Page 41 of Breathe
“And he didn’t make any moves in the morning?” Penny insisted.
“No.” Actually, when she’d woken up he’d already been in the kitchen, making oatmeal. And he’d gotten out of there within fifteen minutes. Ellen had had to admit to a little disappointment.
“Is he sick?”
“No!” She lowered her voice even more. “Look, the truth is...”
Okay, she couldn’t go there in this crowded gym, but this part was true too.
“I told you that I had a... bad experience in England.” Penny nodded. “Well, my...” She didn’t even want to dignify Edward with the word “boyfriend.” “The man I was seeing told me... that I... wasn’t any good at it,” she finished in a whisper. Now her cheeks were flaming.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“So... with all the experience Kane has... I don’t want to—”
“Oh my God. Don’t even go there. Who was this jerkoff?” Penny’s voice had risen; she brought it back down to a whisper. “I’m sure you couldn’t disappoint a guy if you tried.”
Ellen put her hands to her hot cheeks. “Well, I didn’t know... much. He was only the second man I...”
“How long were you together?”
“Two years. According to him,” she began folding her straw paper into a tiny square, “two very boring years.”
Penny made a sound of disgust in her throat. “Well, I have to say that that was his fault, because I know you, Ellen, and under all that stiff-upper-lip crap, you are the most passionate woman I know.”
“Ach.” Ellen waved her hand in front of her heated face. “You’re full of it.”
“Don’t even try and deny it. I’ve seen you sing along to Adam Lambert. And I snuck in and watched you and Kane dance at the Queen’s Ball, and if that wasn’t foreplay, you can call me Susan.”
“Keep your voice down!” But as outraged as Ellen tried to be, she couldn’t stop a slow smile from taking over.
“Uh huh.” Penny folded her arms. Just then, someone passed so close behind her that he bumped her into the counter. “Ow!” She turned to glare at the man.
He wasn’t dressed for the gym, but he seemed at home there. “Oh, hey, I’m sorry,” he said, with an insolent grin. “Mind if I join you?”
“Yes,” both women said at once.
“Okay, okay.” He put his hands up. “I’ll just set myself down over here.” He indicated the seat two down from Penny. “That work for you?”
“If you must,” said Penny, in such an icy tone Ellen rather thought she’d learned it from her. Penny purposely turned her back on him. “So,” she went on as if the interruption hadn’t happened, “how do you expect to spend Thanksgiving weekend, if it isn’t...” she lowered her voice, “horizontal?”
“If I survive his family, you mean? I don’t know. I think he might have to work. He said he might not even be allowed to rebuild one of the factories right away. Even if he does, of course it’s going to be months before anyone can work in it. And he’s got a whole lot of security guards at every other site now.”
“That’s a lot of security guards.”
“Hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth. And the unions are on his back to tell them when they’ll be working again. He’s trying to help out by running extra shifts at the plants that are still open, but that means he has to cut hours, and he’s still paying the men the same amount. It has to be crippling him.” She used her straw to stir the remains of the smoothie, but she’d lost her appetite for it. “He sees all the people relying on his factories—hundreds, now, without a place to work—and it’s killing him, Pen. He told me, last night, about meeting everyone at the Bristol place yesterday. That plant was the biggest employer in town. They were all looking at him to give them something to do, and he’s standing in front of them with the words of the insurance companies ringing in his ears.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Penny patted her hand. “You only have to—” A cell phone rang, loudly. The man behind Penny again. She spun on her seat to glare at him.
“So sorry!” he said, equally loudly, and put the phone to his ear.
Penny’s pretty face screwed up in annoyance. “You done? Let’s go.”
The air outside was full of sharp needles of sleet; they paused at the door to put their hoods up. Someone stepped in front of them and said, “Ellen?”
She instinctively looked up. A camera flashed barely five feet from her. The car it was in disappeared around the corner, tires squealing a little on the slick road. The man who’d been at the counter came out behind them and grinned at her, before setting off up the street at an easy jog.
“You fricking creep!” Penny yelled after him, but Ellen held her back when she took a step toward him.
