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“How do you know?”
Narrowing her eyes, the woman stands behind her desk. “I grew up with Noah. Our brothers are friends. I think I’d know if he was dating, let alone engaged,” she says—a bit too defensively, if you ask me.
Does this woman have a thing for Noah? A hint of jealousy sparks in my veins, surprising me.
“I assure you he does,” I say with just as much bite, because as it turns out, I have a thing for him too.
The bitch crosses her arms over her chest. “Where’s your ring?”
“I didn’t put it on this morning. What are you, the engagement police?” Not the cleverest thing to say, I know, but it’s the best I could come up with.
Lips pressed firmly together, the woman glares. If looks could kill I’d be dead, buried, and forgotten about. I glance at the woman’s name tag before meeting her death stare head on.
“Now I get it,” I say, snapping my fingers as though I should’ve recognized her sooner. “You’re Penny.”
Penny’s scowl turns into more of a frown.
“Noah told me all about you.”
As expected, this perks her up. “He did?” She quickly realizes her mistake. “I mean, of course he did.”
“There you are, Lennon!”
I turn to see Mikey, the guy from the ambulance, walking toward us. If the look on his face is any indication, he caught some—if not all—of my little white lie.
Leaning against the desk, he smiles warmly at the woman. “How are ya, Penny?”
It’s amazing how her demeanor changes in the presence of a man. “Hey, Mikey. I’m good. Just been workin’ a lot, ya know?”
Mikey nods, and Penny glances at me somewhat timidly. “This woman is trying to tell me she’s engaged to Noah.”
“Wait…” Mikey waves a finger between me and Penny. “You mean you didn’t know about Lennon? Brad didn’t tell you?”
Penny shakes her head and opens her mouth to respond, but Mikey cuts her off with a fake disappointed sigh.
“I guess I’m not really surprised,” he says. “He hasn’t been around much lately, what with his new job and all. How’s that going for him, anyway?”
“Good,” she says, looking back toward me, clearly wanting to redirect the conversation.
“Good.” Mikey nods. “That’s good. Well,” he says, clapping a hand on the desk, “I’ll take Lennon down to Noah’s room before I go, if it’s all right with you.”
Plopping down in her seat, Penny huffs. “Fine.”
With a hand pressed to my back, Mikey guides me down the hall.
“Thank you,” I whisper when I’m certain we’re out of earshot.
“Are you kidding me? Noah should be thanking you. He’s been turning down Penny since the third grade, and now maybe she’ll get off of his back for good.”
“Well, then…” I puff out my chest. “I’m glad I was able to help. But I’ll be honest; I thought for sure I lied to the wrong person. I was really worried there for a second.”
“This is a small town, Lennon. The kind where everybody knows everybody, everybody thinks they know everything, and you can’t piss without it ending up in t
he paper or on Facebook. It’ll do you good to remember that.”
“Does that mean—”
“Yup.” He nods before I even finish. “Penny has probably already posted about it, tweeted it, Snapchatted it, and found a way to put it up on Instagram.”
