Page 14 of Just Bromantically Invested

I take him through some of the easier poses, not wanting to scare him off, and instead have a nice, easy workout for us both. With Penn sitting at a desk all day, his poor spine is probably a crushed packet of cookies, and I hope he falls in lovewith yoga like I have for no other reason than to help him with that.

I direct him into the cobra pose, and we end up face-to-face, only a few inches between us.

“Hey.”

He tries to squash his smile. “Hey.”

“This is fun.”

“Is it?”

I nod enthusiastically. “It would be better outside, but I like this. When it’s early, the world is still relaxed and quiet. No one is hurrying around like a fucking moron and getting on their horns because the traffic is at a standstill. It’s … a deep breath before the marathon of the day.”

His expression relaxes. “I guess it’s not completely shit.”

“Exactly what I was aiming for,” I say. “Not completely shit. High honors all around.”

“Imeangetting up early. It’s not totally terrible. It’s never bad at all spending time with you.”

“That’s the answer I’m after.” And before he can react, I lung forward and lick a stripe up his nose.

“Fuck, Madden!” He drops his pose and scrubs at the place I licked him, glaring at me over his hands. “I take it all back. You’re so fucking annoying.”

I laugh and stretch up into downward dog for a few seconds before smoothly going back into cobra.

While he gets up and heads to the kitchen for water, I work through some of the more complex moves before calling it a morning. I shake out my arms and turn to join him for water too, but instead of finding him with a glass held out to me, he’s staring.

Not so much at me, more into space, in the place where I was.

“Penn?”

He startles so dramatically that water from his glass spillsover the side. “Ah … yeah.” He blinks rapidly before he seems to focus. “Did you say something?”

“Nah … all good.” Though I’d really love to know what he was daydreaming about so hard that I caught him by surprise. Or maybe, given that Lana should be here in half an hour, I really, really don’t want to know.

“Water?” Penn holds out his glass while he uses a dish towel to dry his arm.

“Thanks.” I take a long sip while Penn adjusts himself and points a thumb back over his shoulder.

“Gonna go shower and get ready.”

“Okay.” And while he does that, I really should get my shit together and leave. Not only do I need to get to the clients’ house and keep working on their job, but I also don’t want any close encounters with Penn’s date-not-date. It was bad enough seeing her side profile from a few feet away, hearing her sweet voice, seeing the flirty way she tucked her hair behind her ear.

Oh, look at that, my teeth are grinding.

Still, I don’t make a move to get ready. Which means I’m self-sabotaging, which means I definitely, definitely need to go.

The thing about heartache, about love being unrequited, is that it gets really fucking draining. It hurts when you least expect it to hurt. It gives you hope when there’s nothing to hope for. It makes me ache for Penn in ways I shouldn’t be aching for a best friend, and I’m worried that one day, it’s going to grow so big I won’t be able to see past it.

I need our friendship.

I need Penn in my life.

But if I can’t shake these feelings for him, that might not be my choice anymore.

So I keep my ass in the chair, needing the reminder that he’s straight. That he’s going to catch up with a woman who’s a total fucking ten and completely his type, and I’m going to getdressed and be nice and wish them a happy fucking breakfast together.

The jealousy is eating at me, but the only way I know to hopefully get past it is to face it head-on. That means meeting this Lana person.

---