“No, I’m just tired. I’m sorry. Thank you for the cheese, though. And the wine.”
All she had to do was forget about tonight and avoid him for the rest of her life. She should have known it was all too good to be true. Of course! Why would a hot, rich man like him bring her home and fuck her brains out? Because he wanted something from her. Obviously! She’d been such a fool…
She headed for the door and prayed to God that he wouldn’t follow her out. Her car hadn’t arrived yet, but she couldn’t stand another minute with him.
“Penelope, will I see you again?”
She rolled her eyes. Her hand was already on the door knob. She plastered a fake smile on her face and turned to him.
“Who knows? Only fate can tell, right? Good night, Enzo.”
CHAPTER FOUR
On Monday, at 10 AM, Penelope was at the Goldman Mansion, ready to spend some quality time with Juniper and Thorn. She had their files with her, along with the resumes Jenny, her boss’s other assistant, had put together for her. Before starting interviewing the teachers, she figured out it would be a good idea to get to know the children better and see what they liked, what possible talents and interests they had, and to what type of approach they responded well. The last thing she wanted was to hire teachers who tended to be rough and inflexible, and then find out Juniper and Thorn were, in fact, very sensitive and easily scared. Things could go wrong the other way, too. At this point, she couldn’t afford to make any assumptions.
As she climbed the stairs to their room, Penny rubbed her temples. She had barely slept, and now she was so tired that she could barely walk straight. What a horrible weekend she had had! All she wanted was to spend some time in the sun, maybe in the backyard, by the pool, and fill her lungs with the fresh morning air. Before leaving her apartment, she had called at the house and asked the maid to take the kids out by the pool to wait for her, only to be told they refused to get out of their room without either Marcia, Carmine, or Opal. Well, at least they seemed to like and accept the feminine part of the family… However, since Marcia was out, and the girls were at college, Penny would have to deal with the problem herself.
She stopped in front of their door, took a deep breath, winced at the sharp pain in her left temple, and forced herself to smile. She knocked gently, and when no one answered, she knocked again.
“Juniper, Thorn! It’s me, Penny. We met two days ago, remember?”
Silence.
“I’m so confused right now,” she whispered to herself and knocked a third time. “That’s why I don’t know if I’ll ever have children. I’ve no bloody idea how to behave around these mysterious creatures.”
Finally, Juniper opened the door. Timidly, she stared up at Penny, a questioning look in her big, brown eyes.
“Da?”
It was the first time Penny heard her speak. She supposed that meant “yes” in English, but she was too shocked to reply for a few seconds. Juniper’s voice was low and shy. The huge dark circles under her beautiful eyes told Penny she wasn’t the only one who had had a stressful weekend and an agitated sleep.
“Will you let me in, honey? I’m here to spend the day with you and your brother. We’re going to talk and play, what do you say?”
Juniper blinked at her, then shrugged and moved away from the door.
Penny went inside, closed the door behind her, and scanned the room for Thorn.
“Oh, there you are! You can come out now.”
The boy was staring at her from behind the curtain. Apparently, that was his favorite place to hide. For the life of her, Penny couldn’t understand why the twins seemed so terrified. On Sunday, she had seen Richard and Marcia interacting with them, and she knew for a fact that they were treating them well and giving them all they needed. They had been living with the Goldmans for three months and they were still hiding behind the heavy curtain when someone knocked on the door? Strange.
Penny cleared her throat. Juniper was just standing there, watching her closely, and Thorn still hadn’t left his hiding spot. What was she supposed to do? There were two boxes of toys in one corner of the room, and it looked like the kids had played with them, although they were currently neatly stacked and arranged. Their desk, however, was covered in coloring books, drawings, and colored pencils. To her surprise, Penny realized she was relieved to see at least a bit of mess in their room. They were kids, they were supposed to be messy. She walked to the desk and looked through what they had been working on.
“Oh, I love this! Did you draw this, Juniper?”
The drawing was of a princess in a pink dress, with a golden crown on a rather big head. Juniper looked at it for a second, then looked back up at Penny and nodded slowly.
“It’s beautiful. You’re very talented, did you know that?”
The girl shrugged, then went to drag her brother out of his spot. Together, they sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
Penny bit the inside of her cheek. This was more awkward than she had expected, but she had to deal with it. It was her job, after all. So, she placed the files she’d been carrying on the desk, then went to draw the curtains back and let some light flood the room. So far, Juniper’s reactions had convinced her she understood English. It was time to evaluate the boy.
“So, Thorn… what’s your favorite toy?” She went to the boxes and started rummaging through them. She pulled out a Spider-Man action figure and giggled. “My favorite superhero. Silly, right? You thought I would prefer Wonder Woman, or something. But, nooo… Instead, I’m all for the cute teenage boy who can shoot spider webs from his wrists.”
Thorn was silent for a long minute, but when Penny went back to the box and pulled out Batman, he jumped off the bed, ran to her, and grabbed the toy.
“Batman,” he said in a strong accent. “I like Batman.”
