“Will you tell him I was here?”
I remembered what Libby had said about Harrison being the only one who could step up in this family and take responsibility for the mess his father left behind. That meant Randy and his problems, too. I imagined it hadn’t been an easy time for any of them. And I didn’t see any point in adding to that burden.
“No. But you have to leave now, before he gets home.”
“Of course.”
Randy immediately came down the hall toward me, that charming smile back.
“Did I ever tell you about the time Harrison dyed his hair green?”
He had. That’s all he’d talked about last night at dinner, all the wild and crazy things Harrison had done in his teens. Randy was full of stories and I’d enjoyed all of them.
“Why don’t you tell me about it the next time we see each other.”
Randy nodded. “My mother said I could stay with her for a while. Maybe I’ll do that.”
“Good.”
We turned the corner into the entryway. Randy turned to me and gave me a big hug.
“Thanks,” he said against my ear. “I won’t forget this.”
And that was the moment Harrison and JT chose to come bursting through the door.
Chapter 26
Harrison
“Hey, Harrison,” Randy said, turning to me with a sheepish look in his eye that was all too familiar. “How you doing?”
His arm was still around Penelope. I wanted to rip it off. Not just off her shoulders, but off his body. I wanted to rip him to shreds for daring to come into my house and touch the woman I loved.
And that look on her face…so much guilt.
Did I really need to ask what was going on?
“Get out of my house, Randy.”
I said it quite calmly, my voice very steady. Randy simply nodded, the light going out of his smile. He leaned into Penelope and whispered something I wasn’t meant to hear. Then he held his fist out to JT.
“Good to see you again, little nephew.”
“You too,” JT said, clearly confused.
Randy just nodded, his gaze moving over me before he brushed past me and walked out of the house.
Penelope just watched him go. Apparently she had nothing to say to either her lover or to me. And I really didn’t want to look at her anymore. I stormed past JT’s chair and went to the stairs, the sound of her calling after me not enough to even slow my step.
I burst into my bedroom, the doors vibrating as they bounced off the walls. I didn’t care. I went to the small balcony that looked out over the front of the house and stood at the railing, barely seeing the scene below me for the memory of Randy’s arm around Penelope’s shoulders.
“I don’t know what you think was happening down there, but it wasn’t anything nefarious.”
I hadn’t heard her come into the room.
I gripped the railing harder, holding on to it so that I wouldn’t spin around and wrap them around her throat. I was so angry in that moment that I might have done it. But then, just touching her…I held on to that railing with all I had.
“He was in the house when I got here. I didn’t invite him.”
“But you didn’t throw him out, either.”
“That’s what I was doing.”
“It didn’t look that way to me.”
“Then you weren’t looking close enough. I mean, honestly, you’ve got to be the blindest guy in the whole fucking country.”
I don’t know what shocked me more: her calling me blind, or her cussing. I’d never heard her use a word quite like that before.
I turned and found her standing just inside the bedroom, the sight of my huge king sized bed behind her was enough to ignite a few thoughts that my anger did nothing to dampen. In fact, the anger might have made it worse, might have made me want to do things I might not have considered under different circumstances. Not with Penelope, anyway.
“You told me I was the only woman you wanted,” she said softly. “Did you mean that?”
“I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
A slow smile touched her lips. “Yeah? You said last night you’re not the jealous type. But you’re sure acting awfully jealous right now.”
“I’m not jealous.”
“Then what is this? Why are you so angry with me?” She cocked her head slightly, that smile spreading. “Tell me this isn’t about the way your brother was touching me.”
I crossed the small space between us before I even realized I was moving. I grabbed her upper arms and pulled her hard against my chest.
“Tell me he wasn’t here to see you. That he wasn’t flirting with you last night.”
“He wasn’t. He talked about you all night.”
“Liar.”
She shook her head, her hand coming up to press itself against my chest. “He told me about the time you dyed your hair, the time you got caught drinking at some high school party. He told me about the tattoos on your wrists, about the one on your chest, told me how the two of you went together to get that one because you knew your father would hate it.”
I squeezed her arms until I saw pain in her eyes. “Why was he here?”