“But Brett can’t—”
“You think it’ll take more than me and Tyler to load this stuff? You have less boxes and bags than Kelty packs for a weekend trip.”
“Hey!” Kelty smacked him, and Sean smirked. He grabbed her arm and pulled her in for a kiss.
Penny looked away and still tried to snag a duffel, but Sean snatched it off the ground.
“I’m serious.”
“I’m supposed to just stand here?” Penny frowned.
“No. Go get in the truck. It’ll take two seconds.”
Kelty rolled her eyes as Sean loaded up his arms and whisked past them both. “Just let him do it. It’s his dad’s fault. He made him believe he wasn’t a real man unless he took care of the women around him.”
Penny looped her thumbs in her pocket and pursed her lips. Pressure built behind her eyes, and her chest suddenly felt like it was wrapped in a corset.Why was she getting emotional?Standing on the sidewalk while some guys she barely knew loaded up her belongings?
She hadn’t cried when she left Vancouver with Danny. Not even when she left South Calgary to come here. Penny started to hyperventilate. Maybe because both of those times, she’d had at least an inkling of a plan? A familiar face on the other side?
Kelty pulled her into a hug, oblivious to her current existential crisis. “I’ll see you at Sunday Supper. This’ll be great, Pen.”
Penny nodded and pushed back, willing the pressure behind her eyes to dissipate. She needed to walk away. To take a lap around the block. To do anything but—
“All set.” Tyler pushed the tailgate up with a clang. “Ready?”
Penny nodded, her heart pounding hard enough to make her heady. Without her permission, her legs moved, sending her around the front of the truck to the passenger door. She reached up to pull on the handle, but the door was already opening toward her.
Brett moved to the middle seat, and she stepped up, gripping the handhold, then sat next to him. She glanced over and caught the side of Brett’s profile as Tyler jumped into the driver’s seat. Brett was so close, she could smell a hint of warm spice and pine on his skin. His hair was damp, and Penny noticed the subtle variation in the colour of it, making it look as if he’d gotten highlights.He didn’t dye his hair, did he?No. It looked too natural to—
Brett looked over and met her eyes. Penny pretended to search for her seatbelt as Tyler started the truck.
“Alright, let’s get the two of you home, eh?”
Home.
That word felt like a punch to the gut, but Penny held it together only because Michael Jackson was playing on the radio. Her mom had been obsessed with him all growing up, and listening to the eighties’ synth felt like she’d wrapped her arms around Penny and squeezed. She doubted anyone had ever had that reaction to Billie Jean in the history of humankind, but she was grateful to avoid a full mental breakdown in the cab of Tyler’s truck.
But she would break down. It was coming, which meant she needed to get settled in fast so she didn’t look like a crazy person on her first night. Alone. In a stranger’s apartment.
Penny clenched her jaw and jumped out of the truck the second Tyler parked, then started unloading from the back.
“You’re in a hurry.” Tyler pulled down the tailgate and motioned for her to move to the back instead of contorting herself over the wheel well.
Penny hauled a duffel full of PT equipment over her shoulder and followed him behind the building. They made a few more trips, then finally loaded everything into a single-car garage behind the small complex. “You realize this doesn’t count as an apartment if you have your own garage, right?”
Tyler laughed. “It’s not big enough to fit Brett’s Jeep, so I don’t think it counts as a garage. It would probably fit your car, though.” He dropped the other two equipment bags and stepped back. “Did we get it all?”
Penny nodded. “Just a few more things to take into the house.” Tyler closed the garage, and they walked around the building to the front door.
The complex was nice. On a quiet street. Only six units. A driveway back to an open parking area with six, albeit small, garage units that were most likely all being used for storage like Brett’s.
“Trying to injure the other knee?” Tyler barked as they rounded the building, and Penny’s head shot up. Brett was hoisting one of her suitcases up the steps in front of the house, balancing on the handle so he could take the next step with his good leg.
Brett grunted as he lifted the bag up the last three steps and set it on the landing. Penny didn’tnotnotice the way his arms bulged against the sleeves of his T-shirt. Salmon pink today. She loved it when men wore pink. It said bothI’m confident in my masculinityand “eff you” to societal norms. If it also had a floral pattern on it, she was sunk.
Thankfully, Brett’s was plain, but watching him hobble to the door with her bag in tow made something twirl in her midsection.He was probably just annoyed that Tyler was getting all the credit.
“Thank you,” Penny called out as she jogged to the truck to grab her toiletries. Tyler followed, muttering something under his breath as he checked the bed and closed the tailgate. “Thanks for the ride and for helping me unload.”
