Brett nodded and turned back to the eggs. Satisfied that they were finished, he removed the pan from the stove and took two plates out of the cupboard.
Penny's ribs felt like they were shrinking against her lungs by the time he passed her a plate. “If you don't mind, I think I'm going to take this to my room. Get started on some applications.”
Disappointment flashed briefly in his eyes, but he nodded and smiled. “Of course. I’ve got to get ready for work anyway.”
“Thank you so much for breakfast. I'll replace the groceries.”
“No need.”
Penny stood and rounded the counter to grab the pan and blender, but Brett stood, blocking her path. She backed up a step. “I was just going to wash—”
“I was kidding about doing the dishes. Just go do what you need to do.”
“But I want to—”
“There will be plenty of dishes to do, I promise.” He smiled, and there was that sadness again sitting right behind his eyes. “You barely moved in. I've got this.”
Penny should have fought him on it. She should’ve insisted he let her help. But that might have been the first time in years that someone had offered to do something for her without expecting anything in return, and it felt so uncomfortable, she was momentarily stunned. So, to avoid standing there gaping at him, she nodded once, then grabbed her eggs and protein shake and retreated to her room.
She couldn’t concentrate at first, so she focused on eating. The eggs were perfectly cooked, which didn’t help with the currentBrett’s sitting out there in the kitchenand what the hell does he have tattooed on his arm?situation, but as soon as the sound of dishes in the kitchen settled down, her heart rate returned to normal. She finished her food and started searching the job boards.
She had a collection of listings already from the few days she’d been at Kelty’s, but a few more had popped up over the weekend. One looked particularly promising. A chiropractic office that was looking to expand its services by offering PT.
Penny was about to buckle down and submit applications when she realized she needed to update her résumé which was currently outdated. She popped open the file and started to adjust her work dates, tamping down the anxiety that came with listing her office as a past employer. Not her office.Danny’s office.
And that's when she saw the email come through.
With Danny's name as the sender.
ChapterFive
Brett satat the dining room table, the first of three makeshift workspaces he’d made since he’d been forced to work from home. When he purchased this apartment, he hadn't even thought about needing an office space. Not that he planned on his current situation being permanent. Both the apartment and the remote work.
His teams and contractors were doing good work, but he hated not having his eyes on the sites and troubleshooting in-person with clients. He’d never been good at digital communication, though this was forcing him to improve at it.
It was slow going. He'd been staring at a blank email for the past three minutes. Even though writing down his thoughts wasn’t his forte, it didn’t normally take him this long to figure out what he needed to say to a client. This morning he was more than a little distracted.
Brett glanced up at the closed door in the hall. Penny had walked into her room after breakfast, and he hadn't seen her for a couple of hours. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about what she was doing in there? Unpacking? Sitting on the bed working on her laptop with her legs crossed and her hair draping over her shoulders?
He ran a hand over his face. He couldn’t visualize the words that needed to appear on his screen, but he had no problem visualizing her.Was she crying?The thought clenched around his stomach. He wasn't the most observant person in the world, but since he knew she hadn't gone out drinking the night before, that was the only explanation for her red-rimmed eyes that morning. They weren’t bloodshot like she’d smoked a joint or something, they were puffy and raw. Exactly like he remembered his sister Cameron’s had looked more or less every day of grade ten.
Seeing anyone in pain wasn't fun, but seeing it directly in front of you first thing in the morning was more poignant. Was Penny upset about moving in? Had something happened last night and she needed help?Had he done something to upset her?
He didn’t see how that last one would be possible since they’d barely strung a few sentences together last night before she’d disappeared to unpack. He’d asked if she needed help. Could that have set her off?
Brett forced his fingers to the keys and typed.Hey.Too informal.Good morning.Better. Penny obviously had plenty of family, though if they were in Vancouver and she was here, maybe their relationships were strained at the moment. Even if that was true, she and Kelty were on good terms. Kelty and Sean were only an eight-minute drive away.
But something niggled at him. Something about the way Penny talked. It wasn’t tangible, but more like an underlying belief. Like she had zero expectations from the people in her life.
Some people talked about their struggles like they knew they had a safety net. They had people that understood them, that they could call at any second if they got desperate. Brett didn’t think most of his friends recognized it, but since he had to exist in the world after burning those bridges, he knew what it felt like to be isolated. Even if he’d never been truly alone, he’d been convinced he was too many times to count.
He’d worked the past three years to build himself into a person who could hold relationships and not just abuse them. Thankfully, he had his people now. People who understood him, even if they didn’t all live close. People he could count on, even if they didn’t fully get him to his core.
He could pick out any sad soul who believed they were an island from a mile away. Penny seemed to believe she was Cape Breton through and through. But that wasn't something you brought up with a woman you'd barely met a week ago and only talked to a handful of times. At least his communication skills had come that far. So he’d made her breakfast. That was a start. It was the first time he'd felt useful in weeks.
The door to Penny's room cracked open and Brett's fingers jolted into action. He’d only managed to type a single sentence of pure nonsense when Penny brought her dishes to the sink, rinsed them, and loaded them into the dishwasher.
“I'm going to head to the store. Anything I can get for you?” Her jaw was tight as she opened the fridge and peeked in. “It doesn't look like you have much in here.”
