The lead singer leaned into the mic, pouring himself into the song, and Penny knew. This was the peak before the crash, the high that would carry them into the night, and it was so powerful. She could see why Drew had flown to New York City to see this band play. She could see—
Drew turned her toward him and kissed her.
The kiss was glancing, as fast and hot as that high note, and she sucked in a gasp. Oh, oh—
More. I want more. I want more, more, more…
Drew’s lips left hers. The band left the stage.
A cheer rose from the crowd.
But nothing mattered, only his blue eyes on hers, full of hope and anticipation and oh my god, what did we just do?
“I should get back to Logan,” she said, voice hoarse. When had she been shouting?
“Yes,” he said, but it was a long time before he let go of her hand.
6
“I’m going to be so late.”
Penny balanced Logan on her hip, the weight of him solid and warm in her arms as she stood in the doorway of Drew’s home office. “You’re going to be fine. I’ve got things under control. Finish up your stuff, and then we’ll figure out everything else. Want to go get some breakfast, buddy?”
Logan lifted his head from her shoulder and pouted. “No.” His face was getting red again. Penny curled her hand around the back of his neck. Hot to the touch. Time for another dose of medicine.
She didn’t usually get up in the night with Logan—that wasn’t part of her job description, and Drew had never asked her to handle overnight issues unless he was out of town. He hadn’t gone out of town yet. Well, he had, but they’d gone with him to New York City. It was only last weekend, but it felt like a hundred years ago. Not in a bad way, either…though Penny could use a nap.
Logan had fussed most of the previous day and been lethargic and feverish to the point that she’d driven him in to see his doctor. Drew had met them in the parking lot. A bug, the doctor said. Some random virus that made kids miserable but didn’t need to be treated with an antibiotic.
“We’ll chill at the house,” Penny had said as they left the doctor’s office. “We’ll watch your truck movies, okay?”
But Logan hadn’t wanted Drew to leave his side. By the time they slid into the car, Drew had canceled the afternoon’s meetings and come back to the house with them. The little boy had been uncomfortable through the night, though, and the third time Penny heard Drew’s low voice down the hall, she got up to keep him company.
But he couldn’t cancel this morning’s meeting, and now he ran a hand over his tousled blond hair and sighed at the computer screen. “I still have details to finalize on this presentation. I thought it was done, but something’s nagging at me.”
“Is this for Jack?”
Her pretend husband glanced up from his seat. “Yes. This presentation, and then another one for a second company.”
“A second company?”
A frown shaded his face. “Bigger than Jack’s, owned by a guy named Michael Bower. But the routes aren’t exactly what I’m looking for.”
That was different. “I thought you were trying to impress Jack all this time. I didn’t realize you were trying to decide between two potential acquisitions.”
“It’s going both ways.” Drew leaned back in his seat and sighed. “I want him to sell to me, so I need him to know that I’m the kind of man he can trust. If he doesn’t sell to me, then I have to fix this by going in a different direction. Michael’s company.”
Fix what? Curiosity burned a path through her mind. But this was business, and he didn’t want to mix business with anything else.
Now wasn’t the time.
“Can I make a suggestion?” Penny hefted Logan a few inches higher on her hip.
Logan raised his head. “Daddy, I want to take a bath.”
“I can give you a bath,” Penny murmured into his hair.
“No. I want Daddy.” The red in his cheeks deepened, and he started to squirm. “I want Daddy.”
Penny saw the stress flash across Drew’s face. He half stood, but his attention was hooked on the computer screen.
“Let’s do this,” she said, projecting all the authority she could gather into her voice. “You take Logan to get another dose of ibuprofen. That’ll make you feel better,” she said to Logan, then gave Drew a smile that hopefully said we’ve got this. “Get him started in the bath and give me a few minutes to look over your presentation.”
He rubbed a hand over his mouth, blue eyes on hers.
“It doesn’t have to cross any lines. Just a fresh set of eyes so you can put it out of your mind. I’ll see if there’s anything crazy, and if there’s not…”
“I want Daddy,” Logan said into her neck.
“If there’s not,” she finished, “you’ll be good to go.”
Another heartbeat ticked by. “Okay.” Drew came to take Logan into his arms. “We’ll go get some medicine and have a bath.” Penny stepped past them into the office.
It was wild, in a way. Two weeks ago, she’d never have pictured herself slipping into Drew’s office in a pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She probably had terrible bedhead. Now? It was almost comfortable between them. Being up in the night had that effect. It lowered inhibitions.
Drew poked his head back into the office as she settled into the chair. “You don’t have to—”
“Go.” She waved him off. “I want to take a look. It’ll be reassuring, trust me.”
The water ran through the pipes of the house a minute later, the sound a backdrop to the clicks and scrolls from the mouse as she went through his presentation. Penny’s dad had made lots of similar presentations when she was growing up, though his had been on a slightly smaller scale. Her father’s business had never quite reached the level of Preston Logistics. It might have—once she came on board, she saw the places in the company where expansion would have worked for them—but all that had been lost in The Swindle. She’d been thinking of it with capital letters since it happened.
That wasn’t going to happen this time. It was clear from the information in the presentation that it wasn’t the same situation, so she discarded the worries that jumped out at her on that front. Details. She had to pay attention to the details, since that’s what Drew was fretting about.
Three-quarters of the way through the slides—he’d picked a sleek design, and she had no complaints about that—she saw it.
Drew and Logan came back in on a wave of baby shampoo and a giggle from Logan that warmed her heart. “I think I found what’s bothering you.”
“You know, it’s fine. It’s fine after all. I was overthinking it.” She could feel Drew’s nerves in the air and took her hands away from the keyboard. There it was—that wall around his professional life. It was one thing to pretend to be his wife at dinner, but another entirely to look at the inner workings of his business.
Still.
“Actually, there’s a place I think you could—”
“I’ve been over it a hundred times.” Drew’s eyes flicked from her hands to the screen and back again.