It's a Long Story

Chapter 10

"What are you doing here?" I ask her politely. I am not her biggest fan, but I'm not going to be rude to her either.

"I came to talk to you, Penny told me what happened earlier." She explains.

Veronica is a tall, redhead, with blue eyes and a beautiful porcelain complexion.

"There is nothing to talk about. What happened earlier was Penny told me how she really felt about my opinion and I am done. She doesn't want to be civil with me, that is just fine. But I will not tolerate her disrespect." My voice comes out a little sharper than it needed to.

"She didn't mean it" she says, I don't know who she is trying to convince, me or herself.

"Oh and you were there? You know what she meant?" I snapped. It isn't fair of me, but this is really not her place.

"No I wasn't. But I know Penny. I know she would never mean that." She pleads.

"Oh yeah? Well if you know my sister so well why don't you ask her about Amsterdam. And you and I both know that you are not good for Penny. You two are like oil and water. While yes in theory you guys could be great together, as of right now, you just don't work together. You leave her every time she messes up. She comes here and cries every fucking time you two have an argument. A marriage is a bad idea, because you guys do nothing but hurt the other." I say swiftly. I leave her stunned and I walk inside and put the bag down on the counter. I grab a Tylenol from the medicine cabinet and I swallow it.

I shoot Noah a text and ask him if he is picking up the kids, he says he can grab Wyatt, Maddie and Caroline from elementary school, but asked if I could get the twins from daycare. I reply with a simple yes and I leave Sammy home to entertain Rocky. They are playing cards, so I drive over to the daycare and get Mason and Josie.

"Mrs.Centineo, I need to tell you, your children are angels! They are so sweet and polite. I have never met such well rounded kids their age before!" The twins' teacher raves.

"Oh thank you! It is really just their siblings. They are the good examples for the twins, and they are all really competitive so they all try to be the best." I say laughing. She nods and I grab the twins and we head to my car.

When I pull into the driveway, Noah's car is in the driveway. Oops. I wanted to tell him about the puppy first.

As we walk in the door, I am attacked with questions.

"Okay! Okay! One at a time please!" I shout. Everyone stops. Noah speaks up first.

"What is this?" He pointed at Sammy holding the puppy.

"Ah yeah, it's a puppy. I was going to talk to you first... But we have been talking about this for weeks." I try explaining. He looks at me and groans.

"Yeah but we didn't say when and we didn't decide if we were going to get one." He gives me a strange look.

"Well, when Rocky told me about the liter that Luna had was ready, I had the idea. Then Sam told me about what happened today, I just decided that it was time. I was ready. I know you've been wanting one. I just thought it was okay." I say nervously. He sighs deeply.

"Ok." he sighs.

"Okay, Wyatt, Mads, and Car, you talk to Sammy and pick out the best name." I say. They run over to the puppy and they argue over what to name her.

Rocky walks over to Noah and me. We make some small talk, and after an hour, it is decided the puppy's name is Rookie, as Noah's insistence.

A small knock at the door disrupts the chatter and excitement of the new puppy. Noah walks over and opens the door. Penny comes in, with tears on her face.