Page 69 of Love, Untangled

The EMT palpated Pen’s cheek with his gloved fingertips. He kept his touch light but Pen still winced. Her face ached and burned all at once. She’d never been hit before and the experience unsettled her more than the actual pain, which was shocking. Her mother had come to her home, broken the false sense of safety she’d created, and now Pen was jittery. Unsure.

“Likely,” the EMT said. He glanced up at Carlo. “We can take her in for X-rays—”

“How about you talk to me?” Pen snapped. “Seeing as how this is my injury and my life.”

Both men stared down at her, blinking slowly as if her words refused to be processed.

Carlo squatted down next to her. His soft gray eyes never left her face. “I get that this is scary. A lot to take in. I know that you lost more than just the barn today. You lost a piece of yourself—of safety.”

Pen let her eyelids slide shut as she sucked in a shivering breath. Carlo would understand. His entire life had changed within a few hours. Of course he understood her scrambled emotions.

“I get that but it doesn’t mean you should make poor decisions.”

She was injured, she was in pain, and she was terrified Serena would come back. Maybe in the night while she was sleeping. She’d break in and hurt her, hurt Alpaca Man then.

She shuddered, which made her cheek throb even more fiercely.

Making a decision was probably the worst option for her at the moment. But this was her life, and the cost of hospital bills and pain medication caused panic to skitter over her arms and up the back of her neck, like that army of ants was now marching up her spine. She hated the feeling.

Her mind was too freaked out to wrap around her situation but Pen knew it was bad. She wouldn’t be able to afford any hospital bills, not if she needed to somehow clear the mess from the barn.

There was no way Pen would be able to rebuild it. She wasn’t even sure if her nana had insurance on the house, let alone the additional structures. That seemed like something she should know—that Carlo or another functioning adult would. But Pen didn’t. It’d never occurred to her until now to think about such things.

She’d made a mess of everything, assuming that she was safe and her past wouldn’t come back to haunt her.

Pen clutched Carlo’s hand, her lifeline, the only bit of comfort she had—one of the very few people who had shown her consideration. Kindness.

He’d been gentle with Pen—so gentle—when he found her on the ground earlier. His voice had cracked, and her heart did too because, in some ways, her injury must remind him of Cora. Pen squeezed his fingers, trying to let him know she was alive; she was fine.

She licked her lips and squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t…” This was hard. Her pride reared up, making her head throb more. “I…I don’t really have the money to ride in the ambulance,” she whispered.

Chapter 35

Carlo

Frustration pecked at his nerves, leaving him even more agitated. He inhaled sharply and exhaled slowly, reminding himself he’d never been in Pen’s situation. By the look of dread on her face and the fear in her eyes, her financial situation was more dire than he’d thought. She narrowed her eyes—not hard to do since one side of her face was swelling shut around her eye.

“I don’t expect you to help me, Carlo.”

He struggled to breathe past the initial hurt of that statement. “That’s fixable,” Carlo said, keeping his tone even. “You have your classes, and I’ll help—”

“No, you won’t,” she snapped.

The tone took Carlo aback. He’d never heard Penelope speak like that before. “I want to help you, Sunshine…”

Pen shook her head. “You hurt me, Carlo. Badly. So did my mother. I’m not ready to trust you again. I’m not sure I’ll trust anyone again.”

He winced. She wrapped her arms around her waist and seemed to pull further from him emotionally.

He wasn’t sure what to do, how to fix the widening chasm between them. He wanted to point out he was helping her now, but that wouldn’t change what had transpired earlier.

“You cut me deep, and right now I just…I just need to…” She shuddered but managed to finish. “I need some time to think.” Her gaze landed on the group of cars, many with the flashing red and blue lights of emergency vehicles, pouring into her driveway.

“About us?” His words were filled with hope.

“Yes.”

“I…I understand.”

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