The next morning Penelope woke up on her couch with a start at 6 am. She lay there hoping whoever was pounding at her door would either take a hint, or disappear into thin air, either was fine with her. She squeezed her eyes shut and threw an arm over her face to block out the morning light trickling in through the front windows, but the person at the door remained persistent and knocked once again.
"Oh, for fuck's sake" Penelope groaned and made her way to the door. She agitatedly whipped it open with a scowl on her face to be greeted by Marnie, who was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, her glossy chestnut waves pulled into a brain.
"I'm so sorry to wake you, Penelope," she said way too cheerfully. She was holding a fluffy orange tabby kitten in her arms and scratched its chin.
"What can I do for you?" Penelope asked, eyeing the kitten, and trying to sound as cheerful as possible, despite being anything but. Morning people truly are the worst.
"Well, I found this kitten here wandering around in my barn recently and he seems to belong to no one in town. There's no sign of a mama or any other kittens and I would keep him, but Shane and I thought maybe you could use the company." Marnie held the furry bundle out to Penelope and smiled.
"Shane's in on this too, huh? Well, I could use a bit of company, and pest control would be a nice bonus…" she trailed off, groggily eyeing the cat. "Alright, he's pretty cute, I guess I'll take him," she conceded, taking the cat carefully in her arms and giving him a little scratch under the chin.
"Oh, fantastic! I've got some food and a litter box for you, I just have to run back to the farm and grab it," Marnie beamed. "I'll be back within the hour. If you're not around I'll just leave it on your porch, since it's not going to rain today it'll be fine outside for a bit."
"That works, I've got plenty of work to do on the farm, so I'll be around. I'll see you in a little bit!" She waved Marnie off and then headed inside, falling back onto her lumpy couch, but this time with a purring kitten in her arms. "What was I supposed to do, huh? Say no?" she asked the kitten and smiled to herself.
An hour later Penelope woke up with a start when the kitten jumped off her chest and onto the floor. She panicked when she heard footsteps on the porch and then a loud knock at her door, but she remembered it was probably Marnie, so she reluctantly peeled herself from the couch and shuffled over to the door, opening it. To her surprise, it wasn't Marnie, but Shane that was dropping off the kitten's supplies. He had driven over in a truck and had the stuff loaded into the back.
"Oh, I thought you were Marnie," Penelope said with a start, attempting to cover herself up, realizing she wasn't wearing a bra with her pajama top. Thankfully she had put pants on the night before, or she might be even more embarrassed. Why am I embarrassed anyway? Am I fifteen?
Shane grunted in response and glanced at her, but then quickly brought his eyes back to her. "You're really still sleeping? It's like 7:30. Fine farmer you are," he teased.
"Listen, I need my solid nine hours of beauty sleep," she croaked, shuffling awkwardly in the doorway, arms still crossed over her chest.
Shane cracked a small smile and stepped off the porch to unload the supplies and Penelope watched as he effortlessly grabbed a large bag of cat food and hoisted it up onto his shoulder and then simultaneously grabbed a large box of litter with his other hand. He easily made his way to the porch and stood in front of Penelope. Her brows shot up, but she didn't say anything. Damn.
"Where do you want it?" he huffed.
"Sorry?" Penelope stammered, realizing she had been staring at him. Her face grew flushed, and she crossed her arms tighter around herself.
Shane cleared his throat and started again, "Where do-", but was cut off by Penelope before he could finish his sentence. He looked mildly irritated and closed his eyes as he let out a sigh.
"Oh! You can put them inside. Uh, also don't mind the mess, I haven't had time to clean or anything."
Penelope moved to the side and opened the door for Shane, who briskly walked into her cabin and placed the supplies gently on the floor. He stood up, wiping the sweat that was forming on his brow, and scrunched his eyes closed, wobbling a bit on his feet. He sucked in his breath and steadied himself by holding onto the couch.
"Are you okay?" Penelope asked. She eyed him suspiciously. She didn't need this guy passing out in her home or having some sort of medical emergency. While the farm work was already making her stronger, she was still soft and squishy from her cushy office job and there was absolutely no way she could pick Shane up or drag him anywhere to get him help. She hadn't even gotten anyone's phone number besides Lewis' and Robin's.
Shane squinted at her and nodded, pinching the bridge of his nose between his eyes. "It's just a hangover. Head hurts when I bend over" he mumbled.
"Oh, did you take anything? I've got some ibuprofen and, you know what, let me get you an electrolyte drink and water as well!" Penelope babbled on, running over to her mini fridge. "You can have a seat; I don't need you tanking it into my coffee table and splitting your head open or something."
Shane looked at her like she was insane, but he sat down anyway, which made Penelope smirk to herself. She made her way over to him within a few seconds, handing him all the hangover goodies and cures she had thought to grab. Shane had a puzzled look on his face as he accepted the armful of pills and beverages.
"Why are you being so nice? You're not going to, like, kidnap me or something, are you?" Penelope's face flushed red, and she let out a chuckle.
"I don't know, I'm just being nice for the sake of being nice, I guess. You walked me home through my treacherous forest while you were drunk, and you just gave me a kitten and all the kitten supplies and you brought them to me, this is the least I can do," she babbled on.
The puzzled look stayed on Shane's face as he searched Penelope's, his lips were drawn into a smirk, but stayed silent for a moment. "I mean, the cat was more of Marnie's idea…" Shane trailed off as he doled out some pills in his hand and reached for the electrolyte drink
As if on cue, the little fluff ball of a kitten sprang up into Shane's lap on the couch and began purring loudly. Shane's smirk turned into a full-on grin, and he kept smiling as he swallowed the pills, Adam's apple bobbing. Penelope felt as though she should avert her eyes but couldn't peel them away, he was even more attractive when he wasn't scowling and brooding in the corner of the saloon. Shane scratched the kitten between his ears and booped his little nose, chuckling to himself. Penelope watched on and smiled to herself as well. They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments, and the sound of the kitten's purring filled the small cabin.
"Have you named him yet?" Shane asked, scratching under the cat's chin again, which elicited an even louder purr if that were possible.
"No, I was trying to think of names this morning, but he put me back to sleep before I came up with anything good."' Penelope smiled remembering how warm and snuggly he had been. "Got any ideas?"
Shane looked at the kitten thoughtfully for a moment, "What about Mango, because he stole some mango from me yesterday morning and well, he is orange."
Penelope laughed, "What kind of cat eats mangoes?!"
"This weird fuzzball does" he replied in a baby voice, more in reply to the kitten than to Penelope. "How do you feel about Mango little guy?" Shane blushed in embarrassment at himself and smiled up at Penelope, who nodded her head.
"Mango it is."
"Well, I've got going to get going. Marnie has a lot of work for me to do today, and I promised to take Jas to the beach later to look for shells." Shane stood up and walked over to Penelope, gently handing her the new kitten.
"Jas?" Penelope questioned, trying to wrack her brain for faces. "I'm sorry, I've met so many people this week, I just can't keep up."
"She's my goddaughter, um–" He trailed off as his neutral expression quickly shifted to one that showed hurt, and his dark brown eyebrows knit together as he frowned. Shane ran a hand through his hair, making it briefly stick up on end before he smoothed it back down.
"Hey, you don't have to go into details," Penelope smiled and patted his shoulder with her free hand.
"Thanks," he mumbled, eyes falling to the floor. "And um, thanks for the sports drink and ibuprofen, I'm starting to feel a little more human."
"No, no, thank you. You gave me a kitten and brought all this stuff up here for me! I'll have to think of some way to repay you guys. You've been great neighbors already."
Shane smiled at Penelope, "Hey, don't worry about it. Marnie is always happy to help, don't try to return too many of her favors or you'll be in debt forever, believe me."
"Ugh, it just makes me feel so bad" Penelope groaned.
"Oh, I know," Shane laughed. "Um, I think I still have the litter box in the back of the truck, let me go grab it before I leave."
Penelope set Mango down on the couch and followed Shane outside. The day was still cool, and the breeze chilled the exposed skin on her arms, but the sun was shining. It was going to be a perfect day to continue clearing her land, which was proving to be a necessity if her southern neighbors were going to visit her this frequently. She didn't want Shane, Marnie, or Jas to hurt themselves while trying to traverse the apparently treacherous southern border of her farm. Penelope's thoughts were interrupted by Shane handing her Mango's litterbox.
"Welp, there you go. One shit box for Mr. Mango," he snickered to himself.
"I always wanted a shit box," Penelope beamed back. "But really, thanks again, Shane."
"Ah, not a problem. Have a good rest of your day. Looks like you've got your work cut out for you here," he replied, motioning to Penelope's land.
Penelope frowned, eyeing her property. While she had made quite a lot of progress in her first week, she still had so much work to complete. It filled her with existential dread just to look at it.
"Don't remind me. It's going to take me ages to get this place into shape. But, um, I'll see you around, yeah?"
Shane nodded. "You know where to find me." He hopped into his aunt's truck and gave Penelope a little nod before driving off.
Once inside, Penelope rested her back against the front door and ran a hand over her face. She knew that she shouldn't be getting involved with this guy, she could see how broken and fucked up he was from a mile away, but he had a gooey center, and she just couldn't help it. It wasn't that she thought she could fix him, or change him, but she had been where he was, and she wanted to show him the kindness that she wished someone had shown her. Plus, he was good with animals, which meant he couldn't be that bad, right? She desperately wished to keep this platonic, but she couldn't stop herself from thinking about how attractive he was, even through his dark circles and frumpy depression clothes. His deep green eyes held so much emotion in them, his jawline wasn't half bad, and those broad shoulders and forearm muscles… He had nice hands too.
Stop, stop, just stop, Penelope pleaded with herself.
She had been in this town just over a week now, she couldn't fuck this up already and she didn't even know if Shane felt the same way. She knew absolutely nothing about the guy, for fuck's sake he could be involved with someone else in town for all she knew. Friends, they were just becoming friends. She could have a platonic male friend, she had plenty back in the city, and this wasn't any different.
Mango halted her downward spiral and flurry of thoughts from progressing any further when he rubbed up against her legs and meowed up at her. Penelope couldn't help but smile at the fuzzy little guy.
"Let's get your stuff set up, bud!"