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“And we’re glad to be here,” Xavier says. “You have no idea how bad the coffee was at the hotel we stayed at. And the client had these desserts catered in, and they were nowhere close to being as good as yours. We were desperate.”
That makes Penelope giggle, and she reaches over to poke him. “I knew you only wanted me for my lemon bars,” she teases.
Xavier mimes being shot in the heart dramatically, gasping and nearly rolling off the bed.
I roll my eyes at him, but it’s more fond than actually annoyed. “How do you have this much energy this late at night?” I mutter.
“I don’t,” he answers, yawning. “This is my last gasp before I pass out.”
Penelope laughs, and it’s nice to see the way she snuggles down between us, all traces of the frustration from her earlier phone call disappearing. She seems happy, and it’s a relief tobreathe deeply and inhale her scent, letting it wash away the tangle of smells that always comes along with plane travel.
It’s a quiet night, and Xavier teases some more before dropping off into sleep.
“He’s like an excited puppy,” Tristan murmurs. “Tires himself out and then passes out wherever he is.”
“At least he’s in a bed,” Penelope offers.
“I think we all would prefer to be in your bed, given the choice.”
She smiles at him, leaning into it as he keeps stroking her hair.
It’s been interesting watching Tristan grapple with his feelings for her. Xavier and I leaned into them a while ago, giving up any pretense of not wanting her, but Tristan was clinging so damned stubbornly to that emotionless mask of his.
Whatever passed between him and Penelope lately has opened him up, and that has made Penelope happy in a way that radiates to all of us. It’s like a dam has broken, and all the things that were being held back—feelings, emotions, gestures—are just rushing out. And no one is complaining about it.
Tristan falls asleep soon after, leaving just me and Penelope awake.
I take over stroking her hair, and she leans into me, resting her forehead against my chest.
“I didn’t want to sound needy on the phone,” she whispers, the words moving against my skin. “I know you guys have important business to deal with, and I wasn’t trying to tear you away from it.”
“We know that, little bird,” I murmur back. “We made the choice. Being here with you is important to us.”
She hums, clearly pleased. “Thank you. For saying that. For coming back. I was not looking forward to the next couple days without you.”
I nod, twisting a lock of her hair around my finger. “This is all new to me, you know,” I say, not sure what’s compelling me to bring this up. “All this… affection and warmth.”
“Yeah?” She lifts her head, looking at me in the dark.
“Yeah. My family… I don’t talk about them a lot.”
“I remember at the wedding, Xavier said they weren’t good people.”
“They aren’t. My father was cold and demanding, and my mother just… didn’t care that he didn’t love me. They’re business people through and through, and just like you have to work hard to turn a profit in a business, my father made me work hard for every scrap of affection I ever got from him. If I didn’t make perfect grades, I didn’t get to eat dinner with them. If I ‘embarrassed’ them in front of their friends, I had to go to my room for the rest of the night. If I complained to my mother about how hard my father was being on me, she’d just give me this distant look and say, ‘you know how he is,’.” I swallow hard, biting back the anger that I still feel because the way I grew up.
“Dominic…” Penelope whispers.
“I always had to be the best, and he kept moving the goal posts, so I had no idea what it even meant to be the best after a while. Anything less that perfection was a waste of time, and my father didn’t hesitate to tell me that I was a waste of time too. Everything was conditional, transactional, and I knew that even when I was on his good side, it wasn’t going to last.”
Penelope’s eyes are big and sad as she looks at me, and she traces her finger in idle patterns on my chest. “That sounds horrible,” she says. “Who could treat their child that way? And your mother didn’t do anything to protect you?”
I laugh, but it comes out bitter. “Oh, he treated everyone that way. Even her most of the time. She was determined to keep up appearances, so everyone would think we were the perfectfamily. We all had to be on our toes all the time because anything less was complacency, and that wasn’t allowed.”
“Trading success and looking good for your family’s happiness. What a concept.” She shakes her head. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
I shrug. “It is what it is. I don’t like how it sounds when I say it made me who I am, but I guess in trying to distance myself from their bullshit, I turned into the person I am today.”
“A good person,” Penelope emphasizes. “Someone who cares about people.”