"Sam, Penny! One word!" Steele called out to us in a stern tone as soon as we had entered the hall to start work and felt the looks of our colleagues as we followed him into his office. "As your father explained to me yesterday morning, you are now more than just colleagues." He now turned to me and I noticed from the corner of my eye how Penny quickly lowered her head as Steele began to walk up and down in front of us and continued talking before I could reply. "I have to say, I'm impressed at how well you were able to hide it for so long, after all your father is talking about you getting married." I opened my mouth to say something, but Steele suddenly turned to us and raised his finger in a warning gesture that I was completely taken by surprise."But! I forbid any intense cuddles here at the station now that it's official, if you know what I mean?! I don't want to object to the exchange of minor...niceties, but anything beyond that has no place here. I'm assuming that you can still continue to do your job objectively and responsibly and that this will have no impact on the quality of your work?!"

I looked at him for a moment, waiting to see if he would interrupt me again, but he waited for an answer. So I did him this favor: "Sir, it's not quite like you..."

"We totally understand, Sir. Our work here will continue as usual," Penny interrupted me and I looked at her questioningly.

"Well then, I can only tell you one thing!" We turned back to him and a smile appeared on his face."Congratulations, you two. It was almost impossible to see what you were doing there." He hugged first Penny, then me and I was stunned when I saw tears shimmering in his eyes. I watched him with wide eyes grabbing a tissue and blew his nose.

"Are we free to go, Sir?" Penny asked him hesitantly.

"Yes, yes." He just waved to us while wiping his eyes and she quickly pulled me outside after her.

"What was that?" I whispered to her on the way to the kitchen and Penny just shrugged her shoulders.

"He seemed really happy."

"Yes, it seemed that way to me too. Why didn't you let me clear it up?"

"Sam, what Steele knows, the whole team knows faster than you can say holy sparks. Think about how quickly Steele is to blurt out what it's like to not even talk about Elvis. What if they meet your parents somewhere? Then the whole thing would have been for nothing and probably really upset them."

"Great. Now we're not just fooling my parents anymore, but soon the whole town?" Penny just shrugged her shoulders. "You'd think you enjoy this game."

"What makes you think that?" she turned to me, shocked.

"Because it's gone way too far more than once. I can handle my parents embarrassing me. But they shouldn't do it to you. You shouldn't have to worry about anyone saying something about you that isn't true and could make you look bad. You don't deserve that."

"I'm definitely not worried about it, Sam. We're two grown people and no matter what people say, we both know if it's true or not and that should be the only thing that matters. I don't care what anyone else says about me, but I care very much what you think about me." I turned to her and took her hands.

"I always think well of you. It will never be different."

"Exactly how I do about you," she replied with a smile and to my surprise she put a hand on my cheek and took a step towards me. I had never been touched like that by her and it captivated me instantly. A pleasantly warm shiver went through my body and I began to tremble with excitement. There was that magic again that pulled me in and I overcame the last centimeters that were still between us, put my hand on her waist and tilted my head, bringing my lips closer to hers.

"There are our two lovebirds and right in the middle of the action, as I see." Ellie's teasing voice broke us apart and we turned to her, only to see Arnold and Elvis also standing with her, watching us, smiling.

"A fire in the mountain activity center," Steele's voice could be heard over the loudspeakers and we ran to the poles. I thanked heaven that we were spared the teasing and questions from our colleagues for now. This would all come to us soon enough and I would feel more comfortable with it if we were actually a couple by then.

The fire was quickly extinguished and the used equipment was replaced with new ones in the vehicles when the others called it a day. Nobody had said anything about the scene in the kitchen and so we got away with a black eye - for now. Because anyone who knew our colleagues knew that there was definitely something more to come.

"Penny, Sam!" We were cleaning the used hoses when Steele called us and we looked up at him. "Since you're getting off work in just under two hours, I'd like to ask you to take a look on Neptune and Juno for the next few days, Phoenix's crane must been repaired and the reports completed. Oh, and Venus would need an oil change again. You can decide the order yourself. Can you manage that?"

"It's a lot for two hours over the next four days, but we'll manage, Sir."

"You can start beforehand, while the others are still there. Unfortunately, as you know, no one else is capable of this work. Let's just hope that things stay as quiet as before."

"Don't invite misfortune, Sir," Penny said with a smile and went back to her hose.

"I'll be careful. See you two tomorrow and enjoy your free time."

Two hours later and after a call from my mother telling us that we should be at the Cafe for dinner at 6:30 p.m., we rushed down the streets towards the harbor.

"I can't believe she can shoo us around like that. Half an hour to change and go to Cafe is pure stress."

"Look at it from the side that we'll catch up on the morning exercise a little later," Penny replied with a smile. She didn't seem to mind, but since we overslept today, she didn't go for her morning jog and I'm sure she missed that a lot. I knew how much she loved it.

We reached the Cafe and I went forward to hold open the door for her like I always did before entering behind her and we were happily greeted by my family.

"Well, you two? Did you sleep well last night?" Charlie greeted us both with a big grin as we sat down at the table with them and I slapped Charlie on the back of the head with the flat of my hand. Whenever our parents were around he fell into the old pattern and couldn't help teasing me wherever he could."Hey!"

"You really deserve it, Charlie. Don't be so childish!", to my surprise, my mother defended my actions and I grinned broadly at him - well, I too had old patterns that I fell back into.

"I was just trying to be polite," he replied indignantly and I saw Penny give him and me a skeptical look.

"To be polite: Yes, we slept well and thank you for asking," I replied sarcastically and I hoped that the topic was enough and I started to eat.

"In any case, they do a lot to be able to sleep soundly," Dad said, and our faces shot up to see his big grin.

"Padrig, you certainly don't have to complain here at the table that I caught them both red-handed."

"You have what?" Charlie shouted, grinning, while I jumped up and at the same time shouted "Mum!" indignantly. Me and Charlie looked at each other for a second and I could literally see his glee. He wanted to know more, wanted details, and he looked forward to it like a little child.

"What?!", my mother grabbed the attention again by acting like she was country innocence.

"Keep calm, Samuel. Your mother didn't tell that you screamed with joy when you two were in the shower this morning."

"It certainly wasn't out of joy!" I replied through gritted teeth and clenched my fists while turning bright red. I felt Penny look up at me and tried to swallow the anger, but saying something like that in public, embarrassing Penny like that, was just going too far and I was struggling to keep my anger under control.

"Call it what you want. The main thing is that you are happy, my darling," my mother replied calmly.

"How can you make such claims when you don't even know what it really was about? I'll tell you now..." Penny jumped up so suddenly and stood in front of me that I was speechless, but my anger remained.

"Sam, we need to talk!" She pushed past me, grabbed my hand and pulled me after her so that I had no choice but to follow her.

"Oh, oh. My poor son!" I heard Dad laughing before we disappeared through the passage and went up the stairs. She pulled me into the bathroom with her and closed the door, leaned against it from the inside and took a short breath before looking up at me.

"You're not making it easy for us, Sam," she said, and for a moment it seemed to me as if she wasn't very happy either. There we had it. It was better to end this game before I actually would lose Penny because of it. I just didn't understand why she wanted to blame me.

"Did you notice what they let loose down there?"

"However, I have and have you forgotten what we had talked about this after the meeting with Steele?"

"Penny, there were children at the table..."

"They certainly didn't understand what your parents had meant."

"But they make fun of us, they bully us. It's almost worse than the taunts my father used to make about my botched love life. Now even my mother is joining in."

"Because they're happy for you."

"Then can't they just keep their mouths shut?"

"That would certainly be more pleasant, but they don't do it. Now pull yourself together. What's wrong with you? Nothing else bothers you usually!"

"Because usually it's not about you."

"Oh. Now it's my fault?!" she replied, a little more stroppy than she already seemed to be and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I didn't say it was your fault! I just want to protect you!"

"It's hard to believe, but I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself very well." Her sarcasm was obvious, but I could muster it too.

"Yeah obviously." She went along with everything and put up with everything and, on top of that, forced me to watch it all in silence.

"What does this mean?"

"Forget it. I just don't want anyone talking or thinking about you like that. I'm going to clear it up once and for all," I replied, turning to the window to ruffle my hair in frustration.

"Damn Sam, things are going great! What are you so afraid of?" she protested angrily and now my self-control was at stake. Why didn't she understand what this was really about?

"That I could lose you," I snapped at her and turned to her so suddenly that she jumped.

"You would never do that, Sam. We are colleagues and friends. We..."

"Yes, that's exactly what we are. But you're not just that to me." Colleagues and friends...that would probably always be all I would be to her, she had said it herself. Hot tears welled up in my eyes and I looked down, hoping she wouldn't see them, clenching my fists as I tried to fight back the tears while feeling Penny's gaze on me. Her silence almost drove me crazy and it was finally time to end this farce. She had suffered long enough and played something she didn't want to be. I had to release her. "Maybe we should go with the breaking up now. The mood is right, aye?!" I objected sarcastically and reached for the door handle. "I'll say something stupid, it shouldn't be difficult for me, and then at least you'll finally get out of this mess." I opened the door and walked down the stairs, Penny's words from the friend and colleague echoing in my ears and threatening to tear my heart apart.

I had almost reached the door to the guest room when Penny pulled me towards her by the sleeve of my shirt, I felt her hand on the back of my neck and she immediately pulled my face into hers. She put her lips on mine and I froze. What was going on here? Why did she do that? I felt her lips open slightly against mine and in that moment it was all over with me. I pulled her close and kissed her, deepening the kiss as she welcomed me and felt herself letting herself fall. My mind was about to go crazy, everything inside me was fluttering and I started shaking. I couldn't believe my luck. Here I stood with Penny in my arms and she kissed me with a passion that took my breath away. Why did she do it? But did it really matter?

I put my hand on her cheek and had to smile when a quiet but very satisfied sound came from her lips and kissed her like it was the last kiss - who knew if it wasn't true, but I've waited for too long to not fully enjoy it. We let ourselves go, forgot about time, forgot everything that was around us and devoted ourselves only to each other. Nothing mattered at that moment. Only the most wonderful woman in the world here in my arms really mattered.

"Wow," I breathed breathlessly against her lips when we finally let go of each other and she had to smile before she opened her eyes to meet my gaze. There was a shimmer in it that I knew I had conjured it up and it fascinated me so much that I wanted to kiss her again.

"That's gross!", we heard the twins say and suddenly we realized where we were standing - in the door to the guest room. We turned to my family in shock and saw how Charlie's jaw was still hanging open, the twins were already busy eating their food again after their comment and Bronwyn and my parents were smiling contentedly.

I turned bright red and looked at Penny, who didn't feel any different, but it would be better to pretend that this was normal instead of running away now. With my hand on her back, I led her back to the table and closed Charlie's mouth as I passed him. This woke him up from his trance and he leaned towards me as soon as we sat down

"What just happened?" he asked me quietly, but I knew that at least Penny heard him, even if she didn't show it.

"We had something to clarify," I replied with a shrug.

"Obviously!" Charlie replied critically, but continued to eat and so we followed his example.

The evening was largely quiet and I was very grateful that my parents spared us quite a bit that evening, while my Dad discussed their morning trip with Charlie and Penny and my Mum played one card game after another with Bronwyn and the twins, where I wasn't either came around one or two rounds.

I gave Penny thousands of looks that evening, our eyes no longer met, but she leaned against me when I put my arm around her and responded to every touch I gave, regardless of whether it was open for all to see on the table or secretly on her leg under the table.

Where were we now? Had she kissed me for show or was there more to it? Her passion had been breathtaking - you couldn't play that...right? I would find out tonight!

To be continued...