“There’s no cell reception in this stupid house.”
“Oh. Is it okay if I take this?” I asked and picked up the book. “We don’t have a copy at our place.”
“No.” He cleared his throat. “We’ll buy a new copy for us.”
He hadn’t wanted me to see the paper inside. I shouldn’t have come in here. I had invaded his privacy. I put the book back down. “Okay, let’s go then.” I pretended to scratch my cheek and I walked past him so that he wouldn’t be able to see my face.
“Penny?” He grabbed my wrist, moving my hand away from my face. “What the hell happened?” His words were harsh, but his thumb tracing over the bruise on my cheekbone was soft and delicate. “Are you okay?” His touch felt even gentler than it had a second ago. It made me feel like crying. But I didn’t want him to think it was worse than it was.
“Nothing.” I didn’t look up at him. “It’s fine.”
“Baby?” He kept his hand on the side of my face. “Who did this?”
“No one. I was upset and I made a wrong turn. This house is enormous, I just ran into…”
“Why are you lying to me?” He sounded hurt. I still hadn’t made eye contact with him.
Why was I lying? We didn’t lie to each other. Not anymore. And it didn’t matter if he knew the truth. Making him hate Isabella even more was only for the best. I never wanted to see any of these people ever again.
“Penny, tell me.”
“Isabella slapped me. It’s not a big deal. Can we please just go?”
His hand fell from my face and he grabbed the door handle.
“Don’t. Don’t you dare walk away from me again.”
He let go of the handle and turned back to me. “I didn’t walk away from you earlier. I told you it was time to go and you refused to come with me.”
“Exactly, James. You told me it was time to go. You didn’t ask if I was ready to leave.”
“Penny, I couldn’t stand there and pretend that everything was alright.”
“I know, I’m sorry. Please don’t leave me alone in this house again, though. Can’t we just leave? You were right about everything. Talking to your parents was pointless.”
“You talked to them?”
“They think I just want your money. They offered me five million dollars to walk away from you. They wouldn’t even entertain the idea that I actually loved you.” I shook my head. They were so disgusting.
“They tried to pay you off?” He lowered his eyebrows slightly and then ran both his hands down his face. It looked like he was understanding something for the first time. Like how evil his parents truly were. “Did you take it?” It came out as a barely audible whisper.
“What?”
He stared at me. He looked defeated and tired. Normally I couldn’t see the age difference between us. But as he looked at me now, I could see the small crinkles around the corners of his eyes. They probably weren’t laugh lines. The thought made my chest feel tight.
“James…” my throat caught. “How could you think that?” The rollercoaster of emotions from the night suddenly seemed to catch up to me and tears started running down my cheeks. The salty water stung as it slid down my left cheek. One of Isabella’s rings must have left a small cut on my face.
He just stood there looking stunned.
I quickly wrapped my arms around him. I winced when I pressed the side of my face into his chest. Hug me back. His body seemed to stiffen instead. “James?”
He wrapped his arms around me in response. “I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry.” He put his chin on the top of my head. “I knew better than to bring you here. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Nothing’s changed. They’ll never change. I’m so sorry, Penny.”
“Don’t apologize, this is what I wanted. You knew I wanted to meet them, so you made it happen. And now I have. It’s done. We don’t have to see them ever again.”
He sighed. “Except for the wedding in two weeks.”
“I uninvited them.”
He laughed. “What?”
“Oh.” I leaned back to look up at him. “Sorry, I mean, it was just in the heat of the moment. Obviously if you want them there…”
“No.” He put his hand on the side of my face, gently rubbing his thumb over the bruise on my cheek. “No, I don’t want them there. I’m done with them.”
“I’m sorry that I forced all this. I just thought if they met me, maybe I could change their minds, you know? I was just trying to help.”
“You can’t change my parents’ minds. Trust me, I’ve tried my whole life.”
I wanted to ask him about the paper in his book, about his relationship with Rachel, about his whole childhood. I wanted him to fill in all the blanks. But right now all I wanted was for him to take me home. I needed to get out of this house, away from all the memories that seemed to upset him.
“But it was really sweet of you to try.”
“Or foolish. What a disaster of an engagement party. Can we go home now?”
He smiled down at me. “Let me show you one thing first.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the window.
“It wasn’t a good night, but I’m not going to fling myself out the window.”
He laughed as he pushed the window up. He put his hands on the windowsill and looked back at me. “I used to sneak out of my room all the time. Let’s leave this way.”
I looked past him toward the lawn. We were really high up. “I’m wearing heels. And I’ve had too much to drink.”
“I dare you.”
I smiled. Neither one of us had ever backed down from a dare. “Well, I guess a few more bruises won’t hurt me.” I took off my shoes and peered out the window. “Did you really just jump?” I tossed my shoes out the window and watched them hit the lawn below. “It seems kind of high.”
“Geez, no.” He grabbed my arm and started laughing. “Were you seriously going to jump out the window?”
“You said you did it all the time. And you dared me.”
“There’s a trellis.” He stuck his head out the window and pointed to the right. He started laughing again.
“Don’t make fun of me for trusting you.” I poked him in the middle of the chest.
“I’m lucky you said something before you jumped.”
“Mhm.” I rolled my eyes at him as I stood up on the ledge. “Who were you running off to see in the middle of the night growing up?”
He held my waist as I grabbed the edge of the trellis. It took every ounce of restraint not to look down. I slowly stepped onto it and was relieved to see it was as sturdy as he remembered it being.
“Not someone. Something,” he said. “That’s what I want to show you. Don’t look at me, watch your footing.”
I had slipped slightly when I started my descent, but I quickly regained my footing.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m a jungle gym master, James.”
“I don’t doubt that at all.”