Page 26 of Insatiable Bachelor (Bachelor Tower 1)
“Leave him one.”
“Ziggy, this is Dalton Croft. I’m trying to get in touch with Penny. If you see her, please have her call me.” I hesitate as I read the sign on the door again. “I see you’ve closed the business. I’m sorry to hear that.” I disconnect the line abruptly, not accustomed to offering that kind of sympathy for something that doesn’t directly affect me.
“Heartfelt,” Ben quips, and I shoot him a nasty look.
“Where is she?”
“Maybe Millie is back from her delivery? You know where their apartment is? I’m sure they weren’t put out on the street already.”
Ben is being helpful, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to punch him. If he had kept his mouth shut, I could have squashed the problem without upsetting Penny.
I fire off a couple of threatening messages to Randy before we hop back in the car. “This is a fucking mess.”
“It is,” Ben agrees with a sigh. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I snap. “I’m no one’s hero. I just don’t want to see Penny get hurt.”
“You could—”
“You know what you could do? You could shut the fuck up.”
“I’d be more offended if I didn’t feel so bad for you,” Ben says, raising his brows up and eyeing me. “You’re in love with her.”
What the fuck?
Oh, shit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Dalton
“Millie? Penny?” Ben calls, knocking on the worn door of their studio apartment. We both agreed they’d be more likely to open the door for him than for me.
“Who is it?” Millie asks reluctantly.
“My name is Ben, I’m here with Dalton. I’m one of Penny’s friends. Is she here?”
“Oh Dalton,” Millie says, and I take comfort in her light tone. That evaporates as she opens the door and launches a book straight at my head. I duck just in time.
“You’ve talked to Penny,” Ben says, raising his hands disarmingly. “There’s been a misunderstanding. I have information she wants. If you let me show you I’ll explain everything. Maybe then you can call Penny, and she’ll listen to you.”
“No.”
“But it’s proof.” Ben makes a sudden move for his phone but Millie has another heavy book in her hand ready to launch.
“You don’t get it. I am team Penny. I don’t care what happened, who was at fault, or what logical information you want to share with me.” She points to herself with both thumbs. “TEAM PENNY.”
“I can completely understand that,” Ben begins.
“She was falling for you.” Her eyes are like daggers now, fixed on me. “She trusted you. You knew exactly how important it was to her to help Kylie out. It was going to give them a place, some common ground to finally stand on. You did more than just get her kicked out of here, you wrecked her shot at having something real with her sister. You know her father’s business closed today too. You have anything to do with that?”
“No,” I grind out. “I didn’t have anything to do with any of it.”
“You didn’t steal her lease?”
“I took her lease to have it looked at by my team so they could help head off any issues. I wanted to know what might be coming.” Explaining myself has never been part of my MO, but if the truth will help lessen Penny’s pain. “I’m not here to prove I’m innocent. I’m here to make sure she’s safe. She left the building upset, and now she’s not answering her phone. I need to know she’s okay.”
“She’s not ready to talk to anyone yet,” Millie says.
“Where is she?”
Millie threw another book at my head. I dodged it easily.
“He loves her,” Ben said as if he’s now my fucking spokesperson.
“Really?” Millie asks, ignoring Ben and staring straight at me. “Let me hear you say it.”
I’m not the kind of man to jump when someone tells me to, but I respect her motivation. “I love her.”
Millie’s anger dissolves, and she sighs. “There’s only one place left that makes any sense to her in the world right now. If you don’t know where that is, you don’t deserve to find her.”
“Sorry about your apartment,” Ben says, breaking up the blooming tension. “I told Penny I would try to find out who bought it and what recourse you might have.”
“Man,” she folds her arms in front of her chest. “I really want to hate the two of you. Randy told her you were gloating over your victory.”
Randy had better run the next time he sees me.
My concern turns back to Penny. She’s out there somewhere—upset and thinking I betrayed her.
Ben walks down the hallway first, and Millie leans out her door, grabbing my arm. “Don’t fuck this up. Find her, and tell her the truth.”
I nod. I can’t promise the first, but I can do the latter.
I’m wracking my brain thinking of every spot Penny told me she loved. I’m breaking down every conversation.
“Well, you know she’s safe,” Ben says, clearly antagonizing me.
“Shut up, Ben.”
“So where is she?”
I walk away from Ben and hail a cab. He’s smart enough to not follow me. It’s a long shot, but there is a chance I know where Penny is. The question changes from can I find her to what will I say once I do.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Penny
I arrange and rearrange the flowers on Aunt Julie’s grave before I stand and ready myself to go. The cemetery is quiet, just a lawn mower somewhere in the distance and a few birds chirping in the large oak tree overhead.
Like a hundred times before when I’ve needed her, Aunt Julie has listened to me cry and talk for over an hour and a half. Sometimes I’m here to share happy stories, sometimes I just need to sit in the peace and quiet. I’ve asked her so many questions over the years, and though the answers don’t come as quick as I like, I do like to think she guides where I’m supposed to be. I wonder now if I’ve gotten myself too far off the right track for even her to help me.
There’s nothing more to say. I walk the long path back to my car and stare at the cloudless blue sky. I can’t blame Dalton any more than you can blame a bee for stinging you. Use your good judgement, leave it alone, and you’ll be fine. Trap it in your hand, and you’re asking for the pain.
Knowing the blame rests on my shoulders doesn’t really dull the pain of having to face my sister in a few days. The only thing worse than that will be facing my mother. She’s bilingual in passive-aggressive language of the I told you so tribe.
“Penny,” Dalton says, making me jump. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you’d be here.”
“Dalton.” I gulp, amazed he was able to find me. He was listening.
“I called your father and asked where she was buried. He was kind of stunned, but eventually he told me. I didn’t know if you’d be here.”
“You shouldn’t have come,” I say, brushing the tears off my cheeks. “I don’t want to see you.”
“I can help you, Penny,” Dalton says, looking like if he doesn’t save the day right now he’ll die. “I put a call into a lawyer who specializes in residential leases. He’s going to do what he—”
“Please stop,” I beg, blinking the tears away. “I can’t do this, Dalton. I get that you had a part to play, and you did it really well. I don’t even blame you. If the situations were reversed my sister would have probably done the same thing. You all focus on what you want, and you don’t let anything . . . or anyone get in your way. I knew it. I understood it. And I let this happen anyway. I’m not blaming you. I should have known better.” You win. You’ll always win.
“I never meant to hurt you. That’s not why I took the lease.” His brows knit together, and I can’t read his expression. My phone dings with a message from Ben. He’s proclaiming Dalton’s innocence. I don’t know what to believe.
“I will fix this, Penny. You can believe that.”
“Do whatever you
want, Dalton. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Dalton asks, as he leans against my car and eyes me nervously.
“There is this huge canyon between you and me. You’re over there on one side with people like my mom and my sister. You want success and money. You have no trouble sending your dad’s calls to voicemail. You have no problem kicking him out. Business comes first. People like me and my father are just fools in your eyes. Judging by how all this turned out, maybe you’re right.”
“Penny—”
“I’m glad you didn’t go out of your way to hurt me or my sister. That’s great. But it doesn’t change the fact that you and I have absolutely nothing in common. We wouldn’t stand a chance even under the best circumstance. And these are not the best circumstances. I get it, every man in that place wanted me out. You all had the perfect microcosm, and I disrupted it. It’s over.”
“This was not a game for me. I’m not them.”
“Great.” I shrug, feeling completely defeated. “But you aren’t who I thought you were either.” I meet his eyes. “That man would have told me.”
Dalton drops his eyes toward the gravel and draws in a deep breath as he pulls an envelope from his pocket. “This is for your father. He has something special where he is, and I came up with some ways to monetize not his clientele but the employers looking for his services. Digital companies that aggregate résumés charge a fee and don’t have nearly the success rate your father reports. If you can help him organize his files and run some data, he can turn things around.” His voice trails off for a moment. “The details don’t matter, but he can stay in business if he makes these changes. It shouldn’t affect the front end of his business at all.”
