Losing Penny (11 page)

As she crawl from the bed, she nearly tripped
over Wolfgang. He looked at her, reproach mirrored in his big brown
eyes. He needed to go out and she needed to decide what to do. Last
night she’d been hell-bent on leaving, today she wasn’t so sure.
She didn’t know where to go. She didn’t want to be alone, but she
didn’t want to endanger any of her friends by staying with them.
She couldn’t go to Richard—he had enough of his own problems—and
Auntie Mae was off sailing the seven seas. Which left Drake.

A voice in her head told her that wasn’t
true. There were billions of places to stay, but the truth was that
none of them sounded as appealing as staying with Drake.

Penny pushed her bedroom door shut. It
clicked and she leaned against it, considering options. Wolfgang
walked over to press his nose against her thigh. She needed to take
this from moment to moment, and at this moment, the dog needed to
pee. Things couldn’t be much simpler than that.

After Penny threw on a pair of shorts and a
sweatshirt over her swimsuit, she and Wolfgang padded down the
stairs. Drake sat on his perfectly made bed. The computer was on
his lap, his shoulders were hunched, and his lower lip was caught
between his teeth. She could almost feel his heavy concentration.
She and Wolfgang moved through the living room and out the front
door without Drake noticing.

The early sun glinted off the upstairs
windows, and even though she couldn’t see him, she waved goodbye to
the back porch.

Wolfgang found an old tennis ball and dropped
it at Penny’s feet. She bounced the ball and Wolfgang jumped up,
curly, brown poetry in motion.

It was mid June, and the beach, despite balmy
weather, was nearly deserted. Far away, Penny saw pair of women
with babies in backpacks, a couple of kids in flapping shorts
coaxing a struggling kite, and a lean jogger on the sand. In the
water there were a few dark, bobbing heads of swimmers.

Wolfgang interrupted a flock of gulls
enjoying the crumbs of someone’s forgotten sandwich. Penny left him
with his find, slipped off her sandals, and enjoyed the cool sand
beneath her feet. She looked up at the homes lining the bluff. Each
house came with large windows facing the ocean, but other than
that, they were all unique. Stone terraces with elaborate
balustrades neighbored weathered wood shingles in need of paint. A
1950s cottage charmer shared a fence with an
Architectural
Digest
showpiece.

Penny’s gaze lingered on the Marx house
before she turned her attention to the frothing tide. The Marx
family had always been rich and Penny’s family had been poor.
Sometimes her new wealth still surprised her.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled off her
shorts and sweatshirt. The water swirled around her ankles as she
splashed into the Sound. The water was colder and murkier here than
in Laguna, the waves tamer. For the first time since she’d arrived,
she felt homesick. And lost.

In Laguna her plan had seemed perfect. And
then she’d met Drake. The shocking cold water washed over her as
she dived below the surface. In Laguna her life made sense.
Everything had been a breeze. Everyday had a predictable rhythm as
pleasant and sunny as the California weather. But that was before
the Lurk. And now there was Drake. Not that they were necessarily
the same sort of guy. Of course she didn’t know the Lurk, but then
she really didn’t know Drake either. Yet she let him sleep in her
bed, and she’d woken up beside him. Even though there hadn’t been
anything physical between them, it had been intimate. Maybe even
more intimate than…oh no, she wasn’t going to go there. She
couldn’t think about Drake in a romantic or even sexual way,
because it would make living with him much too hard.

Penny slowed her crawl stroke and treaded
water. She had swum much further than she had thought.

A dark head bopped up beside her. “Hey-ho!”
Trevor Marx broke through the surf and shook his dark hair.
“Remember me? We met last night. Well, sort of. I introduced myself
then you disappeared.”

When she didn’t say anything, he continued,
“I said,” he dropped his voice to a lower, sexier pitch, “‘Hi, I’m
Trevor Marx.’” His voice returned to normal. “And then you dropped
your phone, conked me on the head, and ran through the hedge.”

When she didn’t say anything again, he said,
“This is where you tell me your name.” Looking around, he said,
“See, no hedges. No means of disappearing.”

“That’s not true,” Penny said, recovering her
voice and some of her scattered wits. “I could swim beneath the
surface, join a cluster of mermaids, become a sea serpent’s
breakfast, or catch a ride on a submarine.”

He laughed. “And all of those scenarios would
be preferable to an introduction?”

She liked the way his eyes matched the color
of the Sound. A stiff wind blew across the water, raising goose
pimples on her exposed arms. “You can call me Maggie.”

“I can call you Maggie,” he parroted. “But
that’s not your real name?”

“It’s short for Magdalena.”

“Magdalena?” He snorted.

“Why is that funny?” she asked, trying not to
get water in her mouth.

“It’s just… you don’t look Spanish.”

“Are you a name racist? I’ve never understood
why a Pedro can’t have blue eyes and freckles.”

“Okay, so your name is Maggie, which by the
way is also short for Margaret, and I’d say Margaret suits you far
better than Magdalena.”

She put her foot down to find the ocean
floor. She needed to be standing on solid ground when talking to
someone as handsome as Trevor Marx, but she only found endless
water. “What if I said you look more like a Horace than a
Trevor?”

“You think I look like a Horace?” Trevor
stopped treading water and began to sink.

Penny kicked toward the shore. “What’s wrong
with Horace? It’s a fine name, my grandfather’s name,
actually.”

“Horace sounds like horse.”

“And horses are poor swimmers.” She stood and
he came to stand beside her.

“And now you’re insulting not only my name,
but also my swimming ability?”

Penny smiled, held her breath and sunk to the
ocean’s floor. After waiting as long as she could, she swam beneath
the waves and tackled the back of his knees. He collapsed backwards
and Penny cut away from him in strong even strokes.

When Trevor surfaced a slow grin overtook his
surprised expression. He lowered his face into the water and
charged toward her. She out swam him to the shore then sat down on
the sand to wait for him. Wolfgang trotted to her side and sat down
with a huff.

Trevor stretched out beside her and rested
his head on his crossed arms. The morning sun dried the water on
Penny’s skin. She wrung out her hair and lifted her face to the
blue sky. They sat at the base of the bluff, and the crop of black
boulders on either side blocked the morning breeze. Although Penny
knew there were houses above, and most likely people on either side
of the rocks, they appeared to be alone.

Trevor had his eyes closed and his face
relaxed. The water and sand glistened on his body, and Penny wanted
to know everything about him, everything that had happened to him
since he left home at eighteen.

Acutely aware of her warm softness, his mind
leapt to a dream of his mouth pressing hers. The feverish heat that
consumed his thoughts burned so brightly that he feared she would
read them and back away, afraid of the promise in his eyes.

From
Hans and the Sunstone

Drake looked up
from his notebook. Time had slipped away from him. He’d been lost
in the land of the Norse, but now that Hans was kissing Ingrid,
Drake wondered what had happened to Penny. A quick glance at the
clock told him that it was after eleven. Because the thought of her
leaving gave him a hollow feeling in his gut, he pushed away from
the table and ran up the stairs. Her door stood ajar. The bed was
unmade and her pajamas were in a heap on the floor. Relief whooshed
through him.

“Penny? Wolfgang?”

Neither answered. Drake went down the stairs
two at a time and banged through the front door. The Volkswagen sat
in the driveway. After a moment of indecision on the front step,
Drake headed for the beach. He stopped at an outcropping of rocks
when he saw her.

She wore the red and white bathing suit and
lay on the sand with her eyes closed…beside Trevor Marx. Jealousy
thrummed through Drake. Wolfgang rooted in the sand and found a
bright pink rubber ball. The dog gave the ball a good shake then
dropped it on Trevor’s belly. Trevor sat up and hurled the ball
into the surf. Wolfgang raced after it, dancing along the waves and
waiting for the ball to come to shore. He barked at the lost
toy.

Drake knew that he didn’t like Trevor. Anyone
who would intentionally throw a dog’s toy into the surf had to be
cruel. Too cruel to spend any time with Penny. Once Drake hit the
sand, he could no longer see her, but her laughter floated to him
from the other side of the rocks.

“Penny?”

“Drake,” she sat up. “Do you know
Trevor?”

Drake nodded at Trevor.

“Of course, you do. You must know all the
Marx family, which is more than I can say. I really know nothing
about Trevor.” The lie felt heavy on her tongue, but she continued,
“Except that he’s not a very good swimmer.”

“Hey!” Trevor propped himself up on his
elbows to frown at Penny. “I’m an excellent swimmer and an open
book. You’re the one withholding information. All I know is your
name, Maggie,
supposedly
short for Magdalena.”

“Maggie?” Drake raised his eyebrows at
her.

Penny shrugged and looked out at the water.
“It suits me better than Magdalena.”

“That’s true,” Trevor said.

Drake bit back a smart remark and settled on
the sand beside Penny, wondering what he should do to get Penny
away from Trevor Marx.

“What would you like to know?” Drake asked
Trevor. “I can tell you everything.”

“Oh yeah? How’s that?”

“Maggie’s my wife.”

Trevor looked surprised, and Penny didn’t
look very happy either. “Ex-wife,” she corrected him.

Drake struggled to sound nonchalant.
“Estranged would be a better word.” He leaned forward and propped
his elbows on his knees.

Penny laughed. “
I
am not strange.”

Drake shifted, unhappy with her play on
words, yet pleased knowing that the marital conversation had to be
making Trevor uncomfortable. “Oh, and I am?”

“I didn’t say that.
You
did.” She
sounded exactly like his Aunt Greta bickering with Uncle Thurmond.
Tingling started in Drake’s toes. He hoped they sounded like an old
married couple.

Trevor cleared his throat. “If neither of you
are strange, would you say your situation is strange?”

“What do you mean?” Penny and Drake both
asked at the same time.

“Well, estranged couples usually don’t share
a beach house.”

Drake and Penny looked at each other. Neither
spoke. Finally Penny blurted, “Special circumstances.”

The expression on Trevor’s face clearly said
he wanted more information, and Drake decided to provide all he
could, before Penny created her own story.

“Magdalena writes cookbooks.”

“You’re both writers?” Trevor asked.

“Writing cookbooks is hardly—” Drake
began.

“Oh my gosh,” Penny blurted. “You are such a
snob. What’s wrong with writing cookbooks?”

“Neither a mixer nor a blender be; For flour
oft loses itself when stirred with vinegar,” he said in his best
Shakespearean voice, knowing he was making her mad. “I met—” Drake
cleared his throat, “
Maggie
at a writer’s conference.”

“The attraction was quick and deadly,” Penny
said.

“Deadly, huh?” Trevor asked.

“More like a spiritual than physical death,”
Penny said.

“Were you married long?”

Penny shook her head, and Drake drew in the
sand with his toe. “Not long, no,” Drake had to admit.

“Long enough,” Penny said.

“Long enough to know…” Trevor’s voice
trailed, a plea for more.

“She has a mean left hook,” Drake said.

“What are you doing?” Penny mouthed at
him.

Drake ignored her.

Trevor grinned. “My sister told me you were
violent.”

“Only when seriously provoked,” Penny said
through clenched teeth.

“She doesn’t look dangerous,” Trevor said
over her head to Drake. “She’s very small.”

“Don’t be fooled,” Drake warned. “Watch
this.”

Multiple sprints of exercise can be just as
effective for fitness and weight loss as one long workout.

From
Losing Penny and Pounds

When Drake grabbed
a handful of sand, Penny jumped up and ran down the beach. She
sprinted past the mother and children and dodged a surfer lugging
his board. She collided with a boy holding a boogie board and
apologized without breaking stride as she ran for the rocks.

Drake grabbed her around the waist and swung
her toward the water. Penny screamed and Wolfgang yelped and
tripped Trevor, coming from the rear. They collided and went into
the surf. A cold wave washed over Penny and she kicked away.
Cutting through the water to a safe distance, Penny began to
furiously splash first Trevor and then Drake. The two men looked at
each other. Sensing a brewing alliance, Penny dove into the water
but Trevor snagged her ankle.

While she flailed in protest, Drake caught
her wrist. He and Trevor lifted her out of the water like a soggy
hammock, and after swinging her side to side, sent her flying into
the ocean.

Water engulfed her, and when she made contact
with the ocean floor pain tore through her foot. She tried to
stand, but floundered. She spit water out of her mouth and called
for help.