All Stars Fall (Seaside Pictures #3.5)(23)

“What makes you say that?”

“The heart wants what it wants.” I grinned. “And I’m pretty sure the last thing on this planet you want is to settle down.”

His eyebrows shot up as he leaned in and whispered against my ear, “Wrong.”





Chapter Twelve



Trevor




“Thanks again,” I whispered to Penelope as we put the last of the kids in their bedroom. She must have seen the exhaustion on my face because she offered to ride back with me and help get them ready for bed. Eric and Malcom were like zombies. Penny took one look at them, scooped up Bella, and announced that she was going to help me get them tucked in, which naturally earned a curious look from every single person at the barbecue. After all, she was going above and beyond but anyone with eyes could see it was because she just had a big heart.

Plus, according to Drew, she’d said yes.

According to Will, I needed to let it go.

According to my heart and mind, I didn’t want to let go of shit. I wanted to ask her why, I wanted to thump my head against the wall until things made sense, until I knew what to do.

In all the scenarios I’d considered in my head, I’d never once gone over the idea that I could be so quickly attracted to another woman after all the baggage I’d had heaped on my shoulders.

I mean, three kids was intimidating enough, but she took it in stride.

I was a single dad.

But Penny didn’t treat me that way.

“Night, Bella.” Penny kissed her on the forehead. I followed suit, turned on her unicorn light, and shut the door. The house was too quiet, almost eerily quiet as we both slowly walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“I appreciate that.” I yawned behind my hand. “Did you want anything to drink?”

“I’m good.” Penny smiled. “I’ll just call an Uber real quick or something.”

I snickered at that. “Was that your plan all along?”

She made a funny face. “Well, yeah. Everyone has—” She stopped herself. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because.” I grinned harder. “It’s Seaside, you’d have better luck corralling a seagull and riding it back to your place.”

She groaned. “I have to get up at five a.m.”

“Stay here.” The words were out before I could stop them. “I mean, in one of the guest rooms, not my room because that would be—” Idiot, I was going to drown myself in the nearest body of water and stay there forever. “—weird. I’ll just grab you a towel if you want to shower, not that you need to. You smell great.” Good Trev, good, tell her how good she smells again.

She suppressed a smile.

I shook my head. “I think after each kid the universe just took cool points away from my person and replaced them with dad points. I swear I’m not trying to make myself look like an ass or make you uncomfortable.”

Penny nodded. “I know, and if it makes you feel any better I don’t think I was ever gifted with any cool points. I mean, I can’t play an instrument, and my gift is making coffee.”

“The greatest gift of them all,” I pointed out with a nod.

“Hah!”

The lights flickered.

She gave me a worried look, her eyes darting from me to the lights and back again.

“It’s fine, it’s probably just starting to storm a bit. I’ve been told it’s normal around this time of year.”

She worried her lower lip and nodded. “All right, I may just take you up on that offer…”

My eyebrows shot up.

“Towel. Separate bed. That sort of thing.” She waved her hand awkwardly and dropped it at her side.

It was my turn to smile. “This way.” I led her to the guest room on the second level. It might as well be a mother-in-law suite. Even though it was still connected to the main part of the house, it had its own kitchen and was large enough to rent out if I ever wanted to. The walls were bare and white, not graced by so much as a sconce or a big box store version of a Picasso print. There was one queen-sized bed sporting a beige comforter on the west end of the room beneath a window with beige mini-blinds and no curtains. Two bedside tables flanked the bed, each occupied by a generic crystal and pewter lamp with crinkled beige shades. A flat-screen TV took up most of the wall opposite the bed, and a small, mirrored dresser hugged the side wall across from the door.

The room really, truly needed to be decorated, but I hadn’t found the time.

“Wow!” She did a small circle. “This is great!”

“Yeah, it is.” I couldn’t take my eyes off of her; this was a problem.

The lights flickered again.

Like the universe was trying to do me a solid.

Everything went out, blanketing us in darkness.

I hated it because I couldn’t see her.

I loved it because I could still feel her.

Everywhere.

“Okay, the pretty room just got a bit terrifying.” Her voice was weak. “I’m a wimp, I’m sorry, I don’t even like living alone, but I was like, you know what I should do? Move across the country and start fresh, because I’ve lived in the same town my whole life, with the same roommate, working at the same school doing the same thing over and over again and you know what the definition of that is?” She finally took a breath. “Insanity.”