He arched an eyebrow at that. I shrugged.
“I tried to tell them that we weren’t famous, but I guess, we look famous here.”
“And how did they find out about all of that?”
I explained about Mary Beth and the alumni page that had generated my newfound celebrity status.
“I see. And so, when Michael got mad, that’s when he had all the girls get away from you.”
“Yes, and he was mad and said I was selfish and basically…nothing. And well, I’d had this realization while Mel’s friends went postal on me. I finally realized why you always say that you can’t escape the Upper East Side. Because I couldn’t. Even here in Charleston. Somewhere so far away from that life, and it had followed me here. And I haven’t been a part of it for very long while you were raised there your whole life.” I sheepishly looked up at him. “Before, whenever you said you wanted to escape but couldn’t, I used to think that you were being a bit…dramatic.”
He shrugged. “I really wish that I were.”
“But you actually can’t escape it, can you?”
He shook his head. “No, I can’t.”
“It follows you. The prestige, the name, the ramifications of who you are being more important than you. Even the people who had known me before got swept up in my new persona. And it’s like that for you all the time.”
“Yes. Which is why it was so refreshing when I met you in Paris. You had no idea who I was. And I don’t think that you cared.”
“I didn’t.”
“I was an ass for leading you on through the city and leaving after, but I’ve thought about that night a lot. How I wished my whole life could be that anonymous. But that’s not possible. And it becomes less and less so every time my mother runs for reelection, which happens to be this year. Court and I were talking about it.”
My brows rose in shock. “You and your brother talked?”
“Yes, and it was shockingly cordial.”
“Wow. That’s huge, Penn.”
“Oddly, I think he likes you. Like…as a person, not as a conquest. Which is another shocker for me.”
“I’m so glad that you two talked. That it was productive.”
“Me too, surprisingly.” He blinked as if the thought of him and Court getting along was too foreign. “So, you found out the Upper East Side isn’t so easy to shake after all.”
“Yes. And then I kind of channeled that into Michael.”
“Oh?”
I fully faced him. “I think I went full Katherine Van Pelt on him.”
He cracked a smile and then burst into laughter.
“What?” I gasped.
“You’re so serious right now.”
“I, like, verbally assaulted him.”
“Nat, he probably deserved it.”
“Yeah, well, he did, but I’d promised Melanie. And then he didn’t even tell. I was so confused.”
Penn patted my hand. “We call this using your superpower for good.”
“It felt good at the time but not after. I felt like I’d betrayed Mel’s trust.”
“Look, what you found out about Michael is that he’s all bark and no bite. When he recognized you as an actual challenger, he ran with his tail between his legs. You protected your sister. No one was hurt. And the bad guy was put in his place. What part of that is bad?”
I frowned. I hadn’t really considered it from that perspective. “I guess…none of it.”
Except how it’d made me feel.
But it had been worth it, too.
Maybe doing something bad for the right reason made a difference. More a vigilante than a villain.
“I think this has been very illuminating for me as well,” Penn said. He moved a stray strand of hair off of my face and lopped it behind my ear.
“Oh, I’m sure. You see how small town my life is compared to where you’re from,” I joked. “How cute and Southern it is here.”
“I saw where you got your strength and your beautiful mind and that quick wit. I’ve seen the love your parents have for each other even though they come from completely different places. I see how your sister hero-worships me.”
I nudged him. “She does not.”
“She does. I’d never seen you outside of my element. It’s nice to see the Natalie Bishop who has no expectations on her shoulders. The one who can navigate this world as well as mine.”
“I do not navigate either very well,” I told him honestly.
He pulled my lips to his. “You’re very, very wrong. You move between worlds so seamlessly; sometimes, it scares me.”
“Bad scary?” I asked against his lips.
He shook his head. “Never with you.”
“That’s good. I like seeing you dressed down and just hanging out here. No stuffy suits or Upper East Side lifestyle. No Hamptons. None of your friends. Just us.”
He nodded and then leaned his forehead against mine. “Me too.”
“We should do this more often.” I closed my eyes with a sigh of relief.
“Natalie?”
“Hmm?”
“I love you.”
My heart skipped a beat. Those words. The three tiny words that I’d died to hear him say. And been terrified to hear. That I’d rejected the last time we were in Charleston. Even though I’d ached to hear them.
My breath released, and I threaded our fingers together. “I love you, too.”
Then he kissed me, and I forgot the boat and the waves and the whole universe. Penn Kensington loved me. He was mine.
Chapter 24
Natalie
We said good-bye to Melanie and my parents the next morning. Amy promised to come visit us in the city, which I thought was secretly so that she could see Enzo, but I was okay with that, too. I wanted Amy to be happy.
Even though Penn and I had been together all weekend, I dropped my bag off at my place and then went back to Penn’s to stay the night. It was much easier to celebrate being in love when we had a huge king-size bed to enjoy.
And it was worse, seeing him get up, put on a suit, and head to work. This whole work thing was for the birds. I didn’t even want to think about my work. Caroline couldn’t believe I was turning down seven figures because of my ex-boyfriend, but considering the restraining order I had out, I didn’t think that I even could sign with Warren. Probably a conflict of interest. I’d promised her another manuscript to send out. Possibly another pen name. Though I was sick to my stomach, thinking about sending out my literary novels under any other name than my own. It made it more difficult to work on.
Still, I booted up my computer, which I’d neglected all weekend. And there was my research on the Anselin-Maguire case. I’d forgotten all about it in the bliss of the weekend. But here it was all over again.
I closed out of my manuscript and got to digging. There had to be something here. A reason that Lewis was meeting with people at random house parties and closing business deals after dinner. That wasn’t normal. No matter how I’d pushed it aside in the moment.
I read through the first three pages of information on Anselin, and nothing came up. I added Anselin and Warren and searched to see if there were any matches. Another couple of pages passed by. Apparently, they did a lot of business. Or at least, there was a lot of talk about it. It was the next page that I finally stopped to read through.