“Why did you tell her I’m coming home later?”
“Because we need to talk,” Finn says.
“We need to talk? Are we teenagers? Should you braid my hair while we’retalking? Maybe Hayden can paint my nails.” I hold my hand out to inspect it. “He’s got experience with that.” Hayden often comes to work with different-colored fingernails. Courtesy of his daughter Lily, who he can’t say no to.
“I’d recommend shimmering gold. It will match perfectly with your skin tone,” Hayden jokes.
I scowl at him. I’m not finding the situation amusing. All I want is to go back to the apartment. I need to know if Penny’s okay. Hold her in my arms if she’s not. Fuck that—hold her in my arms either way.
Taking a seat, I cross my ankle over my knee. “You wanna talk? Let’s hear what you have to say.” They won’t drop it until they’ve said their piece. The sooner we have the conversation, the sooner I can see Penny.
They take a seat opposite me. “Tell us how you’re really feeling about Penny.” When I open my mouth to speak, Finn cuts me off. “And don’t give us any bullshit about it being nothing but a fake relationship or how you’re just friends. We know you. You’d never do this with any woman. Something is happening.”
Dropping my foot to the ground, I rest my elbows on my thighs and let my hands fall between my legs. “We’ve gotten close.”
When I don’t elaborate, Hayden waves a hand for me to continue. “And…”
“And…she’s leaving. Then things will go back to normal.”
What will normal be like? Work—I’ll go back to traveling for photoshoots. Play—casual hookups and drunken weekends aren’t appealing anymore.
“Will you keep seeing Penny?” Hayden asks.
“As friends. If she wants to. That’s it.”
“That’s bullshit,” Finn fires at me. “You’ve moved beyond friendship, and I don’t mean because you’re sleeping together. There’s a connection between the two of you. We can all see it.”
They better not mention me being a man in love again. Because they’re wrong. Aren’t they?
“What could you have possibly seen in the few hours we were together?” I ask. The night we arrived back from the cabin we had dinner and drinks. Conversation was flowing among us all. It wasn’t like I had my hands all over Penny or whisked her away for private time.
“We saw everything we needed to. It didn’t take long to understand what was happening,” Finn explains. “Why aren’t you pursuing this?”
Staring at the ground, I toe at the synthetic grass. “Maybe she doesn’t want more. She’s said nothing about taking the next step.”
“You didn’t give her the ‘I’m just like Dad’ speech, did you? Because if you did, of course she wouldn’t tell you if she wants more,” Hayden says.
“It’s true. I am like Dad.”
Finn and Hayden both roll their eyes. They’ve heard my reasoning for not doing relationships before. They always thought it was bullshit.
With a huff, I get to my feet. “I’d only break Penny’s heart.”
“Just because you and Dad share similarities doesn’t mean you’ll do what he did. He never loved Mom, no matter how many times he said he did. You don’t treat someone you love like that,” Hayden states.
“I can’t risk it.”
“Do you love Penny?” Finn asks.
I turn my back on them and stare sightlessly at the driving range. Do I love her? Penny has made me feel things I’ve neverfelt before. But I can’t fall in love. Not when the outcome could be disastrous.
Before I get to answer the question, both Finn and Hayden’s phones buzz with a text. Turning around, I find them checking their messages.
“The girls want us home. They’re planning dinner for us all,” Hayden says, rising from his seat.
Finn follows. “That includes you too. Apparently they’ve already told Penny and she’s on her way to Hayden’s house.”
“I thought we were hanging here for a couple of hours?”
