Page 31 of Impossible Bachelor (Bachelor Tower 2)
Penny’s at my door a moment later. I’ve been blowing her off. Putting her calls to voicemail. She has every reason to be pissed at me. She doesn’t look angry at all.
“Hey, are you all right? I’ve been really worried about you.”
“I’m sorry I’ve been hard to reach.”
“I thought maybe you were throwing yourself into your plans. I figured men would be getting tossed out of the building left and right.” Penny smiles, but it’s filled with concern.
“I need your help.” I blurt the words out and feel my eyes fill with tears. I’m not sure Penny has seen me cry since we were children. Judging by the alarmed look on her face, she’s not sure how to handle it.
“I’m here. Always.” She puts her hand gently on my back and ushers me back into my apartment. “Tell me how I can help.”
I pick up a trash bin and walk over to my vision board. “I want to take this down. Throw it away. Put it behind me. And I want to do it with someone who loved me in spite of it.”
She takes the bin from me. I begin to place the cards, pin and all into the trash. She says, “Of course I love you in spite of this, and I’m not the only one.”
I throw more cards in. “It was ridiculous to put this up in the first place, risky too. I did it without really understanding why.” I pause before dropping another card in. “I think it was my way of reaching out to you. I wasn’t in a good place and I didn’t know how to share it.” I release the card and feel free from the weight of it.
“So you put it on display.”
“Yes.”
“Like a cry for help?”
I pause as I take another card off the wall. “I didn’t see it that way, but there was some of that too.” I aggressively pull off the next several cards. “I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was too much for Ben to handle.”
Penny shakes her head and hands me a tissue. “It was for a moment, but give him more credit than that. It’s never too late to fix things. Especially with a man like Ben. Maybe you should go find him and talk to him.”
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking over the past couple of days since I met with Dr. Medio. “Not everyone comes into our lives forever. I’m a better person because of the time I spent with Ben. I’m not sure he can say the same about being with me.”
“Oh, I don’t know. He had a meeting with someone in Silicon Valley, and he credits you for that.”
“He’s selling his latest development?”
“Dalton says he’s looking to go out on his own with this one instead of selling it off. He’s meeting with a team out there who can help him launch.”
A warmth floods my chest. I’m so proud of him. “That’s amazing. I knew he could do it.”
I throw more and more of the cards into the bin. “I’m not making changes in my life for him, but because of him. Does that make sense? He opened my eyes to how I could be a happier person. Will you help me?”
“Of course,” Penny says with a mischievous bat of her lashes. “The last time I helped you I ended up with a fiancé and a banging apartment.”
When the last card is down and trashed, we begin to spackle the holes in the wall. Penny is right there with me, smiling. I reach out and spontaneously hug her. She hugs me back, and we both burst into tears that end in relieved laughter.
“Speaking of changes, I’m pregnant.” Penny places a hand over her stomach with a smile on her face. “Dalton and I are moving. Not right away, but it’s in the plans. We want to get married first.”
“Moving? Where?” I feel like a piece of me is being tugged away. A list of places across the world that Penny and Dalton might move flashes through me like lightning.
“Not far,” Penny says quickly. “We found a house with a beautiful garden. It’s close enough to the city so he can still commute.”
I fill my lungs with air again. She’s not leaving. Not far anyway. Then a much bigger realization hits me. “A baby.”
“Yes.” She lights up in that maternal glow she was born to have. “We’re so excited.” Her face falls a little with apprehension. “I’m sorry if this makes things harder for you. I love being your neighbor.”
“It doesn’t matter where you live.” I pull her in for another hug. “I’m going to make you a priority, and I’m going to be an auntie.”
“You are.”
“What neighborhood are you moving into?”
“It’s called Wallace Grove. It’s only twenty minutes to the office for Dalton. Want to see some pictures?”
“I’d like to see something else.” I walk over to the couch and sit down, my heart thudding with adrenaline. I can’t believe what I’m about to say.
“What?”
“I’d like to see if there are any other houses in the neighborhood for sale.”
“Why?”
I can’t blame Penny for not following the thread of this conversation. It’s coming from left field. “If it’s okay, I’ll buy a house there too. I’d like to be close to my little niece or nephew.”
“What about your apartment? What about Ben?”
“I know it sounds crazy but this feels right. It feels more right than anything I’ve done in a long time. This apartment is a perfect example of me trying not to live my life. If you leave and I stay, I’ll fall back into all my same old stuff, but a house will be different. We’ll still be neighbors. You’ll force me to come to dinner at your place. Maybe Dalton and I can carpool.”
“Are you serious?” Her face is painted with cautious excitement. “Don’t mess with me. I have all sorts of pregnancy hormones going on right now.”
“I’m very serious.”
“Are you sure this is what you want to do? You have no idea how much this would mean to me.”
“Me too.” I cringe. “Can you imagine what Mom is going to say?”
“About my out-of-wedlock baby or you running away and getting distracted by silly things like emotions and feelings?”
“Both.”
“Let’s make sure we’re together when we tell her.”
“Deal.”
“So what the hell do we do now?”
“We call the realtor. Then I need your help in my apartment.”
“Packing?”
“Something else. Something I need to do first.”
“What about Ben?”
“I don’t know, Penny, but fi
rst I need to figure out me.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Ben
Jet lag is weighing on me but I fight it off. I have big things to do and no time for a nap. The driver taking me back to Bachelor Tower is chatting me up, but I’m not tuned in. I’m too preoccupied with the task at hand, convincing Kylie I’ll never walk away again. Convincing Kylie of anything is no small task, but I believe this will work.
When we pull up to the curb at the Tower I see a commotion spilling out of the lobby into the street.
“Want me to leave you here?” the driver asks, putting the car in park across the street from the Tower.
“Yes,” I say, handing over cash and grabbing my bag. I swiftly cross the street and try to get a handle on what might be going on.
I see Dalton’s former acquaintance Randy chatting with a circle of guys who looked preoccupied with the woman who just marched in.
“What’s going on?” I ask, knowing these guys aren’t big fans of mine. I’ve fallen in with the crowd who in their eyes is ruining this place. I’d been sleeping with the enemy as far as they’re concerned.
Randy seems too anxious to spread the news to care that I’m not very popular these days. “Christen Brockton, the niece, is finally here. She’s been off the radar since the former owner, Garry Brockton, left her this place in his will. The only thing she’s done is let Kylie move in and Penny stay. Otherwise she’s been unreachable. Trust me, we’ve been trying to reach her.”
“So what?”
“Dude.” Randy looks at me like I have ten heads. “These guys are ready to line up outside her office door and file a million complaints. Plenty of veiled threats. They think they can bully her into changing her mind.”
“You think that’ll work?”
Randy shrugs. “Who knows? No one knows anything about her. She’s younger than I thought. Garry had to be her great uncle or something.”
“These guys should get the fuck over it.” I grumble and roll my eyes as I push past them. They’ve been the problem. Whether or not Kylie will keep hunting them, I’m going to have her back. She’s going to know I’m never walking away again. I had a plane ride from the West Coast to work on my plan, and I’m not going to let this breaking news in the lobby of the Tower distract me.
