Playing at Forever - By Michelle Brewer Page 0,47

enough time locking her away into the back of his mind last time. He could only imagine how much more difficult it would be now.

For a few moments, Tommy allowed himself to contemplate the possibility of keeping her in his life.

But then he changed his mind as he imagined her laughing with Ryan last night, only this time she was laughing at him with a different look in her eye. No, Tommy couldn’t take that.

He couldn’t even stand the thought of another guy looking at her. How would he do if he had to watch someone else put their hands on her?

Out of the question.

She would move on, eventually. A girl like Penny was meant to have a family—he could tell how much she wanted one just with the way she handled Amy’s girls.

Someday, she was going to make an excellent mother.

Unlike Tommy, who only seemed to destroy any life he touched.

He shut the refrigerator door and decided he would go upstairs to check on Penny before he had to leave for yet another day of contract negotiations and interviews. Damage control, as Graham called it.

As he opened the bedroom door, though, he realized that Penny wasn’t sleeping—from the sounds of it, she was taking a shower.

He knew he should turn around and go—but for whatever reason, Tommy was set on making things even harder for himself. He peeked around the corner to find that, yes, Penny was definitely taking a shower. He saw nothing more than her shadow through the obscured glass—but it was more than he needed to see.

He immediately turned and left the room, heading for the closest bathroom.

This time, he was going to take the coldest shower his body could withstand.

“Hey Tommy, do you mind if I use your computer for a few things?”

“Hm?” He looked up at her, looking very distracted. “Oh, my computer? Sure, go right ahead. I’ll be gone most of the day again. Feel free to make yourself at home.”

“We’re having dinner again tonight, aren’t we?”

“Yep—reservations are at eight.”

“Things went well last night, didn’t they?” Penny sat down on one of the stools and plucked a few grapes from the bowl in front of her. “I never would have thought that Ryan Wilson was such a nice guy. He always plays such a jerk.”

“Well, they call it acting for a reason,” she frowned, looking down at the table.

“I guess you’ll be off soon, then, won’t you?” Penny tried once more, but still, he wouldn’t even look at her.

“Probably should get going, yeah.” He rose to his feet and finally looked at her, but only for a moment. “I’ll see you tonight then.”

“See you tonight.”

The tension in the air was so thick, she could almost taste it. Whatever it was, she didn’t like it in the slightest.

With a heavy sigh, Penny headed back upstairs, over to Tommy’s office. She only wanted to check her email, really. Her parents often sent her all sorts of things—from legitimate letters to jokes they passed on. Even if she didn’t reply to all of them, she at least liked to acknowledge that she received them.

She sat down at the desk and moved the mouse around, pleased to find the computer was on. But as she went to open the browser, a different window popped open. Penny stared at it for a moment.

It was clearly a document of some kind. From the looks of it, it appeared to be a script. A wave of excitement jumped through her—maybe this was the script for a movie Tommy was thinking about doing.

A dilemma of ethic arose as she tried to decide whether to go through with reading it or not. On the one hand, it was obviously property that did not belong to her. On the other, though, it might be something that could possibly damage Tommy’s career.

This was how Penny justified scrolling to the top of the document and beginning to read.

She had no idea how much time had passed—in fact, she had been so caught up in the script she was reading that she hadn’t even heard the door open. “Pen?”

“Oh my god, you startled me,” Penny jumped, her hand covering her heart. “Wait, aren’t you home early?”

“Meetings didn’t take as long I thought they would. Thought I’d come home early and see how you were doing.”

“Oh, I’m—I’ve just been…reading.” She could hear the guilt in her own voice.

“Reading what…?” And the near-anger in his.

“I wasn’t snooping, Tommy—I swear I wasn’t. I just wanted to check my email