“Oh.” She nodded slowly, her eyes fixed on his face. “But you could,” she said finally, hesitantly. “If you had to. There’s something on your mind. I can set aside my anger. It’s silly – you had nothing to do with it anyway. So, if you wanted to confide in me what’s going on…that would be okay.”
Jack suppressed a groan. There they were again – the contradictions. The fascinating mix of so many opposites that he couldn’t even count them in his head. How could she be as hard as granite one moment and soft as a feather bed the next? How could she simply morph her anger into compassion? How could she scream one minute and then throttle back to a whisper so soft, he could barely hear her?
She obviously had problems of her own, but from one second to the next, she seemed to have forgotten them. She’d done it for him.
“Why do you even want to know, Penny?” he asked impatiently.
“Yeah. I like you,” she said, surprised – as if he should know that already.
His heart suddenly clenched. Shit.
Jack narrowed his eyes. Why did she always have to be so shamelessly honest? At some point, it would kill her. Or him.
“Just because we’re not going to sleep together again doesn’t mean we can’t be friends,” Penny continued, her voice as gentle as the rippling water.
But she was wrong. Jack was certain they couldn’t be friends. Friends didn’t look at the top button of their blouses, hoping it would open on its own. Friends didn’t want to do all the dirty things that Jack did with Penny every night in his dreams.
“I’m sticking with ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’” he replied calmly.
She nodded. “Okay. May I talk then?”
He sighed. “Fine. But if you want to argue or get upset, at least help me up out of the water so I’m not at your mercy.”
She rolled her eyes but was suppressing a smile. “As if you’ve ever been at someone’s mercy at any moment in your life.” She held out her hand.
He took it in his, ran his rough fingertips over her soft skin…and knew that there was no way she would be able to lift him out of the water. He was two-hundred pounds of muscle, and her biceps were no bigger than a tangerine that had missed its growth spurt.
No. If they were going to be literally eye to eye for the conversation Penny was so desperate to have, they had to find another solution. And Jack already had a good idea.
Penny pulled on his hand — and he pulled back.
With a squeak, she stumbled forward before falling headfirst into the pool.
Water splashed and she caught his stomach with an elbow as she kicked back up to the surface, gasping for air. Her hair stuck to her face and neck and her breathing was hectic.
“You did not just do that!” she gasped in disbelief, raising her chin to keep her nose above water.
He grinned. Being wet suited her. “You looked like you could use a cool down.”
She snorted, her eyes sparkling with amusement, yet she was still a little taken aback. “I did need a cool down. Thanks. Then again, oh my God, are we in kindergarten?”
“You tell me. You just gave me a ‘men are stupid’speech.”
For a few moments, she just blinked at him, uncomprehending, while she made natatorial motions with her arms to keep from drowning. Then she said, perplexed, “Shit, I did, didn’t I? Oh man. I’m acting ridiculous. I had a tantrum. Completely justified! But still…”
Groaning, she pushed her hair out of her face before sliding to the edge to hold on.
Single drops had caught in her eyelashes and rested on her full lower lip. Penny’s whole face seemed to glitter and glow…and no one should look that pretty under fluorescent lights. Not to mention, her blouse was white and wet — and damn, completely see-through.
Suddenly, Jack found it much harder to swim than usual, so he held on to the edge of the pool with one hand right next to Penny’s shoulder.
He had expected her to pull herself out of the water, but Penny stayed where she was, her head tilted thoughtfully, as if she were considering her behavior. For his part, Jack was fairly certain she hadn’t done anything wrong that day.
“Is that lettuce on your blouse?” he asked – anything to distract him from staring at her bra.
Penny nodded. “I’m a vegetarian. I wanted to support the underappreciated vegetable.”
He smiled broadly. “Of course. So, why was your tantrum justified?”
