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Pizza?
What the hell? He was still here? Why hadn’t he gone home?
Then she considered the other thing he’d said.
Gage just called her Penny for the first time ever.
What did that mean?
She walked down the hall, breathing in the delicious scent of pepperoni and cheese. Detouring by the kitchen, she grabbed them each a PBR, and a roll of paper towels to use as plates and napkins.
“You’re still here,” she said, when she returned to the living room and found him sitting on her couch.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Why?”
He stared at her for a moment then gave her a non-answer. “I was hungry. Figured you might be too. Feel better?”
She nodded, though it felt a bit like a lie. She’d felt much better before she realized he was still here. Now she was confused and stressed out about what his continued presence here meant. What if he’d stuck around to tell her the bet was paid in full.
“You sure?” he asked again, and she wondered what he saw on her face.
Time to get a grip. She was a grown-up. She could do this. “Yeah. I let the pity party run into overtime. I shouldn’t have done that. Sorry about missing work.”
Gage rolled his eyes. “I didn’t come over here tonight to yell at you as your boss. I was worried about you.”
She smiled then dug deep to put them back on firm foundation. If she could find a way to take them back to the way they were before the makeover, maybe she’d manage to shake these feelings for him. “Thanks. Wanna watchBoneswith me?”
Gage opened the pizza box, grabbing a slice for her then one for him. Penny hit play where she’d left off on herBonesbinge, and they ate and drank and talked about the show.
Penny had always struggled with social interaction, but Gage was surprisingly easy for her to hang out with. She didn’t feel like she had to measure every word, and while she hadn’t gone Full Monty on the hair and makeup, Gage still looked at her like she was pretty, and not some oddity pulled out of the cast ofThe Greatest Showman.
When the show ended, she reached for the remote, ready to fire up the next episode, but Gage took it from her hand and turned the television off.
“Come here,” he said in that deep, sexy voice.
“What?” She was already sitting next to him, so she wasn’t entirely sure—
Gage removed all free will when he reached out, pulling her toward him until her face was only an inch away from his. Sitting this close, she could see the flecks of green in his light-brown eyes. And before she could stop herself, she reached up to brush back the lock of brown hair that fell over his forehead.
He blinked a couple of times, her affectionate, familiar action obviously catching him off guard.
“We’re going to pick up where we left off.”
“Where we left off?” she asked stupidly, his close proximity causing a complete system failure as far as her brain was concerned.
“The lessons, Penny.”
Again, he said her first name. A million people in her life had called her Penny, but when Gage said it…she melted inside.
“The kissing lesson?” she whispered.
“Among other things.”
He closed the scant distance between them, true to his word.
Penny had spent the last nine days trying to convince herself that Gage’s kiss wasn’t as amazing as she remembered.
