Lucky Penny (32 page)

Like me?
“I- I…” I had nothing.

He wasn’t here to negotiate with me. He was here to seal the deal: To pay me to walk out of Blake’s life.

Forever.

“You can hate me, Mr. Weston, and you can try your hardest to come between Blake and me. And, who knows, maybe Blake will see sense and decide a life with a fat wallet and an empty heart is the one for him, but please don’t try to pretend you know anything about me or what I suffered in that place. You know nothing about me. Now, please leave. And take your business proposition with you.” I walked to the door and opened it, holding onto the handle for support.

Mr. Weston watched me. His face was poised in the same expressionless pose it had been the duration of our conversation, but his eyes looked different. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was definitely something there. Maybe he wasn’t expecting me to put up a fight. Whatever it was slipped away and his mask was back in place. He slammed the case shut and lifted it off the counter. “You’re making a mistake, Miss Wilson. The offer stands for twenty-four hours. I suggest you reconsider.”

With that, he strolled past me and disappeared down the stairs. I closed the door and slumped down on the floor. Tears streamed down my face as I unraveled.

I
couldn’t sleep. After Anthony Weston had left me, I’d cried on the floor until my eyes stung and my heart hurt. Once the heating had kicked in, I swapped my server’s uniform for my pajamas and climbed into bed pulling the comforter up around my chest.

Blake still hadn’t called.

Of course, there were numerous possibilities as to why he hadn’t contacted me yet, given that his uncle now knew about us. I’d once welcomed solitude, but lying there cold and alone, I hated it. I hated that with the silence came irrational thoughts about where Blake was, about what he was doing. I hated that I felt weak without him there to reassure me it was going to be okay. But most of all, I hated Anthony Weston for making me believe I wasn’t good enough for Blake.

A loud rapping on the door startled me, and I clutched the comforter in a panic.

“Penny, it’s me. Penny.” The desperation in Blake’s voice had me scrambling out of bed and hurrying to the door. I unlocked the latch and opened it. Blake reached for me and our bodies crashed into one another. “I’ve been going out of my mind. She tricked me into attending a dinner, and I only just managed to escape. I am so sorry.”

I choked back the tears threatening to fall again and nestled my face into his neck. Blake cradled the back of my head whispering soothing noises into my hair. Just the feel of his arms wrapped around me lessened my anguish, and when familiar hands tried to peel him away, I resisted. I didn’t want to leave the sanctuary of his smell.

“Penny, Pen, look at me.” Blake’s hand slipped between us and forced us apart. His fingers tipped my chin. “There’s my girl. I told her everything. She admitted to knowing all about you. But she-”

“I- I had a visitor earlier,” I rushed out. If I didn’t say it now, I might never get the words out.

Blake’s forehead creased. “What? Who?”

“Your uncle came to see me.”

“He did what?”

I shrugged out of Blake’s grip and paced to the other side of the room. This was likely to go only one way—Blake ending up mad as hell.

“Penny,” Blake said sternly. “What did my uncle want?”

Taking a deep breath, I rolled back my shoulders and calmly replied, “He wanted me to leave Columbus. He offered me money if I walked out of your life immediately.”

Blake’s mouth dropped open, but his eyes gave away his shock. “He wouldn’t. He’s done some crazy shit in the past, but he wouldn’t do something like that. Are you sure it was my uncle?”

“Blake,” I said softly stepping forward. “It was your uncle. He had a case full of money with him. He was very clear about what he wanted.”

When you spent most of your time alone, dealing with your own pain, the pain of others isn’t something you have to experience. But watching Blake’s expression change from one of shock to heartbreak was one of the hardest things I’d ever witnessed. He literally broke in front of me. I wanted to go to him, to wrap my arms around him and take it all away, but I was the cause of it all. And there was a chance he wouldn’t want me to.

Defeated, Blake said, “He wouldn’t. He- he wouldn’t.”

Tears rolled down my face, but this time they weren’t for me, they were for the man I loved. I took another step forward aware that if I pushed him too far he might break. “Blake, he did. I am so sorry.”

Blake closed his eyes, balled his fists at his sides, and dropped his head back. My control snapped. I rushed over to him and wrapped myself around him. His touch had healed me; maybe I could do the same for him in his moment of need.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” I repeated over and over.

I don’t know how long we stood like that, but eventually, Blake’s fists relaxed, and his hands found their way around my back. “I need you, Penny.”

He needs me.

As selfish as it was, I needed to hear that. I needed to know that this didn’t change anything between us.

“I’m here, Blake.”

Blake lifted me off the floor and carried me to the couch. He pulled off the throw blanket and adjusted us so that he was sitting on the far end and I was lying with my head in his lap. He covered me with the blanket and slipped one of his hands underneath my sweater. Warm fingers began to draw circles on my skin.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“We seem to be saying that a lot to one another lately,” I replied.

He leaned down pressing his lips to my forehead and my eyes fluttered shut. “Do you ever look back and wish things had been different?”

“Of course, I do,” I said.

“I spent seven years of my life regretting that I left you in that place. Seven years. I told myself it was okay because you were smart. Told myself that you’d earn a scholarship and go to college and live out your dreams. I told myself every day that you were better off without someone like me in your life. I could offer you everything and nothing. How could we build anything real on something so fake?”

“Blake, stop.”

“No, you need to hear this, Penny.”

“I thought you’d given up on us, so I chose this life. It was the easy way, the coward’s way, I guess. Get everything handed to me on a silver fucking platter but at what cost? I love my aunt, and in a strange way, I love my uncle. They are family, they will always be family, but you are my soul mate. I knew it all those years ago, and I know it now. Whether we have all the money in the world or have to live out of boxes eating leftover pizza out of the dumpster, I choose you, Penny Wilson. My lucky Penny.”

I reached up and curled my hands around Blake’s neck, yanking him down to me. Our lips fused together, hungry and desperate, but it wasn’t enough. I broke away; sitting up and shifting onto my knees, I crawled onto Blake’s lap, straddling him. He hadn’t yet removed his jacket, and I was still in my pink striped pajamas, but it didn’t matter. At that moment, everything else ceased to exist.

Blake wanted to go straight to his uncle’s, but I needed time to process everything. It was all happening so quickly. And besides, I had to work a lunch meeting in University District. Which was where I was headed now. I’d left Blake back at the apartment wrapped in my sheets. He wanted to lay low—to face his uncle together. So I gave him my key and told him to make himself at home. I would only be gone three hours at the most.

The job was straightforward enough. Felicia and I served light refreshments to a team of designers working out of the Craven Building. After returning the service tray to the kitchen, we parted ways. I needed to pee before I left to catch the bus back to Clintonville. It felt a little strange knowing my apartment wasn’t empty—that Blake was there waiting for me. I smiled at the thought.

I exited the glass doors onto the sidewalk. The icy air licked my skin, and I snuggled into my faux fur lined parka. The blanket of snow that had fallen over the last couple of weeks had started to thaw, turning the sidewalk into a slushy mess. Not paying attention to anything but my cautious footsteps, I didn’t see the blonde whirlwind headed in my direction until it was too late.

My eyes widened as Brittany stormed over to me. The gray fur muff pinned her hair in place giving her an air of perfection, but her eyes told a different story. She looked unhinged. Furious.

“You,” she hissed jabbing her finger at the air between us. “I told you to stay away from him.”

A couple of people passed us glancing back at us, and I shrunk further into my jacket. Brittany reached me. She stood taller in her snow boots than I did. Glaring down at me, her eyes burned with hatred. “What could he possibly see in someone like you? Look at you. You’re nothing. Nothing.” Her voice cracked. “You’re the help, for Christ’s sake. What does he possibly see in you?”

“Brittany, I’m-”

“No,” she cut me off. “Don’t say it. Don’t you dare say you’re sorry. We were happy before you showed up. I could have made him happy. Blake belongs in
my
world, with me. Not with some poor little orphan girl.”

I closed my eyes and inhaled letting her insult roll off me. Of course, some of it stuck. She had a point. Somewhere in her wild, desperate ramblings she was right. Blake had everything at his feet… and I had nothing.

Aware that we were drawing a small crowd, I shuffled backward away from the door to the building. Brittany was clearly not finished and continued stalking forward.

“Do you really think you can keep someone like Blake?” She paused arching her eyebrow. “Well, do you?”

“I…” My mouth fell open, but nothing came out.

Why was I rising to her? Blake had made his choice.

Me.

But I couldn’t shake her words.

Do you really think you can keep someone like Blake?

“Look at you. Cat got your tongue?” Brittany stepped right up to me, and my back hit the wall. “He might think he loves you, the pathetic broken girl from his past, but he’ll grow bored soon enough and who do you think he’ll come running back to? I’ve been the one there for him the last six years. Me.”

I tried to swallow, but my mouth had dried.

“Blake is a Weston. He has obligations. Responsibilities. He will never walk away from his uncle. From the family business. And I’ll be there every step of the way. Think you can handle that?” Brittany slammed her hand on the wall beside my head, and I jumped startled at her anger. She leaned in closely and said, “You. Are. Nothing. I’ll make you wish you’d never turned up at that dumb camp and laid eyes on Blake again.”

She righted herself and backed away. I released the breath I’d been holding. Our eyes locked and Brittany’s lip curled up into a smirk. The crazy bitch winked at me before turning and setting off down the sidewalk as if she hadn’t just threatened me. My body sagged against the wall and I dropped my head back closing my eyes.

A tear slipped down my face.

And another.

Was this how life was going to be with Blake?

And if it was, was I strong enough to live in his world?

The alley was quiet when I arrived back at the apartment. I’d walked along the sidewalk, my arms wrapped around my waist, lost in my own thoughts. Blake was expecting me back at four. It was after five. But Brittany’s venomous words had wormed their way into my veins, spreading through me like slow acting poison.