ok, yeah. you’re fine. lol
Brett made dinner anyway.Penny didn’t come out of her room. He left a plate for her on the counter and found it gone the next morning. He hadn't slept well again, but he had succeeded in staying in his bed all night, which was an improvement.
It was becoming difficult to talk himself into a better mindset.Accept the things you cannot change . . .The problem was he didn’t want to accept them. He’d be better off if he did—he had years of evidence to support that. But it was so tempting to wallow. To be angry.
He’d been sitting around on his ass for over a month, and he was sick of it. He was sick of his damn knee aching, sick of trying to force motivation at work when his mind felt foggy, sick of feeling useless. He wanted to run, to skate, to move his body again.
He wanted to take back the way he’d acted yesterday.
He wanted Penny to talk to him.
He should have given her time to process instead of pushing her yesterday. Their explosive interaction the night before made it that much more obvious that they didn't know each other very well. With the amount of time they'd spent together recently, he'd convinced himself that there was a level of understanding there that they hadn't earned.
Maybe there was a part of him that wanted to push forward too fast. Right now, he was missing all of his normal connections, and it was taking a toll. Still. He couldn't build a friendship on a house of cards just to fill the void.
Brett’s phone buzzed on the table, and he picked it up. “Hey, Tony.”
“Surprised you’re up early.”
“I’m always up early.” He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, noting the tightness in his chest. The dull throb at the base of his neck.He couldn't control this.
“I just figured . . . you know.”
Brett sighed. “No, I don’t know, buddy.” When he opened his eyes, he froze. A pair of women’s legs stood straight up outside the window, toes pointed toward the sky.
“That you and your physical therapist would be doing some late-night sessions.”
Brett didn’t answer, mesmerized by those legs splitting apart in a slow, graceful arc and stretching in opposite directions.
“Nothing?”
Brett blinked. “Sorry, Tony, what did you say?”
“I’m not going to repeat it. It’s not funny if—”
“Late night sessions. Right. No, we mostly do PT after dinner.”
Tony muttered something under his breath. “So, how’s the knee?”
Brett’s throat worked as Penny righted herself and dropped into a warrior pose, her hair pulled into a messy bun on top of her head. She wore a sports bra and, well, he couldn’t see what was below her waist. He cursed the windowsill and pushed up in his seat. Boy shorts.Holy hell.Penny was doing yoga on the front landing in the morning sunshine with a bra and boy shorts on.
“Do you want me to call you back?” Tony sounded annoyed, and that was enough to snap Brett out of his momentary fantasy.
“No, sorry. I was just distracted by something.” Brett’s mouth felt like the Sahara. He stood and limped to the cupboard to grab a glass and fill it with water. “The knee is getting better. I’m hardly using a crutch.”This was fine.She was just doing a workout, and he didn’t need to watch.
“That’s great to hear.”
“How did the anniversary end up?”
Tony chuckled. “I bought her tickets to see Mother Mother.”
“I think they’re playing the Saddledome in a few weeks.” Brett pulled the glass from the cupboard and turned.
“Exactly. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Leanne and I are going to come out. Do you think we can crash?”
Through the glass, Penny threw her head back and stretched her arm behind her, and as the sun hit her skin, Brett could’ve sworn it turned to pure gold. He coughed. “Yeah, of course. It’ll be amazing to see you.”
“We won’t be putting you out?”
