I wanted to freeze time for a lot of reasons. I’d go back a month and relive the same day over and over if I could. Instead of saying any of that, I just nodded and sat down next to her at the kitchen island. I cleared my throat. “So what do you do?”
“I’m an author.” She laughed. “Well, not really. I don’t know why I said that. But I’m writing a book. And I hope to get it published one day.”
“What’s it about?”
“It’s about how I met my husband. A love story of sorts.”
I plastered on a smile. I didn’t really want to hear about a love story right now. But it felt a little rude not to ask. “And how did you meet?”
“Oh it was all very scandalous. He was my professor.”
“Really?”
She laughed. “You don’t have to pretend like you haven’t heard all about it.”
I shook my head. How would I possibly know about that? I didn’t even know her last name. Were her and her husband frequently in the tabloids or something? I wouldn’t put it past her because of where she lived. Paparazzi loved snapping photos of the rich and famous. But the more I learned about Penny the more confused I was. She was an unpublished author with a professor husband. Yet they could afford this apartment? Maybe her parents were wealthy? “I’m actually not from around here, so I know very little about the goings on of NYC.”
“I wish I knew less. I swear I’m going to hit the next paparazzi who wakes Liam up with those ridiculous bright flashes.”
I laughed. “Do you need to go put him down?”
She kissed the top of Liam’s sleeping head. “No, he’ll cry as soon as I put him in his crib. He prefers his naps like this.”
I couldn’t help but laugh again. I couldn’t even count how many times I’d let Jacob nap just like that. I loved that my heartbeat soothed him to sleep. And how many times he’d crawled into me and Miller’s bed once he was a toddler, insisting he needed to sleep in between us. Yeah, I definitely wanted to go back and freeze time.
“So if you’re not from around here, where did you grow up?” Penny asked.
“Delaware.”
“No way. I’m from Delaware!”
“Really? What are the odds?”
“I know. That’s insane. But it’s not the first time this has happened to me. I’m having serious déjà vu right now. This sounds completely crazy, but almost all my male friends married girls from Delaware even though they’re all from New York. I swear it’s fate. My husband and his friends basically all grew up together. And I just think there’s something about people from Delaware that clicks with them.”
That was so odd. Almost all of them married girls from Delaware? How did they even all meet girls from Delaware if they were here in the city?
“Did you go to the University of New Castle too?” Penny asked.
I shook my head.
“That’s actually where I met my husband.”
“And you were a student when you met him?”
“Yeah, but he’s not that much older than me.”
“Oh, I wasn’t judging you at all. My husband is actually quite a bit older than me.”Was. Hewas.
“And how did the two of you meet?”
He was my bodyguard. I fell in love with him in a cage. I tried desperately to push him away for a boy who’d forgotten I’dexisted. But he waited for me. He’d waited. And our time was cut short.I missed him so much I could barely breathe. “It’s a really long story.”
“I have all afternoon,” she said with a smile.
I reached down and touched the metal bands on my ring finger. I felt the tear trail down my cheek a second too late.
“Are you okay?” Penny asked. She reached out and grabbed my hand.
