“London,” I finally respond.
“It’s nice to meet you, London.”
“You as well. Have a good day, gentlemen.” I nod, not giving Lou a second glance as I step past them and make my way toward two other crewmen making their way in my direction.
By the time I finish with the morning rounds on the dock, I’m hot, thirsty, and if I had to guess, rocking a pretty good sunburn on the back of my neck. My fault, of course. I know better thannot to wear sunscreen, but I’m so used to working indoors, I didn’t even think about it.
Making my way back up to the office, I blow out a sigh of relief when I push my way inside to find the building empty.
I knew coming home would be hard. I knew that working for Penn would be even harder. But nothing could have prepared me for what I currently face.
I thought Penn would be distant, sure, but this silence... It’s deafening.
It’s not like we ended on bad terms—at least in the sense of how normal teenage breakups go. I told him I wanted to go; he said he understood. We said our goodbyes and that was that. There was no fight. No anger. Nothing. Just love and sadness.
Only, Iwasangry. Angry that he didn’t fight for me. Angry that he never once asked me to stay. Never said he wanted to go with me. Nothing. He just... gave up.
So why now, after all these years, is he treating me this way? Like a villain? Like I’m someone to be resented and hated... It’s not like I expected him to welcome me back with open arms, but this is someone I’ve known since kindergarten. Someone I grew up with. Went to church and school with. Spent nearly every summer with for as far back as I can remember.
Truth be told, I never considered Penn anything more than a friend until freshman year and even then, I didn’t think it would amount to anything. But it did. In a very big way. And for four years, we were the kind of couple that love stories were written about.
I wanted Penn to be my forever, but I wasn’t willing to give up everything else as a tradeoff. I didn’t think that would be the end of us, though. When I told him I was leaving, I never said I was leaving him, only that I was leaving Wren Cove. I thought he’d offer to come with me, or at the very least ask me to stay.
When he did neither, something inside me shifted. Suddenly, it wasn’t me and Penn against the world... It was just me.
I plop down at my desk, looking out the window next to me that offers the most perfect view of the docks. I can basically see everything that’s going on from here, which has proven to be a little distracting in the day and a half I’ve been here, but I also love that it gives me the ability to see who’s coming and going... Though if I’m being honest, there’s only one person I’m watching for.
I just wish he’d talk to me. Hell, at this point, I’d settle for him even looking at me. I want to clear the air. Say our peace and move on, because if we don’t, I might suffocate under the weight of this unsettling feeling that has been living rent free in my gut since I agreed to take this job on Monday.
“If you’re sitting there daydreaming, I’m going to assume that means you have no work left to do and I should give you more.” I startle at the sound of Penn’s voice, having believed I was alone. I hadn’t even considered checking the bathroom.
“Don’t do that!” I scold, flattening my palm to my chest where my heart feels primed to jump right through my ribs.
“Don’t do what?” he asks, turning his back to me to shuffle through some papers on his desk.
“Scare me like that.”
“Maybe if you weren’t over there inlalaland, you wouldn’t be so easily frightened.” His voice is distant, cold in a way I’ve never known it to be in all the years I’ve known him.
“For your information, I wasn’t inlalaland. I was counting the ships to make sure I didn’t miss anyone.” I say the first thing that pops into my head.
“Sure you were.”
I stare at his back, willing him to turn around, willing him to look at me, just once.
He doesn’t.
Since returning to Wren Cove, the one thing that has been apparently clear is how much has changed in the seven years I was gone, but none more than Penn Kade.
There’s not a shred of the boy I remember.
My rebellious, wild, fun-loving boy has grown into a hardened man who walks around with an enormous chip on his shoulder; at least where I’m concerned.
But that’s not all that’s changed.
When I left, Penn was lean, with long hair that brushed his shoulders and a ring through the side of his lip. Today, he stands before me six feet two inches of pure muscle. And not the kind you earn in the gym. The kind that can only be built by years of hard work and labor.
His once bare face is now covered with a full, short-kept beard. His long, dark hair is gone, cut short on the sides and slightly longer on top. No piercings. No tattoos outside of the two he already had when I left—a phoenix that I can see peeking out from under his gray T-shirt sleeve, and my initials on his wrist—which is one of the first things I noticed yesterday.
