After a week and a half of our new routine, I can see how my calling her Penelope has affected her. Her perky smile doesn’t fool me though. Her beautiful, expressive eyes give her away. I know it is because I have hurt her and for that reason my anger is dwindling each day.
Being near her is fucking with me. Her jasmine scent is in every room of Max and Rosy’s house and there is no way I can escape it. When she sleeps during the day it gives me the opportunity to get stuff done outside the house. Today, my mom has the babies while I run errands.
I am currently at Queens Heart Ink because I have decided to get a new tattoo. This one will be completely dedicated to Penny. My fucking Penny. It’s time to get my head out of my ass and claim her. She may have left, but she still came back. Back to me.
“You ready Jace?” Miles asks me.
“Yeah, man.” I say, getting up and following him back to his station.
“How have you been, man?” He asks as I take my shirt off.
“Pretty good.” I say, even though I have been anything but.
“How’s the babies? Rosy?” He questions.
“Rosy is doing better and she will be home soon. The babies are growing into eating machines.” I say chuckling.
“I hear they do that.” He says laughing. “She knows you are getting this done?”
I dropped off the design yesterday. It’s only her name, Penny with a heart around it. Roses, her favorite flower are growing out of the heart. I am having it placed over the center of my heart.
“Nope. I like the idea of surprising her with it.” I have a little devilish smile on my face with this comment.
“You are a brave man. It takes balls to get a girl’s name tattooed on you. That shit is forever.” I think this is the most I have ever heard him talk.
“That is true, but sometimes logic and feelings outweigh each other and nothing else matters. I’ve loved her sassy ass from the minute I saw her, and I bided my time. I am now done with all that shit.”
He nods and begins to work. It only takes about ninety minutes to get the ink done and Miles does not talk at all during the session. I use the time to think about Penny. She is the greatest gift to ever happen to me, and I got to prove it to her. I know she thinks I don’t know anything about her, but I do.
She does not only want to be someone’s wife, even if that someone is me. The reason I know is because I overheard her talking to Ava seven months ago. She knew then that this was inevitable, but she was still seventeen and out of reach.
When he is done wrapping it up, I throw my shirt back on and pay the agreed price. It looks amazing and I hope Penny will love it.
“You should come to the BBQ we are having next weekend for Rosy’s homecoming. It should be a blast. Bring whoever.” I say as I am leaving.
“That sounds good man. See you then.”
After the tattoo shop, I head to the big box store in St. Paul. We need diapers and formula. With three babies the best way is to buy in bulk. While I am there, I pick up a few other things we need. As I am almost done, I see a giant container of Twizzlers. It is my girl’s favorite candy, so I pick that up as well.
When I get back to Max’s, I see Ava’s and Kennedy are there as well. I head in and put the groceries away. The girls are chatting about baby stuff, while there is literally a minefield on tummy timing babies in the living room. As soon as I get near Dale, he seems to know I am close and I bend down to pick him up.
I wince when I accidentally put him on the tattoo side and quickly adjust him. I hear Penny sigh and when I look up our eyes connect. That same spark flows through the room, like there is static electricity everywhere. Unfortunately, now is not the time or place.
“Hey ladies. How was your day?” I ask going into the kitchen. I see all the fixings for BLTs are out.
As I am putting the groceries away, I notice her eyes linger on Twizzlers. I could swear there are tears in eyes, but who gets emotional about candy?
“Fantastic.” Kennedy says.
“Pretty good.” Ava says at the same time.
“It was okay?” Penny says. Stopping for a moment, I take a minute to really look at her. She is pale, and her eyes are red.
“Penny? Are you okay? You don’t look so good.” Her eyes close when I say ‘Penny’, but they pop back open for the last part.
‘I mean, you are always beautiful, but you look like you don’t feel well.” I correct as I feel her forehead. “Seems normal. Why don’t you let me take the night shift tonight and you get some rest?” Her name feels good rolling off my tongue again.
“That sounds good. Have you eaten? I can make you a sandwich.” She says.
“I’ll take care of it, Penny. You just visit with the girls.” I say as I start making a sandwich and finish putting away all the stuff.
Later that night, after the girls had gone home and the babies were asleep, I started cleaning. When I could not sleep as a teenager, my mom taught me a productive way to get sleepy. I cleaned the bathrooms and then started on sorting the laundry. You would be amazed at how much laundry we do in a day. There are at least five loads a day to keep them in clean onesies.
I find quite a bit of money in our pockets tonight, because I always check the pockets. I washed a movie ticket stub once and had to throw the entire load out. Sweatpants and little balls of paper don’t mix.
When I get to a pair of Penny’s jeans, I notice a huge piece of paper folded into a square and tucked into the back pocket. It looks like it might be a flyer that would be on your windshield in parking lot, so I didn’t think anything of opening it. Instead of a flyer, it was two different drug safety info packets from the pharmacy. One for prenatal vitamins. The other for an anti-nausea medicine.
I toss it to the side before it registered what I read. It was filled just yesterday. My girl is fucking pregnant and she hasn’t told me? What. The. Fuck? Just when I think I can forgive her and move on, there is something else thrown in our path. She fucking kept this shit from me. Pissed is beyond what I am feeling. Deep down, I have no doubt she thinks she has a good reason, but right now…I have no fucks to give.
Grabbing the papers from where I tossed them, I head to her room. I know I should wait until she is awake, but I need the words from her now. All the words. Since her door is open, I walk in and over to the bed. She has kicked the covers off and I notice she has on my Viking’s jersey, that no longer fits. I have no clue where it was and I don’t know where she found the damn thing. It’s so short on her and I can see her pretty pink pussy peeking out. I stifle a groan and clench my fist to keep from reaching for her.
“Penelope Jane Kimber. Wake up right the fuck now!” There is no way I can help the anger radiating from my voice and suddenly I am pissed again.
“Jace? What’s wrong, baby?”
“You tell me.”