The sound of a walker sliding across the floor woke me. I sat up and Penny smiled.
“Good morning, Clint. You could’ve slept in a bedroom last night.”
I shook my head. “Raegan said the same thing, but I wouldn’t have heard anything if I were in Wynnie’s room.”
“Not the bedroom I was thinking of,” she muttered as she approached the stove.
I bit back my chuckle while shaking my head.
When I was in my jeans, I threw my dress shirt on but didn’t button it. I grabbed two coffee mugs and put them next to the stove. Penny avoided my eyes, but I had patience and stared at her until she looked at me.
“What?”
“We aren’t getting back together, Penny. I appreciate that you hold hope, but you need to direct it elsewhere.”
“Plenty of people have told me not to cling to hopes, Clint. And I never listened to a damned one of them. You’re a fine man, but you’re no different. I’m not gonna listen to you tell me not to hope for the best things for my girl. And make no mistake, you are the best thing that ever happened to my Rae-of-sunshine.”
I closed my eyes as heat hit my chest. Those were really nice words, but I wished they’d come from Raegan.
After a deep breath, I opened my eyes. “Thank you, Penny. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
She shook her head. “Watching life pass my daughter by is what will hurt. Not holding onto the hope she comes to her damn senses.”
“Penny,” I whispered.
“Now. You still take cream with your coffee? Hate to tell you, but we don’t have that Cafe Bustello stuff you like. Your choices are a breakfast blend or this cockamamie caramel latte business Raegan picked up.”
“It’s a caramel macchiato, Mom and there’s nothing cockamamie about it,” Raegan said from the doorway.
In the middle of the night, I had missed her shapely legs in those insanely short shorts. Her nipples beaded under the bright blue t-shirt with three clouds across the chest. I ignored all of that, but the sight of her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun made my dick twitch because I desperately wanted to yank it all down before I kissed her hard.
Dammit.
I had to stop those thoughts or the visions they brought on were going to kill me.
I faced Penny, who had a knowing smirk on her face, and said, “Breakfast blend is fine, and two creams plus one sugar works for me. Just point me in the direction of the sugar.”
“It’s right behind you. I’ll be right back,” Raegan mumbled before she hustled down the hallway.
I heard coffee being poured into mugs while I grabbed the sugar container. When I looked to Penny, she wore her lopsided smile. “I think it was something you said, Clint.”
