Playing at Forever (7 page)

It was a few moments before she spoke again.

“I really am sorry about last night, too.  I was upset.  I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.  You don’t deserve that.”

“You and I both know that I probably deserve a lot worse.  I disappeared for ten years.”

“I’m sure you have your reasons.”

“They’re not good ones.”  He took another drink of coffee.  Of course he had reasons.  Some of them were even logical.  He’d been busy.  He didn’t want to intrude on her life after so long. 

But the simple truth was he’d been afraid.  He wasn’t sure what of.  Maybe he’d been afraid that she would be angry with him.  Or maybe he’d thought she’d moved on with her life.

Or maybe he was afraid that she wouldn’t like the person he’d become.

“Maybe you don’t think so.  But the Tommy Davidson I know would have a good reason.” 

“Well that’s enough about me, this walk was supposed to be about you.”  They came to a stop then, leaning on a railing as they looked out at the ocean.  Tommy could smell the salt in the air.  It was familiar to him, though different from L.A.  There, you could smell everything. 
The salt, the smog, even the food.
  It was all so much simpler here. 

“I don’t even know where to start.”  She sighed, looking away, staring at a crack in the railing. 

“The beginning is usually a good place.”

“I lied to you.”  Against his will, Tommy felt his breath catch in his throat.  Lied?  “Kevin isn’t just my business partner.”  Of course he wasn’t.  That much had been obvious.  “He’s my husband.”

The dull ache that passed through his chest was impossible to ignore and he turned his head, unable to look at her for a moment.  Of course she’d gotten married.  Of course she’d moved on with her life.  What had he expected her to do?  Wait for him?

He couldn’t understand why it hurt so much.  Tommy hadn’t returned to
Ravenside
so that he could romance Penelope Lang.  He’d come back so that he could find a friend again.  A real friend, like he’d had all those years ago.

“Well, he was.”  She sighed, setting her cup down and running her fingers through her hair. 

“Is or was, Pen?”

“It’s complicated.” 

“I don’t really think it is.” 

“Have you ever been married?” 
her
tone was sharp.  “I didn’t think so.” 

“Then explain it to me.”  She wouldn’t look at him.  “Hey, I won’t think any differently, Penny, no matter what the story is.”

“You don’t know that.”  There were tears in her eyes now and, as usual, Tommy felt the urge to pull her into him and hold her there.  To protect her from whatever pain she was suffering from. 

But he couldn’t do that.  Not now.  She belonged to someone else. 

“I do know that, Penny.  Just tell me.”  She wiped angrily at her tears, leaning over on the railing again. 

“We started dating senior year. 
Got married after college.
 
Bought the restaurant.
  I thought we were good together, you know?  We were happy.”

“What happened?”  Tommy’s imagination was only providing him with the wildest of possibilities.  Kevin confessed he was gay.  Or maybe it was Penny who realized she had feelings for someone—perhaps Amy?  They were living together, after all. 

“I hired a woman to help manage The Seaside.  Gina.  She seemed like she was really passionate about the place, and that was exactly what I wanted.  Fresh out of college, all these new ideas…”  She shook her head.  “The truth was, though, it wasn’t the restaurant she was passionate about.  It was my husband.”

As she told him the details about finding them in the parking lot, Tommy was suddenly filled with rage.  He couldn’t believe what he hearing. 

Kevin had
cheated
on her?  That hadn’t even been in the realm of possibilities.  Tommy had figured that, in order for a relationship with Penny to fail, it would have to be something pretty dramatic. 
But something as ordinary as adultery?
  What kind of an idiot
was
this guy? 

“Penny, why would you think for even just a second that Kevin being an ass would in any way change the way I think about you?” 

“I don’t know, because you’re a guy?  And maybe you’d relate to him.  I had to have done something wrong, right?  I mean, he wouldn’t have messed around with Gina if I had been a good enough wife.”

“That’s just…”  Tommy reached out, lifting her chin so that she had no choice but to look him in the eye.  “This was not your fault, Penny.  If Kevin wasn’t happy, he should have been a man and told you that.”

“But maybe I—”

“No,”
  he
shook his head.  “This was his fault.”  Tommy just couldn’t believe it.  Kevin had been lucky enough to be given a shot by
Penny,
and what had he done? 
Thrown it away.
  He’d thrown it all away.

“I just feel like there was something more I should have done.  I don’t know.”  She shook her head, stepping away from him to sit on a nearby bench.  Tommy followed, though rather than sit down beside
her,
he leaned against a light post. 

“It’s his loss.”

“Well, no—it might actually be mine.”  She dropped her head into her hands.  “So far, the divorce has been uncontested.  I just want it done and over with—to put it all behind me.  So I let him have everything—all of it, except The Seaside.  We bought into it fifty-fifty, and I figured we could make it work.  We’re both mature adults.”

“But?”
  But Tommy already knew what was coming next. 

“Last night he told me that
Gina
wants out.  She wants me to buy them out, or they’re going to demand we sell it.”  Tommy muttered a few choice words under his breath. 

“So then you’ll buy them out.  That place is your dream, Pen—”

“Except that I
can’t
.  I’m taking a lump cash settlement from the divorce—half of what he sold the house for, but that
won’t even hardly
put a dent into what I’d need to pay for his half.  And I’m pretty sure I won’t get approved for a second mortgage, and even if I could, I’m not sure I could afford it.” 

“You can’t sell.” 

“I’m afraid I’m not going to have much choice.”  Penny looked up at him, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.  “This wasn’t how my life was supposed to go, you know?”

“Sometimes, things just don’t go according to plan.”  Tommy was well aware of that.  She sighed loudly, brushing away her tears. 

“Oh well, I’ll figure something out.  I still have time.”  She shrugged her shoulders, rising to her feet. 
“Enough with all of this.
  How about we go do some of that shopping you were talking about?” 

He knew that she was through with the subject for now.  She’d told him the truth, but now she wanted to pretend she hadn’t.  She wanted to forget about all of it.

Tommy didn’t know this because he knew Penny so well, although part of him was beginning to think that he still did.  No, he knew all of this because this was the exact reason he’d come back to
Ravenside
. 

He wanted to forget all about the problems waiting for him back home. 

He wanted to forget about the tabloids, about the fights, about his career. 

All he wanted to do was spend the day with the one and only girl he’d ever been able to be himself around.

Penny clung to Tommy as if her life depended on it. 

Partially because it did.

And partially because she had missed him so much.
 

The wind was loud, the engine louder.  Tommy navigated the motorcycle like a pro, as if it was an extension of
himself
.  She knew that he liked the freedom—the wind, the speed, the danger.  Tommy had always lived on the edge.  

Normally, Penny was not a risk taker.  She drove a small sedan and she always wore her seatbelt.  She ate her meat medium-well.  She never gambled. 

But here she was, on the back of a bike, speeding down a tree lined street.  And she wasn’t even afraid, really. 

They had spent the afternoon shopping.  Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate.  They’d taken an hour or so to actually shop, Tommy just buying a few pairs of jeans and some t-shirts right off the rack.  The rest of the afternoon had been spent trying on goofy outfits and reminiscing about all of the costumes they had worn during their plays. 

Now, they were on the way back to the motel, the day coming to a close.  The sun was already beginning to set, summer officially over and autumn creeping in.  Everything was a blur as they drove by, but she could see the vivid reds and oranges of the leaves. 

It was so beautiful, she thought. 

The bike rolled to a stop as they came up to a light and Penny leaned forward, so that she was impossibly closer to him.  “Hey, do you have plans tonight?”

“I’m pretty sure my social calendar is empty right about now, Pen.  What’d you have in mind?”  She imagined, briefly, how close they would be to one another if not for the helmets they wore. 

“You want to come over to Amy’s for dinner tonight?  She’s been pestering me about inviting you over.”

“I’d love to.”  He told her, the engine roaring back to life as they passed through town.  It was only a moment before they arrived at the motel.

Penny immediately noticed a very flashy car parked near Tommy’s room, an equally as flashy man leaning against it.  She pulled her helmet off the moment the bike stopped, Tommy doing the same.  “They belong to you?” 
she
asked, nodding toward the man.  Tommy swore quietly. 

“Unfortunately.”
  He groaned, holding his arm so that Penny could use it to balance herself as she climbed off the bike.  She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to tame it.  She was suddenly very conscientious of her appearance as she felt this newcomer studying her. 

Obviously, this man had high standards.  She was quite certain that she would not meet them as she glanced down at her worn jeans and plain gray sweater.  No, she was certain she wouldn’t even come close. 

“So this is the reason you’ve come to this rink-a-dink little town.”  The man removed his sunglasses, tucking them into his pocket as he approached them.  Penny wasn’t sure if she should be offended or flattered.  “My name is Graham.  And you are…?” 

Penny took the man’s outstretched hand.  “Penelope,”
  she
told him, both her tone and eyes guarded. 

“So you are,”
  he
gave her another once over.  “Aren’t you going to introduce us, Tom?” 

“I thought that’s what you were already doing.”  Penny watched as Tommy glared at the other man.  “Penny, this is Graham Walters.  He’s my manager.”

“You must be a friend of Tom’s.” 

“You must not be.”  She had taken an instant disliking to this man.  Graham only laughed. 

“Well, I can definitely see the appeal.”  Graham laughed again, nodding his head this time.  “I was hoping we could talk business, Tom.  You’ve kind of left things in a little bit of an uproar back home.  But if you’re busy, I can always come back.”

“Like I told you yesterday—”

“This is your career, Tom.”

“
It’s
okay, Tommy.  I have to get back to Amy’s anyway.  I’ll see you tonight, though, right?”

“I wouldn’t miss it,”
  Tommy
told her, flashing her a strained smile.  Part of her thought she should stay, just to support her friend.  But another part of her said that this—whatever conversation that needed to be had with Graham—wasn’t her business. 

Tommy needed to take care of whatever it was he was running away from, and she had to let him. 

“Okay, I’ll see you tonight then.  Around seven, okay?” 

“I’ll be there.” 

“It was nice to meet you, Penelope.”  Penny didn’t respond to the man.  She had been raised that if she didn’t have anything nice to say, she shouldn’t say anything at all—especially when it came to meeting strangers.  

“Has anyone ever told you how much of an ass you are, Graham?” 

“I believe you
have,
a number of times.”  They were inside Tommy’s motel room, Tommy pacing back and forth while Graham sat in an old armchair.  He looked completely out of place here, in his expensive suit and shoes.  The sunglasses he wore cost more than Tommy had paid for an entire week for this room. 

“I’m pretty sure I told you to leave, too.”

“As you can see, I am an
excellent
listener.”  Tommy glared at him and Graham sighed, leaning forward.  “Look, I’m not here as your manager right now, okay?  I’m here as your friend.  That’s how we started out, isn’t it?”  Tommy thought back many years.  Graham had been one of his roommates, before he’d gotten his big break.  “I just want to know that you’re okay.”

“I’m great.”  While his tone was sarcastic, he was telling the truth.  He hadn’t felt this relaxed in a very long time.  Of course, he was worried about his career.  He couldn’t deny that.  But the thing that was worrying him the most right now was Penny. 

“You don’t seem great.” 

“Well I am.  I just—I have some things I need to take care of here.”

“How much longer are we talking about?”

“I don’t know.”  Graham sighed again. 

“I’m doing the best I can here, Tom.  You’re not making my job any easier these days.”

“Look, Penny has been a really good friend to me.  She’s going through a rough time right now.”  It wasn’t really an excuse, although it felt like one.

“So you came back here to take care of a friend.”

“No, I—I came back here to get away.  And then I found out about Penny.”

“What’s her deal?”

“She’s going through a divorce.”

“Please don’t tell me it has something to do with you.”  Tommy shook his head, his expression baffled.

“What?  No, I haven’t even seen Penny in ten years.” 

“Was she your high school girlfriend or something?”  Tommy hadn’t told anyone about Penny, mostly because he was ashamed of how he’d treated her.  He shook his head.