* * *
When we arrived backat the estate, Remy hugged me.
"Stop it. Don’t touch me."
He just hugged me tighter. "Sometimes things are like that. Take a nice hot bath."
"I’m not taking a bath," I snarled. I refused to stoop that low in my heartbreak. And that was what it was: heartbreak. Penny had broken my heart.
I changed into my running clothes and went outside. Maybe I would go for a ride. Animals were supposed to be good for your mental well-being. The horses snorted when I went to the stable. I wondered if they missed Penny.
Was everything going to remind me of her? There was only one thing to do—push through. I supposed I could fight for her, but the reality was, there was nothing there. It had been a trick.
Maybe there's a good explanation?
There's not. She sent the emails. You saw the proof.
I left the horses in favor of a run. My lungs burned as I sprinted through the property, steering clear of the castle ruins and the fence that brushed up against the cemetery side.
Fuck, she really had been everywhere in my life.
When I returned to the house, Billy and Oscar were scowling by the door, holding my coffee cup. The kids must be back from school.
"This is our dart gun," Oscar said accusingly.
"Excuse me?" I said, trying to grab the cup from him.
"You can’t drink out of it. It's our product," Billy insisted.
I counted to ten. I did not have the patience right then.
"This is a plastic straw." I snatched the cup out of his hand and took a sip of the now not-so-iced coffee.
"No, it’s made out of a bamboo composite."
"Whatever," I said, moving around them. I held in my hand the last iced coffee Penny would ever buy me.
It was my night to cook. I almost started to reach for the phone to text Penny.
Never again.
"I’ll cook," Hunter told me when I went into the kitchen. "Or rather, I’ll order food. Go lie down and stop drinking coffee so late. It's going to fry your brain."
I couldn't go to my bedroom; it still smelled like Penny. I settled on the conservatory. It was filled with plants we had brought in from the cold. My little brothers were in there, shooting each other with darts. They always wanted to be where one of the older Svenssons were was. The company was distracting enough, at least.
I lay there trying and failing to keep from running through each memory I had of Penny. I finally gave in, turning over my memories, looking for any signs I had missed. And they were all there—her immediate interest in my family, the teasing, the calculated way she bought me drinks, hosted parties, planned fun outings. I thought it was her caring personality, but really she was cold, cruel, calculating. But how did she make it seem so real?
"You want pizza?" Davy said, wandering in. He shoved the plate in my face. Actually it was over my face, because the pizza fell in my hair.
"I’m not hungry."
"I can give you a different kind," Davy said as he pulled pieces of pizza off my hair.
I went back to mulling over Penny. Every single memory was tainted. What's worse was I hadn’t seen it coming. It was the oldest trick in the book. A pretty young woman uses sex and nice feel-good feelings to make a man fall in love with her. Then,bam, she has him by the balls.
I should have seen it coming.
Hunter came into the conservatory, frowning. "Garrett."
