Page 130 of If Our Hearts Collide

I’m a job.

I’m also a mistake.

There’s a light knock on my door. “Penny?”

“Yeah, come in.”

I pull my comforter up to my neck, trying to sit up in the darkness.

With just a shift of the blackout curtains, Collins has the light spilling into the room, coating the entire space in a golden hue.

“Turn it down,” I moan, pressing my palms into my eye sockets.

“What—the sun?”

“Yes. It’s too early for this type of offensive behavior.”

Collins chuckles. “Penny, it’s noon.”

“Oh.”

He sits on the edge of my bed, causing it to dip slightly. “Feeling pretty bad, yeah?”

“Yup.”

“Hope you learned a lesson.”

I give his snideness a mental middle finger. “Oh, I did. But it’s only to be extra sly when I try to ditch you next time.”

“I had eyes on you and knew where you were the whole time.”

“That’s super creepy.” I push my hair off my forehead. “Surely you can agree that your level of surveillance over me is stalkerish.”

“It is.”

“See?” I point my finger at him. “You admit to it!”

“I do.”

Sliding out of bed, I stumble into the bathroom, wincing as I need to turn on a light or risk falling into the bathtub instead of the toilet. With my foot, I kick the door shut.

When I exit, Collins has vanished but has placed a bottle of water on my nightstand with two ibuprofens and a sandwich.

Why does him taking care of me cause me to smile and stomp my foot at the same time?

His personality is a dichotomy between knight in shining armor and unhinged stalker.

Both sides of Collins drive me equally wonky.

I throw myself back into bed and take a bite of the sandwich.

It is perfection.

I drink my water and swallow my medicine without the hovering of my bodyguard to make sure I do all the steps correctly.

See—I can be a fully functioning adult.

Reaching for my handbag, I remove the slip that states I had zero matches from last night.

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