Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

"H ey, honey? Have you seen the kids' shoes?"

"Under the coat rack."

Two strong arms circled Penny's waist from behind. Soft, warm lips pressed against her neck in the hollow just beneath her ear. One large palm cupped her breast. "Thanks, sexy."

"BJ! Not in front of the kids!"

"Mmmmmm." The deep rumble vibrated from his chest against her back. "They're still upstairs getting dressed. The animals take forever to get ready for school. Lucky me."

He would be lucky if he didn't stop his ministrations in a moment. They both would. Her breath quickened, nipples tightening into hard, stiff points. Ten years and her husband could still get her motor running with just a murmur and a soft touch.

"Mom, I can't find my pink sweater!"

The sound of heavy footsteps pounded on the stairs, heading down toward them. Mood broken. For now, anyway. Penny turned to look BJ in his beautiful sky-blue eyes, eyes the same color as their two beautiful daughters. "Later," she promised. His gaze said he planned to collect on that vow.

"The girls are going to my mom's this weekend. All. Weekend. Long."

She smiled as he dipped his head, his lips hovering over hers. Her body tightened in anticipation, mouth salivating as his warm breath caressed her—

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Heart slamming in her chest, Penny startled awake, jacking up in bed as the annoying sound of her ridiculously loud alarm clock interrupted the best dream she'd had in ages.

"Holy crap, what the heck was that?"

The empty air in her apartment didn't answer her question. Too bad, because she needed answers. Did she just have a dream where she and BJ were married? And not only married, but with kids?

"Stupid," she muttered to herself. "It's merely my subconscious making parallels because of all the…stuff going on."

The stuff being their discussion last night. Of course she'd dream about having kids with BJ. She was having kids with BJ. Okay, not kids, but kid. One. Singular. And not with him, per se, but with his help. She could see how she'd dream about beautiful little girls with her untamable red hair and BJ's pale blue eyes.

What she didn't understand was why she dreamt about them being married.

And why the heck she was so turned on!

Tingles still ran the length of her body at the memory of dream BJ's firm lips pressed against her hot skin. Glancing down, she scowled upon discovering her nipples were so hard they threatened to poke through her tank top.

"Stupid body." It had been a while since she'd sated her baser desires. That was all. All this baby talk stirred up her physical reactions. Nothing more.

Then what was with that almost kiss last night?

"Ahhhh!" She clasped her head in her hands, willing the stupid voice inside to shut the heck up. It didn't listen and instead replayed all the naughtier parts of last night's dream. "Enough!" she shouted into the empty bedroom.

Her thighs pressed together as her mind conjured up bits and pieces of the dream, determined to drive her out of her mind. X-rated parts. She wasn't sure if she was remembering or making them up on the spot.

"Oh no, no, no, no!"

Grabbing her pillow, she flung herself back on the bed, smothering her face with soft goose downy feathers. "Please tell me I don't have the hots for BJ."

Again, her empty apartment didn't answer. Not a problem. She didn't need an answer. She knew the answer. No. No, she did not have the hots for her best friend. This was all her mind's way of working out this strange situation. Sure, Bravo Jackson was one hot stud muffin. Ripped and handsome with his sharp jawline, sexy beard, and those blue eyes as bright as the midday sky. And, okay, he was probably the only man in a hundred miles who could pull off the man bun.

Denver was hipster central, and being less than an hour away, Kismet got plenty of hipster overflow. But no one could pull off the man bun like BJ. His long waves always held the body and motion of a shampoo commercial. Damn irritating how her best friend had such luscious locks when her pathetic red strands hung like a rag mop two years past its prime. She'd hate him for it. If she didn't secretly fantasize about running her fingers through his shoulder length hair to see if it was as luxurious as it seemed.

But he was her friend. Her best friend. And best friends did not dream about bumping naughty parts with each other. Or, at least, she didn't.

Not much.

Not a lot.

Not more than a few times a year.

Okay, so she'd thought about BJ sexually. What woman who was attracted to men wouldn't? But that didn't mean she would risk their friendship by going there. Nuh uh. No way. He meant too much to her to throw it all away on a night of good sex.

Psssshhhh. More like a night of phenomenal sex.

No arguing with herself there. She had absolutely zero doubt in her mind that sex with BJ would be off the charts. Something she could in no way handle. Which was why she preferred to keep their relationship strictly friendly. No benefits.

Liar.

"Buzz off!" she muttered to her stupid, horny self.

She valued BJ's friendship, and she would not do anything, anything , to screw it up. She didn't have many friends…okay she had almost zero friends beyond him. To risk losing him over a few passionate nights in the sack was non-negotiable.

And it would only be a few nights. She wasn't silly enough to think a woman like her could keep his attention. She'd seen the women he'd dated in the past. Bubbly, funny, sexy. She couldn't hold a candle to them. Beat them in a game of trivia or an SAT test, maybe, but compete with them socially?

"You took all the brains, and I got the personality and looks. That's why I need you to do this report for me."

Her sister's favorite excuse when she wanted Penny to do her homework. Yeah, she knew she was socially inept. She was an autistic woman living in an allistic world. People reminded her she was different every day. No one got her weird humor or understood how she could spend hours staring at a computer screen coding instead of posting on social media. Just because she didn't fit in with the neurotypicals of the world didn't mean anything.

Then why haven't you had a date in over a year?

"Harsh, brain. I thought we were in this together."

When she was once again treated to the silence of her home, she pushed back the covers and headed to the bathroom to get ready for her day. Pushing the dream far, far into the back corners of her mind, she hurried through her morning routine and headed out the door less than an hour later.

Her first stop of the day was Blithe Boutiques.

"Good morning, ladies," she called out as she entered the quaint little shop. The tiny bell above the door announced her arrival.

"Good morning, dear," Olive's chipper voice called out. "How are you today? Would you like some hot tea?"

She smiled at Olive. The old woman loved her hot tea. Normally she'd pass as she preferred iced tea to hot, but this September was blowing in with a chill that threatened a long, hard winter. "Thank you. I'd love some."

"Apple? Tea?"

"Hot overpriced weed water?" The elder Blithe scoffed. "I'll stick to plain old tap, thank you very much."

Olive sighed, her smile tightening. "It's not weeds, it's herbs."

"Same thing."

Penny ignored the sisters' bickering. Everyone knew the old biddies loved each other, even if they were exact opposites. She took her laptop out of her shoulder bag and sat at the small table in the corner covered in lace doilies.

"I have the new design for your site. I think you're really going to like it. I added the wish list feature you requested."

"Don't know why anyone would have the audacity to tell people what to get them for a gift. In my day, people used to be grateful just to get things. None of this demanding certain presents for events and holidays."

Penny hunched her shoulders, used to Apple's caustic attitude. Even so, she hated confrontation of any kind and retreated in on herself at any sign of an argument.

"It's still our day, sister." Olive came out from behind the register counter with a cup of tea, handing it to Penny with a smile. "We may be old, but we're not dead."

"Speak for yourself." Wrinkled lips pinched. "I haven't gotten any action in years. I might as well be dead."

"Apple!"

"What? We're all adults here, as you pointed out, sister ."

"We're in the middle of business. It's not proper to talk about…intimate affairs."

"Ha!" Apple pointed one sun aged knobby finger. "The last thing you got intimate with was the washing machine. I heard the moans coming from the spin cycle the other day."

"Apple!"

Penny felt her face flame as she furiously typed away on her laptop, wishing she were anywhere but here.

"What? Penny doesn't care. The girl spends day and night with Bravo Jackson and doesn't touch a single fine hair on that boy. I'm sure she gives her spin cycle a good ride every night, too."

Oh dear, could the ground open up and swallow her whole now, please?

Olive's face turned as red as Penny's hair. "Apple Frances Blithe!"

"Honestly, girl," Apple pushed the screen on her laptop down, forcing Penny to glance up. "I don't know how you can constantly hang out with that fine specimen of a man and not take a little nibble."

"Um, it's not like that. BJ and I are just friends." Friends who asked each other for their sperm, but still, friends.

"Psssshhh," the old woman waved a hand in the air. "Waste, if you ask me."

"Men and women can be friends, Apple. Just because you've never made any male friends, or female for that matter," the latter part whispered under Olive's breath. "Doesn't mean every friendship of the opposite sex is looking to..to hook up with the other."

Olive turned to her, a sweet smile wrinkling her round cheeks. "Did I use that phrase right, dear? Hooking up? Is that what you young people are calling it?"

She had no idea. Penny hadn't "hooked up" with anyone since her ex and she didn't plan to anytime soon.

"Um, if we could get to the website? I think you'll find the changes I made—"

"Land sakes, child, we don't give a flip about any of that. You know we can't navigate our way around the inter-sex highway."

"There's more than dirty sites on the world wide web, Apple."

"Tell that to my ex-husbands, Olive."

This was a disaster. Helping the Blithe sisters often was, but today it seemed even worse. Perhaps because they kept bringing up sex, or maybe it was all the "men and women can't be friends" talk. She knew Apple always spouted sour grapes, just the old woman's nature, but today it hit close to home.

With everything going on right now regarding BJ and her request for him to help her have a baby on top of last night's very vivid and somewhat naughty dream, Penny was having a hard time finding her professionalism. What she really wanted to do was go back to bed and finish her sexy slumber.

No. No, she did not!

"How ‘bout it, girl?"

"How about what?" Had she missed a question in there when the septuagenarians had been discussing the benefits of the spin cycle and the dangers of the perverted side of the Internet?

Apple shook her head. "You and BJ? How can you resist tapping into all that fine man meat?"

Ugh! She was going to lose the bagel and cream cheese she ate for breakfast this morning. "Um, I don't—I mean, we're friends. I don't really think of BJ that way."

Apple laughed. Fine. Apple laughed at a lot of people, but when Olive joined in on the gaiety, Penny remembered her dream and knew that she wasn't fooling anyone in this room.

"Then you're a fool, girl. That man is worth seeing, in all his unclothed glory."

"I hate to agree with my sister, but she has a point." Olive patted her hand softly. "Bless you for resisting, but even I don't think I would be immune to the charms of Bravo Jackson."

She never said she was immune to his charms. She was just smart. Penny knew the only way to keep BJ in her life was as a friend. When choosing between one night of passion or a lifetime of friendship, there was no contest. Few people in her life got her, accepted her. BJ did. For that reason, no matter how tempting the man might be, no matter how many sexy dreams she had, he would always be her friend. And he wanted to be in the baby's life, even if that didn't mean marrying her and playing the happy family. At least he would be there, even if it wasn't the way she always dreamed of getting her baby.

"I think we should focus on your website, ladies. The clock is running, after all."

That got Apple to shut her trap. If there was one thing the woman loved more than complaining, it was money. She loved to make it and hated to waste it. Penny spent the next hour going over the changes and updates she'd made to Blithe Boutiques website. No more talk of sexy best friends or self-pleasuring—thank everything in the universe.

After she left, she headed to a few more shops on Goldmine. Most of the tourist shops in Kismet were on the one main road and since the town had a population of less than five thousand, she kept busy tending to the websites of many of the self-owned stores. It kept her busy and her mind occupied, but as hard as she tried to push Apple's voice away, it still stuck in the back of her brain, taunting her.

Men and women couldn't be friends?

Bull!

She and BJ had managed almost two decades of friendship and that would not change anytime soon. No matter how many sexy dreams or almost kisses they shared. They were friends and nothing more.

Then why was her mouth curling up at the memory of last night's dream and how right it had felt being encircled in BJ's arms?

"Oh dammit!" She might be in trouble here.