She turned onto her side, still trying to recapture sleep. The covers slid off her, and she was suddenly very much awake and aware of her nakedness. Her eyes snapped open as she scanned the room around her without moving. This was not her bedroom in any house. This was…. She flipped over, surprising herself with the movement, only to discover an empty bed. No Finn. Her heart beat against her chest in an unreasonable state of panic.
At the same time, the door handle began to jiggle. Penelope threw herself back down on the bed, pulling the sheet over her head just as the door opened.
“Um, good morning?” Finn said, the door clicking closed behind him.
His steps came closer, the blessed aroma of coffee wafting over her.
“Good morning,” she said from beneath the sheet, too embarrassed now to peek out.
“Everything okay?” he asked, coming to a stop at her side of the bed.
“Can we just pretend this isn’t happening?” she asked hopefully.
“This what? This, you hiding-under-the-covers thing?”
“Please?” she begged.
“Can I ask why you’re hiding under the covers?”
“That wouldn’t be pretending it didn’t happen,” she argued irritably, only to find her thin sheet being tugged from her face.
She caught it before it went too much lower, forcing herself to sit up, tucking it tightly under her arms. “I thought you’d left.”
“I did. I went to get coffee. It seems to be something important to you. And now I can see why,” his lips twitched in amusement.
If she hadn’t still been half asleep, she would have let it go at that. In her confused state, she continued. “No. I thought you left me—left me.”
The concerned furrow in his brow melted her heart and brought her back to the present moment, including everything that led up to it.
Reaching out to move her leg over, he made room for himself on the bed, placing her coffee on the nightstand next to her. “If I ever meet this Carson,” his voice was soft with an underlying tinge of anger.
Penelope shook her head. “Don’t… let’s not….”
“Penelope,” he waited until she was looking at him to continue, “I’m not going anywhere. I, God, after last night. Don’t you get it?”
It was too much for her tired brain. “Get what?”
“I think I love you.”
“You can’t do that!” It came out louder than she’d intended. She covered her mouth, trying to take it back, knowing how bad it sounded.
Finn’s smile dropped, his eyes clouding with pain.
“No,” she reached for his hand quickly. “I mean, you can’t tell me that when I’m sitting here naked, half awake, with morning breath, unprepared.”
The relief was immediate. “Penelope North, do not do that to me.”
“How do you even know my full name? I never even told you the North part,” she demanded, still not taking in his words.
“Because it said it on your luggage, you fool. I read it when I was loading it up the last time we went away.”
“Oh… okay,” she sat up straighter, still keeping the sheet firmly in place. “Say it again.”
“Penelope North?” he asked, sounding as confused as she had been a minute ago.
“No,” she swatted away the nonsense of that. “The other thing,” she said adamantly. “I’m ready to hear it now.”
“Morning breath and all?”
