Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

T o Penny's absolute dismay, Ashley was every bit as gorgeous as she'd remembered. It was easy to tell, from having run into her. Almost literally run into her, which, well, technically, Penny had been looking for her, and was heading for the staff hallway where she one hundred percent didn't belong, but she hadn't expected to meet Ashley coming out the door. Penny squeaked and stepped back apologetically, then thrust the t-shirt she held in both hands at Ashley. "I brought your shirt back!"

Honestly, Ashley looked dismayed to see her, although the dismay faded into confusion, and then a laugh. "You didn't need to do that. It's yours."

Penny knew that. It had been an excuse to come talk to the tall blonde pub manager. Now that the excuse was gone, she had no idea what to say except, "Oh. Sorry."

Ashley's laugh faded into a smile. "No, it's fine. That was a nice thought. But it's not like I can sell it now that it's been worn, and it wouldn't fit me, so I can't take it myself. Hi."

"Hi." Penny tried not to sound, or look, drippy with admiration. "I'm, uh, I'm back. I came back with Gwen. For Christmas. If that's okay."

"Why wouldn't it be okay?"

"I don't know. Because last time I was here I threw a beer on you."

"You tried giving me a beer." Ashley's smile grew wider. "I threw it on you ."

"I mean—well—yes, but—if I hadn't tried giving it to you?—"

"Penny," Ashley said in a warm, stern voice, "I am not going to let you take the blame for me dumping a beer on you. And even if I wanted the shirt back, you've been wearing it on all your TV interviews and I couldn't buy that kind of advertising for the pub, so if you're feeling guilty for some reason, how about we call it even?"

Her voice was low and inviting and completely mesmerizing. She could have been suggesting they eat live snakes and Penny would have said, "Uh-huh, okay," agreeably. "Wait, you've been watching our interviews?"

To her surprise, color crept up Ashley's cheeks. "Sure. Everybody has. Everybody here kind of thinks you're Renaissance's own home-grown band now, I think."

Penny blinked. "But we're from Denver."

"Denver has plenty of bands. Give us this one. We discovered you."

They were still standing in the staff hall doorway. They were still standing very close together in the staff hall doorway, and Ashley Torben smelled delicious . Some kind of outdoorsy scent, plus malt. It made Penny want to lick her, or stick her nose in the taller woman's…neck. She said, "Okay," still very agreeably. "Please don't ask me to eat a live snake."

"Th—what?!"

Penny buried her face in the t-shirt she was carrying, and, muffled, said, "You have a nice voice and I was just thinking I'd probably agree to anything you said just so I could keep listening to you. Which sounds increasingly awful as I say it. It's one thing to be like, I could listen to a movie star read a phone book. It seems much less charming to say it about a real person."

Ashley laughed out loud and pulled Penny into the staff hall, closing the door against all the sound in the pub. "Movie stars are real people. Remember your friend Gwen was one?"

"She was a TV star, really," Penny whispered, but looked up. Ashley no longer looked at all dismayed to see her. The pub manager had a soft, funny smile, almost wistful, although she shook it off as Penny said, "You know what I mean, though."

"Yeah, I do. Do you want to listen to me read a phone book?"

Penny's eyebrows drew down. "Do you even have one? I mean, that's really retro. I don't think I've seen one since I was about eight."

"I'm prepared to go to great lengths to acquire one if necessary," Ashley replied solemnly. "Although I'm sure there are other equally boring things I could read to you. The pub's tax returns, for example. A grocery list. The dictionary. No one's ever said I had a nice voice before. I don't want to waste the opportunity."

"I bet," Penny said unwisely, "that I could find something much better than a phone book for you to read."

"Really." There was a pause. A pause. A Significant Pause. Ashley stared down at Penny during that Pause, and something dark and a little wicked came into her eyes. Then, like she was very much throwing caution to the wind, she put a hand on the wall above Penny's head and leaned in. "What would be better than reading a phone book?"

"Muuagh. Uh. Um. I. A, uh." Penny wet her lips and swallowed. She'd forgotten how to talk. With effort, she scraped a few braincells together and rasped, "You know that's not fair."

Ashley grinned, very slowly, and ducked her head toward Penny's a little. "What's not fair?"

"Being tall like that," Penny said hoarsely.

"Well, you know I can't help being tall." Ashley suddenly got a few inches shorter as she stepped out of one of her shoes. She was abruptly so much closer, and smelled ridiculously good. And was still overwhelmingly tall. Her hair was all up, out of the way, but tendrils were falling around her face now that she was leaning into Penny like this. "Is that better?"

" Better ?" Penny thought she might faint. She also thought maybe she read Ashley all wrong a couple months earlier. Maybe she had avoided looking at Penny in her bra—and not in her bra— because she was into her. Either that or she was the absolute most heartless woman on earth, which didn't bear thinking about. "Yes, I think…better?"

"Good. I wouldn't want to be unfair."

"Then you're going to have to stop being so beautiful, too," Penny whispered. She was fairly confident her panties were melting off. Actually, it would be great if they were, along with the rest of her clothes, because naked with Ashley sounded like the best possible place to be, but she wasn't at all sure she could manage extremely difficult things like buttons or zippers right then. God forbid she should have to navigate a bra fastener.

Ashley smiled. "You think I'm beautiful?"

"I have eyes, so, yes." That, at least, came out like someone who remembered what talking was, although Penny wasn't certain the dry sarcastic tone qualified as flirting, and she thought she should probably be trying to flirt right now.

Fortunately, Ashley threw her head back and laughed, so maybe speaking hadn't been a total disaster on Penny's part. "Thank you. I mostly think I'm gangly. You, on the other hand, are compact, petite, curvy perfection."

Penny, who was going to have to have a talk with herself later about how to flirt and also how to take a compliment, snorted dismissively. "Thanks, but I think you mean squat and bulky."

Ashley's eyebrows shot up. "I definitely do not."

The intensity in her voice made Penny's brain dissolve again. She should say something flirty or charming or funny. Instead she said, "Um," and swallowed again. After a moment she managed to whisper, "I'm not great at taking compliments. Except about my drumming. I'm a great drummer."

"Yeah?" Ashley pressed in, not actually quite touching Penny, but her body heat so close that she could feel it. "Got any good tricks to show me with your drumsticks?"

Penny, dizzily, said, "I could probably think of something," and the staff door banged open, destroying every fantasy she'd ever had about Ashley Torben.

"Ash!" One of Ashley's many cousins stood in the doorway, beaming and by all appearances, fully oblivious to how Ashley jerked upright and away from Penny. "Ash, okay, look, I know you were mad at me, but I've figured out a way to make it all up to you! I was just over at Miguel's, right?"

Ashley had managed to step back into her shoes already, so smoothly that even Penny hadn't noticed her do it. Her wonderful rich voice was completely controlled as she said, "Yes, Laurie, I know," in a tone that Penny suspected might not be as patient as it sounded. In fact, Penny had heard a lot of extremely exasperated parents—including her own, from time to time—use something very like that tone when they'd been interrupted for the ten millionth time by an aggravating child.

"So you know the Faire folks are doing the charity fundraiser for the swans? The Tundra subspecies that started nesting here a while ago? The endangered ones?"

Ashley glanced at Penny as if trying to confirm that Penny was also hearing Laurie babbling, or maybe as if she hoped Penny would understand what he was talking about. Penny, who personally wanted to kick this cousin in the shins for interrupting what had clearly been turning into an excellent moment, shrugged. Ashley exhaled, nodded once, and turned her attention back to her cousin. "No. I don't know about the charity fundraiser for the swans."

"Oh! Well, it's turned into this big thing," Laurie said brightly.

He was the youngest of Bill's brothers, Penny thought. They wouldn't miss the youngest one if she murdered him a little. Probably. There were a lot of other Torbens. They definitely wouldn't miss him. She was contemplating the best way to get away with murder when Laurie finished, "But there was a fire last night at the venue."

"Oh my God." Ashley's irritation fled, and so, admittedly, did Penny's. "Was anyone hurt?"

"No, not even the swans, but the venue's a loss. Miguel's panicking because they have almost two hundred people who are supposed to show up tomorrow for the fundraiser. So I said we could host it!"

The dizziness that had come over Penny a minute ago swept her again, but not in a good way this time. She happened to be exceptionally good at arranging last-minute support for large numbers of people, but two hundred unplanned guests three days before Christmas was a disaster in the making. She actually said, "You did what?" before Ashley spoke, but the pub manager managed to find her voice before Penny could lambast Laurie.

"You did what ?"

Laurie—who was wearing his hair in incredibly intricate braids—faltered a little in his beaming smile. "I said they could have it here? We know we can handle that many people, we did it for the Sixty Pix just a few weeks ago!" He nodded at Penny like she was proof positive.

"That was October! There was no snow on the ground! We had hundreds of people outside ! And we'd been planning an event for months so we had extra staff already lined up! And we have two corporate holiday parties here tomorrow night, Laurie ! That's a hundred and forty people already! We can't possibly host a charity event for two hundred, or even fifty!"

"But…" Laurie stared at his cousin in dismay. "But I promised."

"Well, you're going to have to unpromise! I'm sorry, but even if I wanted to there's no way to get the staff for it, people are already leaving for their own holidays and we've had the schedule arranged for weeks! Months! And no, Laurie! What were you thinking? You can't make that kind of promise for the pub, for me!"

"But they need somewhere," Laurie said. "It's four days before Christmas. They'll never find anywhere else."

"My point exactly!"

A thought crept into Penny's mind. It was a crazy thought and she tried to ignore it, but the idea of leaving Ashley all alone to deal with the mess her cousin had made seemed unbearable, so she tentatively raised her hand. Ashley's gaze snapped toward her. "What?"

"I think…I might be able to help?"