with a sigh. I must have left the door cracked. Totle scratched at the covers, and I pulled them back, so he could crawl under them. He nuzzled into my stomach and then unceremoniously plopped down. I giggled while petting his head. Then, I promptly fell back asleep.
Saturday morning, I woke to frantic calls from outside my door.
“Aristotle!” Penn cried. “Totle! Totle, come out now. We’re not playing a game. Totle!”
A second later, Penn pushed into my room without an invitation and rushed forward as if he were determined to search every inch of the house.
“Have you seen Aristotle?”
I pointed at my chest. “Safe and sound.”
“Oh Jesus,” Penn said. He sank down onto the bed. “Thank god. I didn’t know where he was or if he’d gotten out last night. I was terrified that he’d gotten onto the beach or the pool.”
“Well, don’t worry. He’s fine. He just found a new place to sleep.”
“What a lucky guy,” he deadpanned.
I cracked up. “Want to see him?”
“Is that an invitation?”
“And you were doing so well,” I said with an eye roll. “Get out of my bedroom.”
“I’m kidding. Yes, let me see Aristotle.”
“I heard you call him Totle though.”
Penn offered a smirk. “It’s catching.”
I peeled the covers back inch by inch to reveal the small dog curled up against me. He opened one eye in disdain, as if to say, How dare you take the covers away. Then, he saw his dad, and his tail started wagging.
“There you are, you little shit. You scared me,” Penn said. “Who knew I could ever freak out this much over anything?”
“Well, just look at him.”
“That’s how he fools you,” Penn insisted.
“He’s not the only one,” I muttered.
Penn frowned and then seemed to realize that he wasn’t just in my room, but he was also lying on the bed. We were having a totally normal conversation.
“You’re not going to kick me out for this, are you?” he asked with a sly grin.
I sighed. “I mean…you broke the rules.”
But I couldn’t hold back the smile from my face. He had done everything I’d asked. There had just been this…awareness of him at all times. The knowledge that he was there. So close yet so far away. Half-naked on the beach. Playing with the puppy. Writing, always writing. And it hadn’t been bad per se. In fact, it had been a bit too inviting.
For that alone, I should walk away and never look back.
Because no matter how well behaved he’d been for almost two weeks, I knew who he was, where he had come from, and what he was really like. Even if he didn’t want anything from me, I didn’t trust myself enough around him for us to stay neutral in each other’s territory.
I wasn’t neutral when it came to him.
Not even close.
“Well, you broke the rules, too,” he argued.
I had. I definitely had. Because I couldn’t stop looking at him.
Even now in lounging shorts and a pink T-shirt, he was sexy as sin. Dark hair wild, as if he’d been running his fingers through it all night while writing. Those bright blue eyes that just did me in. He was a work of art. Even when he wasn’t dressed like James Bond, he projected the same aura. The same intense vibe that said he was commanding the situation and dominating every endeavor.
I liked it. I shouldn’t like it.
“I did,” I conceded. “We both did.”
“But…”
“But I think it was okay.”
Lies. It wasn’t okay. It was so, so far from okay.
“Me too,” he said with that smile that said he was imagining all the things he could do to me in this bed. “Trial period over?”
I held up a finger. “We have one more day!”
He laughed and rolled off the bed. “One more day then.”
I didn’t need another day. I was going to let him stay.
And I was going to regret it.
Natalie
12
Part of me really wanted to see Penn mess this up. It would be better for my sanity; that was for sure. But the other part of me, the stupid part of my psyche, said that having him around had been nice. Even as scarce as he had made himself.
Of course, there were always signs of him or short glimpses of him in other rooms. But he was staying in the master suite, which was about as far from my room as a person could get in a house the size of a small planet.
I shook my head in frustration at myself. Penn was doing the right thing