“For my grandfather.”
Luca nodded. “Yeah.”
“I expected that.”
“But there is something else,” Luca said.
His tone dropped.
He also looked away.
“Something bad?” Penny asked first.
“No, but—”
“Something about New York?”
His gaze slammed back into hers. “We’re going to have visitors. You should probably get dressed.”
Penny’s heart slammed hard in her chest. “Who?”
But she thought she probably already knew.
“YOU lied to me,” Penny hissed, tossing the hoodie away that Luca tried to offer her. One of the over-sized black hoodies that she kept in her travel bag when she was working because it was a staple in her wardrobe. A must. Hoodies made everything better when she put one on and flipped up the hood—she could hide away—except right now. Nothing was good now. It might have been cold outside, but she didn’t want to take something he tried to give her when she was pissed. Petty? Maybe. She was allowed her moments. “You made me think we were going to come here because it was safe, but really it was to get Naz and Roz—”
“Penny, stop it.”
Luca’s words weren’t even sharp, but the way he glanced at her—those green-blue eyes of his piercing right through her rant with enough force to shove her next words back down her throat—had Penny quieting. Even if she did glare when she did it.
“I didn’t lie,” he said. “I only told Naz where we were in a way that he would understand. What he chose to do after that was out of my control. Shit, he didn’t even tell me they were making the trip until he was already halfway here. You think Naz is stupid? He knew I would tell you. Don’t worry—my friend knows where my loyalties are right now. He had to learn the hard way. Just like everybody else.”
Penny stiffened as the sound of tires rolling against the gravel driveway leading up to the lodge reached her spot. She only needed to glance to the side to look out the windows on either side of the lodge’s French front doors to see the approach of the black BMW. Tinted windows and distance kept her from seeing beyond the front windshield.
Her attention went back to Luca.
“What the hell did that shot about your loyalty mean?” she asked.
Luca was unphased at her attitude. “Wasn’t a shot. Wasn’t even a blow. It’s the truth. I’m here because of you—I’m going to stay that way.”
Well, then ...
She still wanted to be mad. A part of her thought he was lying about Naz and Roz’s arrival at the lodge. But nothing he said was a lie, and she knew it. It would be a low blow for her to push the line and call Luca on it when—above everyone—his intentions were always the best when it came to her. He didn’t even try to pretend otherwise.
Not that she had the time to consider it. The approaching car was now parked twenty feet away from the front of the lodge, right beside the slate gray Vanquish.
“It’s not safe for them to be here,” she told him.
Penny headed for the front door to pull it open. Luca followed close behind, murmuring, “I know, and so do they. It’s clearly a risk they’re willing to take.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“Too late, Penny.”
She didn’t need to be told.
Silence settled over the property when they stepped out on the lodge’s front porch. Across the gravel drive, Naz had already stepped out of the driver’s seat and rounded the BMW to open the passenger door. Penny was stuck in place; frozen like a statue. She couldn’t take her eyes off the woman who exited the car using her husband’s hand to help.
Roz didn’t look away from her, either.
Penny hadn’t expected the moment when she came face to face with Rosalynn to be so ... quiet. Or that her heart would feel as heavy as it did when Roz swallowed hard, and swiped away a stray tear that dared to fall down her cheek while her husband murmured something next to her. Roz nodded, glancing away from Penny for the first time to turn around and open the back door.
Naz leaned inside the vehicle, and Penny sucked in a shaky breath, asking, “They brought him, too?”
Little Cross, she meant.
Luca only shrugged. “Guess so.”
God.
She wanted this.
She also knew it could be bad. Especially if someone followed them or—
“Just ... say hello,” Luca said softly, his hand finding the small of her back. It took nothing more than his touch for her to lean closer. “All you have to do is say hi.”
Right. Of course, he would take her silence as a sign of nerves. He also wasn’t wrong even if she was trying to deal with far more than her emotions.
But what about the rest?
Penny didn’t have time to consider it. The second the Vans of a little boy hit the gravel, the rest disappeared. Little Cross walked just beyond the rear passenger door, laid eyes on Penny, and that was it for her. The kid beamed—his smile grew faster than her own, if she were being honest.
She was sure the rest of them hadn’t been expecting the kid to look at her and immediately shout, “Penny!”
He darted away from his parents before they could even consider capturing him. His navy blue windbreaker matched the color of his khakis. He was a tornado of energy coming her way—without any care at all—and she couldn’t help but laugh.
The two met at the bottom of the steps. She bent down with open arms that he rushed into for a hug, but then just as quickly pulled back to stare at her with those dark, familiar eyes.
“You’re back,” he said.
Penny smiled. “Not technically.”
The little scrunch of his nose said the almost six-year-old didn’t like that answer at all.
“Back?” she heard Naz ask.
Luca let out a sigh. “There are still some things to explain, man.”
“That so?”
“Naz—”
“I get it, Luca.”
He sounded like he did. It was also entirely possible to understand a situation and be pissed off about it, too. Penny and little Cross watched the exchange, but her attention drifted to the quiet woman watching from further away.
Roz didn’t come as close as Naz had—she wasn’t crying, but the water hadn’t left her gaze, either. There was pain in her stare, but also joy. It dripped from the warm, motherly smile that curved Roz’s lips the longer the two watched one another.
“Hey, Roz,” Penny whispered.
She stood; little Cross let her go, but didn’t move away. Roz, on the other hand, didn’t move a muscle. Even when she replied, “Hey, Penny. A few years really ... grew you up, didn’t it?”
Penny laughed, not expecting that. “Something like that.”
In the same black cargo pants and crop top that she had been wearing the day before, Penny was sure she didn’t look at all like the image of the young teenager that Roz had tried to save. She wasn’t that girl anymore—this woman was someone else entirely. It was unfortunate that the woman who inspired Penny to find happiness so long ago hadn’t been able to watch her transition into this person she became, but she hoped Roz would still love her the way she had when she needed it the most.