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Chapter Six
The first thing she did when she got home was call Penelope. She needed to process what the hell had just happened with Ryder, and the only way she knew how to do that was by talking. Penelope was the reasonable choice.
She was logical. Calm. Not prone to drama. But best of all, she didn’t live here.
There was a knock on the screen door before Penelope called out, “Sophie?”
“In the kitchen.” She rubbed her temples.
This was not good. Her heart still pounded, her skin still stretched too tight, and heat had settled low in her belly. And he’d barely touched her.
What if he kissed her? No, she couldn’t let that happen.
Penelope walked in, wearing jeans, flats Sophie identified as Frye, and a gauzy, sleeveless white top. Even casual, Penelope looked pulled together and neat. The only time she wasn’t neat was after Evan got his hands on her, so she’d been messed up considerably since they went public with their relationship. “Hey, what’s up?”
Sophie handed her a glass of iced tea. “I have a problem.”
Penelope sat down at the kitchen table and nodded. “Okay, let’s see what I can do to help.”
Just being in her presence calmed Sophie down. Made it possible to think. That’s how, back in the day, a couple of wild girls like her and Maddie had Penelope as a best friend. Someone needed to be the calm one, and that someone was Penelope.
Sophie took a seat across from her. “You can’t tell Maddie.”
“My lips are sealed.” She made a zipping motion and threw the imaginary key over her shoulder.
This wasn’t a betrayal of her friendship with Maddie. This was how things worked. When they wanted to say fuck it, throw caution to the wind, and get someone to go along with the crazy, Maddie and Sophie went to each other. When they wanted common sense and practical, sensible discussion, they went to Penelope.
Besides, Maddie lived here, and ever since she’d become domesticated she’d been all gung ho on trying to set people up. The last thing Sophie wanted was for her to start getting ideas.
She folded her arms and rested her head on them. “I think I have the hots for Ryder.”
Penelope laughed. “Oh, that was obvious the second he pulled up on his motorcycle.”
Her head shot up. “Why would you even say that?”
Penelope took a sip of her iced tea. “You stared at each other for a minute flat. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was going to go down.”
Boo. She’d hoped it was a figment of her imagination. “I don’t like him.”
Penelope gave a delicate shrug of her shoulder. “I don’t think liking someone and attraction always go together.”
“He’s irritating. He argues with me. And he calls me stupid names.” Sophie threw up her hands, really getting into the spirit of the confession. “And he’s a cop!”
Penelope picked up her glass and grinned. “I know. I met him before.”
Sophie’s mouth fell open. “You met him before? And this is the first you’re telling me?”
“It didn’t seem relevant.”
“How could it not be relevant?” Being married to a Donovan boy, Penelope spent more time in Revival than Sophie had, but how could she have not mentioned Ryder?
Penelope rolled her eyes. “How was I supposed to know you’d develop a case of insta-lust for him?”
Sophie sucked in a breath. “You take that back. I don’t have insta-lust, I’m just ... just ... having an unfortunate chemical reaction to him.”
Penelope gave her a feigned look of sympathy and clucked her tongue. “Poor thing.”
“You’re such a bitch. Back to the topic.” Sophie blew out a breath. “He pulled me over and almost kissed me.”
