A Penny for Your Thoughts (5 page)

Penny clasped her hands behind her back and stared down at the sidewalk in what she hoped was a disappearing pose. Cliff had already sent several curious looks her way.

“Cliff, this is a friend of mine. Penny Brown.”

Cliff, in the act of extending a slender browned hand to Penny, stilled. Penny stuck her hand in his, belatedly aware that he hadn’t actually reached for hers. An awkward handshake disconnect. She blushed. He seemed to recover and gave her hand a polite squeeze.

“Penny Brown... How do you do? It’s nice to meet you.” The narrowed crease between his eyes seemed at odds with his words. He gave her a hard stare for a moment before his face lightened and he smiled widely. “Any friend of Matt’s...”

Penny returned his smile though she wondered at his initial hesitation. Had Matt ever mentioned her to him? Her heart sped up for a moment. Had Matt spoken of her to someone else? Perhaps he hadn’t forgotten her after all.

“Watch out for this guy, Penny,” Matt said with a grin. “So, we don’t have any other evidence right now, do we? No footprints. No getaway car. A plastic gun. You knew about that, right? The dogs haven’t even picked up a trail.”

Cliff shook his head. “No, nothing. We’ve got the film from the security camera, but it doesn’t really tell us much...just a tall guy with a dark mask over his face. Maybe this will be one of those times a family member or friend gives the guy up.”

Matt nodded. “That would be nice.” 

“Well, I’m gonna take off, got to get my beauty sleep. I’ll let your guys handle the rest tonight.” He turned to Penny. “It was nice to meet you, Penny. I don’t think you’re a local by your accent. Are you visiting?”

“Yes, for a few months.”

Cliff eyed her speculatively for a moment. Penny squirmed until he grinned and nodded. “Well, then I hope to see you again soon.”

Penny nodded jerkily and gave him a crooked smile. Did he know about Matt and her? Their past? He wasn’t looking at her as a suspect, was he? She’d been too busy with her own trauma on the beach.

“See you in the morning, Cliff,” Matt called out to Cliff’s retreating back, before he turned to stare at the bank, seemingly lost in thought.

“I’ll be right back. I need to talk to Brad for a minute, and then we’ll go.” Penny followed his gaze to Brad, visible now inside the bank behind the counter.

“Okay,” she murmured.

She watched Matt enter the bank. How well she remembered that walk, a relaxed gait with an extra lift at the end of his toes. She turned away to watch the crowd of onlookers who seemed to swell at times and ebb to only a few ardent crime drama fans.

One man caught her eye. A tall man, he leaned against a dark car, just out of reach of the lights of the photographers and police cars, arms crossed over his chest, some sort of dark ball cap on his head, unmoving except for a slight rotation of his hat visor as he turned in her direction. She looked over her shoulder to follow the direction of his gaze, but the bank was to her right. There was nothing behind her but a blank concrete bank wall. Was he staring at her? She turned back. He opened his car door in a leisurely fashion and climbed in. Penny strained to catch a glimpse of his face until she realized that the inside light of his car had not come on when he opened the door. Expecting him to drive away, a vague sense of unease crept up her spine as she realized that he wasn’t leaving, but just sat there...watching.

Penny spun around, turned her back to the crowd and gave herself a quick shake. She reassured herself the man was simply a bystander and that her imagination was working overtime given the startling events of the day. Matt and Brad came out of the bank, pausing just outside the door, deep in conversation. Penny inched toward them. With Matt in grabbing distance, she found the courage to sneak a quick peek over her shoulder. The man and his car had disappeared. She relaxed, and shook her head at her foolishness.

“Well, I’ve got to get something to eat and get Penny back to her car. I’ll be back in a while.”

“Okay, Chief,” Brad said and nodded in Penny’s direction. She gave him an overly bright smile.

“Are you ready?” Matt put his hand behind her back and urged her toward the parking lot, lifting the police tape for her to pass under. She scanned the onlookers for the man who’d caught her attention, but she couldn’t pick him out of the crowd. His car was gone. She shook off the lingering sense of disquiet. In Matt’s safe presence, that was easy to do.

“Are you going to be out here all night?” Penny asked. She turned to survey the intense activity at the scene.

Matt’s lips lifted at one corner. “Yeah. I have to come back out. I can’t just hop into bed and let the guys handle this all night.”

Acutely aware of his hand on her back as he guided her back toward his SUV, she wondered helplessly if she would see him again. The town was small, but she had little excuse for looking him up again. What would she say?
Hey, I think I still love you. Ask me to give up my life to be with you...and I will...in a heartbeat?

But she bit her lip and climbed into the SUV.

“How about waffles?” Matt buckled his seatbelt and threw a sheepish grin in her direction. “I know it’s not much of a dinner but I’ve got the craziest desire for breakfast right now.” He glanced at his watch. “We’ve got some all night waffle joints around here.”

Penny let loose the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.
Yes! Yes!
She still had more time with him.

“Oh, sure...if you’re still hungry. Sounds good.” She took a steadying breath and tried a nonchalant response.

“Great!” Matt backed out of the parking lot and turned onto the main road. He headed toward the beach highway. Within minutes, he pulled into the parking lot of a small, well-lit eatery that reminded her of pictures she’d seen of old diners. Wall to wall glass windows provided a look into the coffee shop with its orange booth tables and counter seating surrounding the open grill. Matt held the door open, and she stepped in.

One lone, tired-looking woman who appeared to be in her forties seated them in a booth in the otherwise empty restaurant. She poured coffee for Matt and brought Penny a glass of water. Acutely aware of the garish overhead fluorescent lights which probably mercilessly enhanced every wrinkle and line in her face, Penny leaned her elbows on the table and casually covered the lower half of her face with her hands.

The waitress who apparently also doubled as the cook returned to take their orders.

“So, what’ll it be folks?”

“Waffles for me,” Matt said handing her his menu.

“The same,” Penny said, momentarily incapable of concentrating on a piece of plastic with writing.

“Coming up.” The dark-haired woman moved away, and Penny was left with the man of her dreams.

She turned to look out of the window at the lights of the hotels across the street. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Matt raise his coffee cup to his lips. His hand shook slightly when he set it back down. He leaned back against his seat. Penny swore she could hear him breathe, so alert was she to him.

“I can’t believe it’s really you,” Matt said quietly. “Where have you been?”

Penny’s cheeks flamed momentarily, and she let out a deep sigh. She turned to face Matt and opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. Her mind went completely blank. Where had she been?
Without him...
That’s where she’d been. Did it matter? She blinked and met Matt’s steady green gaze.

She managed a careless shrug. “Oh, up north in Michigan. You might remember the town. We stayed there once on that road trip. Traverse City?” Penny bit her lip. She wished she hadn’t brought up that night. An overnight stop on the road back from New Orleans, a passionate night in the motel by the bay.

She grabbed her ice water and gulped. Matt’s tanned cheeks bronzed, and he reached for his coffee.

“I remember,” he nodded. He took a deep swallow. “How did you end up there? Did you have family there? I don’t remember.”

Penny shook her head, and then nodded. “No. Well, yes, I do now. No, not really.” She cleared her throat. “That is...no, I didn’t have family there before. And yes, Travis has been living with me, but he’s gone off to college in Los Angeles now...so...no, I guess I don’t have family there.” She took another swallow of water, hoping her shaking hands didn’t expose her agitation.

Matt laughed, bringing a merry crinkle to the corners of his dark-lashed eyes.

“I see...I think. Why Traverse City? What are you doing now?”

Penny shrugged. “Oh, you know, you have to live somewhere, and it’s a nice town. I’m not sure what I’ll do now that Travis is out of the house.” As she spoke, Penny remembered her excitement at finding a position open in the little town that once held special memories for her. 

“Are you still counseling?”

“Yes...no...well, yes. Actually, I’m on sabbatical.”

Matt eyed her curiously. “That was a complicated answer. I thought you’d never give up teaching.”

Penny shrugged again, unable to articulate her thoughts, chaotic and jumbled as they were.

“I did. But after those three years teaching in Belgium, I decided I wanted to do something different so I went back to school.”

Matt dropped his eyes to his coffee and rotated his cup back and forth.

“Yeah, Belgium,” he said quietly. He raised his eyes to her face for an instant. “I’m sorry I never wrote you back, Penny.” He dropped his gaze once again.

Penny gritted her teeth against a flood of grief and fixed her eyes on his cup.

“Oh, that’s okay,” she mumbled. “You know...I was going to be gone for three years. No point in hanging onto the past.”

“I got your letters.”

Penny’s heart ached. She wanted to rub the sore spot near her heart but didn’t dare.

“Oh, I’m glad,” she tried for a nonchalant pleasant tone. He mustn’t know how devastated she’d been to leave the post office every day empty handed. “Can you imagine life before e-mail?” she chuckled. “How long ago that was.”

The waitress brought their food, and Penny busied herself pouring syrup over her waffles and methodically cutting her food into tiny pieces, hoping to stall any further conversation. She had a million questions for him, but he’d run from the fervor of her crazy, passionate love in the past. There was no reason to assume he’d changed.

“So, how long have you been here in the South? I never got a chance to ask when I talked to you on the phone all those years ago.” She forked a piece of food and began to munch, fully intent on a scenario of settling in for an innocuous conversation with someone she once knew.

Matt glanced at her with his winsome smile. “Oh, let’s see. Well, after I decided to leave Missoula...that was about three years after you left, I looked for jobs in law enforcement everywhere.” He chuckled. “They weren’t as easy to find as the college recruiter said they’d be. The folks in Gulfport were hiring, so I thought I’d take a chance and apply. And here I am.” He shrugged with a grin and took a bite of food.

“You’re the Chief of Police.” She suspended her fork in midair. “Did you simply skip recruit, patrol officer, sergeant, lieutenant and captain?” She cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t know the titles. I’m just guessing here.”  

Matt chuckled. “No, I went up through ranks. They must have had a lot of retirements or something though. I have no idea how I got up to captain so fast.”

Penny eyed him with a love that had never died. “Oh, I imagine your brains, beauty and brawn had something to do with it.”

Matt dropped his fork and burst out laughing once again. His face turned bright red, almost the color of Penny’s.

“I can’t believe I said that,” she mumbled behind the napkin she slapped to her mouth.

“I can, Penny. I can. I never did know what was going to come out of your mouth.” He eyed her over the rim of his coffee cup while his shoulders continued to shake.

“I thought I’d grown up since then,” she muttered, hopelessly aware that she’d once again reverted to a lovesick fool in his presence.

“So, where is Travis now?” Matt asked.

“He’s with his father for Christmas. He’s got a girlfriend now, and he wants to stay in Los Angeles to be near her.” Penny’s lips drooped momentarily. Traverse City held little life for her now that Travis was out of high school.

She lifted her chin. Matt was not going to see her whining about lost loves--not about Travis--and not about him. It would make him uncomfortable. Displays of emotion always did.

“What is this about a sabbatical? How did you pick Gulf Shores, Alabama of all places?”

Penny blinked, and her mouth went suddenly dry. She dropped her eyes to her food and forced a casual shrug. “Oh, I just took the time off. It’s nice to be able to get away when I want, now that Travis is grown and out on his own. I came to Gulf Shores because a lot of people from Michigan come down here for the winter. I’d heard about it.”

Matt nodded. “We do get a lot of snow birds from Michigan. It’s a straight shot south.”

Penny nodded and stuffed more food in her mouth, fairly sure she was failing miserably at presenting a positive, peppy tone to convince him her life had been fabulous since last they met. She turned to look out the window while she chewed. The lights of the restaurant shone on his black SUV. Another car parked farther away from the entrance. The lights of the hotels provided a backdrop for the occupant. Penny stiffened. She saw the bill of a baseball cap turn. Surely, that wasn’t...