Naughty but Nice: A Best Friend's Dad Christmas Romance Page 12

  “I need some space to try and wrap my head around what is going on here. I don’t like it, though. Not one bit. I have to be honest with you, Penny. I don’t think you’re making the right decision here, no matter what Gabriel says or what you think is happening between you two.”

  I resisted the urge to point out that she’d never agreed with any of my decisions after leaving to go to college. None of those decisions had ruined my life like she predicted they would. Her decisions were the ones that had fucked up everything in my life, not mine.

  “The police called just before I got out of bed and let me know that they had Dylan in custody. I’m going back to my hotel room,” she said, sighing. “When you come to your senses, Penny, come talk to me.”

  A tumult of emotions crashed over me. I knew that I was an adult and shouldn’t care about my mother’s opinions or approval, but I did.

  She turned and walked away. I clutched Gabriel’s hand tightly, and we watched my mother stride out into the bright daylight and hail a cab.

  “Are you okay, Penny?” Gabriel asked.

  My eyes slipped closed at the gentle question. “I’m fine, Gabriel. It’s just going to take a lot of convincing to get her to calm down.”

  “It was difficult for her to see us like that,” he said. “I know that it was. I would be very upset as a parent if I came home to find Neil kissing Alyssa.”

  Gabriel rested the top of his chin on my head. “Don’t worry about a thing, Penny. Everything is going to work out in the end.”

  The doors to the lobby opened again followed by an icy blast of frigid winter air. I pulled back from Gabriel’s arms just in time as Alyssa stepped inside. She stopped in surprise to see the two of us standing there. She swept a look over us before letting out a long groan.

  “Please tell me nothing bad happened while I was gone,” she said.

  “Nothing happened,” I said.

  Liar.

  That lone word lingered in the back of my mind as I followed Gabriel and Alyssa to the elevator. Now that my mother knew what was going on, God only knew how long it would be until Alyssa found out.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN – GABRIEL

  It had physically hurt to let go of Penny the night before, but I knew that she needed time alone to gather her thoughts. After parting ways and going to bed, I had stared up at the dark ceiling of my bedroom for a majority of the night while I mentally went over what I would say to Nikki to calm her fears. I did care about Penny, more than I ever had about another woman since Kelly.

  There was just something about the connection between the two of us that I couldn’t put my finger on. I wanted our relationship to keep going forward. The realization hit me hard the next morning when I rose after a few hours of troubled sleep to shower and dress for the day. I wanted a relationship. Not just a fling, like Nikki firmly believed that I wanted from her daughter.

  I padded my way down the hallway past Alyssa’s closed door. I sighed in relief to find Penny perched on her usual barstool near the kitchen island with a full cup of coffee in hand. She turned to look at me with puffy red eyes as I entered the kitchen.

  “Morning,” she said. “I’m glad that I’m not the only who looks like shit after last night.”

  “You aren’t the only who lost sleep,” I said, gladly pouring myself a cup of coffee. I sat down next to Penny on the other stool. “Did you talk to your mom anymore after she left last night?”

  Penny shrugged her shoulders indifferently. “Nothing different than the conversation back in the lobby. She offered to come get me if I changed my mind about coming back to New York with her for Christmas. You know, ‘if I came to my senses’, as she put it.”

  I grimaced at that. I didn’t like feeling like I was some sort of sick man for being attracted to a woman who was a consenting adult. The accusation that Nikki had tossed at me the night before didn’t sit well with me at all. None of her accusations were true, and I didn’t know how to show her she was wrong about me.

  “It’s going to be difficult,” Penny continued, tracing the rim of her coffee cup. “You realize that, right? If you meant everything that you said last night, my mom was just the start of it.”

  I set my cup down to wrap an arm around Penny’s shoulders. I drew her in and pressed a tender kiss to her temple. I savored the feeling of her sinking into me without hesitation. She felt so right in my arms, like she was always meant to be there.

  “I meant every word of what I said,” I told her. “I care about you. We went about this in the wrong way, without a doubt, but we can still be together if that’s what you want too.”

  “It is,” she said. “It’s what I want. More than anything in the world.”

  My heart pounded with relief, hearing her say that. Penny leaned back to land a quick kiss on my lips with a small smile. She looked down at her lap for a long time before looking up at me with tired eyes.

  “I have to go talk to my mom at some point today,” she said. “Try to smooth things over. I don’t think she’s going to leave without a fight if I don’t convince her that I’m okay.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” I said. “How about I talk to her instead? Just me and her.”

  Penny leaned farther back to look at me skeptically. “Are you sure about that? I don’t know how well that would be received by her. She isn’t very happy with you at the moment.”

  “I know. It’ll be a confrontation at first.” My head ached just thinking about it as I took a long drink of my coffee. “It has to happen, though. I think she’ll be okay once I talk to her about everything.”

  “She thinks you’ve pressured me into being with you. Like you tricked me somehow, and you’re just using me for sex.”

  I shook my head sadly. “I’ll figure out a way to convince her that isn’t the case here. Because it’s the truth. I never once forced you into something you didn’t want to be in.”

  “I know,” Penny murmured, and she lifted her coffee up to take a sip. “Dylan was pushier than you ever were, and my mother was the reason he was in my life at all. You think she’d start questioning her judgment, not mine.”

  “I’m getting you a new phone by the way,” I said, hopping down from my seat when I heard the toilet flush from down the hallway—a sign that Alyssa was up for the day. “I don’t want that bastard having any possible way of getting ahold of you.”

  “I don’t think he can,” she said. “I blocked every possible way he could in touch with me.”

  “It’s better to be safe than sorry,” I said.

  I pressed a quick kiss to Penny’s forehead before I took a step back to put distance between the two of us. The last thing that Penny and I needed to deal with was Alyssa finding out before we could talk to her. Things were complicated enough with just Nikki knowing. We had to put that fire out first before adding my daughter to the mix.

  Alyssa shuffled into the kitchen like a zombie, rubbing at her eyes tiredly. She grumbled under her breath while reaching for a coffee mug.

  “Morning,” she yawned out. “It was one weird night last night, right?”

  I caught Penny’s stare over the top of Alyssa’s messy hair. We exchanged a painful smile, and then I bid them both goodbyes for the day. I took the elevator down and strode through the lobby to meet William outside.

  “Good morning, sir,” William said, opening the SUV door with a smile. “Straight to the office this morning?”

  I slid into the backseat. “Just for a few hours today. I have another meeting that I need to get to later.”

  “Yes, sir. You let me know when you are ready to leave.”

  I stared out at the snowy streets and the buildings covered in Christmas decorations. Everything out there looked so festive, but inside the car, a dark cloud hung over my head. Talking to Nikki wouldn’t be easy by any means. She had every right to be upset, but that was all the more reason to put her fears to rest.

  My first meeting of the morning went smoothly. I felt confident watching m
y employees exchange excited grins and cheerful chatter. It helped ease the dread that lingered in the back of my mind.

  Afterward, I pulled Neil into my office so we could talk in private. He must have seen the worry written all over my face.

  “What’s going on?” Neil asked. “What is it?”

  I twisted my hands together in front of me to work out the agitation in my system. I looked Neil straight in the eye because he was the only one at the moment that I could trust, aside from Penny.

  “Penny’s mother found out about us yesterday,” I said. “And it did not go well.”

  Neil’s eyes visibly widened at that. He closed my office door when an employee walked by with a file in hand.

  “Shit, man. What are you going to do?”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I need to make it clear that I’m not using her daughter for my own sexual perversions. I need her to know it’s more than that.”

  “Is that what you’re going to do?” Neil asked. “Pursue something with Penny?”

  “I’m hoping to. That’s what I want to do, if I don’t get a bullet through the head trying to talk to her mom.”

  Neil clasped my hand. “Good luck with that shit. I’ll take care of everything in the office while you work that out.”

  “Thank you, Neil. I appreciate it.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I stood in front of Nikki’s hotel room door, wondering what was on the other side of it. She was still checked in, according to the front desk, but I had no idea what her mood would be like once she saw me.

  I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened before my knuckles could hit the wood. Nikki stood in front of me dressed in a sharp suit. Her fair blonde hair was pulled back from her face, which was stretched in displeasure to see me.

  “Just let me explain,” I said, holding up my hands. “Please hear me out, and try to have an open mind, without coming to your own conclusions first.”

  Nikki folded her arms across her chest while she propped the door open with her hip. She narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Sure,” she said. “I’d love to hear this. By all means, tell me how you ended up with my daughter, who is a good twenty years younger than you.”

  I shook my head at her. “Dylan was a lot younger than you. Age is just a number and you know that.”

  “She’s a child, Gabriel!”

  “She’s not a child anymore, Nikki. She’s an adult who can make her own decisions and do what she wants. She didn’t want to hurt you, and I didn’t want to do that, either.”

  “It’s not hurt that I feel,” Nikki said flatly. “It’s concern for my daughter’s well-being, even if you are right about the age thing.”

  “I care about Penny,” I said fervently. “I need you to believe that. And you know the type of man I am when I love someone.”

  The word “love” slipped off my tongue before I could process it. I swallowed down the tumult of emotions that went through me at that. I loved Penny. That was what drew me in every single time I was around her. We had an indescribable connection, and I realized now that it was because we were falling in love with one another.

  “You love her?” Nikki asked, looking skeptical.

  “Yes,” I said. “I do. I love her, Nikki.”

  Nikki eyed me for a moment and let out a breath. “I can see that I’m not going to dissuade either one of you from this. I swear to you Gabriel, if you hurt my child, I will rain hell down on you the likes of which you’ve never seen.”

  I smiled at her and nodded my head. “I would expect nothing less.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY – PENNY

  I spent the rest of the day pacing around the living room anxiously. There’d been no word from Gabriel and no word from my mother. I wondered if she had actually greeted him at the hotel door with a gun in hand. It was something my mother would do, just to make a statement. Clutching my phone tightly, I kept checking to see if Gabriel had read my text messages yet. It remained unread in his inbox.

  No one was picking up the phone in my mother’s hotel room, either.

  I tapped a finger against the side of my phone impatiently before Googling the hotel number to check with the front desk.

  “It says that Ms. Lewis checked out about thirty minutes ago,” the clerk told me.

  The pit of my stomach dropped at that. She had gone back to New York City upset. I sank down to sit on the edge of the couch while tears filled my eyes.

  Maybe this wasn’t going to work out after all. It thrilled me to know that Gabriel had developed feelings for me, the way I had for him. But it didn’t feel right if my mother was upset over the two of us being together. She might not be perfect, but she was still my mother. I didn’t want to hurt her.

  And even if she ended up accepting my relationship with Gabriel, I knew for a fact that Alyssa would be upset when she found out, too. I didn’t want to hurt her, either. All of that weighed heavily on my shoulders as I sat there numbly for what felt like hours.

  After another hour passed with no reply, I called Gabriel’s office. Maybe he had gotten tied up in a meeting somewhere and didn’t have a chance to reply back. I didn’t like the panicked feeling in the pit of my stomach. I needed to hear his voice, to reassure me that everything was indeed all right.

  “Mr. Bradley left a few hours ago,” the receptionist told me. “I can take your name and number down to deliver a message the next time he is in the office.”

  “That’s okay,” I said, clutching the phone tightly to my ear. “Did he say when he would be back in this afternoon?”

  The receptionist sighed into the phone in obvious irritation. “He said that he would not be back in today at all. Are you sure there isn’t a message you’d like to leave? Someone in the office can try to get ahold of him if you need us to.”

  “No, it’s fine. Thank you for your time.”

  She hung up quickly after bidding me goodbye. I stared out along the city skyline while I played absently with the corners of my phone. The last thing I wanted to do was call Alyssa to see if she could get ahold of Gabriel. I didn’t want to cause alarm, but sheer panic was starting to build in me, given what had happened the past few days.

  The front door opened, and I jumped to my feet. My mother followed Gabriel inside with her suitcases in tow. I let out a relieved breath when I saw them. Not caring that there were tears streaming down my cheeks, I rushed forward to wrap my arms around my mother in a tight hug. She returned it, a bit startled.

  “I couldn’t get ahold of either one of you,” I said. “Do you have any idea how panicked I was, trying to get in touch with you?”

  Gabriel fished through his pockets with a guilty expression. “I left my phone on silent when I took off from my office.”

  “My phone needs to be charged,” my mother said, glancing at her own phone. “Sweetheart, you look like awful.”

  I wiped away the tears from my eyes. “I was worried about the both of you. Gabriel was confident that you were going to put a bullet between his eyes.”

  “Don’t think the thought didn’t cross my mind,” she said wryly. “And I still might, depending on how things go from here. But no, Gabriel and I have been at lunch to talk about everything.”

  “You have?”

  “Yes,” Gabriel said, closing the front door. “I figured it would be a good idea for your mother and me to talk in private without anyone around.”

  “I see.” I scanned the suitcases in the foyer—a subtle sign that indicated she planned on staying for a few more days. “Does that mean you’re okay with this?”

  My mother shrugged out of her coat to place it on the coatrack. She strode across the foyer to cup my cheeks in her cold, soft hands. Her eyes burned into mine.

  “You are my child,” she said firmly. “I will always love you, even when you make decisions that I don’t agree with.”

  Tears burned my eyes again as she pressed a kiss against my forehead. I clutched at her elbows in sheer relief.

  “
Thank you,” I whispered.

  “It’s going to take a bit of adjusting to the idea, but if this is what you want, then I will support you. We still need to talk, though.”

  “I’m going to change,” Gabriel said. “I’ll give you both some time.”

  I glanced over to find him smiling at me in wordless encouragement. He left the two of us alone in the foyer before my mother took my hand to pull me into the living room. We sat together on the edge of the couch, facing the fireplace. Silence stretched on between us while I played with the end of my braid nervously. I didn’t know what they had talked about for the past few hours, but it made me uneasy to think about it.

  “You’re killing me with the suspense,” I burst out, bouncing my legs anxiously.

  “It’s just hard to even comprehend it, Penny. You can’t expect me to just be fully, one hundred percent on board with everything.”

  “I don’t expect that at all, Mom. I don’t know what you want me to say, aside from what I already told you.” I swiped a hand over my eyes in agitation. “Things just happened between him and me. I don’t know how it started or why I feel the way that I do, but I just want to be with him. That’s all I know.”

  “The feelings that Gabriel made clear to me tonight are serious ones. You haven’t dealt with this type of relationship before.”

  I tilted my head up to meet my mother’s eyes bravely. “I haven’t. You’re right about that. Don’t you think it’s time to let me experience it for myself though?”

  “I’m trying to protect you from a broken heart,” she replied, shaking her head at me. “That’s all I’m trying to do here, Penny.”

  “I don’t get it,” I said. Frustration brimmed in me. “You said that you were going to be supportive, and that you and Gabriel talked about everything. Why are you drilling me about this?”

  “Because I want to make sure that you are capable of understanding the consequences of this type of relationship. Being in love with an older man is going to put you in some awkward positions, Penny. Not to mention that you have to finish college still. What are you going to do when you have to return back to school?”