiden held her. It wasn’t intimate. They’d had their share of run-ins at the hospital where he worked with Mathew, and he knew better than to think he had a chance with her.

Penny wasn’t interested in breaking up any friendships. Especially not her brother Mathew’s.

She pulled back and swatted at him with a laugh. “You look good. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in anything but scrubs.”

Two dimples appeared in his cheeks as his smile broadened. “Careful, sweetheart. You’re going to make me blush.”

She snorted. “You’re such a flirt, you know that?”

He draped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t tell your brother. He might get on my case about it.”

Penny laughed. “I think he knows.”

She was going to point out that Aiden didn’t have the best track record with men in this town due to his flirty ways, but the strangest sensation caught her off guard.

Like someone was watching her.

The hair on the back of her neck lifted, and she glanced around the crowded dance floor.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Aiden conceded. “That’s why he told me to stay away from his sister.”

She glanced up at him. “Huh?”

Aiden tapped her lightly on the nose. “What do you say, sweetheart? Want to make your brother angry?”

Penny scoffed. “I’m not the one who’ll end up with a broken nose.”

“Eh.” He shrugged. “Mathew’s a decent doctor. He can set it right, and if I get a kiss out of the deal, then it might be worth it.”

She laughed again and pressed her palm against his chest. “Nice try, lover boy.”

The list, now in her back pocket, felt like it had caught fire. Spending time with Aiden would definitely count as spontaneous. Maybe even reckless. But something told her she wouldn’t be able to fall in love with him.

And if that was her only hang-up, maybe she could still…

No.

Penny shook her head and put a little distance between herself and Aiden. “I’m sure you have your eye on someone here. Go woo them for a while. If I get bored, I’ll find you.”

Aiden placed a hand to his chest. “You wound me, Little Klein.”

She rolled her eyes and headed for the bar.

Her anxiety was kicking up a notch, and she needed some ginger ale desperately. Penny moved through the room until she reached the counter where they were serving drinks.

And that was when she saw him.

Down at the other end of the bar was the man in the leather jacket.

Only this time, he wore a black Stetson.

His eyes locked with hers, and he touched the brim of his hat.

A lump formed in her throat. Her heart gave one wild, inconvenient leap.

It took a great deal of effort to turn away from him and pretend he didn’t affect her in any way whatsoever.

“A ginger ale, please,” she requested.

“I’m sorry, what?” the bartender called over the music.

“A ginger—”

“The lady wants a ginger ale,” a deep voice said beside her. “And you can put it on my tab.”

Penny yelped, nearly jumping out of her skin at the intrusion. She pressed a hand to her chest and turned to find the man from the bar standing close enough to be heard over the music—but not close enough to crowd her.

His eyes flicked over her face, and something like an apology softened his expression.

“Didn’t mean to scare you.”

Penny took one steadying breath, then another. When her drink arrived, she thanked the bartender before looking back at the stranger.

“Thank you,” she said, though her voice came out a little too quiet.

He gave her a small nod.

Penny didn’t wait to find out what else he might say. She slipped into the crowd of dancers, ginger ale in hand, her pulse still far too aware of the man in the black hat.