And while the gravity of the moment threatened to drown both of us, I couldn't help but notice that she was bare underher thin cotton robe, the peaks of her nipples visible. I jerked my chin up to meet her gaze.
“Tell me what happened?”
“I’ll tell you what I can.” I glanced down the hallway. “But there are a few things she should tell you herself.”
Penelope’s smile was beautiful. I matched it with one of my own.
Chapter Nine
Penelope
“Thank you for going with her.” I moved towards my bedroom, my emotions conflicting in my belly. Madeline and I had never had anyone else in our lives. Not even my brothers had taken up as much space in my mind, my home, than Neal had in a month of being here. And while I took pleasure from seeing Madeline blossom under his paternal attention, it left me feeling antsy. Nervous. Especially tonight, since I typically attended all of Madeline’s events with her. But I had an immovable overseas meeting this evening.
While Madeline had initially planned to skip the event all together, she had suddenly changed her mind. She all but begged to go. And then, she’d asked Neal herself. Shocking both of us.
I’d kept her father away. Whether through my words or actions, I’d done that. There was no other explanation for the way that he had looked at me that day, the only time he’d ever met her. I’d held her up, joy so thick in my chest that I’d thought for sure he was going to change his mind, to tell me that he’d leave his wife and come be with me.
With us.
And then, his little boy, so darling and sweet, had wandered into the room, looking for his dad. And I’d known the truth.
I was the mistake. I’d yanked Madeline back, holding her tight against my chest and demanding that my nurses remove him from my room. I’d never seen him again. We’d been safer that way.
But now I’d exposed myself in a way that I’d never seen coming. Neal was supposed to be a good deed, a payment for the life he saved. But now, he was everywhere. His scent against my sofa, a brush of fingertips in the morning as I made coffee.
And I loved it. I soaked it up and craved more. I bit down on my bottom lip, worrying it frantically as I slipped into my bedroom. I loved him. Like an idiot—like the child I’d been when I threw my life away the first time. How was this different? Had I dreamed it all?
“Penny.’’ Neal’s voice stopped my thoughts.
I turned in the dark, watching his silhouette lean against my doorframe.
“Don’t run from me.”
I choked out a noise, something between a laugh and a cry as I stared at him. “I’m not running.”
He ducked his head, but I couldn’t see his expression. “You are. But that’s okay. Because I’m pretty good at chasing you down.”
I didn’t say anything, my heart thundering in my chest.
“She told me a secret, and I shared one of my own.”
“Oh.” I watched as he strolled into the darkness of the room with me, his now bare feet brushing along the carpet. I cleared my throat, my body already beginning that telltale hum that it had every time he was close.
Neal traced his hand up my arm, making me shiver, his fingertips hot even through the thin cotton of my robe. “I told her about how, when my wife died, I lost control and ran. That I had to get away, to be nothing, to go nowhere until I figured out what I wanted.”
My heart pounded. I nodded as Neal moved around behind me, his hand still teasing across the fabric.
“And did you figure it out?” I asked, breathless. “What you want?”
His body pressed into me, his front to my back, and I quivered, waiting for his response. I felt the gentle press of his lips on my neck before his hands settled on my hips. “I know exactly what I want.”
“And?” I dropped my head back, bumping against his collarbone. He’d filled in so much since he arrived that I briefly wondered what he must’ve gone through living on the streets like he did. The fear, the anxiety.
“I want to stay here.”
My heart rate flew off the charts. “You do?”
“Being there, with you, with Madeline, has shown me everything I was missing out on, even before I lost my wife. I was half a man living someone else’s dream.”
