“Hey, Penny, are you awake and dressed? I have a key, but I thought I’d ask.”
Penny turned chalk white and put a hand over her mouth. “Oh my God, that’s my brother.”
“Your brother? Gareth fucking Clark?” he snapped in disbelief. “Clark knows me! I know him. We…know each other. He knows what I look like!”
“I know that!” she hissed.
There was another knock. “Penny? I’ll just come in…”
“No!” she shouted in panic. “Wait! Naked. I am.”
Jack snorted. “You’re doing a bang-up job, Yoda.”
“Oh, shut up!” she snapped, then dragged him by his hands into the hallway and ripped open the bathroom door. “Get in there and don’t make a sound!”
Stunned, he raised his eyebrows. “What if your brother has to go to the bathroom?”
“Then I’ll offer him a planter!”
“This apartment has no plants!”
“Penny, are you climbing out the window and running away because you don’t want to see Mom and Dad?” the man’s voice called through the door and the next moment, keys jingled.
“Oh, shit, this can’t be happening,” Jack exclaimed. “Your brother needs to look up the wordprivacy!”
The next moment, he disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door like a damn teenager who didn’t want to get caught by his girlfriend’s parents. He could only hope that Gareth Clark would leave as soon as possible...
Chapter Five
Penny had time to pick up yesterday’s trousers in the hallway and put them on before Gareth entered the apartment. However, she was still wearing Jack’s t-shirt and smelled of sex — and her reflection in the mirror confirmed her bedhead.
“My goodness, Gareth,” she said out of breath, hurrying toward him in the hallway to keep him as far away from the bathroom as possible. “You haven’t acquired any patience in the last few years, have you?”
Her brother grinned broadly. He was only two years older and had recently turned thirty-one. Small wrinkles surrounded his eyes, and his light brown hair was shaved short. His dark blue, sparkling eyes and his mischievous grin were timeless, though. He’d always had that expression, even when he had put frogs on her pillow and told her that babies hatched from chicken eggs. Penny had not been able to eat eggs for three years as a child and became a vegetarian at the age of fourteen, possibly because of that blatant lie. Or maybe it was because one of the maids had killed one of the frogs in question on her pillow, right in front of her.
“No, I haven’t. But I’m more cautious when it comes to you and your flight instinct,” her brother said somberly, shutting the door.
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t have a flight instinct, simply wanderlust.”
“Ah, so wanderlust had you fleeing the country five years ago?”
She swallowed. “No, it was because my brother broke into my apartment early in the morning.”
“Early in the morning? It’s eleven o’clock. Some of us hard-working people would call that noon. And, technically, it’s stillmyapartment…and I just couldn’t wait to see you.”
With that, he took the last step toward her and pulled her into a tight hug. Penny smiled broadly and wrapped her arms around him.
“Liar,” she whispered. “You just don’t want to go alone to the ominous family meeting Dad called. You’re afraid I’ll back out.”
“Yeah, that too,” he admitted. “Flight instinct, like I said. Don’t tell me you didn’t think about just staying in New York. Or Argentina.”
Yes, she had. However, her father had sounded uncharacteristically serious and stern on the phone. And, she didn’t have a good excuse for why she couldn’t stay in LA for at least a few weeks.
“I’m here, right?” she asked quietly. “And I know our family tends to bury its emotions deep, but…man, I’ve really missed you, Gareth. And it means a lot to me that you’re risking wrinkling your suit for me,” she murmured into his shoulder, hugging him a little tighter.
“Oh, I’ve got a steam iron in the trunk.”
She snorted. “Of course you do. But can’t you just leave it crumpled? So, Mom has something to criticize other than me?”
