Page 8 of Just Bromantically Invested

“Mine?” Penn shakes his head. “I only put it into a computer. You don’t give yourself enough credit.”

I shrug because maybe, maybe not. There’s no way I’d be able to run this business without Penn, and I don’t think I’d want to. I only wish we were busy enough for us to both work full-time at this and take an even split of the profits.

We’re getting there though. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

“Want any help?” he finally asks.

I eye his dress pants, about to turn him down, when I change my mind. If he’s offering, it means a chance to spend time with him, and that’s not something I’m going to pass up in a hurry.

“Yeah, grab the hose from around the side. We need to give this grass a good drink so it’ll hold.”

Penn disappears for a moment, then comes back, sleeves rolled up and showing off his slutty forearms, and hoses the grass down. I stand there drooling like a muppet.

“So …” I don’t mean to ask, but it’s itching at my brain. “Where did you go yesterday?”

“Go?”

“Yeah. After you dropped me off, you disappeared.”

His dark eyebrows pull tight and relax again. “Just home. I got you where you needed to go, so …”

“You could have hung out, you know.”

“Eh. Thought it was better to leave you to yourbrothers.”

There’s tone there, but I don’t know why. “Would have preferred youandmy brothers,” I answer honestly.

“You were busy with them. I had to go. It’s fine.”

Doesn’t feel fine to me. For the first time in our friendship, I’m unsure how to act around Penn. I want things to be the same as they’ve always been. I want to be able to touch him like always, to play around and be up in his space, and be the best friends we’ve always been.

My feelings have everything twisted though, and lately, it feels like maybe he knows about them. Maybe they’re making him uncomfortable or resentful, or …

I’m overthinking, and it’s smack full of the negativity I do my best to keep out. I have to work harder when it comes to Penn though, and I don’t feel like that’s the perfect indication of our relationship.

I want to ask to hang out tonight, but if he does know about my feelings and is uncomfortable, that’ll only make him uncomfortabler.Urg, why can’t things go back to how easy they were before I got all up in my head over every little thing?

“What are you doing later?” Penn asks.

The question perks me up. “Nothing. Did you want to hang out?”

His lips twitch. “Yeah, if you’re free. It’s been a while.”

“We hung out yesterday.”

Penn snorts. “Rescuing you naked doesn’t exactly fall into the hanging out category.”

“You’ve done it enough times that it probably should.”

“True.” His dark eyes light up. “So … order in and a movie?”

“You know the way to my heart,” I tease-not-really. Movies always lead to me snuggled up beside him, but with how things are slightly off lately, can I still count on that to happen?

Overthinking. Overthinking.

Why are feelings so stupidly complicated?

I suppose they wouldn’t be if I didn’t go and fall for a straight man.

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