Page 54 of The Complete Truth Duet
“No, this is the Taj Mahal. My room is the twenty-seventh door on the left.”
He glared down at me, completely unimpressed by my joke, but I was drunk and hadn’t slurred a single word. I was crazy impressed and burst into a loud fit of laughter.
“It’s carpet,” he announced as if I hadn’t lived there for over a decade.
“Excellent observation.” More giggling.
More glaring. “Why?”
I wiggled in his arms, and he caught the hint and set me on my feet. “Why what?”
“Your entire house has wood. Why the hell do you have carpet in here?”
Very aware that his eyes were following me, I put some extra sway in my step as I sauntered to the bed and promptly collapsed.
“And she sleeps on a fucking mattress on the floor,” he bit out. “Jesus, fucking, Christ.”
With a curled lip, I lifted my head off the pillow and slowly glanced over my shoulder, a mouthful of attitude ready to go. It died on my tongue when I found him still standing on the wrong side of the doorway, a haunted pallor coloring his face.
I sat up. “Penn?”
He drew in a pained breath, the muscles in his neck straining, his hands opening and closing at his sides as though he were about to go into battle, but his gaze was locked on the floor. “I’m ripping up this goddamn carpet.”
My chest tightened as memories of him telling me why’d he torn up the carpet in Angela’s apartment flashed through my drunken mind. “Shit.”
I ached for him. It had been thirteen years, and if I could avoid walking on a sidewalk, I did. Because when I looked down at the cracks in the concrete, I never saw anything but Nic’s blood.
I nodded immediately. “Okay.”
Tilting his head from side to side, he cracked his neck, and, then in a voice filled with emotional gravel, he started with, “I can’t… It’s too—”
I rose to my knees. “Penn, honey. I said okay. Trust me, I get it. Rip it up. Whatever you need to do for you. You do it, okay?”
The color returned to his face as the most brilliant gratitude flittered through his eyes.
And then it was my turn to be surprised.
He walked inside, turning to the door as he shut it. “And I’m gonna fix your bed.”
In the grand scheme of things, it was small. He’d done a lot for me in the short time he’d been there. But that? For a girl like me? Well, that one meant a lot.
Chills detonated across my skin. “What did you say?” My damn nose started stinging again, and then it was all about the blink.
He scowled at the floor as he walked toward me. “A bed. You need one. I’ll get a frame set up. New mattress and box spring. This damn carpet has to go first. I’ll put some wood down. See if I can match the rest of the—” He abruptly stopped at the foot of my bed. “Shit… Are you crying?”
I shook my head. But I totally was.
“Cora, baby,” he whispered, dropping his knees to the mattress before pulling me into his arms.
Barely holding myself together, I went willingly. He settled on his side, then juggled me until I was facing him and resting on his arm.
Kissing my forehead, he rumbled, “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
I hadn’t cried in front of anyone in over a decade. And, damn it, I’d done it twice just that night. I let out a groan and tried to swipe under my eyes. “Just another allergic reaction.”
“About the carpet or the bed?”
“About you caring where I sleep.”
His brows pinched together. “Of course I care. Why wouldn’t I?”
I peered up at him, my vision swimming with unshed tears. “Because no one ever has. I take care of people, Penn. They don’t take care of me.”
Another one of his shadows flashed through his features. I couldn’t figure out if those happened when he was trying to cover his true emotions or when they finally escaped his walls. With his next words, I stopped caring.
“You’ve given enough. Now, you need to learn how to take,” he stated as fact. “If I can do something to make your life even a fraction easier, I’m gonna do it. Whether it be something small like a bed or changing the bald tires you got on your car. Or something big like dealing with those piece-of-shit Guerreros—I’m gonna handle it.”
“Why?” I croaked.
His forehead crinkled. “Why do you always ask me why? Is it so unfathomable to you that someone would actually want to help you?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed, sitting up. I crisscrossed my legs and faced him. “That doesn’t happen for me. If I want something done, I find a way to make it happen. If there isn’t a way, I find a way to make one. Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful. So damn grateful for everything you’ve done, right down to you sitting here, having this conversation with me.” I sucked in a shaky breath. “But I’m going to be honest: I don’t know what to do with all of this. Two weeks ago, I didn’t know you existed. Two days ago, you were avoiding me like the plague. Now, you’re vowing to buy me a new bed? They aren’t cheap, Penn. Do you even have money for that?”
