Not that it stops her.
She keeps going – firing off compliments, fake questions, stupid laughs and I answer the bare minimum required to avoid being a complete asshole.
Barely.
Beside me, Penny shifts a little, and for a second I think maybe she’s uncomfortable too.
Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
Because then, like clockwork, the brunette sitting on Tyler’s other side
“Are you as good at soccer as your brother?” she asks, voice all soft and sugary, as she leans into Tyler’s side and lets her hand land conveniently on his shoulder.
Tyler grins, eating it up like it’s his last meal
I don’t bother answering beyond a grunt.
Soccer. Jesus Christ.
Earth.
I glance down at Penny.
She’s sitting stiff now, hands folded tight in her lap, fake smile plastered across her face like a shield.
Tyler doesn’t notice.
Of course he doesn’t.
He’s too busy soaking in the attention, talking about how great the field practice was after Penny left, how fun everything Rebecca and the others were at joining in. was, how awesome
Penny nods, that same pretty fake smile on her lips.
“Sounds fun,” she says, light and bright.
But I feel it the way her body tenses next to mine.
The way her knee stops bouncing.
The way the light in her eyes dims just a little, hidden behind the practiced smile she thinks fools everyone.
Everyone except me.
I sit there, jaw clenching tighter, feeling the anger burn under my skin.
Not at her.
A him.
At all of them.
Across the table, to the guy who’d been arguing toppings with Tyler eyes me.
Long.
Hard.
Sizing me up like I’m a stray dog that wandered in from the alley.
“So, lo says, loud enough that the conversation dips slightly around the table. “Why are you
I blink at him once. Slow. Cold. back?”
“Can’t disclose,” I say simply.
Short. Flat. A warning, if he had half a brain.
But Jo smirks, leans forward over his plate.
“C’mon,” he says. “You Navy guys are all talk any. What, they send you home because you couldn’t hack it?”
My fist tightens under the table.
One more word.
One more word and I’ll wipe that smirk clean off his face.
I feel it in my bones
– the shift, the slide into place they built me to go when words weren’t enough.
But then blessedly – the server shows up with giant trays of pizza, thudding them down onto the table with enough force to jolt the conversation sideways.
I don’t move.
I hold Jo’s stare across the table.
Longer than necessary.
Long enough that the smirk slips, unease flickering across his face before he finally looks away and grabs for a slice.
Smart.
I breathe out slow through my nose, forcing the yiolence back down into the pit of my stomach where it belongs.
When I finally turn back toward my side of the booth, Tyler’s already busy loading up his plate, laughing about something with the brunette.
Of course he is.
Penny’s sitting there, hands still folded in her lap, shoulders still too tight.
I grab a slice, rough and fast, and drop it onto her empty plate without saying a word.
She blinks at it like she wasn’t expecting it.
Maybe she wasn’t-
Then I grab a slice for myself and lean back, Ignoring the stupid, hollow buzz of voices around the table,
I didn’t come here for them.
I didn’t stay here for them.
It was her.
It’s always her, even when it shouldn’t be.
I watch her out of the corner of my eye as she picks up the slice delicate fingers, neat bites and something low and rough twists in my chest.
Mine.
The word is uninvited, sharp in the back of my mind.
I shove it down.
Hard.
Because Penny Vale doesn’t belong to me. And she never will.
The booth is too small.
Or maybe it just feels that way because Asher Black is sitting less than an inch away from me, radiating enough heat to bake a tray of cookies between us.
It’s not like he’s touching me not even close.
He’s just… there. Heavy. Immovable. Solid in a way that feels almost aggressive.
The kind of presence that takes up air.
I shift slightly, but it doesn’t help.
If anything, it just makes me more aware of him inside out. the way the heat pours off him like he’s a furnace set too high, like he’s boiling from the
Is that just how he is?
Or is he mad?
All of the above, maybe.
I can barely hear myself think over the rush of blood in my ears, over the heavy beat of my own pulse hammering through my body. The noise of the restaurant – laughter, clinking glasses, people shouting over music buzzes against my skin like static.
Across the table, Rebecca twirls her hair around her finger and says, in a voice dripping with sugar and fake innocence,
“Wow, Penelope’s actually eating something for once.”
I freeze with my slice halfway to my mouth.
The words are light, casual, but sharp enough that I feel them slice into me before they even finish echoing.
Tyler doesn’t notice the tone
He laughs and leans in. of course he doesn’t.
“What do you mean?” he says brightly. “Penny eats all the time! She’s like a bottomless pit.”
I blink.
Hard.
Please stop.
Please shut up.
“Seriously,” Tyler barrels on, oblivious, “you should see her after recitals. She could out-eat the whole team. Remember that time vou took down an entire meat-lovers’ pizza by yourself? I thought you were gonna explode.”
A few people chuckle half-heartedly.
Zoe snorts into her drink.
I can feel my face burning, creeping up from my collarbone to the tops of my ears, hot enough that I wonder if it’s visible from space.
I set the pizza down carefully, pretending I’m not dying inside.
Asher doesn’t move.
Doesn’t laugh.
Doesn’t even breathe differently.
He’s just sitting there – this huge, hot wall of tension at my side and somehow that’s worse, because I know he heard everything.
“Maybe she’s just shy,” Rebecca says sweetly, still twirling her hair.
She leans forward, angling herself toward Asher now.
“I bet you’re shy too, huh, Asher? Maybe you just need someone to help you loosen up.”
She bats her lashes so hard it’s a miracle she doesn’t take off like a helicopter.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.