Something Wild (24 page)

Yet, just as she was about to drop them inside, she stopped, hugging them tightly to her chest. The heart-shaped cuffs were a keepsake of what they'd shared, a keepsake of the love she'd let go—the love that might have been the love of her life—but she'd done the right thing, for him and for Martin. And that's what life and love were about sometimes, weren't they? Doing the right thing.

Then Penny looked down at them, a pair of red-velvet, heart-shaped handcuffs, and started laughing. What a crazy, silly, insane thing to hold on to as a keepsake!

Penny kept on laughing then, couldn't stop laughing, in fact, until she realized that somewhere along the way she'd started crying.

11

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^

R
yan sat in his office the next morning, watching the digital clock on his desk. 8:07 flicked to 8:08. He'd come in early in order to beat Grace and so far, had avoided seeing her. However, Martin should arrive any minute now. And God only knew what would happen then. He suspected the rest of the day would be interesting, to say the least.

It was 8:09 when he thought of Penny. Wow, two whole minutes had passed without his dwelling on her. He remained as dumbfounded over her call as he'd been last night. He still couldn't believe it. One minute they were teasing and flirting and planning dinner; the next, she was not only standing him up, but giving him the boot, too.

He'd wanted to protest, to stop her, to say, If our time together was so damn special, why are you throwing it away? He'd even
started
to say something, but when she'd hung up, her feelings had been pretty clear. It was hard to believe he'd misread her so badly, but maybe she was even more complicated than he knew. Maybe she hadn't been as crazy about him as he'd thought. Maybe, as he'd feared just yesterday, this was just one big wild affair to her.

And besides, he couldn't argue with her about his job. He'd been telling himself his priorities were a mess, that maybe the job wasn't the most important thing, but just what did he think he was going to do without it? No matter how he stacked it up, his career mattered.

So he hadn't called her back. He'd let the only woman he'd ever really fallen in love with walk out of his life for a second time in a few short, agonizing days. He shook his head. Talk about a whirlwind relationship—he felt as if a tornado had just swept through his life, leaving little bits of his heart scattered everywhere.

By 8:11, his mind had drifted to the other call he'd received last night, which had also left him reeling. It hadn't been surprising to answer the phone and hear Dan's voice; after all, he'd never gotten around to returning his brother's call. But the shocking part had been when they'd started talking about Ryan's new job and his condo, and Dan had said, "You've got the life, Ryan. What I wouldn't give…"

"What?" The words simply hadn't computed in Ryan's head.

On the other end of the line, Dan had sighed. "Oh, don't get me wrong. I love Carol and the kids are great. Life is good. But sometimes I envy you, and I think about how much guts it took to leave behind everything you know and go someplace new."

Ryan hadn't known what to say, still in a state of heartbreak over Penny, yet trying to absorb his brother's words. "I … never felt I had any other choice," he finally explained. "It's what I'd always wanted."

"Well, it still takes courage," Dan said, then his voice turned uncharacteristically cynical. "Something Mom never stops reminding me."

Okay, wait just a minute here. "What are you talking about?"

Dan hesitated. "The truth is … Mom and Dad never stop singing your praises.
Ryan's doing so well in the city. Ryan's got such a good job. I don't know what we'd do without the money Ryan sends us.
I never hear the end of it."

Ryan sat astonished for a long moment, just breathing into the phone, until finally he burst into laughter, not the least of which was due to Dan's imitation of their mother.

"What's so funny?" Dan asked.

"They do the same thing to me about you!"

The brothers had shared a good laugh and a long talk that made Ryan want to get to know Dan better, so much that he'd even invited him to bring his family to Cincinnati for a weekend sometime soon. They'd eventually concluded that their parents must be proud of both of them, just in different ways, and that they simply had the bad habit of touting each son's achievements to the other, instead of doing the opposite. All of which meant, of course, that Penny had been right, despite what he'd so strongly believed.

At 8:15, the elevator bell dinged, and lo and behold, Martin's voice finally boomed through the office.

"Hello, Grace! I'm back, as promised. Things seem awfully quiet around here—everyone have their noses to the grindstone already? They must be working too hard!"

Ryan flinched. Martin sounded a little too … enthusiastic. Not that he knew his boss very well, but the Martin who'd hired him had been much more staid and serious. Pleasant enough, but as Grace had confirmed, Martin was a workaholic and Ryan had seen that in his personality right away.

And this business about them all working too hard! What was that about?

Then it hit him. Martin had come home expecting Penny to say yes. He'd probably wheeled and dealed Schuster Systems into a lot of business at the conference, and now he thought he was on a roll, that things would continue going his way. He thought he was getting married.

Unable to bear thinking any further about Martin's misconceptions, Ryan leaned over and nudged his office door shut. The chips would soon fall, and he didn't know where, but for now he'd just try to get some work done and hope for the best. Hell, he didn't even know what the best
was
anymore.

Ryan pulled up Penny's system on his computer and started inputting information, but his heart wasn't in the work. He continued looking at his clock as though counting down the minutes to the moment of truth. For Penny. For Martin. For him. He wondered what Penny was doing, if she was down in the pub yet, and he even considered calling her, but talked himself out of it when the phone rang.

Could it be her? He grabbed it. "Ryan Pierce."

"Ryan, it's Martin. Can I see you in my office please?" He hung up before Ryan could say anything.

Ryan glanced at the clock again. 8:28. Plenty long enough for Grace to have told Martin everything. As Ryan pushed back his chair, he heard "Taps" playing in his head. This was it, the countdown was over. He imagined reaching over to stop the clock, marking the time of his demise, but you couldn't do that with a digital, damn it.

He moved down the hallway to Martin's office, the place where all this had begun, and his chest tightened as he leaned through the open door.

"Come in, Ryan," Martin said, glancing up only slightly before returning his attention to the stack of message slips in his hand.

Ryan stepped inside and took a seat in one of the leather chairs across from his boss's desk. His soon-to-be ex-boss, he had a hunch.

Martin lowered the messages to his blotter with a sigh. "I've got a lot to deal with this morning," he said, "but before I do, I want to speak with you."

Ryan nodded and kept eye contact with Martin. He could feel his head being positioned in the guillotine and waited for the proverbial ax to fall.

"I know what's been going on around here," Martin said.

There it was, cutting through him in one smooth slice. "Grace doesn't miss much," Martin went on, "and she's filled me in on everything that's happened while I was away.

"I see," Ryan mumbled.

Martin sighed. "I liked you when I hired you, Ryan. I thought you had a good head on your shoulders and you struck me as someone who knew what you wanted. You seemed dedicated to making a place for yourself here at Schuster Systems."

He paused to take a drink of coffee, and Ryan thought, Come on already. Get it over with.

"And I can see now," Martin went on, "that I made a great decision."

A large smile erupted on Martin's face as Ryan's jaw dropped. "You did?"

"Now, don't be modest. Grace told me how hard you've been working. Staying late some nights, arriving early, coming in on the weekends. And your progress report on the Two Sisters system is quite impressive. You've gotten twice as far as I'd anticipated and at this rate, we'll bring the project in way under budget, which is good, since I gave Penny a little price break." He winked. "I don't know if she mentioned it or not, but she and I are … close."

Not as close as she and
I
are,
Ryan thought, but he just nodded like a madman and said, "She mentioned it."

"Well, anyway, I just wanted to commend you on the good work you did while I was away. I'm glad to have such a team player on board. But hey," he said, grinning and shaking a finger as Ryan got to his feet, "don't work too hard now. You know what they say about all work and no play."

Oh yeah, he knew, but no way was he going to enlighten Martin on just how much play he'd combined with work lately, or just how
not
dull his life had been in Martin's absence. "Uh, not to worry," was the only answer he could muster. "And … thanks," he added, backing toward the door.

Ryan left the corner office dumbfounded. What the hell had just happened in there? Grace hadn't told Martin about him and Penny? He almost wanted to go back and ask, just to make sure he hadn't missed something because it didn't make sense.

As he headed down the hall, he looked up to see Grace herself approaching, a stack of papers in her hand, likely heading to the copier. "Grace," he said sharply, stopping her in her tracks and meeting her eyes. Then he spoke more softly. "Thanks. For what you told Martin. And … for what you
didn't
tell him."

She didn't quite smile, but gave him a thoughtful look that at least seemed to say she didn't think he was pond scum. "I only told him the truth about your work. As for the rest, I figure that's between him and Penny."

"Well, I appreciate it."

By the time Ryan sat back down behind his own desk, though, his emotions were shifting. Sure, it was great that Grace hadn't tattled on them, and nice to know she'd noticed the good things he'd done while Martin was away, as well, but the same old issues still remained, and still stood between him and Penny.

And the more Ryan thought about it, the more he realized it had been a relief of sorts when he'd thought Martin knew the truth. Not that he wanted to lose his job. Of course he didn't. But … he just wanted Penny, damn it. He didn't want to give her up. Not for anything.

And the more he examined the past few days, the less he bought her "we're in different places right now" speech. After all, how could he have misread her need, her emotions, so drastically? Those moments when everything had stopped and she'd just clung to him said it all, didn't they? Wasn't it possible that she could be wild and want more than just that at the same time? He wasn't a hundred percent sure—he wasn't a hundred percent sure of anything today—yet he simply couldn't believe he mattered to her so little. Naturally, the confrontation with Grace yesterday had jarred her, and he could respect her concern over Martin's feelings, but he just didn't believe she was any happier about being apart than he was.

There was something he could do about this. The idea had been flirting around the edges of his mind for days, but it only materialized into something concrete just now. It was a drastic, crazy sort of notion, and he didn't even know if it was feasible, if it would work. But when he thought of spending the rest of his life without his Pretty Penny… Hell, what was the point of living if you didn't take some risks every now and then?

* * *

Penny was cleaning glasses as Patti took inventory of the liquor behind the bar, when the pub's door opened and Martin walked in. "Hello there, Penny," he said, his voice filled with the same bold warmth as his smile.

"H-hi." The word came out strangled.
Great start.

She glanced at Patti, who had already put down her pencil. "I'll, uh, do some work in the office," she said, scurrying away to leave them alone.

Penny's first instinct was to remain behind the bar, maintain that comfortable distance between them, but she knew that would be cowardly. So she walked out from behind it and let Martin give her a long, rather excruciating hug before they sat down at one of the tables.

She looked into his eyes.
This is it. This is where I break the poor man's heart.
"Drink?" she asked in an automatic attempt to delay the inevitable.

He shook his head. "I have coffee upstairs. And I … really think we should talk, don't you?"

Yes, she did. So Penny took a deep breath and began, nervously. "I've been … worried. Where were you?"

"I'm so sorry, Penny," he apologized, as she'd known he would. "As I said in my phone message, time got away from me in Vegas."

"I know," she said, nodding. "You were working, learning, soaking up every bit of your conference."

Yet Martin looked uncertain. "Well, not exactly. At first, that was the case, but then…"

But then? She raised her eyebrows. "What?"

Martin took her hand and let out a sigh. "Penny, I have something to tell you."

Yet Penny couldn't suffer through the slow pace of this conversation a second longer. She'd been waiting for a week to turn down his proposal, and she had to do it now. "I have something to tell you, too, Martin," she said hurriedly, although she tried very hard to sound sad at the same time.