Page 26 of Road To Runes

"Are you okay?" Penny linked her arm through mine.

"Don't worry about me. Areyouokay?" I had only fallen asleep. Penny had actually had to deal with the hard stuff.

"Oh, you know. I'm fine."

Well, that was a resounding 'no.' I would have to deal with that when we got back.

The taxi fell silent but Asher looked over his shoulder from the front seat. He said nothing, but his eyes brimmed with things I hadn't seen in months; apologies, sorrow, maybe even a little guilt.

I closed my eyes again and took a deep breath. There was only one thing I needed to worry about right now and that was Penny. Asher and his weird behaviour would have to take a back seat.

"You did the right thing," I said to Penny as I helped her put the covers on the duvet in the room she had chosen. "Walking out on your mum, I mean."

"I just wish I'd have had morebackbone," Penny said from inside the duvet as she struggled to find the corners. "You guys all stood up for me and all I could do was sit there like a potted plant. Actually, that's generous. At least potted plants have enough audacity to grow."

Hecate, who had wandered in yawning halfway through our duvet struggles, lifted her butt into the air and gave it a wiggle. I dropped one of the corners I was holding and snatched her up in one arm, pressing her to my chest as she meowed her annoyance at me. I ignored her. She could get away with most things, but when it came to ‘helping’ put the linens on, I had to put my foot down. Putting the damn things on was hard enough.

"Not that I wouldn't love to see you punch someone in the face Pen, but that's just not who you are," I said and bent over like a discombobulated stick insect to pick up the corner again.

That, and her mum had really laid the pressure on thick. If how she had acted that night was any reflection on how she had treated Penny her whole childhood, then Penny's timidness made sense. Her mum was a bully and she had taken it out on Penny for long enough.

Penny popped her head out of the covers and we shook the duvet out together, encouraging Hecate to scramble onto my shoulders. "I can't exactly go back home unless Igeta backbone. Mum will hold this over me forever and...frankly I'm not apologising."

"Yes." I grinned at her. "That's the spirit."

Penny chuckled, but her smile faded all too quickly. "Are you sure it's okay for me to stay?"

"You can stay here as long as you like to figure things out," I said. "Seems like I'm not the only one who's happy you're here."

"Hmmm?" Penny tilted her head, a quizzical look on her face as she smoothed out the cover.

I wiggled my eyebrows at her, seizing a pillow and jamming it into a pillow case. "Edward?"

"Oh, he's been so sweet," Penny said. "And he's such a cutie, too."

"Well, I'm glad you feel that way because that's how he feels about you too."

Penny's quizzical look intensified and she leaned forward, squinting her eyes as if she was having trouble seeing me properly.

I threw the pillow at her and gestured at her with both hands. "Have you seriously not noticed that he's into you? Edward doesn't just make tea and tag along on moves for anyone."

Her cheeks flushed and she clutched the pillow to her chest. “Do you think he likes me?”

“Yeah, and that’s pretty rare for Edward,” I said. “He’s one of those guys who knows when he knows. It’s been years since he’s had a girlfriend and they lasted a good while before they broke up.”

“Was it bad?” Penny stared at me over the top of the pillow.

“No.” I jerked my shoulders and dumped Hecate onto the newly made bed. She landed on all fours and immediately stretched out as if we had made it just for her. “They basically shook hands and went on their merry way. Edward isn’t one for drama.”

Penny sat on the bed and stroked Hecate’s belly as she rolled around while I fitted another pillow with a case.

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to hook Penny and Edward up or not. She had just gone through something quite serious and although Edward and his charms were the perfect thing to cheer her up, was this really the best time for her?

I placed the pillow against the headboard and sat down with them. Penny could do with being surrounded with all the love and support she could get, and who was I to get in the way of that?

When Hecate and I went down to check on Penny first thing the next morning, Edward had already brought her breakfast in bed and the two of them were chatting over a bowl of strawberries. Well, at least she had no trouble settling in, though I might have a word with Edward about how forward he acted. If Penny needed space, she wasn’t exactly in the right frame of mind to speak up.

Instead, I grabbed a coffee and a few pieces of toast from the kitchen, promising Priya I would make dinner that night before heading back up to my room. I had slacked on my duties to the household ever since Asher and I had split, and it was time to pick up the slack again. Even if it annoyed me a little that I was technically making dinner for him, too.

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