Page 7 of Reluctantly Yours

“Do you want the movies or not?”Lex asked.I told him I did, and he promised to be around in a few minutes.In the meantime, I went downstairs to pull a bottle of scotch from the liquor cabinet and helped myself to a healthy pour.

Penny was still upstairs with Sofia when my friends arrived.Summer offered a warm hug that brought the faint aroma of incense to my nose.“So where is she?”she whispered, grinning.

“And I’m the one who wants to get a look at her?”Lex muttered, shaking his head and handing over a bag full of movies.

“Thanks for this.”I waved them further inside, setting the bag down in the large, tidy kitchen, then offered them a drink.Lex accepted a glass of scotch.Meanwhile, Summer sipped a glass of chardonnay.

Penny’s sandals slapped the stairs loud enough to be heard on the other side of the house.

“Here she comes,” Summer whispered with a grin.

“What is with you?”Lex asked, giving me a bewildered shrug.

Tossing auburn locks over her shoulder, she wrinkled her nose.“Don’t act like Travis didn’t talk your ear off about the girl when he called you yesterday.”

Lex winced at my sharp look.“We tell each other everything,” he mumbled by way of explanation.

There was no time to give him shit before Penny’s cheerful voice rang out.“She wants to say goodnight, and then I’d like to talk about?—”

The sight of visitors brought her up short.“Oh, excuse me,” she offered, blushing.She then did a double take, touching a hand to her chest.“You’re her… and you’re him,” she added, gaping at Lex.“Oh my gosh.Wow.I can’t believe it!”

Penny looked a little overwhelmed as she shook Summer’s hand.It was understandable.She had only become recognizable after the movie she and Lex had worked on together became a huge hit.They had recently won Best Picture at the Oscars in a big surprise upset, what with it being Summer’s first Hollywood film and Lex’s first Executive Producer credit.Their next project was in the works.

“It’s so great to meet you,” Penny concluded with a shaky laugh.“I’m sorry.I don’t usually freak out like that, but it came as a surprise.”

“How do you like it here?”Summer asked her.“Sofia is a doll, isn’t she?”

“I adore her,” Penny gushed.I stared down into my glass, scowling at the amber liquid rather than at the girl whose aggressive warmth made me want to gag.She’d known my daughter one day.One.Why was everything so over the top?

Lex elbowed me, arching an eyebrow.Was I being that obvious?I didn’t feel like having him chastise me so I straightened my posture and slapped on a smile I didn’t feel.

“Weren’t you talking about showing me that new port you were looking at expanding?”Lex prompted, and my gratitude was palpable.An excuse to get out of the room was what I needed.

“Yeah, it’s in my office.Will you ladies be all right alone for a second?”I asked, already halfway out of the room.They continued talking about Sofia, something that earned Penny a measure of grudging respect.She didn’t pepper Summer with a thousand questions about Hollywood the way somebody like Marissa would have.

“What is it with you?”As we walked to the office, Lex looked over his shoulder, asking, “What’s the problem?She seems…”

“Exhausting?”I muttered, reaching the room and dropping onto the leather sofa close to the door.“Like she’s trying too hard?”

“She’s trying to impress you,” he informed me.“She wants to make a good impression on the people you know.What’s strange about that?”

“It’s not strange.It’s just fucking aggravating.”I gulped down the rest of my glass’ contents, admitting, “She’s like sandpaper on my nerves.”

“Then get rid of her.It wouldn’t be the first time you had to dump a bad match.”

What he said made perfect sense.All I had to do was tell the girl it wasn’t working out.All right, so she had already moved in, but it wouldn’t be that difficult to move her back out.It seemed she hardly had anything to her name.

“It would break Sofia’s heart,” I told him and myself.I needed to hear it too.“She loves the girl already.”

“Isn’t that what matters?”he asked with a shrug.“I mean, so long as Sofia is safe with her?”

“Easy for you to say.You don’t have to live with Mary-fucking-Poppins skipping around the house.”

“Listen,” he concluded with a knowing laugh.“We both grew up the same way.We lived with a revolving door of nannies and staff.It might be nice for her to have a little continuity.But that’s just my opinion,” he concluded, holding up his hands in surrender.“She’s not my kid.Whenever you think you need to do.”

The thing was, he had a point.We had grown up with distant, disengaged fathers and mothers who did their best to fill in the blanks wherever they could.“I want to strangle her,” I admitted.“I don’t know what it is, but something about this girl bugs the hell out of me.”

“You better figure out how to handle it,” he concluded as he finished his drink.“Because kids sense shit like that.If you don’t like her, you need to get rid of her before Sofia gets more attached.And that’s all I’m gonna say,” he concluded, holding up his hands again and backing out toward the hall.

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