AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nuts. Now she felt genuinely bad. She leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Let’s go, then. I’ll come with you.”
He turned his head and brushed his lips against hers. “You should stay.”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind leaving the party.”
“Yes you do. You planned it. I know you want to stay until it’s over and help clean up after.”
The corners of her mouth curved. “I do a little. But not if you’re not here. I’d rather be with you.”
“Not tonight.” He looked down at her hands where they held on to his arm. “I’m going to sleep at my place.”
“What? No!” Her fingers dug into his sleeve. “Please don’t do that.”
“I’ve got to pack some stuff up to take home anyway.” He met her gaze, his expression as inscrutable as it had ever been. “We’ll talk when I get back.”
What did that mean?
She let go of him, in a state of shock. The din of people in the cafe faded to white noise, which combined with the rushing of her pulse in her ears.
“Don’t look at me like that.” He reached for her, his hand cradling the back of her head as he kissed her brow. “Everything’s fine.”
“Is it?” It didn’t seem fine. He didn’t seem fine, and instead of turning to her for support, he was pushing her away.
He stroked an errant curl off her cheek. “It will be.” He kissed her slowly and deeply, in a way that felt too much like goodbye for Penny’s comfort. “I’ll see you here tomorrow morning before I go, all right? At the usual time.”
All she could do was nod.
She watched him make his way over to George and lean over to speak in the old man’s ear. George said something back, and then Caleb nodded and stuck out his hand. George wasn’t having any of that handshake nonsense though. He pulled Caleb down into a one-armed hug, giving him a fatherly pounding on the back.
When Caleb stood upright, his expression was clouded by emotion. He ducked his head and pushed his way through the small crowd, tossing the remnants of his iced coffee in the trash as he walked out the door without so much as a backward glance.
Penny’s chest felt tight Friday morning as she watched Caleb brush coffee grounds off the counter around the espresso machine. After their night apart, his pull on her seemed to have increased tenfold. As she stared at his flexing arms, she remembered what it felt like to have those arms wrapped around her, and it was all she could do to suppress a dreamy sigh of the sort uttered by actresses in Hallmark movies.
The invisible force he exerted on her felt like the beginning of a tsunami. A slow, merciless surge that would keep intensifying until it had destroyed everything it touched, and then recede again, leaving chaos in its wake.
Stop being so melodramatic. She shook her head and raised her latte to her lips, breathing in the lavender scent.
Caleb had been slightly more subdued than usual when she came in this morning, but not alarmingly so. He’d even mustered a smile for her, which he didn’t often do at work.
Now, as he leaned under the counter to retrieve his half-drunk iced coffee from the fridge, she noted the signs of strain in the heavy lines around his eyes and mouth.
“Did you sleep last night?” she asked when he came closer.
He paused in front of her, resting his drink against the edge of the counter as he made a wry face. “Not much.”
Penny hadn’t slept well either. Her bed had felt cold and uncomfortable without him. She was going to have to teach herself how to sleep alone again.
Her fingers traced the rim of her saucer. “How long a drive is it?”
“Two and a half hours, give or take.”
“You’re not going to fall asleep on the road, are you?”
The corners of his mouth quirked. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
“I think you know there’s no stopping me from worrying.” She tried to keep her voice light, but it came out sounding strained.
His expression clouded as he gazed at her. She wanted to touch him to reassure both him and herself, but she knew she shouldn’t. Not here when he was working. He stood barely three feet away from her, but the distance between them felt much greater.
