One Second After Another (The After Another Series #3) - Bethany-Kris Page 0,44
they’re willing to take.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“Too late, Penny.”
She didn’t need to be told.
Silence settled over the property when they stepped out on the lodge’s front porch. Across the gravel drive, Naz had already stepped out of the driver’s seat and rounded the BMW to open the passenger door. Penny was stuck in place; frozen like a statue. She couldn’t take her eyes off the woman who exited the car using her husband’s hand to help.
Roz didn’t look away from her, either.
Penny hadn’t expected the moment when she came face to face with Rosalynn to be so ... quiet. Or that her heart would feel as heavy as it did when Roz swallowed hard, and swiped away a stray tear that dared to fall down her cheek while her husband murmured something next to her. Roz nodded, glancing away from Penny for the first time to turn around and open the back door.
Naz leaned inside the vehicle, and Penny sucked in a shaky breath, asking, “They brought him, too?”
Little Cross, she meant.
Luca only shrugged. “Guess so.”
God.
She wanted this.
She also knew it could be bad. Especially if someone followed them or—
“Just ... say hello,” Luca said softly, his hand finding the small of her back. It took nothing more than his touch for her to lean closer. “All you have to do is say hi.”
Right. Of course, he would take her silence as a sign of nerves. He also wasn’t wrong even if she was trying to deal with far more than her emotions.
But what about the rest?
Penny didn’t have time to consider it. The second the Vans of a little boy hit the gravel, the rest disappeared. Little Cross walked just beyond the rear passenger door, laid eyes on Penny, and that was it for her. The kid beamed—his smile grew faster than her own, if she were being honest.
She was sure the rest of them hadn’t been expecting the kid to look at her and immediately shout, “Penny!”
He darted away from his parents before they could even consider capturing him. His navy blue windbreaker matched the color of his khakis. He was a tornado of energy coming her way—without any care at all—and she couldn’t help but laugh.
The two met at the bottom of the steps. She bent down with open arms that he rushed into for a hug, but then just as quickly pulled back to stare at her with those dark, familiar eyes.
“You’re back,” he said.
Penny smiled. “Not technically.”
The little scrunch of his nose said the almost six-year-old didn’t like that answer at all.
“Back?” she heard Naz ask.
Luca let out a sigh. “There are still some things to explain, man.”
“That so?”
“Naz—”
“I get it, Luca.”
He sounded like he did. It was also entirely possible to understand a situation and be pissed off about it, too. Penny and little Cross watched the exchange, but her attention drifted to the quiet woman watching from further away.
Roz didn’t come as close as Naz had—she wasn’t crying, but the water hadn’t left her gaze, either. There was pain in her stare, but also joy. It dripped from the warm, motherly smile that curved Roz’s lips the longer the two watched one another.
“Hey, Roz,” Penny whispered.
She stood; little Cross let her go, but didn’t move away. Roz, on the other hand, didn’t move a muscle. Even when she replied, “Hey, Penny. A few years really ... grew you up, didn’t it?”
Penny laughed, not expecting that. “Something like that.”
In the same black cargo pants and crop top that she had been wearing the day before, Penny was sure she didn’t look at all like the image of the young teenager that Roz had tried to save. She wasn’t that girl anymore—this woman was someone else entirely. It was unfortunate that the woman who inspired Penny to find happiness so long ago hadn’t been able to watch her transition into this person she became, but she hoped Roz would still love her the way she had when she needed it the most.
Because she still needed it. To love was human.
Penny had never been loved until these people—now she loved them entirely too much. She realized that only made her need their love, too.
Maybe that was why she told Roz, “Staying away was easy when I didn’t have time to think about what I did when I left—I’m sorry I did it that way. I’m sorry I left without telling you why. You deserved better than that. I loved you more than that.”