Page 116 of Positively, Penelope

Matt sat on the floor of the closet in a black T-shirt and jeans, boxes in various levels of disarray around him, his hair a little disheveled too. Penelope lowered her weapons and rounded the corner.

“What on earth are you doing?”

He looked up at her, some sort of shield in his hands. His gaze flicked to her weapons. “Arming myself against your hair spray?”

Her grin spread into a chuckle—a much-needed one. She returned her items to her purse. “I thought you were the museum thief come back to finish the job of utter Darling history destruction.”

“Not quite. I was trying to search through our inventory for any replacements we could make to the museum items. All your hard work shouldn’t be wasted.” He pushed up from his position, his bodystretching to his full height. He looked really good in a black T-shirt. Especially with those shoulders. And forearms.

And he was trying to find new museum items for her, when he should have been sorting out the entire musical debacle. How sweet could this guy be? She shot a look skyward with a little prayer tagged on. Surely they could make it through a long-distance relationship, right?

He was completely worth the effort.

And more.

He stepped close enough to surround her with his delicious cedar scent, his gaze searching her face. “How are you?”

And every thought she’d devised to share with him puttered into a ball of mush in her brain. Heaven help her. She really wanted him to kiss her. After all the crazy and pain of the past day, a good kiss from him might be the best medicine of all—her attention dropped to his lips—actually, she was pretty certain it would be.

“Penelope?” His palm moved to her arm, drawing her attention back to his eyes.

“Yes, right. I’m good.” Her thoughts began to clear and reconverge around her. “Actually, I’m better than good.” In fact, she’d conjured up, mulled over, and plotted the whole Darling House salvation story in her head during her bicycle ride to the theater. “I refuse to let Withering Westing win.”

Matthias’s expressive brows rose to attention.

“And I have an idea for how to salvage this. Maybe. But we could certainly use some fairy dust. I mean, there are a lot of things to worry about. Believe me. I’ve been expertly worrying about them all the way over here on my bicycle, which is likely why I almost killed three people. Maybe four, if you count the old woman in the leather boots wearing a burka.”

A burst of air came from him. “Quite an entrance. Are you sure you’re not in theater or something like that?”

She exhaled a breath she felt like she’d been holding all the way from the cottage. “My brain’s been really busy. And my worries aren’t helping.” She brought her palms together, almost in prayer, and steadied her shoulders. “Do you think there are enough quality actors in the community theater who have performedThe Sound of Musicbefore? I know Mrs.Carrington played Mother Superior about ten years ago.”

“Wait.” His jaw slacked. “Are you thinking we pull off our own production of it?”

“If we can?” She looked around the closet as if searching for answers. “By the time we get the word out, we’ll have only about three weeks to prepare, but if most of the actors have played their parts before, then that helps with memorizing lines and with some of the placement issues.”

“Then we’d need set work and choreography.” He snapped his fingers, his smile crooking so wonderfully that her mind almost dipped into kissing thoughts again. “But some of the sets fromMy Fair Ladycould easily be modified forThe Sound of Music.”

“That’s right.” She laughed, relief pouring out through a sigh. He saw the vision. Believed in her idea. “Perfect.”

Her fingers twirled her ring around and around, spinning, kind of like the feeling in her stomach. She loved him. In the middle of all this insanity, she’d fallen in love... with a wonderful guy! And now, with everything in chaos, all she wanted to do was let him know. In a very tangible, lips-tingling sort of way.

She knew kissing him wouldn’t fix the fact that they didn’t have a production ready, and the museum had been vandalized, and one Gray brother was missing. But it certainly wouldn’t make any of those things worse. And she felt confident she’d feel a whole lot better afterward. Matthias probably would too.Probably.

Besides, she’d been told she wasn’t a half-bad kisser.

She wet her lips, attempting to work up the courage to just tell him. Then chickened out. “And we already have the show cards from Earnest.”

“I saw.” He waved toward her. “You sent them to me. They’re amazing.”

“The touring company’s name isn’t on them, just the show.” She twisted the ring some more. The wordkisswasn’t such a hard one to say, right?Matthias, how about a kiss?“So why not use them if we can?”Or maybe a few kisses?Stopping at one just seems like a poor use of the opportunity.

His gaze flickered to her fingers and then back to her face. “Getting the sets ready in time will be a challenge, but if we have enough people willing to help, I think it’s doable.”

“Good, good. Yes.”

“And Dani’s wife could enlist some help to ready the costumes, I’m sure.” Matthias’s smile kept growing bigger, adding more confidence to her plan. “We can try to drum up some extra funds for that.”

“You really believe this can work, don’t you?” She blinked back the sting in her eyes.

---