Live and Let Grow

By Penny Reid

Alice is in love with her best friend. Now all she needs to do is tell him.

Best buds Milo Manganiello and Alice Hooper have been the one constant in each other's lives for over fifteen years. The charismatic and compassionate physics professor was there when Alice got married, and he was there ten years later when she got divorced. Likewise, the candid and kind computer science professor has always been there for Milo. She babysits his apartment and plethora of houseplants when he's traveling and they share breakfast together every day he's in town. Alice wasn't always in love with Milo, but the feeling has grown, and when Milo returns from his latest globe-trotting adventure, Alice decides it's time to spill the seeds.

Does Alice have the grit to confess? And will feelings take root? Or is hers a love destined never to bloom?

'Live And Let Grow' is a 14k word (short) contemporary romance of long-suffering unrequited love and can be read as a standalone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penny Reid
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781942874751

Penny Reid

Sign up for the newsletter of awesome: www.pennyreid.ninja/newsletter Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes kissing books. Penny is an obsessive knitter and manages the #OwnVoices-focused mentorship incubator / publishing imprint, Smartypants Romance. She lives in Seattle Washington with her husband, three kids, and dog named Hazel. FOLLOW PENNY: Facebook: www.facebook.com/pennyreidwriter Twitter: www.twitter.com/reidromance Instagram: www.instagram.com/reidromance Just Released: December 13th, 2022: Drama King, Three Kings Series, Book 2 Upcoming Releases: 2023: All Folked Up, Good Folk: Modern Folktales, Book 3 Currently Working On: 2023: Pride and Dad Jokes, Ideal Man, Book 1

Book preview

Live and Let Grow

Live and Let Grow

Penny Reid

www.pennyreid.ninja/newsletter/

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, rants, facts, contrivances, and incidents are either the product of the author’s questionable imagination or are used factitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead or undead, events, locales is entirely coincidental if not somewhat disturbing/concerning.

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Copyright © 2021 by Cipher-Naught; All rights reserved.

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No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, photographed, instagrammed, tweeted, twittered, twatted, tumbled, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without explicit written permission from the author.

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Made in the United States of America

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eBook Edition:

978-1-942874-75-1

Contents

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

About the Author

Sneak Peek: Homecoming King, Three Kings Book #1

Other books by Penny Reid

Part One

*Alice*

I’m doing it!

Alice—

No. I jabbed a solitary finger in the air. No, Jackie. You listen to me. Do you hear that?

Hear what?

The determination in my voice? The lack of doubt? That’s the sound of willpower. I’m doing it this time. I’m in it to win it.

Oh, Alice. Even through the phone I could detect the sympathy, the worry, the compassion, and perhaps just a wee bit of exasperation.

Don’t you ‘Oh, Alice’ me. Milo is coming home tomorrow, and I’m ready for him this time. I’m so ready. I wrote a letter. A letter which I’d already placed on his kitchen table along with a new houseplant—an anthurium, which had heart-shaped leaves. I’d wondered if the symbolism was a little too on the nose, but oh well. Too late now. He loved plants, and I loved him.

The day had come, and I was seizing it!

A letter, my sister said, like leaving a handwritten love letter wasn’t one of the most revolutionary things someone could do. I felt like a Bolshevik, a real radical, just . . . you know. Less murdery.

Yes! A letter! Spinning in a circle, I took one more look at Milo’s apartment to ensure all was as it should be and then skipped to his bathroom.

When he left on his months-long work trips, I was his designated plant-watcher and mail picker-upper. I also ran his sinks and flushed his toilets because dry sewer pipes sometimes stank, and prolonged stagnant water is never a good thing.

Sometimes I’d hang out in the apartment on my own, reading books or working. I loved his apartment. It felt like being with Milo but without constantly having to fight the eruption of butterflies every time our eyes met or we touched. Or he laughed. Or smiled. Or spoke. Or breathed.

Point was, I felt close to him here, even when he was gone. Large photographic art prints hung on the walls, remote and beautiful places he’d visited and told me about upon his return. His décor, the colors, were all cool and relaxing—sand, pebble gray, stone blue—and no matter how long he’d been gone, the bathroom always smelled faintly of his aftershave.

So, you’re leaving a letter, exactly like the last time, came my sister’s flat voice. She paired it with a sigh.

No. I ceased sniffing the bathroom and flipped off the light. "This is completely different. Like I said, this letter is handwritten. I can’t hack into his email server and delete it from his inbox this time, or hack into his Facebook account and remove it from his personal messages. Or hack into his Instagram, or his—"

"Yes. I know. I was present each time to watch over your shoulder because you wanted a witness to watch you not look at or read any of his other messages. What night should I keep free so I can watch you do it again."

It’s true. My sister had been in the room with me each of the other eleven times. She’d watched me get in, delete my message, and get out. And yes, I realize hacking into anyone’s personal accounts is an extreme violation of privacy, which is why I’d told Milo about each of the hackings.

I’d say, Milo, I hacked into your Instagram account last night and deleted a message I sent you. Jackie was there to ensure I didn’t look at anything else.

And he’d say, Okay, and shrug those broad shoulders, a quizzical-looking smile on his handsome lips, his green, sparkly eyes unconcerned because he trusted me. Then he would offer me wine, which I always turned down. When we spent time together, he was always drinking wine and I was always turning it down, but he continued to offer.

It’s not that I didn’t like wine. I did. A lot. I drank it when we went out with other people, when it was more than just the two of us. I just didn’t want to drink wine in Milo’s apartment when it was just me and him. Sober, I was honest, but not too honest. Like how some people show their ID when buying alcohol even though the checkout person probably wasn’t going to ask for it? That was me when I drank, but instead of an unsolicited ID, I handed over honesty.

I supposed, after fifteen years of friendship, Milo’s trust was warranted. Also, he knew I was a weirdo. So . . .

So, tonight? Tomorrow? My sister no longer attempted to conceal her

Reviews for Live and Let Grow

[Nicole Hattingh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love Penny Reid. Short but amazing. Even in these few pages you get attached and invested in the characters.

[Seloff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Too short, needed more. But still love Penny no matter what!