Page 186 of If Our Hearts Collide

Fuck.

Now she’s wiggling her tongue back and forth, while I can hear her mental thoughts taunting me with a na-na-na-na-na.

“Put your tongue back in your mouth, Penny.” My words come out more as a threat than a warning. It’s still a failed attempt. Penny isn’t scared of me.

“Aren’t you close to retirement?”

I tip my head back and laugh. She really is quite funny. “Not quite yet. I still got a few years before I’m too old to work.” It’s more like decades left, but who’s counting?

When we get to the lobby, we exit to the main street. Penny looks down both directions of the sidewalk. “See? No axe murderers prowling the street today. I think I’m safe now to make my way home without your overbearing company.”

“I’m going that direction anyway. We can walk together. I insist.”

She scrunches up her nose, remembering we both live in the same building. She’s probably thinking I’ll concoct a plan to be on the same floor as her—for security purposes, of course. The idea did cross my mind.

We walk in silence and maintain a semi-brisk pace back to Sky View.

Except when we get just two blocks away, Penny decides to take a detour down a perpendicular street.

I don’t question her. I just follow.

She’s not in the mood for small talk, and I’m not a fan of using words to fill space that is content in the silence.

But Penny does have me curious.

It takes us about fifteen minutes and several crossed streets to wind up at the gym where her brothers and I often spar.

“Taking me into the ring?” I ask in an amused tone.

“Yes.”

She really is pissed at me.

I jog ahead of her and open the door, granting her first entry.

And I follow.

“You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Then you’re a poor teacher,” Penny slings back at me.

Her words sting and make my jaw twitch.

What is this girl doing to me? Never would I allow anyone to talk to me how she so freely speaks.

Our previous self-defense lesson feels like a lifetime ago, as so much has happened between us since.

“You need to know where your target is, but more importantly any other threats nearby.” I bounce on the balls ofmy feet. “Keep your eyes moving and protect your head. Protect the soft tissue.”

But all of this advice is useless because Penny is becoming my attacker, charging for me with all her might.

“Ahhhh!”

And it’s me who is trying my best to protect all of her vital organs—as well as mine.

“For fuck’s sake, Penelope!”

But she commits and thrashes about me, hitting me and taking out all of her aggressions.

---