Page 7 of While the Sun Shines

And probably also blushing from Penny pressing her arm against his as they smiled for the camera, sitting shoulder to shoulder on the kitchen counter.

God, enough. He needs the shear bolts, not a reminder that he’s spent the ten years since that photo flushing that same bright red whenever she brushes too close.

Down the hall, a door slams.

“Drew!” Penny shrieks.

He slips on a stray sock as he rounds his bed and jerks his door open. “What, what? What’s wrong?”

A problem with her bedroom, more water damage and rot, an animal that burrowed into the attic, a raccoon helping itself to space in the house like a new damn roommate, or oh God, a fire, a spark of a candle or that breaker he’s sure he shut off, he did, he’s sure he did, he checked when he pulled out the wiring in Whit’s room, but what if he did it wrong oh fucking shit—

“I am never—” Drew hears Penny say.

Another door slams.

“Ever—”

A squeal of distress. No, that’s not distress; that’s laughter. That’s Cooper laughing. Drew sticks his head into the hallway, and Penny’s standing outside the door to her room in the shorts and shirt she sleeps in, her hand clapped over her eyes.

“Never, ever again do I want to see that fucking ass. Cooper was naked,” she says, shoving her index finger back toward her own room. “Drew!”

“I was in the shower!” Cooper yells from their bathroom that joins his room to Penny’s. “You’re supposed to be naked!”

“Then shut the fucking door!” Penny yells back.

“Your face, Pen.” Cooper pokes his head out of his room, another door down the hall, his hair wet, water still clinging to his bare shoulders. “Oh my God, I’ll never forget that sight.”

“I don’t want to see your goddamn butt!”

“Then knock, here, like this.” Cooper holds a towel in front of his crotch, and with his other hand, taps his knuckles against his door. Downstairs, Sadie barks. “See? Works wonders.”

“You were supposed to be out in the fucking barn already. What happened to milking? And that’s my goddamn shower, Cooper!”

“Technically, it’s our shower, roomie. And Whit’s milking this morning.” Cooper waggles his eyebrows. “He owes me a favor.”

“I don’t want to fucking know!” Penny drags her hands down her face, her fingers digging into her cheeks. “Drew. Please tell me that their bathroom will be finished tomorrow. That it’s actually done now. That I never, ever again have to see Cooper naked.”

“C’mon, I’m kinda a treat,” Cooper says, giving his hips a little shimmy behind the towel.

“Ever,” Penny says.

“I didn’t get a chance to work on their room last night, but I will, I swear,” Drew says.

Penny points a finger at him. “I’ve heard that one.”

“I’m sorry,” Drew says.

“Heard that one, too.” She turns the finger toward Cooper. “Stay. Don’t move. Don’t drop that towel. Fucking superglue it to your butt cheeks. I’m going to brush my teeth, and if you step foot in that bathroom, I won’t be responsible for what happens.”

“Try to practice your knocking skills so it doesn’t happen again,” Cooper calls after her.

She answers by tossing her door shut.

“Tough crowd.” Cooper slips back into his own room.

When Drew gets downstairs, Whit’s pouring water into the coffee maker. “What was all that noise?”

“I think your boyfriend is on Penny’s hit list,” Drew says. “That, or I need to get you guys a different shower curtain.”