Page 16 of Persuading Penny
FIVE
As Keely left us, Cliffand I looked at each other for a tense and awkward moment.
Say something.
His eyes remained hard, and as my lips parted to simply speak his name, he set his jaw, turned and walked away.
Watching him leave, I swallowed the ball of pain, of guilt, of longing.
“Wait,” I whispered, barely a whisper.
But he couldn’t have heard me and just walked on.
It’d been so long since I’d seen him. In so many ways he hadn’t changed at all. But, then again, so many things had, indeed, changed.
He joined the rest of the cast and suddenly, that charming smile was back, bigger and brighter than ever.
Shrugging off the numbing sensation that enveloped me, I walked through the crowd, hardly seeing the faces of the people I passed.
I had to leave. I had to find a way out of this torturous evening.
Keely had already made her way to the buffet table to check on everything. I worked my way closer to her.
“Keely?”
Too busy ensuring everything was as it should be, she didn’t hear me.
“Keely?”I said a little louder.
She turned to me, her face immediately showing concern as she looked at me.
“I’m sorry. I really can’t stay for dinner. I should have realized it sooner, but I just remembered that my parents are having dinner guests...a distant relative of my father’s...someone we don’t see often. Anyway, I have to go.”
“Okay, but you came here with me.” She looked away a second as she considered the situation, then reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys. “Here. Take my car back to Royal Crescent and you can take your car home from there.”
I hadn’t even considered that dilemma. “But, what about you?”
