Page 23 of The Cowboy and the Bombshell
After all, the best lies were the ones we told ourselves.
“That was me, wondering why she was having some sort of party in a house she doesn’t own.” I tried for believable, but Silas wasn’t buying it. He just shook his head at me in disappointment. To be fair, I was disappointed in myself, too. But I just got so mad when I heard Penelope laughing in the kitchen.
Come to think of it, who the hell was in the kitchen anyway?
Moving past Silas, I turned that way, stomping through the hall and entering the room prepared to take on any intruder in there.
But a smile spread on my face at the sight of my half-sister, Daphne, perched on the counter top, staring at me like I was the worlds biggest moron.
Yeah, there was a lot of that going around.
“Well, hey there, big brother,” she said, shaking her head. “You about done beating your chest like a big old gorilla?” I laughed, moving to give her a hug. She opened her arms for me, but stopped when something over my shoulder caught her eye. She froze, eyebrows shooting up, her cheeks going pink, as she gazed at my friend as he entered the kitchen. Looking at Silas, I saw the same expression of amazement on his face as he took in my sister.
Oh, hell no.
Daphne and Silas hadn’t seen each other in over ten years. Apparently, a lot had changed since then.
“Silas,” I barked, snapping him out of it. He cleared his throat, looking at me sheepishly. “You wanna close your mouth and come over here. I’m sure you remember, Daphne. Mybaby sister.” I said the words with enough emphasis that he immediately caught on. His face went blank, and he looked at Daphne as if she were any other person he had just met on the street. Good. That was another issue I didn't have time for. Daphne and I might not have been very close growing up, but there was still a code among best friends. Little sisters were off limits.
Period.
It hadn’t been an issue when we were kids. Silas was only a year younger than me, which still made him twelve years older than Daphne. But, apparently, that age gap was starting to matter less and less.
Silas simply nodded his head and muttered, “Daphne.”
Daphne frowned, looking from Silas to me and then back again. When she realized what had passed between he and I, she sighed, her shoulders falling, as she shook her head.
“I guess I’ll just go up to bed myself,” she said as she jumped down from the counter, pushing past me.
“What? Why?” I asked. “It’s still early, and we just got in.” I hadn’t seen her in months. I was looking forward to talking about her classes and UNLV.
“Well, Stone, it may be early, but yourbaby sisterneeds her sleep.” she spat, making it clear I had pissed her off now too. “I’ll just go up and see how Penelope is doing. I think between the two of us, you’ve done enough damage for one night.” And with that she stormed off for the stairs.
Silas and I watched her go. When she was out of sight, we both blew out a breath.
This might just be the longest four months of my life.
CHAPTER NINE
Penelope
Glancing at the clock on the wall once more, I tried to swallow down my rising panic. Carson Young and Stone Pennington were staring at me, Stone with his usual stern scowl on his face, and Carson with a mixture of apprehension and discomfort on his.
I couldn’t blame him. The tension in the room was practically choking me; I couldn’t imagine how Carson felt, not knowing the true cause.
When I arranged to meet with Carson to discuss my idea for the final open theater space, I had assumed it would be just him and I. But when Stone found out I had organized something without telling him, he insisted on being a part of the meeting. And, because he’s my boss, I couldn’t very well tell him no.
Stone and I had barely spoken since Tuesday evening, when he went nuclear on me for having an ugly suitcase. I was still not sure what it was about my bag that set him off, and since neither of us had wanted to initiate any actual conversation, it was unlikely I would ever actually find out.
The one bright spot in my life had been Daphne. She was spending her evenings at the house, rather than her dorm room, and we had gotten to know each other pretty well considering it had been less than a week. She was bubbly and vivacious and I couldn’t help but smile when she was around.
And, good grief, did I need some smiles.
Living and working with Stone Pennington was absolutely exhausting. Avoiding him was even more so. I constantly felt like I was walking on egg shells, always trying to evade a confrontation. In the mornings we passed like strangers, moving from the coffee pot to the door without actually acknowledging the others existence. I started using Uber to the office because the thought of being in the vehicle alone with him for the twenty minutes it would take us to get from the house to the office was excruciating.
If he cared about my change in my transportation, he hadn’t said anything.
For his part, Stone has been avoiding spending time at the house as much as possible. He and Silas seemed to constantly have things to keep them occupied, leaving Daphne and I to spend some quality girl time together.
