Page 154 of The Better Brother

“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 my 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.”