“I don’t know. But would you calm down for one second. This is probably just some misunderstanding. I mean…” She shuffled the papers around with her hands. “It seriously looks like she was just…I don’t know…tossing them around.”
“Tossing them around?”Give me a fucking break.She had read about Tyler and wanted to read more. I pulled out my phone and clicked on Porter’s name.
He answered in one ring. “Mr. Hunter.”
“Where’s Penny?”
“She’s with Ian. She went for a walk and…”
I hung up the phone.
“James,” Melissa said. “You need to take five and calm down. Whatever it is that’s running through your head, it’s probably wrong.”
“Probably?”
“Yeah. Probably. I’m not going to lie and tell you I’m 100 percent certain she didn’t want to read about Tyler. I can’t read her freaking mind. Anymore anyway.”
“Do you know something?”
“What?” She awkwardly blew a strand of hair out of her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Melissa, you can’t ask me to open up to you and then keep shit from me. Did she go see Tyler?”
“No. Oh my God. I didn’t lie to you. She went for a walk. But if I’m being totally upfront, she maybe has kinda sorta mentioned that Tyler is exactly her type.”
It felt like my heart stopped. I felt the familiar pain cross my chest. I’d been having these sharp, fleeting pains ever since my cardiac episode. “Tyler and I look nothing alike.”
“I know that. You’re very different. In like…every way.”
“You think she likes him?”
“Of course not. But in her 19-year-old mind, before she met you, apparently she had a thing for guys with blonde hair and blue eyes.”
“And you didn’t think this was important for me to know?”
“I’m telling you now. And I thought I took care of it. I told her that he was married. I told her that you’re her type. I told her everything I was supposed to. You’re acting like I don’t have your back here…but I do. I’m on your side, James.”
I pictured Penny knocking on Tyler’s door. And putting her head on his shoulder as they watched her favorite movie. And him squeezing her ass. And her hand groping his abs. “I’m going to kill him.”
“She’s not at Tyler’s, James. She went for a walk.”
I dialed Ian’s number.
“I’m in the middle of a Jen emergency, James,” Ian said when he finally answered. “If there’s any way that this can wait until tomorrow…”
“Where the hell is Penny?”
The awkward silence stretched for too many seconds.
“Tell me right fucking now, Ian.” Again, the pain seared across my chest. I’d been feeling it ever since my surgery, but I was hoping it wasn’t really related. I knew what having a cardiac episode felt like now. This? I was pretty sure my heart was breaking in two. It had been ever since Penny didn’t wake up. Ever since she didn’t recognize my face. Ever since our daughter had become a stranger to her. Ever since she didn’t recognize Liam in her arms.
But this might be worse. It was all my worst fears coming true. Penny was finally waking up…to the fact that I wasn’t the right choice all those years ago. I couldn’t fix our lives if she left me. “Ian.”
“I…” his voice trailed off. “She told me I could go. She said she was heading right back to the apartment.” There was a shuffling of papers. “I’m so sorry, James. I’m heading back now, I…”
“It’s fine. I know where she is.”
“Oh. Geez. You nearly gave me a heart attack. I mean…” his voice trailed off and he awkwardly cleared his throat.
