Penny didn’t have to answer verbally. She was sure the guilt on her face said it all.
Addie sighed. “Oh, Penelope. I get it. Jaxson is a very attractive man. He’s new and exciting and different. But, as antiquated and unfair as it is, there’s some truth to what Lenny said, you know.”
“I know.” Penny summoned a smile. “But on the bright side, it’s not like I burned any bridges I’d planned on crossing anyway.”
“What about Jaxson?”
“What about him?” Penny asked with a shrug. “I probably won’t see him again. He’s relocating to Sanctuary for the remainder of his visit, and then he’s heading back to Virginia.”
“Oh, Penny.” Addie pulled her into a hug.
“It’s fine. I’m okay. Really.”
At least, that was what Penny kept telling herself. Maybe if she said it often enough, she would be.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jaxson
Sanctuary was great. The guys were great. Sam was great.
That gnawing ache in his gut, the constant jonesing because he hadn’t seen Penny? Not so great.
Jaxson had expected to run into her at least once. For the first few days he’d been in town, she’d been there every time he turned around. Ever since the night he’d thrown caution to the wind and favored his little head over his big one, she hadn’t appeared on his radar once.
She hadn’t called or texted or shown up unexpectedly with flowers and some lame excuse for being there.
That was what he’d wanted, right? No strings, no attachments, no promises he couldn’t keep. A one-time thing. Just two adults who shared a mutual physical attraction, satisfying each other’s needs.
So why was he disappointed that Penny had finally taken his words and wishes to heart?
He had been keeping busy, and that helped somewhat.
One day, Smoke had driven him and Sam down to Pine Ridge to meet a doctor friend of theirs, a former SEAL named Michael Callaghan. The test had been quick and painless, and less than twenty-four hours later, they had their answer. He and Sam were definitely brother and sister.
This afternoon, Doc and Sam took him to visit an old man in town, Mr. O’Farrell. The guy was older than dirt but sharp and active and newly wed to Tina’s eighty-something-year-old grandmother.
That visit was as equally illuminating as the DNA test, if not more so. Mr. O’Farrell had known Sam’s grandfather, Martin Appelhoff. He recalled that one night, Martin had shown up at O’Malley’s and gotten soused, which was totally out of character. Mr. O’Farrell had walked him home, and the elder Appelhoff had told him the story.
“In those days, people weren’t as open about things as they are today, and small towns like Sumneyville are slower to evolve than most,” Mr. O’Farrell told them. “Mental health issues were seen as something to be ashamed of. An indication of faulty upbringing or a lack of discipline that reflected poorly on them. Being the strict, old-world types they were, they thought the way to deal with Ilsa was to pull the reins even tighter.
“But pull something tight enough for long enough and it’ll eventually snap. Ilsa went out and got herself pregnant, adding insult to injury in her parents’ eyes. Things reached a head when Ilsa refused to give up the name of the baby’s father. Martin gave her an ultimatum: reveal the name and get married to make the child legitimate or get out. She chose the latter. I don’t think he’d expected that.
“She came back once, as I recall, around Christmastime. I ran into her in town. I swear I’d never seen the girl smile so wide. She said she was going to see her parents. That Christmas was the time for forgiveness and second chances. I wished her luck, but she had her work cut out for her. Martin Appelhoff was a stubborn, prideful fool. That was the last I ever saw of Ilsa.
“The next night was when I walked her father home. He told me that he’d turned her away when she still refused to give up the name of the baby’s father. I think he assumed, like we all did, that it was someone in town.
“Then, a couple years later, social services showed up with little Sammy, but as far as I know, no one knew anything about you.”
“Someone knew,” Jaxson pointed out to Sam on the way back to Sanctuary, “How else would my—our—father wind up with me? Someone had to reach out to him. It doesn’t explain why he didn’t take you too though.”
“We could try to dig into social services records,” Doc suggested.
“Does it matter who knew what when?” Sam asked quietly. “Our parents are gone. The important thing is, we found each other.”
* * *
Later that night, Jaxson was lying in his room, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about what Sam had said and trying not to think about Penny.
Did it matter?
To him, it did. He wanted confirmation that the man he’d loved and respected hadn’t known about Sam. That if he had, things would have been different.
At the same time, Jaxson understood Sam’s desire to keep the past in the past and move forward. She’d had years to come to terms with things and make a good life for herself. She was settled and happy.
He wasn’t. Unlike Sam, he was still trying to figure things out.
That was why, after Sam had gone back to her cabin with her husband, Jaxson had sought out Doc and Cage and asked them to find out what they could. If Sam didn’t want to know, that was her prerogative.
In the meantime, it was time for him to head back to Campbell’s Junction. The last few days had left him reeling, and he needed time to process. He suspected Sam did, too.
He closed his eyes.
He’d leave first thing in the morning.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Penny
Penny couldn’t help but look for Jaxson everywhere she went, but the days passed without so much as a glimpse of him or his motorcycle.
She returned to her usual routine, which included staying up late, making early morning deliveries, and losing herself in creating unique floral arrangements. The only exception was, she spent even less time behind the counter. It seemed that everyone and their mother was coming into the shop, wanting to know more about the mysterious biker and his dark connection to Sumneyville.
Overly dramatic, but that was the Sumneyville gossip vine. It wasn’t as if they had anything better to talk about. Rick Obermacher’s ongoing affair with Marietta Buschetti had become old news, as was the disappearance of the town’s only accountant, Luther Renninger, after sending half the local businesses into bankruptcy.
The only other scuttlebutt worthy of mention was the buyout of Obermacher Farms—a staple of the community for over four centuries—by billionaire and Celtic Goddess CEO Aidan Harrison. Of course, some people said that was Sanctuary’s doing since Tina Obermacher had taken up with Doc, but anyone with half a brain knew that it was Tina’s brothers and their shady dealings with Luther that had brought the farm down.
Penny’s mother was far more adept at handling those inquiries and deftly changing subjects than she was. Plus, Addie said that Penny displayed her feelings too clearly and that the gossipmongers would have a field day with that.
To help pass the time and give herself something to focus on other than Jaxson, Penny set a new objective for herself. To figure out who had followed Jaxson and attacked him that night at the motel.