Page 51 of Third Chances (Men of Manhattan 2)

"That we won't let her talk to James you mean? And no, Penny will totally understand. She encouraged him to have a bachelor party after all. Now, be quiet when I call." He clicked on Penny's name in his contact list.

"Put it on speaker," I whispered. I wanted to hear that Penny was okay too. If James was worried about her, it would calm him down if I told him she sounded fine on the phone.

Mason pulled his phone away from his ear and hit the speaker button.

"Mason!" Penny's voice filled the room.

Mason laughed. "Hey, Penny. Having a good weekend?"

"Can I talk to him?" She sounded worried. What was she worried about? Just because James and I beat up a professor one time she doesn't trust me to take care of him? When was she going to let that go?

Mason laughed again. "Jumping right into things, then? So, about that...you need to stop calling. You're distracting him from having fun."

"I'm sure he's having quite enough fun."

Rob and I exchanged shrugs. Is that what she was worried about? James having too much fun? He was being a bore if anything. He only had eyes for her.

"Where are you guys?" Penny asked.

"Costa Rica."

"What hotel?"

"Nice try, Penny. I'm not telling you where we are. You're not allowed to infiltrate his bachelor party."

"Mason, I really, really need to talk to him."

"Umm...I would hand the phone over, but he's currently indisposed."

"Indisposed? What have you been doing?"

I hit Mason's arm and shook my head. If he couldn't hear the worry in Penny's voice, I could. She didn't need him to joke around right now. She needed him to tell her everything was okay.

He pushed my arm off him and laughed. "I'm just kidding. He's taking a shower."

There was a slight pause. "Has he been getting packages? Or any mail there?"

Mason looked at me and I shook my head. "No?" he said into the phone.

"Has he been acting weird?"

Mason laughed. "He's not getting cold feet, if that's what you're worried about."

"Okay."

"I promise I'm taking good care of your fiancé. You don't need to worry. I'm not going to let him fuck up the best thing that's ever happened to him."

I gave Mason a thumbs up. That was exactly what Penny needed to hear.

"That's not what I'm worried about."

"Ask her what's bothering her," I mouthed silently at Mason.

"Are you okay, Penny?" he asked. "You can talk to me you know."

"I need to talk to him, Mason."

"I'll give him a message for you."

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