“S-she said that, did she?” Crow felt his face grow hot as Penelope explained what Olivia had told her. He had thought the woman had simply said something to sabotage his friendship with Penelope, but apparently she had told her [i]everything[/i] instead. It was true that he had been thinking about Penelope, but it still embarrassed him that she knew he had been so obsessed with her that he couldn’t sleep with Olivia that night. He had never struggled with an issue like that during a fling before. Olivia must have been trying to make him look bad by telling her about it. “Well, I’m thoroughly humiliated,” he shook his head, laughing uncomfortably.

Penelope went on to apologize for how distant she had become after Olivia had talked to her. He nodded in understanding, “Don’t worry about it. We’re fine—in fact, we’re more than fine now. There was no harm done.” He smiled at her. “Let’s not focus on the future. We have each other right now, so we should just think about that. We can worry about later on when we get there, alright?”

Crow leaned across the table to kiss Penelope once more. As his lips met hers, he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. There was plenty of them to worry about—her status, her family, the target on his back—and perhaps it wasn’t wise to pretend like all of the problems didn’t exist, but he didn’t want to think about them now. He wanted to hold onto the time they had together without distraction.

“Well, well, well.” Crow pulled away from Penelope at the sound of Hartley’s voice. The young thief stood near their table, his arms folded over his chest and his lip curved upward in an amused smirk. “So, you finally told her how you feel, huh?”

“Shut up,” the older thief rolled his eyes. He noticed the boy was alone. “Where did Kip go?”

“She went back to tell her family the news,” Hartley’s smirk spread into a grin. “I’m courting her again!”

“That’s great, kid,” Crow congratulated him.

“I still can’t believe this is happening,” Hartley said dreamily. He sat down next to Crow at the table. “Of course, this means I’m going to have to stay behind in this town. I hope you both can understand.”

“Naturally,” Crow said through a mouthful of stew.

“I’m still planning to stay the night at this inn with you though,” Hartley looked between his two companions. “Unless… you’d prefer me to get my own room?”

Crow glanced at Penelope. He would have been lying if he said he didn’t like the sound of sharing a private room with her. To have a place all to themselves, with no other people and no interruptions… [i]This isn’t a one night stand,[/i] he reminded himself. [i]Don’t rush it.[/i] Whatever their relationship would turn out to be, he wanted it to last. To do that, he would have to learn how to take things slow.

“You can stay,” Crow turned back to Hartley. “After all, this is the last night we’re all going to be together before Penelope and I have to keep moving.”