Page 136 of Loved

He laughed. “I’m kidding. You should have seen your face.” He laughed again. “But I will be staying with you frequently and giving you no advance notice.”

That sounded accurate.

“And I need my room to be twice that size.” He started walking toward the door.

“You mean the guest room,” Penny called after him.

“No, I mean my room. I’m going to put my name on the door. And this door does not deserve my name. Which is Rob by the way. Not Bob. Never Bob.”

Ian laughed.

Penny looked at me. “Why does Rob think I don’t know his name?”

I’d never brought this up to Penny before. Because the whole thing was really awkward. “It’s not about you. It’s about your dad.”

“What about my dad?”

“Penny, I think your father is really bad with names.”

Penny laughed. “He absolutely is.”

“Wait. You know that he is? Why didn’t you warn me about it?”

“He got your name right.”

“Yeah, but when we first met he was talking to me about football players and butchering all their names and I thought he was messing with me.”

She laughed. “No, he’s just bad at remembering names. Wait, and when did my dad meet Rob?”

“Rob and Ian were there when I got your dad’s permission to propose.”

“The three of you showed up to my parents’ house together?” She laughed. “I wish I could have seen that. If only I had cameras all over my parents’ house…” She attempted to raise her eyebrow at me again.

“Penny, I’m really sorry about the cameras. And for the life of me, I can’t tell if you’re upset or you just think it’s funny. Are you mad? If you’re mad, just tell me.”

“I don’t know…” she said playfully.

“Penny, just tell me.”

She leaned closer to me. “You’ll find out when we finally get some alone time. But I’ve always liked your eyes on me, Professor Hunter.”

Fuck. Me.

She patted my chest. “Now let’s go see the next place. Hopefully it has a room big enough for your brother and plenty of places for hidden cameras.”

Chapter 34

Wednesday

All of the places we’d already seen were close to Penny’s new campus. I thought it would be nice if she didn’t have to sit in half hour traffic every time she went to class. And even though I was used to being on the Upper East Side, I didn’t necessarily think it would be a good idea to live there again. I hadn’t been my best self there. And I didn’t want to ever slip into old habits. Besides, Isabella still lived there. I didn’t want to run into her ever. This was Penny and my fresh start. Together. And that meant somewhere new for both of us.

But Rob had vetoed all of the nice places near NYCU. For a variety of reasons. One had a tub that was too small. He said the walls in one of the apartments were too smooth. Whatever the hell that meant. He didn’t like the color granite in the kitchen of the next. He vetoed another because he wanted key cards instead of actual keys. And then he vetoed the next because he wanted actual keys instead of keycards. He couldn’t make up his mind. He was…an annoying son of a bitch. And I could accurately say that because my mom was a bitch.

There was only one apartment left. Penny stared out the window as we drove farther north. Closer to Central Park. Closer to the New York City I was used to. And for some reason my heart started racing. We’d visited NYC once before. And I’d been fine. Happy. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little concerned about my control slipping in this environment. Dr. Clark would probably tell me that avoidance wasn’t helpful. Or something like that.

But I’d wanted Penny to choose something really close to campus. And honestly, I didn’t even know if she’d liked any of the places because Rob’s opinions were very loud.

Penny stepped out of the car before Ian or I had a chance to open her door for her. She still wasn’t used to being taken care of the way I wanted to take care of her. I grabbed her hand.

---