Page 113 of The Complete Truth Duet
My breath left me on a rush. “Jesus, Drew! What the hell are you doing here? Don’t sneak up on a man like that.”
He slapped on the light, nearly blinding me. “I didn’t sneak up on you, dickhead. I woke your sorry ass up. You sat up and everything. Then you went for your dick like the start of some seriously fucked-up porn.”
Okay, so I clearly had not fully woken up between my nightmare-turned-wet-dream.
Well played, subconscious. Well played.
Using one arm to shield my eyes from the light, I opened the drawer on my nightstand and tucked the gun inside. “You scared the shit out of me.”
He planted his hands on his hips. “Yeah, well. I’d way rather that any day over watching you jerk your dick.”
“Would you shut the fuck up?” I hissed.
And then, as if on cue…
“Penn?” Her frightened voice fluttered down the hallway.
Outstanding.
I started toward the door to put her mind at ease when I caught a glimpse of Drew’s face. Swear to God, his mouth was hanging open so wide that I thought his jaw was going to come unhinged.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” he snarled. “It hasn’t even been two weeks and you got a woman here? Are. You. Kidding me?”
I shot him a bored glare. “It’s Savannah, you ass.”
When I got into the hall, I found her standing outside her bedroom door. She was still wearing the oversized sleep shirt, but she’d shed the pajama pants at some point.
“Go back to bed. It’s just Drew,” I told her.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
I uncomfortably scratched the back of my head. “Yeah. He…surprised me. That’s all.”
She visibly relaxed until Drew took the opportunity to make things weird again.
“Oh my God, please tell me you’re not seriously sleeping with Savannah.”
I jerked around, ready to feed him my fist just to make him shut the hell up, but Savannah got there first.
“Ew! No! That’d be gross. Penn’s my new daddy.”
My life, ladies and gentlemen. My life.
I snapped my fingers at Savannah. “Stop saying that.” Then I looked back at Drew. “And you, stop saying anything. I woke up, like, thirty-seven seconds ago. Can I please have a minute to figure what day of the week it is before dealing with your ludicrous accusations?”
With a challenge, he stepped toward me. “It’s Thursday. Now, what the hell is she doing here?”
Stealing a move from Cora’s playbook, I rolled my eyes, walked past him, and headed straight to the coffee maker, calling out, “Go back to bed, kid.”
“Night, Drew. Night—”
“Don’t say it, Savannah,” I grumbled, cutting her off before whatever variation of dad fell from her tongue.
She giggled, but thankfully, only Drew’s footsteps followed after me.
I gave him my back as I went to work on the coffee grounds. I’d texted Drew the address from my new phone as soon as I’d secured the place. Though I’d never given him a key or the security code.
“How’d you get in?” I asked, taking out two mugs.
“Why is she here?” he replied.
I’d have rather gone back to listening to him talk about my dick than have this conversation. But there was no way he was going to let it go. “I promised Cora I’d get her back.”
“Yeah,” he scoffed. “Then you died.”
I turned around, propping my ass against the counter. “No, Drew. Penn Walker died. But me, Shane? I promised Cora that day that I’d get her back. So I did.”
His mouth gaped as he gave me a slow blink. “And what now? You just gonna keep the kid forever? Because she sure as hell can’t go back to Cora now.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “And why not?”
“Because you are dead!” He started pacing the length of the kitchen. “What the hell is going through your head right now? First, you leave her all those damn stars and the money, and then you blow everything to get the kid?”
“I didn’t blow anything. What would you have rather me do? Leave her there? She was standing on a freaking street corner, looking for a john so she could buy drugs.”
He stopped pacing, raking a rough hand through the top of his hair. “You could have called me. I would have gone and gotten her.”
“I didn’t have time for that,” I stated definitively.
He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “You didn’t have time? Or didn’t want to make time? Because I’ll be honest: I think you’re doing this shit on purpose. You shut the door with Cora, but you’ve been leaving the window cracked every chance you get. You planning to come back, Penn? Something I need to know about?”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“Then open your damn mouth and tell me what you are doing. Giving money to the poor? Saving kids off the street? Coming back from the grave? Where I’m standing, it looks like you’re one step away from becoming Jesus Christ himself.”
