Page 37 of Lucky Penny
“No,” she says, her voice low and bitter. “I don’t want to talk about any of that. You broke my trust. Why the hell would I give you my timethenornow?”
I pause, my tongue brushing over my bottom lip, and I crack my knuckles.
I lean down so we’re eye to eye.
“Sorry to break it to you,princess, but you’re forgetting the part whereyoudisappeared, too.” Her mouth opens, but I don’t stop. “You keep acting like I abandoned you, but the second they cuffedme and Danny, you vanished. We were ghosts to you before the door of that prison cell even slammed shut.”
Penny’s eyes catch the light of the fire, and for a second, it’s like time folds in on itself. I didn’t realize how long I’ve been holding those words in, waiting to say them to her face.
She thinks she was the only one shattered that night. But she never saw what it did to me. How it battered me down.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Penny replies, her voice small. “And don’t call me princess.”
“You want to know why I came back to North Carolina?” I ask, and for the first time, she doesn’t fire back, she just listens.
Ten years of unsaid words settle thick between us.
“I was eighteen when I got locked up with your brother,” I begin. “That might’ve been ten years ago, but it still feels raw. And no matter what you think, I never wanted to leave you. That was never theplan.” My voice is pained, sharp.
She begins to protest, but I grab her waist, touching the exposed skin under her hoodie, steadying her. I do it without thinking.
“After everything you were to me, you honestly think I went a whole decade without thinking about you?” I demand, my voice gravely. “Look me in the eye and tell me you really believe that.”
She doesn’t speak. Doesn’t move. She just watches me like she’s trying to memorize every word out of my mouth.
I release her from my grip. I’ve said what I needed to say to her.
My heart rages behind my ribs, and Penny doesn’t blink.
“Penny, I’m—” I start, but she puts a finger to my lips, silencing me.
Our eyes hold steady until hers drop to her finger, time stretching between us.
Before I can move, she pulls the finger away and replaces it with her mouth.
Soft. Certain. She kisses me like she means it, and suddenly, nothing else exists. She’s so close that I see every gold fleck in her eyes before she closes them.
My heart slams against my ribs, wild and unrelenting, and as fast as it starts, it ends. Her fingertips feathering across her lips, like she can still feel me there.
“Fuck, I shouldn’t have done that,” she hisses, shaking her head.
But I reach for the curve of her throat, pulling her back in, because I’m not sorry.
This time, I kiss her the way I’ve been dreaming about since the day I lost her.
Slowly, my tongue sweeps across hers, and she lets out a little moan that unlocks a partof me I’ve been smothering for ten damn years.
She melts under me, my fingers gripping her tiny waist, like it was molded for my hands, and for a breathless moment, everything fades away.
The hurt, the past, it’s just us.
And then—the heat kicks on.
Tank barks. Penny startles, heart pounding against mine as she pulls back, breathing unsteadily.
We stare at each other, stunned in silence. I want to grab her, pull her back in, touch her until she remembers everything, but she steps further back, out of reach.
“I can’t do this with you, Jesse,” she whispers, voice cracking, arms wrapping tight around herself.
