Page 27 of Loved

She laughed uneasily.

I needed to change the topic. We’d deal with her parents soon enough. "What were you like in high school?"

"What do you mean? Like I am now. Or, like I was before I met you, I guess. Shy and quiet. Completely invisible. I don't feel invisible anymore." Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her pocket. "They will both be home in an hour." She took a deep breath. "What's the plan exactly? How do you think we should bring it up? We already told them that you were a student. And you look young, James. I feel like they're going to think I'm joking."

I pulled her against my chest. "I don't think there is any right way. Let's just try not to think about it."

"How can I possibly not think about it? I want them to love you as much as I do."

I ran my fingers through her hair. "I think it's more likely that your dad will punch me in the face than love me."And then toss me in that river.Although, it was a terrible place to hide a body. It didn’t look deep at all.

Penny laughed. "He's not going to do that.”

She didn’t expect him to do it. But she didn’t know for sure. We were in uncharted territory here. Penny had never had a boyfriend before. She had no idea how her dad was going to react to her dating a professor that was quite a bit older than her. He was definitely going to fucking kill me.

I tried to shake away the thought. "I'd love a tour of your house. So I can plan my escape route and everything before they get there. Just in case."

"If you need to make an emergency escape, please don't leave me in the crossfire."

"I would never." I had every intention of throwing her over my shoulder and escaping with her. Part of me wanted to follow her lead from earlier and just get the hell out of the country. But this was the last hurdle we needed to face today. Everything would be easier after we came clean to her parents. I hoped.

“Can I drive again?” Penny asked.

God no.Was she trying to give me a heart attack before her dad tried to murder me? It was like the Taylors were out to get me.

“What is with that face? I’m a good driver.”

According to who?“I’m driving.”

“We’ll see about that.” She laughed and grabbed my hand. Our feet crunched in the leaves as she pulled me back in the direction we’d come from. Her red hair blew in the wind and I just wanted to freeze time.

I enjoyed the walk back to the car a lot more than the walk away from it. Her laughter was contagious. And whenshe stopped on the pavement and looked up at me, I already knew I was going to cave.

“Please?” she said and put out her hand. She bit her lip as she looked up at me.

How was I supposed to say no to her when she was biting her lip like that? I knew I was going to regret it, but I placed the keys back into her hand.Please don’t kill us.

Chapter 9

Wednesday

Penny opened the front door of her house and flicked on the lights. I closed the door behind us and looked around. Penny twisted her hands nervously in front of her. She looked like she did when she was about to give a speech in my class. But I had no idea why she was nervous. No, I didn’t grow up in a house like this. But I knew what a normal colonial house in the suburbs looked like. From pictures, that is. I’d never been in one before. But it was classically homey. The exact opposite of my home growing up in every way. And I meant that as a compliment.

An orange cat came running into the foyer meowing.

Penny laughed and picked the furball up in her arms.

"This is Teddy," she said.

"I didn't realize you were a…cat person." The cat’s fur and Penny’s hair were almost an identical color. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking at right now. Had she picked the cat because it had the same hair color as her? Or had her parents gotten it because they missed her or something? Or was it just a really weird coincidence?

"I wouldn't classify myself as a cat person."

So maybe it was just a coincidence that she matched the cat.Good.I was not a pet person.

Penny held it out to me.

What was she expecting me to do? Pet it? Hold it?

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