It's Only Temporary

Chapter 28: Charades

David rubbed her shoulder through the blanket, pulling her gently against his chest. Penny's eyelids felt so heavy now. It felt so nice to lean against him. Solid. Safe. So restful. Like she'd gotten swept up in some freak, fast-moving squall - and now, by some miracle, she'd washed up on a sandy shore. Safe, on solid ground....

A little prickle of alarm began to penetrate the haze of sleep.

She'd had these thoughts before. Recently. Too recently....

Not here. Not this living room. Another living room. Another man's living room. Another man's couch.

"No!" Penny forced her eyes back open and shrugged his arm off of her. "No," she said again, standing up abruptly.

He held up his hands in front of him, palms out. "What?"

"I am not sleeping on your couch."

"Why not? It's almost morning anyway."

"No!"

"What?" He looked at her, perplexed. "It's not like you've never slept over."

She shook her head violently. "I made a rule against it."

He didn't answer. He'd gotten up from the couch when she did, and now he was standing a few feet away with his hands on his hips, studying her in silence. His face was serious, but she could see the corner of his mouth twitching. She knew what it meant. She'd learned the meaning of that particular expression a long time ago - when the corner of his mouth wouldn't keep still. That's how he always looked when he was trying and failing not to smile.

"You?" he said. "You made a rule?"

She nodded.

The corner of his mouth broke free and quirked upward as Penny looked back at him in exasperation. He was smirking at her. He seemed to be under the impression that this conversation was amusing. Did he seriously think they could just go back to the way it used to be? Messing with each other? Flinging fake insults back and forth between them, until somebody broke down and laughed?

No way, she thought. She wasn't in the mood. She refused toplay along. So what if she felt the corner of her own mouth starting to twitch along with him now? A reflex - that's all it was. Muscle memory. For two years, every time he made that face at her, her own face had heated up and mirrored his smirk right back to him. She fought against it now. She would not smile back. She narrowed her eyes at him instead.

"Yes, I made a rule," she said. "Is that funny for some reason?"

"Let's see," he replied, his smirk deepening even further. He'd been holding the discarded sweatshirt in one hand, and he held it out to her as he continued. "How's this for a rule? Don't run around topless at 4 AM."

She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, and bit the inside of her cheek. She wouldn'tsmile. It wasn't funny. She would not smile. Even if it meant she had to chew her own lips off.

"I'm not topless," she ground out, ignoring the sweatshirt in his hand. "And I'll make my own rules, thanks."

"OK, Penny. What's your rule? No sweatshirts before Labor Day?"

She glared at him and shook her head. "No favors from men," she said.

He raised his eyebrows. "That's the rule now?"

"So you can keep your sweatshirt. It smells, anyway."

"I don't know, Penny. All men? That seems a little sexist."

David took a tentative step in her direction, keeping his eyes on her face. She had the blanket wrapped around herself protectively now, but that didn't mean he couldn't still picture the way she'd looked in her bikini top underneath. No, David thought. That was one mental image he had a feeling he'd be revisiting often. Later, though. Plenty of time for that later. For now, he kept his eyes safely above her neck.