Page 28 of Somebody To Love

He shrugged, motioning for Zak to give him a bag full of round, red heirlooms. She busied herself with her own vegetable selection. She may not cook, but keeping her fridge stocked with fresh veggies and ranch made her feel better about all the takeout and frozen dinners she ate.

It still shocked the heck out of her that Cassie had asked her to be a bridesmaid in her wedding to Del. She liked the woman, had known her for years, but they weren’t best buddies or anything. Penny didn’t have many female friends.

You don’t have any female friends.

Ugh, her brain was being such a bitch today. Fine, her one and only real friend was the man standing next to her. The man she asked for his sperm so she could have a baby. The man she kissed last night who’d apparently enjoyed it as much as she had.

Oh boy, she needed a drink. Since it was ten-thirty on a Sunday morning, and she was at a farmer’s market, her choices were limited to lemonade or wheat grass shots.

She picked the lemonade. Dipping raw vegetables in creamy ranch dressing to stay healthy-ish was one thing. Drinking churned up weeds you mowed over in the summer was taking things too far for Penny.

They walked around the rest of the market. Thankfully, BJ didn’t bring up the kiss again. Keeping the conversation on the new restaurant and his brother’s upcoming nuptials. Penny pushed last night to the back of her mind and tried to enjoy the pleasant morning. Most of Kismet came to the market. Plenty of people stopped them to say hi, including Apple and Olive. The former giving Penny a knowing look, raising a brow in BJ’s direction and shaking her head in disgust. She wondered what the old woman would do if she knew Penny and BJ had locked lips last night.

Probably say ‘I told you so’ because she’s a mean old wench who always likes to be right.

Once they finished their shopping, BJ walked her back to their apartment. Things were finally feeling normal again. Penny chalked last night up to some weird combination of neither of them getting enough lately and the strange situation they currently found themselves in with the baby stuff. Who wouldn’t get a little mixed up with all that going on? Everything was fine. She didn’t have any sexual feelings for her best friend, and he certainly didn’t have any for her.

At her front door, she rummaged around in her purse for her keys, fumbling with the dang thing. She could never find anything in it. Why couldn’t women just carry wallets like men? Oh right, because fashion designers refused to put actual pockets in any women’s clothing. Her jeans could barely hold her cell phone, let alone wallet, keys, emergency tampon, and whatever else she needed. But men’s pants could hold a cavern of treasures. Once, BJ pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket. A screwdriver!

It wasn’t fair.

Her hold on her purse slipped and the stupid thing would have gone crashing to the floor, but BJ’s quick reflexes saved the day. His hands snaked out and caught it, reaching into the dark hole and coming out with her keys.

“How the heck can you do that, but it takes me at least ten minutes to find them every time?”

He grinned. “Gotta be smarter than the purse, Williams.”

“I’m smarter than a lot of things, Jackson. Including you.”

He chuckled as she unlocked her door and headed inside. BJ followed, placing the extra bag he’d carried for her on her kitchen table. She placed her own bag down, setting her purse along with them.

“Del wants to give the restaurant website a final look over before we launch it.”

“Okay. I’ll head over Wednesday afternoon before his shift and show him.”

“Cool.”

“Cool.”

Now things were weird. The busy commotion of the market was gone. Here, it was just her and BJ. The sudden silence was deafening. All the awkwardness of this morning came rushing back. Did he want to stay and hang out? Normally they would, but today things felt weird. Everything had been fine when they were at the farmers' market, surrounded by people, but now…

“I, um, have some work to do…” Yup, she was taking the coward’s way out and she didn’t care.

BJ stared down at her. For the first time ever, she couldn’t decipher the expression in his eyes. Did he want to talk more? She didn’t think she could handle any talking about last night. Not here. In her apartment. Where they were alone, and her stupid hormones might hijack her brain again.

“I’ll see you later?”

Oh thank goodness. He wasn’t going to press anything.

“Yeah, later.”

It was good that he was leaving. She wanted that. Right? Right. She certainly didn’t want him to stay around so she could throw herself at him again.

“Bye, Penny.”

He cupped her cheek, leaning in to kiss her on the forehead as he always did, but this time he didn’t tilt her head down. He tilted it up. His face came closer until all she could see were his eyes. Burning with heat and desire. His head tilted, warm breath drifting across her lips, smelling of freshly squeezed lemons from the sips of her drink he’d pilfered earlier. Her eyes closed of their own volition and then…oh and then!

Full, firm lips pressed against hers in a chaste, but hot as all get out kiss. He lingered longer than a friend kiss warranted. She commended herself for not throwing caution to the wind, gripping his head in her hands, and devouring the sexy man right then and there.

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