ChapterOne
Penny 3:42pm
On my way over now. Is that ok?
Brett 3:46pm
Yep. Not doing much today. I’m flexible
Penny 3:47pm
I’ll be quick
Brett 3:49pm
Refer to previous statement
Penny stoodat the doorstep with her hand raised. Yes, she was currently desperate,but was she really this desperate?To consider moving in with a complete stranger and trade professional services for rent?
That sounded . . . dirty.Trading services for a free room.Especially because the roommate in question was a hockey player who was twice her size and presumably pumped full of testosterone. She shouldn’t make assumptions, but she’d spent time around her brother’s hockey friends. She knew their inner thoughts. Granted, that was in high school, and she was now in her thirties, but did hockey players really change that much?
This guy Brett had looked the part on Sunday with his faded jeans and tousled sandy hair. Somehow, the brace on his knee only made him look more badass.
Penny exhaled through her teeth and rocked on her feet. How was she going to explain this? She’d have to find a creative way to present this situation to her family when she talked to them next.
Andrea, her older sister, couldneversee what Brett looked like, that was for damn sure. Andrea noticed too much. She knew Penny’s type, and it was, in a word, Brett. Injured wing and all.
Most recent case in point: Danny. He was an athlete on the mend when she’d met him, and look how that had turned out. She needed to go for . . . an engineer or something. Someone with a dad bod. An introvert. A guy who was attractive but didn’t know it, a male version of that girl from She’s All That before she took off her glasses.
Focus, Penny.She dropped her hands from her hips and clenched them into fists.She should knock.Just a quick rap on the door, then she could see the place and get back to Kelty’s. She didn’t have to say yes to this arrangement.
At the team barbecue the other night, even Kelty's father-in-law had pointed out that this proposition had disaster written all over it. The guys on the team had insisted it sounded like a match made in heaven, but of course they’d take that stance. They wanted Brett healed and back on the team for next season more than they cared about a perfect stranger’s emotional welfare.
Kelty hadn’t been fully candid, even after Penny pressed her back at the house last night. She was a good friend. A good listener. Not one to give advice. She'd never pushed for Penny to leave Danny, even though she’d expressed her personal opinion about his personality more than once.
When Penny eventually called in tears, Kelty hadn’t asked questions. Shehadinsisted Penny crash in her guest room. The guest room that was only available until mid-June when her niece was moving in for a month-long summer internship.
When Penny scoured the internet for apartment options, she’d quickly realized she’d have to make a deal with the devil to find something affordable or somehow find a couple of roommates. Since she’d put all her eggs in Danny’s basket and hadn’t built other relationships in Calgary, that was depressingly unlikely.
Then Penny tagged along to Sean’s team Sunday Supper and a hockey player, of all people, had offered her an olive branch.
She lifted her hand to the door for the second time. Maybe this wouldn’t be a disaster. Maybe this was exactly what she needed—a platonic roommate who happened to have a beautiful face and wasn’t at all invested in her life. She would offer her services, and he’d let her stay in his extra room. Simple.Note to self: she had to find a different word for services.
The door swung open before she could knock, and Penny jumped back.
Brett stood in front of her in a white T-shirt and grey sweatpants, the same brace she’d seen Sunday clamped over his right knee. “I was wondering how long you would stand there before knocking."
Penny looked toward the window. The blinds were still closed. "How did you know I was here?"
“Cameras."
Penny’s eyes shot up with alarm. Had he been sitting on the couch watching her war internally with herself for the past ten minutes?
Brett chuckled and moved out of the way for the door to open wider. "I'm kidding. I only have cameras in the bedroom."
Penny's eyes widened further, if that were possible, and Brett’s face went slack. “Also kidding—I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that. I don't have any cameras in the house. At all. I'm just—” He exhaled. “I don't normally do this."
Penny stepped over the threshold and slipped off her shoes. "What, invite random women over to scout out the place? Ask complete strangers to move in?"
