37
Penny
“Are you seriously going to keep making her bake the same cake over and over again?” Molly whispers aggressively at me as Sophie scurries out of the staff room and back to the kitchen, her curly strawberry blonde hair tied into a dishevelled bun.
“Yes,” I reply, grabbing my fork, ready to tuck into the third red velvet cake of the day.
While Sophie apparently did fine while Beckett and I went away for our four-day babymoon, she’s yet to impress me, and until she does, I can’t go on maternity leave, so…
“Why don’t you just teach her how to make your chocolate mud cake? It’s a crowd favourite,” Evie asks from her spot beside me, while grabbing her own fork. Clearly, she’s not as pissy about my demand for perfection as Molly is.
“Because that’s my recipe, and if she wants to work in my kitchen, she needs to perfect her own lacklustre cakes before even attempting to recreate mine.”
“Good lord,” Molly mutters, rolling her eyes at me as she, too, digs in.
“What? You know how sacred my recipes are. I’m not just going to hand them out willy-nilly!”
“And here I thought jumping back on Beckett’s dragon would’ve put you in a better mood,” Evie mutters with a smirk.
The girls both hum their approval as they chew Sophie’s cake, and I clench my jaw to stop myself from saying something snarky.
Traitors .
“Um, Penny…” Sophie’s soft voice comes from the doorway just as I shove another bite of cake into my mouth. I look over to find her standing there, holding a plastic Tupperware container, nervously shifting from one foot to the other.
“What?” I ask, my voice muffled by my mouthful.
“I…I made you some lactation cookies to try. I, um, figured if you like them, I could make you a heap once the baby’s born to help with your, um, your milk supply. They’ve got oats, flaxseeds, brewer’s yeast, and coconut oil, and I added some milk chocolate chips in there because I know you love choc-chip cookies, so… yeah. You can freeze them, if you want. They’re good for like three months.”
Is she fucking blushing right now?
Also, who says I’ll need help with my milk supply?
I remain silent as she approaches the table and places the container down gently, and Molly looks at me, her eyebrows raised expectantly.
Fuck sakes.
“Thank you, Sophie,” I say, pulling my mouth into what I hope looks like a smile. “That was really... thoughtful.”
Nailed it.
She practically beams at me. “You’re welcome. I hope you like them. I’ll, um, get back to the kitchen now and make another batch of apple and cinnamon muffins, with raw sugar on top this time instead of, um, brown sugar.”
After shooting me an awkward as fuck set of finger guns, she spins around and practically skips out of the room as if I just gave her a gold star.
The girls are both wearing matching disapproving scowls when I look at them, but Molly is the first to speak. “She’s so nice! How don’t you like her? She’s so bubbly and cute. She’s like a puppy!”
“Yeah, well, I’m not a dog person, so…”
“Penny!”
“Good lord! Why does it even matter? Once I’ve had the baby and come back to work, it’s ‘bye bye, Sophie’. I don’t have to like her.” I shrug, assuming that’s the end of the conversation, and take another bite of cake.
It is actually pretty good this time…
Hell, even my unborn son kicks in delight as I chew.
“Okay, change of subject, seeing as you’re being a child,” Molly says, turning her attention to Evie. “What’s up with you?”
Evie shrugs. “Not a lot.”
“No dates to report?”
“Not really,” she replies, playing with a crumb of cake on the table with the tip of her fork. “I’m getting kind of bored with it all, to be honest. I kind of figured eventually I’d meet ‘the one’ and just know , you know? But…” She trails off and stares at the pink wall across the room for a moment before continuing. “I’ve decided to go on a second date with Kyle. I think I’m being too picky-”
“No,” I say. “Absolutely not. I forbid it.”
She quirks an eyebrow at me in response. “You forbid it?”
“Yes. It’s bad enough that you went out with him the first time, but there is no way in hell that I’m going to allow the first second date you ever go on to be with Kyle the Creeper.”
“I think what Penny means to say,” Molly interjects from her spot beside me, “is that we still feel as though Kyle is a little-”
“Creepy as fuck!”
Molly side eyes me and purses her lips. “For lack of a better term, yes.”
“You’re both ridiculous. He’s nice, and it’s happening.”
“Fine.” I shrug and lean back in my chair. “Then I’ll be sitting at the next table holding a can of fly spray and a fucking lighter, ready to set the cockroach on fire when he tries to abduct you and throw you in the boot of his car.”
Evie glares at me, and I glare right back.
Neither of us breaks eye contact until a throat clears from across the room.
“Am I interrupting something?” Beckett asks as he leans against the wooden door frame.
“Just Penny being her stubborn self,” Evie replies, shoving a giant piece of Sophie’s cake into her mouth.
That felt personal, but whatever.
“I’m not stubborn!”
The room falls silent, and I roll my eyes at my lack of backup. “Fine. Go on a date with Kyle the Creeper. Just make sure you share your location with me beforehand so I can come and grab you from his basement afterwards.”
Evie shakes her head and chews her mouthful as Beckett chuckles under his breath and crosses the room to give me a kiss. When he straightens, both Evie and Molly are staring at us, wide eyed and grinning from ear to ear.
“What?” I ask.
“It’s just so cute seeing you all loved up,” Molly coos.
Before I can react, Beckett jumps in. “Come on, Love,” he says, sliding my chair back before helping me up. He places a protective hand on my stomach as I let him lead me around the table, confused as to where we’re going. “We’ve got dinner plans.”
“We do?” I ask, looking over my shoulder at my giddy looking best friends as he continues to guide me out of the staff room. “But it’s like three in the afternoon. I can’t just leave, I need to-”
“Sophie’s here,” Molly chimes in. “Go. We’ll be fine.”
Fucking Sophie.
“I-”
“Pen,” Beckett whispers against the top of my head. “Come on. Don’t make me beg. Let me take you out.” The smell of his cologne and the feel of his body pressed against mine, has me giving in, and allowing him to escort me out of the café and into his car.
An hour later, after a long, warm shower, I walk back into our bedroom, far more relaxed and refreshed, to find a new off-white linen sundress, along with a pair of matching sandals, and a fresh bottle of Burberry Her Elixir, laid out on the bed for me.
As I run my hand along the fabric of my new dress, I spot Beckett from the corner of my eye, lingering in the doorway.
“Do you like it?” he asks, cocking his head to the side.
I nod. “It’s beautiful.”
“ You’re beautiful.”
I huff, unable to keep the smile off my face, and shake my head. “You shouldn’t have.”
“Why not?” he asks, as he crosses the room. “You deserve to feel special, Love.” I tilt my head back to look him in the eye as he reaches me, and smile as he cups my cheeks, and whispers, “You are, so. Fucking. Special.”
The expression on his face, as he looks down at me, combined with his words, and the incredibly sweet gesture, has my heart throbbing, and the same three words lodging in the back of my throat.
“I…”
I love you.
Say it, for fuck’s sake!
“I…”
“You,” he whispers, kissing the hesitancy right off my lips, “should get dressed. I’m going to jump in the shower, and then we’ll head off.”
Beckett
“This place is beautiful,” Penny gushes, as I push in her chair and round the small wooden dining table to take my own seat. “Glad I’m wearing a dress ‘cos boy oh boy is mumma ready to eat.”
Giovannis is an incredibly intimate, candlelit, Italian restaurant, with a mile long waitlist, and I just so happen to know the owner. Tatted a thick, gothic styled cross on his chest just two weeks back. He loved it so much that in return, he offered me a reservation for dinner, and even though the treck down South is a pain, I couldn’t pass up the chance to eat here.
However, as I sit down and glance across the restaurant to find a familiar face glaring back at me, I remember why I do my best to avoid this side of town.
“What’s wrong?” Penny asks, pushing her dark, perfectly waved hair off her shoulder.
God, this is going to ruin everything.
I shouldn’t have brought her here.
Fuck .
I glance back behind Penny, and tense the moment I see Paige’s best friend, Julia, stand from her own table, and head straight for us. I exhale harshly through my teeth and turn my attention back to the beautiful woman sitting in front of me. “Pen, Paige’s best-”
“Beckett,” Julia purrs as she reaches our table. She slides one French manicured hand onto my shoulder, creasing the fabric of my navy-blue shirt as she squeezes the muscle. “I’ve missed you, baby.”
Oh, for the love of God.
Immediately, I bat her hand away and straighten. Penny does the same, her bright hazel eyes bouncing back and forth between me and the woman standing beside me.
“Oh,” Julia continues, pretending that she’s only just now, noticed Penny. “Sorry. I hope I’m not interrupting.”
“You are,” I snap, but she doesn’t so much as flinch, just runs her fingers through her obscenely long white-blonde hair extensions.
“Well, I mean, you fucked me three days ago, so I wasn’t exactly expecting to see you here with another woman. Classy, Beckett. I knew you got around, but-”
This bitch is worse than Paige. She always has been, which takes some fucking effort. But even I didn’t expect that to come out of her mouth in the middle of a busy restaurant.
“Julia,” I growl, sliding my chair back and standing to my full height, the sound of the wooden legs screeching along the floor, drawing far more attention to us than I’d like. “That’s enough. I don’t know what Paige has told you but-”
Julia snorts and looks down at Penny, pursing her red, over filled lips. “Sorry, sweetheart. Figured it was better for you to know sooner rather than later. Girl code and all.” She punctuates the sentence with a wink, and I hold my breath as Penny nods, clears her throat, and then carefully slides her own chair back, and stands.
“Excuse me,” she says, smoothing her new linen dress over her bump, face void of emotion.
Julia smirks and watches Penny step around her before turning back to me. “And that’s what you fucking get,” she hisses, like the viper she is.
I do my best to keep my anger at bay, as I watch Penny retreat to the bathrooms, given where we are, and keep my voice low and controlled as I say, “I suggest you slither back into the hole you crawled out of, Julia, before I go over to your husband, and tell him that you spent two years of your marriage fucking his brother in his own bed.” She recoils and places a hand on her chest. “This little performance was in Paige’s defence, I take it?”
“She moved states because of you. My best friend-”
“Your best friend was as faithful to me, as you are, to your husband. I left her when I found her screwing around on me. I didn’t make her do a damn thing.”
Her eyes go wide, confirming my suspicion that she wasn’t given all the details.
Oh, well.
“Paige also left town, knowing that if I saw her, or heard from her again, I’d release the footage I have of her destroying my shop with a baseball bat.” Julia visibly pales, and I can’t keep the vicious smile from spreading across my face. “So, when you speak to her later tonight, be sure to tell her that thanks to this little stunt, channel nine will be receiving a very interesting email tomorrow morning.”
I ignore her gasp, and her wide-eyed stare as I step around her, dodge an immaculately dressed waiter and race across the room.
It’s okay. She’s not going to freak out and leave you… again .
Fuck.
Will she?
She’s going to, isn’t she?
She’s going to leave me.
“Penny,” I call through the locked bathroom door, loud enough to draw more attention to myself. “Please, let me explain, baby.”
I brace myself on the wooden door frame with both hands, and rest my forehead against the door, cursing the universe for putting Julia and I in the same restaurant, tonight of all fucking nights.
All I wanted to do was take my girl on a proper date.
When the door swings open, I almost fall right through it, not expecting Penny to actually let me in. “What are you doing?” she asks, looking up at me with a scowl.
“Pen,” I rush out, steadying myself as my heart thuds painfully in my chest. “You have to listen to me. I know how that looked, but I promise you, everything she said was a lie. Julia is, and always has been, Paige’s closest friend, and I would never-”
“Stop,” Penny says, raising her hand in the air to silence me, looking almost bored.
I snap my mouth closed and brace for her fury, but instead, she fucking smirks at me.
“Beckett, I knew who she was the moment I laid eyes on her, because I stalked Paige’s socials months ago . They have so many selfies together, it’s a little unsettling. You also spend far too much time fussing around after me, to be fucking around with someone else, let alone someone that lives on the other side of town. So, please, take a damn breath and relax.”
“I…” I frown, my mind catching up with her words. “You believe me?”
“Yes,” she replies with a nod, and my entire body relaxes. “Now, please leave, so I can pee and then eat my body weight in pasta.”
She closes the door in my face, but even still, I grin like a mad man.
She believes me…
Well, how about that.