Page 58 of Somebody To Love

The sun had just set over the Rocky Mountains. Pink, orange, and blue hues fading away in the sky overhead, giving way to the darkness of night. The full moon hung high above them, illuminating the area. Stands of twinkling white lights ran along the wooden beams surrounding the back dining area. No one had been seated here tonight since it was the grand opening. It was just him and Penny, her back facing him, shoulders hunched as a heartbreaking, muffled sob shook her body.

“Penny?” He approached slowly, the sounds of her misery wounding him like a punch to the gut. “Honey, please don’t cry.”

Reaching out, he grasped her shoulder in a gentle hold, turning her to face him. She’d pinned her hair up in an intricate braid that circled around the crown of her head like an angelic halo. A few tendrils of fiery red had escaped, falling around her face. He used one finger to push a silky strand back behind her ear, stroking her cheek with the action.

“I’m sorry if Del’s speech upset you. All that family and baby talk stuff.” She said nothing, only sobbed harder, tears running down her cheeks, streaking over the smattering of freckles he’d memorized with his lips. Heart ripping from his chest at her pain, he pulled her into his arms, stroking her back with a firm hand. “Shit, Penny, you’re killing me. I’m so damn sorry. We can keep trying. I promise I’ll get you that baby you want. You’ll make a great mom. We’ll keep trying until you get what you want.”

“And wh-what about what y-you want?”

The words were spoken so softly and in between sobs, he’d barely heard them. “Huh?”

“Oh no, I can’t do this.”

She pulled away from him, hands coming up to wipe the tears from her face.

“What do you want, Bravo?”

He stared into beautiful hazel eyes, confusion clouding his brain. “What do you mean?”

“Are you…okay with our deal? Are you satisfied with giving me full control over our child? Are you okay with being just an uncle when, in reality, you’re the father?”

She wasn’t making any sense. “We agreed on this. This is your kid, not ours. I mean, this whole thing was your idea to start with. You wanted a baby, and you wanted my help. Why do you think I wouldn’t be okay with that?”

A shudder left her. Long delicate fingers, fingers he could still feel caressing his body in deliciously wicked ways, tapped anxiously against her thigh. “I just…I guess I’m wondering if our…being together has changed anything for you.”

Hell yeah it had. He now knew his best friend was a damn firecracker in bed, along with her many other phenomenal attributes. “We’re friends, Penny. Nothing will ever change that.”

“I know that, but I guess what I’m asking is if all this…intimacy has changed our friendship? Deepened it, maybe?”

He had no idea what she was talking about.

“Penelope, honey, I don’t think I understand what you’re asking.”

Taking a deep breath, she curled her hands into fists, staring straight at him. “I love you.”

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “I love you too. What does that have to—”

“No,” she interrupted him, stepping closer. “I’m in love with you, Bravo.”

Oh. Ohhhhhh.

He stood still as stone. Shocked into silence. Thankfully she went on, not expecting a response, it seemed, because he couldn’t get a single word past the lump of astonishment clogging his throat.

“I don’t know if this is a recent development or if I’ve always been a little bit in love with you, but I know that something changed when we had sex. I know it started out for one reason, but it became so much more, BJ. You are so much more to me than just my best friend. You’re my hero, my confidant, the person I want to talk to when something amazing happens. The person I want to hold me when something devastating happens.” She licked her lips, eyes glossing over with fresh tears. “I want a baby, more than anything. I know I’ll be a good mom, but you will make an amazing dad and it would be cruel of me to deny a child your love and guidance. You can only do so much from the outside. I can’t ask you to do this unless we do it all the way.”

Blood pounded in his ears. Hot and cold flashes swarmed his body. His chest tightened, making breathing damn near impossible. “What…what are you saying?”

“I’m not asking you to marry me or anything.” She placed a soft hand on his chest. “I’m simply saying we need to rethink this plan. I’m willing to wait until you’re ready. For everything. But I can’t keep sleeping with you under the guise of simply getting pregnant. It’s more than that now. We’re more than that. I love you and I don’t want to settle for part of you. Not when every inch of my soul screams for all of you.”

A minute of silence passed. Or maybe it was an hour, or days. Hell, he didn’t know. All he knew was his best friend had dropped a bombshell on his head and he didn’t know what to do about it.

“Penny, I—” choking on his words, he cleared his throat and tried again. “This wasn’t what we agreed on.”

“Plans change.”

“Yeah, but romantic relationships…there’s no guarantee they’ll work out. They fail, people fall out of love, people die.”

“Life doesn’t give you a guarantee, BJ. In anything.” A soft palm reached up to cup his jaw. “You can’t protect yourself from life. It’s beautiful and devastating all at the same time and you can’t stop it, but you can decide if you want to live it to the fullest or let it pass you by. You can play it safe and never truly be happy, or you can risk it all and hope that the happiness you get is enough to last a lifetime. No matter what happens.”

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