face tucked under Daisy’s armpit, her arm wrapped tightly round Daisy’s back. Their evening hadn’t gone anywhere near as planned but somehow this was miles better. Penny had accepted Daisy into their relationship as if it was the easiest thing in the world to suddenly have a teenage girl to factor into the equation. It would normally take weeks or sometimes months before he introduced his previous girlfriends to Daisy and there had always been an awkwardness between them. Even the ones who had faked liking Daisy to get on his good side had never had the ease that Penny and Daisy had with each other. Daisy adored Penny and the feeling was quite obviously completely mutual.
He ran his fingers through Penny’s hair, feeling the softness of it. She opened her eyes blearily to look at him and he just wanted to lean forward and kiss her, which he would have done if he hadn’t had the dead weight of his daughter lying on his chest.
‘I’m going to take Daisy to bed,’ Henry whispered.
Penny nodded and scooted back off of Daisy.
With some difficulty, he managed to extricate himself from Daisy, stood up and then he scooped her up. Penny smiled up at him sleepily and he smiled back before he walked out and carried Daisy up the stairs. A minute later he came back for Penny, who was fast asleep again, still on the sofa. He scooped her up too.
‘What are you doing?’ she mumbled.
‘Taking you to bed.’
‘Oh.’ She snuggled into his neck as he walked up the stairs. ‘I’m not really awake enough for that.’
He felt her breathing immediately becoming heavy again.
‘I can’t stay, not tonight. I don’t want Daisy waking up and finding me gone.’
‘K,’ Penny whispered.
He laid her down on her bed and she snuggled into her pillow, her eyes closed as she drifted off.
‘I fell in love with you a little bit tonight. Although maybe I should say I fell in love with you a little more. The way you handled Daisy was brilliant, even I wouldn’t have handled it like that. Well I didn’t, you saw what a mess I was over something as ridiculous as a power cut. But you… you just kept talking to her, making her laugh, made her see sense. You were wonderful. I love how you are with her, but not just with her, I just love how you are. I’m not really making a lot of sense, am I?’
There was no answer from Penny at all and, judging by her heavy breathing, she was somewhere else entirely, certainly not in the room with him.
He bent over and kissed her on the head and left her to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-one
Penny stared at the silvery dress in wonder. In the lights of the shop changing room it sparkled as if the whole thing was made from tiny twinkly fairy lights. It gathered under the breast in a cluster of large black gemstones and then flared out to the floor, covering all her lumps and bumps. It was simple, elegant, utterly stunning and cost more than she would pay for groceries in a month.
‘You should buy it,’ Daisy said, next to her, twirling back and forth in a gorgeous red velvet floor-length dress.
‘It’s over five hundred pounds. I cannot justify paying that for a dress I’m only going to wear once.’
‘Why, brides do that all the time. Besides, can you imagine Dad’s face when he sees you in it? I think he might just drop to one knee and ask you to marry him there and then, you look so beautiful in it.’
Penny laughed.
‘I’m totally serious.’
‘And how would you feel about that?’ Penny asked carefully, trying hard not to sound like she was too bothered about the answer.
‘I think you’d both be really good for each other, if he can get past his fear of letting anyone in. I don’t want him to hurt you and I told him that but he really likes you and I’ve never seen him that way about any woman before. Maybe you can be the one that changes him. But if you do end up married you have to promise me that you’ll let me be bridesmaid.’
Penny wanted to tell Daisy that they were already dating but that was something that Henry would have to do himself. But clearly, with Daisy’s blessing, they might be able to tell her sooner rather than later.
Penny went back into the cubicle, unzipped the dress and carefully hung it back on