CHAPTER NINETEEN – GABRIEL
It had physically hurt to let go of Penny the night before, but I knew that she needed time alone to gather her thoughts. After parting ways and going to bed, I had stared up at the dark ceiling of my bedroom for a majority of the night while I mentally went over what I would say to Nikki to calm her fears. I did care about Penny, more than I ever had about another woman since Kelly.
There was just something about the connection between the two of us that I couldn’t put my finger on. I wanted our relationship to keep going forward. The realization hit me hard the next morning when I rose after a few hours of troubled sleep to shower and dress for the day. I wanted a relationship. Not just a fling, like Nikki firmly believed that I wanted from her daughter.
I padded my way down the hallway past Alyssa’s closed door. I sighed in relief to find Penny perched on her usual barstool near the kitchen island with a full cup of coffee in hand. She turned to look at me with puffy red eyes as I entered the kitchen.
“Morning,” she said. “I’m glad that I’m not the only who looks like shit after last night.”
“You aren’t the only who lost sleep,” I said, gladly pouring myself a cup of coffee. I sat down next to Penny on the other stool. “Did you talk to your mom anymore after she left last night?”
Penny shrugged her shoulders indifferently. “Nothing different than the conversation back in the lobby. She offered to come get me if I changed my mind about coming back to New York with her for Christmas. You know, ‘if I came to my senses’, as she put it.”
I grimaced at that. I didn’t like feeling like I was some sort of sick man for being attracted to a woman who was a consenting adult. The accusation that Nikki had tossed at me the night before didn’t sit well with me at all. None of her accusations were true, and I didn’t know how to show her she was wrong about me.
“It’s going to be difficult,” Penny continued, tracing the rim of her coffee cup. “You realize that, right? If you meant everything that you said last night, my mom was just the start of it.”
I set my cup down to wrap an arm around Penny’s shoulders. I drew her in and pressed a tender kiss to her temple. I savored the feeling of her sinking into me without hesitation. She felt so right in my arms, like she was always meant to be there.
“I meant every word of what I said,” I told her. “I care about you. We went about this in the wrong way, without a doubt, but we can still be together if that’s what you want too.”
“It is,” she said. “It’s what I want. More than anything in the world.”
My heart pounded with relief, hearing her say that. Penny leaned back to land a quick kiss on my lips with a small smile. She looked down at her lap for a long time before looking up at me with tired eyes.
“I have to go talk to my mom at some point today,” she said. “Try to smooth things over. I don’t think she’s going to leave without a fight if I don’t convince her that I’m okay.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” I said. “How about I talk to her instead? Just me and her.”
Penny leaned farther back to look at me skeptically. “Are you sure about that? I don’t know how well that would be received by her. She isn’t very happy with you at the moment.”
“I know. It’ll be a confrontation at first.” My head ached just thinking about it as I took a long drink of my coffee. “It has to happen, though. I think she’ll be okay once I talk to her about everything.”
“She thinks you’ve pressured me into being with you. Like you tricked me somehow, and you’re just using me for sex.”
I shook my head sadly. “I’ll figure out a way to convince her that isn’t the case here. Because it’s the truth. I never once forced you into something you didn’t want to be in.”
“I know,” Penny murmured, and she lifted her coffee up to take a sip. “Dylan was pushier than you ever were, and my mother was the reason he was in my life at all. You think she’d start questioning her judgment, not mine.”
“I’m getting you a new phone by the way,” I said, hopping down from my seat when I heard the toilet flush from down the hallway—a sign that Alyssa was up for the day. “I don’t want that bastard having any possible way of getting ahold of you.”
“I don’t think he can,” she said. “I blocked every possible way he could in touch with me.”
“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” I said.
I pressed a quick kiss to Penny’s forehead before I took a step back to put distance between the two of us. The last thing that Penny and I needed to deal with was Alyssa finding out before we could talk to her. Things were complicated enough with just Nikki knowing. We had to put that fire out first before adding my daughter to the mix.
Alyssa shuffled into the kitchen like a zombie, rubbing at her eyes tiredly. She grumbled under her breath while reaching for a coffee mug.
“Morning,” she yawned out. “It was one weird night last night, right?”
I caught Penny’s stare over the top of Alyssa’s messy hair. We exchanged a painful smile, and then I bid them both goodbyes for the day. I took the elevator down and strode through the lobby to meet William outside.
“Good morning, sir,” William said, opening the SUV door with a smile. “Straight to the office this morning?”
I slid into the backseat. “Just for a few hours today. I have another meeting that I need to get to later.”
“Yes, sir. You let me know when you are ready to leave.”
I stared out at the snowy streets and the buildings covered in Christmas decorations. Everything out there looked so festive, but inside the car, a dark cloud hung over my head. Talking to Nikki wouldn’t be easy by any means. She had every right to be upset, but that was all the more reason to put her fears to rest.
My first meeting of the morning went smoothly. I felt confident watching my employees exchange excited grins and cheerful chatter. It helped ease the dread that lingered in the back of my mind.
Afterward, I pulled Neil into my office so we could talk in private. He must have seen the worry written all over my face.
“What’s going on?” Neil asked. “What is it?”
I twisted my hands together in front of me to work out the agitation in my system. I looked Neil straight in the eye because he was the only one at the moment that I could trust, aside from Penny.
“Penny’s mother found out about us yesterday,” I said. “And it did not go well.”
Neil’s eyes visibly widened at that. He closed my office door when an employee walked by with a file in hand.
“Shit, man. What are you going to do?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I need to make it clear that I’m not using her daughter for my own sexual perversions. I need her to know it’s more than that.”
“Is that what you’re going to do?” Neil asked. “Pursue something with Penny?”
“I’m hoping to. That’s what I want to do, if I don’t get a bullet through the head trying to talk to her mom.”
Neil clasped my hand. “Good luck with that shit. I’ll take care of everything in the office while you work that out.”
“Thank you, Neil. I appreciate it.”
Fifteen minutes later, I stood in front of Nikki’s hotel room door, wondering what was on the other side of it. She was still checked in, according to the front desk, but I had no idea what her mood would be like once she saw me.
I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened before my knuckles could hit the wood. Nikki stood in front of me dressed in a sharp suit. Her fair blonde hair was pulled back from her face, which was stretched in displeasure to see me.
“Just let me explain,” I said, holding up my hands. “Please hear me out, and try to have an open mind, without coming to your own conclusions first.”
Nikki folded her arms across her chest while she propped the door open with her hip. She narrowed her eyes at me.
“Sure,” she said. “I’d love to hear this. By all means, tell me how you ended up with my daughter, who is a good twenty years younger than you.”
I shook my head at her. “Dylan was a lot younger than you. Age is just a number and you know that.”
“She’s a child, Gabriel!”
“She’s not a child anymore, Nikki. She’s an adult who can make her own decisions and do what she wants. She didn’t want to hurt you, and I didn’t want to do that, either.”
“It’s not hurt that I feel,” Nikki said flatly. “It’s concern for my daughter’s well-being, even if you are right about the age thing.”
“I care about Penny,” I said fervently. “I need you to believe that. And you know the type of man I am when I love someone.”
The word “love” slipped off my tongue before I could process it. I swallowed down the tumult of emotions that went through me at that. I loved Penny. That was what drew me in every single time I was around her. We had an indescribable connection, and I realized now that it was because we were falling in love with one another.
“You love her?” Nikki asked, looking skeptical.
“Yes,” I said. “I do. I love her, Nikki.”
Nikki eyed me for a moment and let out a breath. “I can see that I’m not going to dissuade either one of you from this. I swear to you Gabriel, if you hurt my child, I will rain hell down on you the likes of which you’ve never seen.”
I smiled at her and nodded my head. “I would expect nothing less.”