That was fair. “But I did fight for it. I've fought for it so many times. I guess I don't know how to fight for it the right way, or maybe I don't know how to figure out what's worth fighting for.”
Andrea pulled into a gas station as soon as they left the national park, and Penny handed her the gas card. “Maybe that's the only way you figure it out. By fighting for something that isn't.”
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Penny and Andreamade their way through the mountains, stopped at D Dutchmen Dairy for ice cream, then continued on to the Okanagan Valley where they stopped for the night in Kamloops. The next morning, they shopped at two different fruit stands, then spent forty-five minutes picking fresh blackberries in a ditch on the road when Andrea spotted them and insisted Penny pull over.
By the time they hit the outskirts of the city, they were halfway through Abba's Gold album, using empty water bottles as microphones. Driving through the city was just as annoying as Penny had anticipated, so she made Andrea do it, then gasped every time it looked like they were going to scrape up against a parked car.
By the time they parked in the driveway of their parents’ house, Andrea looked like she’d just been electrocuted. She yanked the key from the ignition. “I hate you.”
Penny laughed and handed her one of the dark chocolate bars they hadn’t eaten through. “Does this make up for it?”
Andrea snatched it from her. “Hell, no. But it’s a start.”
Penny jumped out of the cab when she saw her parents walking down the front steps. She ran across the interlocked bricks and wrapped her arms around both of them.
“You’re here!” Her mom kissed her cheek, and her dad kissed her forehead. She felt like she’d just gotten off the kindergarten bus. They embraced Andrea, then ushered them both inside where her mom had a lunch of leftover pot roast and fresh buns set out.
They ate and caught up on each other’s lives, though Penny left out anything about Brett. She hadn’t told her parents about him, and hashing things out with Andrea in the truck had left her on empty.
“Theo and Marco are coming over later to empty out the trailer into the garage, so just take your personal things up to your room,” her father instructed.
“Are the purple blinds still up?” Penny asked.
Her mom scoffed. “We took those down last year, you know that.”
Penny did not know that since she hadn’t been home. Standing there in the kitchen unlocked a hundred memories linked to the smell of her home, the familiarity of the countertops and cabinets, and the sound of her parents’ voices. It felt like someone had wrapped a warm fuzzy blanket over her shoulders.
Andrea caught her eye. Penny rinsed her dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher, then followed her into the hall. Andrea grabbed her hand. “C’mon. We’ve got work to do.”
_____
Brett moved through his life in a haze. He woke up each morning and went for a swim, then drove between his job sites and worked with his team. At night he found any excuse he could to not to be home alone for dinner. Either eating after practice at One Place or meeting up with any of the guys who happened to be available, which was usually Country, André, Darcy, or Boyd. It was good to get to know them better off the ice, and the more questions he could ask about their lives, the less he had to talk or think about his.
On Thursday he showed up to the job site and saw Daniel sitting in his Mercedes waiting for him. Fantastic. All he could think as he parked was that this a-hole got years with Penny when he only got six weeks.
“Morning.” Daniel was as chipper as a goalie with a shutout, and Brett had never wanted to punch him in his Botoxed face more.
“Good morning, Dr. Ascott. Another walk-through today?”
Daniel nodded. “Once a week isn’t too much, is it?”
It was too much. “Not at all. Let’s take a look.” Brett ignored his passive-aggressive comments about the amount of progress happening now that he was back on-site. He answered his questions and showed him enough samples to satiate a teen girl buying makeup for the first time at Shoppers.
It wasn’t until they were walking back to the front doors that Brett’s world snapped into laser focus. One of the guys answered his phone and called out, “I need to take this. It’s my wife,” as he ran to the back doors.
Daniel chuckled. “Women are always there when they want something, never there when you need them, eh?”
Something clicked in Brett’s brain, like a breaker tripping and then being reset.Never there when you need them, eh?Penny had always been there when he needed her. She was there for his PT even before she knew him. There to drive him to work. There for dinner, and there waiting for him when he got home from a long day.
Had she ever asked for anything? Had she ever complained about him not giving her enough? Not once. He, on the other hand, had asked for plenty. Brett’s ribs ratcheted around his lungs. When Penny had finally verbalized a need, he’d acted just as entitled as this egotistical puck boy.
What was it Andrea had said on their drive from the airport? That Penny hadn’t been back to see her family for over a year? Danny had guilt-tripped her into working the holidays after she’d already used her summer vacation to go with him to a conference in Vegas.
Was he any different?He’d asked her to stay. Of course he never meant for her to miss time with her family, but did she know that?
More than that, had he even once considered leaving Calgary and going with her? That question made him nauseous.No.Because his life was here.Histeam.Hiswork.Hisfriends. Everything he needed to be stable and functional.
