Page 64 of Positively, Penelope

“You were the first person I thought of.” He shrugged as if helpless against the idea. “After all your hard work.”

She was the first person he thought of? Was that the sweetest thing ever? “Ourhard work.”

“Our hard work.” His voice gentled and somehow reached out and touched her pulse.

She drew in a quick breath and turned to remove the cookies. What was that all about? Had she been away from home so long she didn’t even know how to have a conversation with a friend anymore? She paused on the thought and smiled. And he was her friend. Her closest friend in Skymar except, maybe, for Gwynn? No, she knew him even better than she knew Gwynn. And she would have wanted totell him her good news first too. Her smile spread wider as she started placing the last batch on the additional cookie sheet.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

She set the timer and then turned. “Would you pull those cookies out of the oven for me if I’m not back down here in ten minutes?”

He looked from her to the oven and back. “I can do that.”

“Thank you!” She untied the apron.” Your brother is supposed to be here at seven and I need to get dressed.” She gestured toward her face. “I did my makeup already and just need to pin up my hair.”

“Right.” The smile left his eyes. “Your date with Alec is tonight.”

“Well,datemight be a strong word to use.” She pulled the apron over her head and placed it on the island. “He says it’s an apology dinner, so I’m not sure if that counts as a date. Besides, I’m not sure I would want any possible relationship to start with an apology dinner, you know? I’d prefer a sort of mesmerized ‘you’re the one for me’ type dinner for a real date.” She shrugged. “But it is in a castle, so maybe it does count as a date.” She grinned as she slipped past him toward the stairs. “Regardless, I plan to take copious amounts of photos to show to generations of my posterity.”

She rushed up the stairs, pondering Matthias’s reaction. Was he upset about her dinner with Alec? Did he think she was being unprofessional to go out with him? Or maybe he disapproved because he didn’t want his brother forming an emotional attachment with someone who was leaving in a couple of months.

Her eyes popped wide. Or maybe the cookie didn’t taste so great.

She shook her head as she slipped off her T-shirt and jeans. No, she’d tasted three already, and they were delicious.

With quick work, she twisted up her hair so that a few curls spilled over the top of the clip. Then she slipped into the dress with a happy shudder. As soon as she’d seen it on the rack at the “charity shop,” as they called consignment shops here, she’d fallen in love. Pale pink, strapless, with a layered skirt cut in a pixie style to just below the knees.She paired it with some silver strappy heels and a thin, faux-diamond headband.

With a glance at herself in the mirror, she gave a little twirl. “A princess for a night.”

The buzzing timer echoed up the stairway, so she snatched her silvery sheer scarf from her bed and draped it over her shoulders, then made her way to the kitchen.

Matt had just set the cookie sheet on top of the stove and turned at the sound of her heeled-shoe entrance. She froze in the doorway at the look on his face. His gaze started at her head, trailed slowly down, and then settled back on her face.

It was a moment every girl savored. To recognize that someone thought she looked beautiful, and she felt his appreciation all the way down to her secondhand Jimmy Choos.

He shook his head as if entranced. “You... you look stunning.”

Penelope tugged at the scarf, warmth climbing up her neck to settle in her cheeks, and then she spun in a circle. “It has an excellent twirl.” Her gaze caught back in his. “It’s the true measure of a dress. Especially for dancing.”

His smile brimmed again, lighting his eyes. “Then I believe you’ve found the perfect one.”

“Iris would love it, wouldn’t she?” Penelope pulled her attention from his. “It’s pink.”

“Without a doubt.”

She stepped up beside him and started moving the cookies into the container.

“And this?” His finger brushed against her shoulder where the small butterfly tattoo peeked just above the top of her dress. “For your friend?”

Her thoughts evaporated completely at the effect his touch had on her skin, paired with the sweet, intimate knowledge he had of her. And maybe her voice was gone, too, because she couldn’t offer up aresponse at first. A tingle of awareness traveled from his touch over her shoulder blades, and she blinked a few times to try to remember any words at all. Or syllables. Maybe just vowels?

Her gaze searched his as if he knew the answers to what was happening, those familiar eyes somehow becoming a little dearer to her in the process. He kept growing more important in her thoughts, like some of the best of friends, but this? Well, she didn’t know quite where to place the feeling.

Then he raised a brow as if waiting for her, and she quickly collected all the thoughts from wherever they’d scattered. “Yes.”

Excellent response. Actually spoken. On topic. And to the point.

His lips softened into a gentle smile and she tried very hard to sort out why it was so hard to look away from him.

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