Penny:It’s been great, but I don’t think this is going to work. I’ll call in a few days once I have things figured out.
11
PENNY
“Earth to Penny,”Karmen huffs, waving her hand in front of my face.
Snapping out of my daze, I direct my eyes to hers. “Yeah?”
“You’ve been folding the same shirt for ten minutes.”
As I’m about to refute her, I look down at the item in question, then over at the pile to the right, confused.
“You’d fold it, but instead of grabbing a new one, you’d shake it out and fold it again. You did it seven times before I said anything.”
Sighing, I press my eyes closed. “I’m sorry. I’m just distracted.”
“It’s fine. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I am, but…I don’t really know if I’ll ever be.”
“Do you care to talk about it?” Karmen offers.
“There isn’t much to talk about. I got jealous at the restaurant and I ran.”
“Do you regret that?”
“A part of me does, but it was bound to happen eventually. Women throw themselves at Grey, and that’s not going tochange because he has a new baby. If anything, women will want him even more.”
“But does he want them?”
“How could he not?”
“Because he wants you.”
I roll my eyes. “You assume a lot.”
“Even you said you thought he did that night I picked you up. You’re just determined to ruin a good thing.”
I gasp, offended. “Excuse me?”
“Tell me I’m wrong,” Karmen challenges.
My lips part, but no words pour out, because deep down, I know she’s right.
When my parents died, I had no one. People who were supposed to be my kin turned their backs on me. It was only with the help of the ranch that I was able to get on my feet.
But the sting of my family’s rejection was always there.
“My family didn’t want me,” I confess.
“I know there was a tragedy, the fire, but no one ever talks about it,” Karmen says, smoothing my hair away from my face.
“My parents died when I’d just turned eighteen. It was due to a house fire. No one’s fault, really. Just kind of happened.”
“I’m sorry you went through that,” Karmen whispers.
“I don’t miss them, to be honest. They never wanted me, or any of their children, for that matter. Feeling their contempt, my siblings left years earlier, some moved in with my grandparents, others made it on their own. When my parents died, I was too old for government help, so I reached out to every family member I could, offering to work and pay rent, but they said no.”
