Page 54 of Loved

"The cops showed up," Penny said and shrugged.

"Wait, what?"

"To interview me for that stupid investigation they're doing."

"Did they tell you how the investigation was going?"

Penny looked at me.

"Apparently two of my former students said I was asking for sexual favors in exchange for giving them better grades. Or something along those lines."

Melissa already hated me. This wasn’t going to help.

"And..." she said.

"And nothing. It isn't true. Either the girls made it up, or the detectives did to try to get information from Penny.”

"You have a history of lying."

Yes, Melissa hated me. And I was starting to hate her too. But I knew I needed to squash this nonsense. If I could get Penny’s parents to like me, I could get her supposed best friend to like me too. "Here." I pulled out my phone and set it on the kitchen counter. I pushed it and it slid across the counter to her. "Check my phone. I'm telling the truth."

"So I can just look at your phone?” Melissa asked. “At your texts? And contacts? And emails? And pictures?"

"Suit yourself."

Melissa swiped her finger across the screen. "What's your password?"

"Oh." I laughed and raked my fingers through my hair. "Actually it's Penny." I couldn’t get her out of my head while we were on a break. Every time I grabbed my phone, I’d hoped there’d be a text from her. I was trying to be strong and I’d thought if I could type her name when I unlocked my phone, I could resist actually typing anythingtoher. And I hadn’t changed it back. Because I liked thinking about her all the time.

"I'm your password?" Penny slid into the seat next to mine.

"Yeah, I happen to like thinking about you." I put my arm around her.

Melissa tried to hide her smile as she started to scroll through my phone. "I hate that I'm mad at you right now, James. Because you two really are adorable.”

Penny leaned her head against my shoulder. The scent of her cherry perfume affected me even more when alcoholwas coursing through my veins. I really wished we were alone.

She put her hand on my thigh. Apparently she was thinking the same thing.

"Insatiable," I whispered.

Penny’s throat made that adorable squeaking noise I loved.

"Who's Jennifer?" Melissa asked.

"My sister." That made sense that she was checking my female contacts. If I had access to Penny’s phone, I’d definitely look at her male contacts. And immediately delete Tyler freaking Stevens. And Brendan whatever face. Fuck those guys.

"Oh." She looked back down at my phone. "What about Ellen?"

"That would be my housekeeper."

Melissa wasn’t going to find anything incriminating. Because there was nothing incriminating to find. The worst thing that I had was X-rated footage of Penny. And that was on my computer. And Ian’s. I frowned. I needed to make sure he wiped those recordings from his computer.

"Okay, fine, there's nothing on here." She placed my phone back down on the counter. "Actually there's barely anything on here. Which is suspicious all by itself."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"Well I'm adding myself into your phone. Because if Penny winds up in the hospital again, I want to know."

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