Page 16 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

"Worked though, didn't it? Although I thought you weren't interested," Penny said. "You wouldn't even look at me."

"Only because you were so knee-meltingly hot I thought I would actually drool on you if I did," Ashley said into her hands. "I mean, come on, you were half naked in the bathroom and you've got the mostincredible…biceps…." That was true, if not exactly the body part Ashley had been trying not to look at.

Penny didn't respond, and after a moment Ashley looked up to find the other woman beaming shyly at her. "People don't usually call me hot," she said. "Cute, yes, but not hot. Cute is the curse of the short woman."

"I'm sorry, but you are cute," Ashley said. "Button nose and everything. But also hot. I mean. Look at you." She made a small helpless gesture. "You'restacked. Whereas I'm tall and sort of twiggy."

Penny's eyebrows rose so high they were in danger of getting lost in her hairline. "First, Twiggy is a literal fashion icon.Second, I don't think you're seeing the same person I am when I look at you. Not to come on too strong, but I would walk across a bed of molten lava for an ounce of your elegance."

"I poured a beer on you."

A startled laugh burst from Penny's chest and she pushed the rest of her food away, having made quite a dent as they'd chatted. "Even the elegant are clumsy sometimes. But seriously, look, my life is nuts and I know that, and I don't know if brunch as a distraction to keep you from micromanaging counts as a date, but if you'd be interested I'd really like to take you out on arealdate sometime this week? Next week? We're in town through the end of the year."

"I do not micromanage!" Ashley hesitated. "I don't think I micromanage."

"You probably don't, actually. Sorry, I didn't mean to hit a sore spot there." Penny bit her lower lip, which had the perhaps-unfortunate effect of making her look even cuter. She had large, dark brown eyes beneath her shaggy red haircut, and her uncertainty gave her a pretty terrific puppy-dog look just then. "Is that a nice way of letting me down? By avoiding the question?"

"No! No, I'd love to go out with you on a real date. If this isn't one. Is this one?"

Penny smiled. "No. Because I can definitely do better than this for a first date. I mean, I hear there's this big gala charity event happening at the Thunder Bear Brewpub tonight, and I'd totally take you to that, but it's so last-minute I'm afraid you're already working."

"Well,Ihear the lead singer and drummer from the Sixty Pix might show up to that event, so you probably wouldn't want to be stuck with me tonight anyway, but maybe…" Ashley tried to think ahead and ended up groaning. "God, maybe tonight is actually best. I'm working the next two nights and then myinsane family has decided to have a last-minute reunion and there's no way I'm introducing you to seven million Torbens on a first date. It'd be like running you through the gauntlet."

"Well." Penny leaned forward, moved Ashley's plate out of the way, and put her hand down, palm up, as an invitation. "Let's say we called this a first date, and the thing tonight a second date. Then you could spare me the gauntlet until thethirddate, and I'm sure that would be totally fine, right?"

"I'm not sure you really appreciate howmanyof us there are."

"I've met about a dozen of you already," Penny said gamely. "Give me a chance."

Ashley, knowing she sounded way too soppy, murmured, "There's nothing I'd rather do," and put her hand into Penny's.

CHAPTER 10

Holding hands wasn't supposed to actually make little electric shocks run through her. Penny was fairly sure of that. But she swore that she felt azingas Ashley folded her hand into Penny's, and that delicious feeling kept zipping through her, a warm memory, for the rest of the afternoon.

It had to, because once they left the diner, both women were pulled opposite directions and into different kinds of chaos. Penny caught glimpses of Ashley now and then when the pub manager came out to check up on the raising of the barn, or at least, of the event tents. God, she was lovely. A commanding presence. Just beautiful. And willing to try giving Penny Partridge, a shrimp from Denver, a chance at dating her.

Penny was insanely lucky already, what with the Sixty Pix going viral and the sudden leap in their popularity, but even that barely held a candle to the idea of taking Ashley on a real date. She didn't know how she would manage to make that evening, with both of them having their own schedules, something special, but she was determined to try. And the first, most critical thing, was to grab Ashley's cousin Laurie, who hadstarted the whole event mess, and say, "This thing tonight, is it a dress-up thing? Do we get to be fancy?"

"It's not formal," Laurie said cautiously. "Even if it had been gonna be, that was before it was being held in a parking lot. But it wasn't gonna be anyway. There'll be a lot of people in garb, though, because it's sponsored by the local Renaissance Faire people."

"Right." Penny stared at him. He was tall and lighter blonde than his brothers, but otherwise looked exactly like the rest of them, as far as she was concerned. "What's 'garb?'"

Laurie blinked, then laughed. "Renaissance-era-style clothes. Or fairy court stuff, even. Kind of fantasy things? Medieval stuff? That kind of thing."

"Right." Penny nodded, still squinting up at him. "Does Ashley have anything like that?"

"Oh, God, yeah. She used to do the faires with us and she had some great stuff. She had this terrific elfin costume and used to do her hair in braids." He gestured at his own hair in its intricate thin braids. "I stopped doing the elf stuff after she quit but I'm getting back into it for next year. It's gotten really popular again."

"Right," Penny said a third time. "Can you get her costume? Her elf costume? And get her to do her hair?"

Laurie's eyebrows rose. "There is zero chance my cousin is going to sit down and do her hair when she's got all this going on."

"Tell her it's for a date." Penny marched off, thinking, as Laurie yelled, "A date with who?"

She didn't have 'garb' or anything that could even pretend to pass as elf-y, but this was a town called Renaissance that held a huge Renaissance Faire every year. There had to besomewhereshe could rent a costume. And maybe get her hair done. "Gwen!"

Her bandmate was helping set up a small stage at the back of one of the tents, and stood up in a flurry of wires and wrenches. "Yeah?"

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