Penelope (16 page)

“I didn’t mean to upset her.”

Mason crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s not upset. She’s excited for you. You’re growing up and that’s hard to watch.”

That made Brock chuckle and he slapped his brother on the back. “You’re coming out, right?”

“We wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

~*~

Penelope woke early and wandered down to the kitchen for a glass of milk. She missed early morning coffee and assumed that that morning ritual wouldn’t return until she was done nursing the baby.

That was something else she needed to learn about. How long was she supposed to nurse? How was she supposed to nurse? Was that really best?

Panic rushed through her. She was not prepared for this.

Closing her eyes she took a few deep breaths to calm herself. It would all come to her and she had Vivian there to teach her everything she needed to know.

She looked around the small kitchen and noticed that on the kitchen table were the three boxes of letters they’d found in the attic. Everything inside of her itched to walk over and look at them, but she certainly wasn’t going to. Vivian would never forgive her.

But she was curious as to why all of Adam’s letters were stored away from Vivian. Why would someone keep them from her? And by someone, she was sure it was Adam’s mother.

That panic rose in her again. Adam’s mother would surely be making an appearance again, wouldn’t she? After all, Penelope was carrying Adam’s baby. She’d want to be a part of that.

The very thought must have made the baby a bit skittish too because Penelope received the biggest jab yet from inside. Though it hurt, it made her laugh too. If she could, she’d run and hide, she thought.

“You’re up early,” Vivian walked into the kitchen and straight to the coffee pot, which had already brewed a pot of coffee on a timer.

“I think I got enough rest yesterday.”

“You’re feeling okay?”

Penelope nodded. “Physically I’m fine. My head on the other hand is spinning with so many things.”

“And the first thing on your mind is…”

“Brock.”

Vivian nodded. “I knew that.” She opened the cupboard, took down a mug, and filled it. “What are you thinking?”

Penelope shrugged. “Why did he just up and leave yesterday? I didn’t want him to.”

Vivian moved to the table and set her mug down before sitting in the chair across from Penelope. “He said he had things he needed to take care of. He’d be back in a few days.”

“Okay, but why then?”

“I guess it had to be done then. He’ll be back. He’s a man of his word.”

Penelope twisted a curl of her blonde hair around her finger. “He is. But what does that mean? He’s only coming back because Adam asked him to?”

“I think you and I both know it’s more than that now. Adam asked him to come. He asked him to give you his message and a few things. Of which I wish I’d known he had.” Vivian gritted her teeth and Penelope thought of the watch Brock had delivered to her. “But I think he has some very deep feelings for you and that’s why he’s coming back.”

“Is it too weird that maybe he has an interest in me?”

“Why?”

“Look at me,” she said resting her hands on her stomach. “Who wants a pregnant widow?”

“You’re not some reject.”

“I suppose that would depend on who you asked. My mother didn’t seem to want too much to do with me and you would have thought that being a single mother she would have embraced me and the baby, especially after Adam died.”

“You haven’t talked to her?”

“Not for months. She just doesn’t have time for me.”

“Maybe you have to make the first move.”

Penelope looked down into her glass of milk. “Is it wrong to not want to?” She looked back up expecting to see judgment in Vivian’s eyes.

“No. I can’t say it is.” Vivian sat back in her chair and sipped her coffee. “This weekend a friend of mine is having a barbecue. Why don’t you go with us? I think it’ll do you some good to relax around people.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m not feeling very social.”

Vivian nodded. “Give it some thought.” She looked at the clock on the wall. “I’d better get over to the old house. The phone line goes in today. We are about three days from taking applications.”

A rush of anticipation overtook the panic that had sickened Penelope. “I can’t believe we’re almost there.”

“Good thing too. I need a paycheck.”

“What better way to earn one too? To be with our children all day. That’s very special.”

“You don’t have to sell me. Those girls are my life. I’m ready to move on.”

Penelope glanced at the boxes again. “What are you going to do with those?”

Vivian let out a breath, set her coffee cup on the table, and moved one of the boxes in front of her. “I don’t know. I brought them home with the thought I’d dig right into them, but they scare me.”

“Scare you? Why?”

Vivian ran her hand over the box that had once housed work boots and now held the unopened letters. “I hated him. By the time he died I actually hated him.” She bit down on her lip and Penelope could see her cheeks grow pink. “What if these letters take that away and I begin to miss him? What if he hated me by the time he died too?”

That squeezed at Penelope’s heart and she reached for Vivian. “I think he was confused. But I don’t think he could hate.”

Vivian patted Penelope’s hand that rested on her arm. “Maybe I’m just afraid to stop hating. This is easier.”

She supposed she understood that. After all, having been the last one that seemed to have still loved him wasn’t helping in moving on either.

As Vivian stood and walked back upstairs, Penelope wondered where Brock had gone.

Penelope had opted to go to the house with Vivian and the girls for the rest of the week. She spent some time decorating bulletin boards in the rooms of each age level. It had been decided, when they were at capacity, she would work the younger kids, the infants and young toddlers, and Vivian would work with the older kids. During the summer they would have to think about even older kids. Maybe by then they’d be ready to hire someone, but as they hadn’t signed up anyone yet she wasn’t sure how any of this was going to go. By law they were limited to the number of kids they could have in each room. The house wasn’t that big. But she redirected her thoughts. That wasn’t the point. The point was to be with their children all day and make a living. That they could do.

As Vivian worked upstairs in the room they would make an office, Penelope continued to “cuteify” the room. When there was a knock at the door she peeked through the new front window and looked out to the front porch.

A man stood there with two little girls, one holding each hand. She set down her stapler and paper strips and walked to the door.

As she answered Vivian started down the steps. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know yet. A man and two little girls.” She pulled open the door and the man gave her a weak smile. “Can I help you?”

“Hi. I’m sorry. I didn’t know if I should knock or not. I didn’t hear any kids out back and I’m new in town. But I’m looking at facilities for my daughters for daycare.”

Vivian moved closer to the door. “We aren’t quite open yet. It won’t be until next month.”

The man’s eyes widened. “Oh, I see.” He looked down at his girls. “I’m a new teacher at the elementary school. Just got the job actually. I wasn’t very prepared. Do you know of a center taking new enrollment? I’m kinda in a jam.”

Vivian had passed right by Penelope now and stood in the open doorway. Her stance had softened and her hands slipped casually into her back pockets.

“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you come in and look around? Let me tell you about what we will have here. My girls are currently at the rec center daycare, which will do for now. But then they will be here with me.”

“You have daughters too? How old?” he asked and his tone was very genuine Penelope thought. Men didn’t usually care, did they?

“I have a two-year-old and a four-year-old.”

“Really? Charlotte here is three,” he said looking at the little blonde girl with pigtails at his side. “And Stephanie is two.”

Stephanie clung to her father and Penelope remembered being that girl. She’d never have wanted her mother to leave her side, but her mother would pull her from her and tell her to mind herself.

Vivian stepped through the door and the man followed with the girls still holding tight to his hands.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Vivian Monroe and this is Penelope Monroe.”

The man looked at them as if to compare them. “Sisters?”

Vivian let out an enormous laugh and tossed her hair back over her shoulder. Even Penelope had to stare. She’d never laughed like that before.

“Actually,” Vivian looked at her. “You could say we were just very fortunate friends.”

Penelope could feel the tears begin to sting her eyes. Vivian Monroe thought herself fortunate to be her friend.

“Excuse me. I’ll let you show him around. I’ll get back to what I was doing.”

She moved back into the room, careful to wipe her eyes out of sight of Vivian’s gaze.

She could hear Vivian’s voice as she showed the man through the house. The girls had already found a few things that interested them and she could hear them playing.

But what stood out was the sound of Vivian’s voice. It was light and airy. It was happy. It wasn’t sharp.

When Penelope walked down the hallway to go up to her room, she saw them in the horrible little kitchen having some lemonade. Oh, there was something about this man that turned Vivian into a cream puff. It would be interesting to see if Charlotte and Stephanie were at the daycare on the first day or if the man would run from his job in Parsons Gulch.

It wasn’t but ten minutes later that Vivian stood in Penelope’s bedroom door. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes. I just thought I’d lay down for a bit. You know, doctor’s orders.”

She nodded. “Will you be okay alone for a little bit? I’m going to meet Clayton at the rec center and introduce the girls to my girls.”

Penelope couldn’t help but smile. “Clayton?”

Vivian’s cheeks were blushed. “Yeah. He’ll have to put the girls at the rec center for a few weeks, but he’s decided that Our Little Ones Daycare is where he wants them to be while he’s at work.”

“Our first enrollment?”

“Looks that way. He just moved into town too. So I invited him to the barbecue this weekend too. It would be nice for him to meet some other people.”

Penelope nodded. Someone had invaded Vivian’s body, she was sure of it.

“I’ll be fine here. You go,” she laid back on her bed.

“Call me if you need anything.”

“I’ll be fine. Go.” She laughed as she closed her eyes.

A moment later the house had grown quiet and Penelope drifted to sleep.

The bedroom had grown warm and that had awakened Penelope from her rest—and the sound of a saw and a hammer.

She sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes. She’d slept for quite a while. It was past two o’clock. She wondered if Vivian had come back. Until she’d heard the hammering outside she hadn’t heard anything else.

The door to her room had been closed. Someone was there.

Penelope tied her hair back and freshened her face with a little water then headed downstairs.

No one was in the house, but when she looked outside she knew what all the noise was. Sam and Brock were both shirtless in the backyard assembling the play yard.

Penelope stood at the window and gazed upon the man she seriously thought she might not see again. His skin was tanned and that body—oh that body—was toned. She could see the flag tattoo on his side and the glistening of sweat on his skin.

She sat down in the chair beneath her in the kitchen and rubbed her stomach, lest she forget her situation and his reaction to it earlier in the week. He left, without a word to her—he left.

But it didn’t stop the stirring his being there caused.

She looked out at him again and this time he was looking up at her. He smiled and even from in the house her body reacted to him. She could just ignore him and go back to hanging up bulletin board decorations. That’s what she thought she should do, but her body couldn’t be distracted.

Penelope walked to the back door and stepped outside.

It had been less than a week since Brock had seen her, but he was sure she’d become even more beautiful.

“Hey,” he said as she stood on the back steps.

“Hello.”

The welcome was anything but warm and he knew he deserved that. “What do you think?” He turned toward the foundation of the play yard.

“I think the kids are going to love it.”

“I know they will. The coolest part is it’ll be big enough for adults too. We could play on this,” he said on a laugh, but she didn’t smile.