Page 53 of Naughty Nicky

Jonathon nods. “She is special, she just doesn’t know that about herself.”

“I know it.”

He gives me a smile like a father would give a son, then claps me on the shoulder. “You should lay low for a few days. I’ll try to talk to Wes. But I think it’s best you don’t show your face around here even if Pen asks you to.”

I nod. “Yeah, of course.”

“I’m happy for you though, Nick. You and Penelope, never would have thought I would see the day. Gracie is going to be so ecstatic.”

I smile thinking about their mom and how she always seemed to have a place at the table for me and treated me like her own son.

“Take care of yourself the next few days. Don’t let your dad get to you. I’ll make sure Pen is okay.”

I give him a flat smile and nod, then get back in my truck and drive off. This is going to be a long few days. And I’m not sure it’s going to end with a happy ending.

14

PENELOPE

Isit in my room for the second day in a row crying. I refuse to talk to Wesley. Nick didn’t deserve to be punched in the face. And I sure as hell didn’t deserve the lecture he gave me when we got back inside the house.

He never even apologized for punching Nick!

I shouldn’t expect any less. After his lecture to me, I know he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. It was Nick and I who were in the wrong. I barely even got a word in with him. I have no idea how he knew I was at Nick’s that whole time. I didn’t think Dad or Mom had it in them to say that I was there, especially since they have been covering for Nick since he moved back here two years ago.

I roll over in bed and stare out the window, looking at the giant slab of rock that is my view. It’s probably part of the reason I feel trapped here. I’ve spent so much of my time staring out this window looking at the stupid mountain, it feels like a prison.

And on top of everything, I miss Nick. So much. I haven’t spoken to him since he dropped me off. He never called me that night, like he promised. Now I feel like all the other promises he made are gone too. I knew the fairytale wouldn’t last.

There is a knock on my door before it creaks open.

“Go away!” I yell as I bury my face into my blankets. I know that it’s Mom. She’s been trying to bring me food and check on me multiple times a day.

“Oh, honey,” she says quietly before shutting my door. I hear her walking across the carpet before I feel her sit on the side of my bed. “I know it hurts.”

Her words just bring more tears to my eyes. I don’t want to talk to anyone about my feelings. I just want to die here, buried in this bed. And I want to know why I am so emotional over a guy I spent three days with. I didn’t even feel this way about Derrick. And we were together for nearly two years.

Her hand lands on my shoulder, and I tense. “Baby, I know it feels like the end of the world.”

“You have no idea how I’m feeling,” I mutter through the blankets.

I hear her kick off her slippers, and then she is lying down next to me, wrapping her arms around the cave of blankets I’m in. “I do know. Maybe not exactly how you’re feeling, but I do know what heartbreak feels like.”

“I’m not heartbroken. I’m angry.”

“Anger is just a part of heartbreak, sweetheart.”

“I don’t want another lecture.”

She laughs. “Oh, I’m not here to lecture you, but I will have you know that when I got home from the store the other day and found out your brother lectured you, you better believe I sat him down at the kitchen table and let him hear what a real lecture sounds like.”

I roll over to face my mom and peek my eyes out from under the blanket. “You did?”

She gives me a soft smile. “Of course I did. He’s your brother, not your keeper, and he had no right telling you who you should or shouldn’t love.”

I scoff. “I’m not in love.”

“You sure about that?”

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