“Morning.”
“Morning,” she mumbled back, Sleepy Zombie Poppy in full effect. She moved to the stove and jerked to a stop at the sight of the full kettle sitting on the burner.
“I would’ve turned it on, but I wasn’t sure you were coming down.” Because you haven’t for the last two days.
“Thanks.” She kept her back to me as she lit the gas burner and moved about, pulling a tea cup down and rifling through her massive collection of different flavored teas. “I actually came down because I needed to talk to you about something.”
My chest clenched as I sat up a bit straighter, hope singing through my blood. “Oh?”
She turned around and braced her hips against the counter. Then she spoke and that hope died just as quickly as it had sprung to life. “Yeah. I need you to call your guys and change the rotation. Jensen can’t cover me today.”
Trying not to let my disappointment show, I lifted the mug to my lips and took a pull. “Why is that?”
“Because I’m having lunch with the girls today, and Shane doesn’t want to see him.” She quirked one brow up and added, “You know, after the whole heartbreak situation and all.”
Apparently, Jensen and Shane had been a thing years back, then he got her pregnant and took off to join the Army without a word. I didn’t know the reasons why the guy did what he did, but I would admit, it was pretty fucked up. However, as long as he kept my wife safe, I really didn’t care what his motivations were.
“I’ll call Jensen, see what I can work out,” I said, sucking back the last of my coffee. I climbed from my stool and rounded the island as the kettle began to whistle.
“I appreciate that.”
I rinsed my mug and put it in the sink as Poppy filled hers with hot water. With the temporary distraction that afforded me, I moved in close, close enough to feel her warmth and smell that intoxicating fragrance.
She let out a startled jump when I said her name gently, only an inch away from that sensitive spot on her neck. Christ, I wanted to run my lips and tongue over that spot.
Her head whipped around, all that fiery hair flying as she stared up at me with those wide, frightened Caribbean blue eyes. “What . . .” she cleared her throat and took a step back, her cheeks staining pink. I followed after her maintaining that closeness like it was necessary—because for me, it was. “W-what are you doing?”
“We need to talk, Flower. There’s a lot I need to say.” A lot I needed to apologize for and fix.
She slammed the kettle back on the burner, grabbed her mug, rounding the island at such a fast clip I was afraid she was going to spill that scalding tea all over herself. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“You’re wrong, sweetheart. There’s a whole hell of a lot we need to talk about.”
She stopped, twisting her head to look at me, and when I saw the tears swimming in her eyes, my knees nearly gave out. “All right, let me amend that. There’s nothing I want to talk about with you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go get in the shower. I have a lot to do today.”
“Running away isn’t going to change anything,” I called out as she hit the hallway. “We’re going to have this talk one way or another.” I could have sworn I heard her mutter, we’ll just see about that, but I wasn’t positive. “Tonight. I’ll be back by seven at the latest. We’ll talk during dinner.”
She disappeared around the corner just as that last word came out of my mouth.
She hadn’t left me with a single shred of hope. But that was okay. Because I was willing to fight and bleed to win her back.
I’d just have to make her see that.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Poppy
To say lunch with Farah and Shane had been uncomfortable would have been putting it mildly.
First, it was awkward as hell having someone shadow me everywhere I went, and second, Shane hadn’t been able to stop giving Gage weird looks the whole time we’d been at our table.
Originally, he’d tried to sit at the booth I’d picked by the window, but I’d vetoed that decision quickly. He was Jensen’s buddy, and Shane wanted nothing to do with Jensen, no matter how hard he’d been working to invade her space at every available opportunity since returning to town.
Gage had finally agreed to sit somewhere else only after the two of us had entered into a stand-off that attracted way too much damn attention for my liking, and I caved, picking a table that wasn’t by the big windows that spanned the front of the diner.
“I’m so sorry,” I said to Shane, leaning in and whispering so the nosey people all around couldn’t hear.
Remember, small town and all. That meant most people already knew I had Jensen and his guys as my bodyguards because of Jase’s parents, and they were well aware of the Jensen/Shane situation and knew Gage was Jensen’s boy. Needless to say, our little table was the center of attention.
Shane looked back at me with a smile that didn’t come anywhere near her eyes. “It’s fine, babe. I get it. I’d rather you were safe anyway.”
I rolled my eyes and plopped against the back of my chair like an insolent child. “He’s totally overreacting. Nothing’s going to happen. He’s just wasting his money paying these bona fide babysitters.” Farah and Shane shared a look that made the hairs on the back of my arm stand on end. “What? What is it you aren’t telling me?”
Farah was the one who spoke, but it wasn’t to answer my question. “Please don’t make the mistake of underestimating those two. They make the evil villains you see in superhero movies look like a box of kittens.”
“But—”
She cut me off. “Did he tell you why he’s gone this route?”
I braced my elbows on the table. “Well . . . no. Did he tell you?”
“No, but he told Cannon, and Cannon’s really good at keeping a secret. Until I ply him with tequila and ask him right after hot, drunk sex.”
Shane had just taken a drink of her iced tea and proceeded to choke. I reached over and smacked her back until she was able to breathe again before turning my focus back on Farah. “And I’m guessing that’s exactly what you did. So what is it I don’t know?”
She mimicked my position and glanced all around, like she was about to fill us in on some huge government conspiracy. “Apparently, they’ve been pawning the last of the expensive stuff they had left. They got the money, but it never hit any banks. No one can figure out what they did with it, and they haven’t been seen since.”
I could see how that might be unsettling, but I still wasn’t convinced there was something nefarious going on. “They probably took the money and bailed. Connecticut’s expensive, they didn’t have anything left, and I’m sure they had to be humiliated for all their friends to know how low they’d sunk. I bet they decided to cut their losses and are on an island somewhere.”
Farah shook her head ominously. “Not on what they got for pawning that stuff. Trust me, they expect to live in a certain lifestyle, and what they got won’t cover that.”
I was beginning to get that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I needed a change of subject, and fast. Shaking my head, I lifted my hands and said, “Whatever it is they have up their sleeves, it’s not happening here and now, so let’s just drop it. They don’t deserve any more of our time.”
“Agreed,” Shane said firmly.
We went about the rest of our lunch, talking wedding plans and trying to distract Shane from staring daggers at Gage. When it was time to go, I tossed enough cash down on the table to cover my meal and stood up, passing out hugs to my girls.
“Stay safe,” Farah said.
“Call us later, honey,” Shane added just as Gage hit our little huddle.
Hooking my purse over my shoulder, I looked back to make sure he was ready and saw him staring at Shane with open curiosity.
She began squirming uneasily in her chair. “Uh, something I can help you with, dude?”
Gage smiled then, or at least I assumed he smiled, given th
e fact that the guy was about as expressive as Mona Lisa and reeked of testosterone. The corners of his eyes crinkled a bit as he cocked his head to the side. “Can see now why he was so desperate to get back.”
“Gage!” I snapped, wanting to backhand the man but not wanting to risk breaking my hand on his chiseled face.
Shane sucked so much air into her lungs it was a wonder there was any left for us. “Excuse me?”
“Just sayin’, I get it now. You need to let him back in.”
Shane, being raised by a biker who was friends with nothing but other bikers, and having a big brother who was also a biker, wasn’t intimidated by the huge, intimidating-as-hell man standing beside me. “And you need to mind your own damn business. How’s that sound, soldier boy?”
Gage’s eyes crinkled again, and this time, his mouth trembled. “Yeah,” he said on a rumble. “Totally get it now. He’ll get back in.”
“That’s it!” Grabbing his arm, I began jerking it as I tried to pull him back. The only reason I was able to get him to move was because he let me. “Shane, honey, I’m so sorry. Just ignore him. We’re leaving now. I’ll talk to you guys later.”
I turned on my heel and dragged the big jerk out of the diner and onto the sidewalk. “What the hell was that?” I yelped, letting go of his arm and whipping back around on him as soon as we were out of sight of the diner windows. “You had no right to say that to her.”
Once more, Gage was totally blank-faced. “She’s your girl, and you look out for her. He’s my boy. Can’t expect me not to do the same.”
“I sure as hell can when you don’t know the first thing about what went down between the two of them.”
“Two sides to every story, sweetness. Know what he did, and know he had his reasons for doin’ it. She gets her head outta her ass and finally lets him explain, she’ll get it too.”
“Yeah? You think so?” I took a step closer, drilling my finger into the rock-wall he called a chest. “Glad to know you consider yourself an expert on shit like this, but until the day comes when you somehow miraculously grow a vagina, the man you love knocks you up, then leaves you high and dry without so much as a word while you cook something into the size of a watermelon in your uterus, then push it out of something the size of damn lemon, you can keep your opinion to yourself. How’s that sound?”
He just stared for several seconds, then he made a noise deep in his throat that I wasn’t sure was a laugh or a growl. “Fuck me, what is it with the women in this town?”
“What’s with us is we grew up around men like you, so we learned at a very young age not to take any shit.”
We entered into another stand-off . . . which I won when he rolled his eyes to the sky and grunted, “Christ, can we be done with this and head back to the inn already?”
A wicked smile pulled at my lips as I patted his shoulder and turned toward my Wrangler, calling over my shoulder, “Not a chance in hell. Because of that stunt you pulled, I think I need to decompress with a mani/pedi and a facial. Then, just because I’m in a mood, it’s on to a screening of Tom Hanks’s greatest hits playing at the MoviePlex on Canyon Road.
“What the hell are Tom Hanks’s greatest hits?” If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn he almost sounded scared.
“Sleepless in Seattle, A League of Their Own, and You’ve Got Mail.”
“Fuck my life. Could maybe handle Turner and Hooch, but not that shit,” he grumbled as we both reached for the driver side door handle. He looked down at me, and when his eyes crinkled that time, it wasn’t with humor. “Had this conversation with you before we left the inn. If I’m in a car, I’m drivin’ it.” He held one hand out, palm up. “Keys.”
“It’s my Jeep!” I shot back, the same damn argument I’d made before we left the inn.
“And I don’t sit bitch. Ever. So . . . keys.”
I had two choices right then. I could either continue standing there on a busy sidewalk, having a staring contest with a man who probably never blinked, or I could hand over my keys and get on with it already.
Digging into the pocket of my shorts, I pulled them out and slapped them into his palm. “Fine. But if you even think of driving my Wrangler back to the inn instead of the beauty salon, I’m gonna make it my mission to go down in history as the most difficult client you’ve ever had.”
I rounded the hood and hopped into the passenger seat just as soon as he beeped the lock, all the while thinking: Lord deliver me from bossy men.
Because if this crap didn’t end soon, I was going to end up in jail for murder.
Chapter Thirty
Poppy
It had been five days since the morning Jase cornered me against the kitchen counter and insisted we talk, and I’d managed to avoid that talk like the plague.
It hadn’t been too hard, considering I hadn’t been able to sleep more than an hour or two each night, and even then, those hours were restless and plagued with bad dreams.
I’d simply lay in my bed, tossing and turning, as the darkness outside my bedroom windows began to brighten with each start of a new day.
When the sun began to kiss the sky, I’d hear Jase get up and start moving around, and I refused to leave the locked confines of my room.
Once he was gone and I knew it was safe, I’d get up and go about my day. Then, just to be on the safe side, as soon as the clock struck five, I scarfed down a quick and easy dinner, and headed back upstairs, locking the door behind me.
He’d been persistent, I’d give him that. He’d knocked on that door every morning and evening, calling my name softly. He’d wait for what felt like an eternity before walking off when I didn’t respond.
If I’d had my choice, I would have carried on avoiding Jase as much as humanly possible for as long as it took my heart to heal—meaning forever, more than likely—but it just wasn’t in the cards. Today was Saturday, one of Jase’s day off, meaning he didn’t have to go into the office. Not only that, it was also the day of Brantley’s fifth birthday party.
I’d been looking forward to that for weeks. I loved Brantley like he was my own flesh and blood. I’d spent forever searching for a birthday present for the little guy, and finally settled on getting him costumes of every one of the Avengers—minus Black Widow—and a pair of ducky slippers to match mine. He was going to flip when he saw all of it.
My excitement for the party had been diminished by the fact that Jase and I would have to play the happy couple, pretending everything was just peachy between us when the reality of our situation was so much worse. And as if karma wanted to give me another swift kick while I was already down, I’d woken up this morning with a killer headache I couldn’t get rid of.
When Jase had knocked on my door earlier, asking if we were still going to the party, I’d had no choice but to answer. He’d seen the way my face was pulled tight in pain and how I squinted at the lights and immediately moved to take my cheeks in his hands, asking if I was okay.
The touch burned. It was the kind of burn that would have been great if I wasn’t still in so much pain, but I was, so the touch only exacerbated the ache.
It took a solid minute to convince him I was fine, that it was just a headache, but he finally released me and stepped back, allowing me to close the door so I could get ready for the party.
That had been two hours ago. I’d left earlier than him, driving separately so I could help Shane decorate before people started to show, and the sharp, stabbing pain had thankfully dulled into a persistent throb that was much more manageable.
“You okay over there? You’ve been quiet since you got here.”
I looked down the length of the stepladder I was standing on, hanging up blue and red streamers, to Shane, who was holding it steady for me. “I’m good, sweetie. Just woke up with a headache this morning that I haven’t been able to fully shake.”
“Babe, if you weren’t feeling good, you didn’t have to come. All the little kids that are gonna be here, running around and screaming
their heads off, won’t make it any better.”
Brantley ran through the living room just then at full speed, screaming his head off and pumped up on birthday party adrenaline. It made my ears ring a little, but I couldn’t stop the smile from forming on my lips. He was too damn cute.
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t have missed this. He looks so happy.”
We finished with the decorations just as people started to arrive. I headed into the kitchen to set up all the food and drinks while Shane got down to her hosting duties, wrangling little kids and adults alike.
I’d just pulled the cake from the place Shane had been hiding it in the pantry when I felt him move into the kitchen. It was as though my body was drawn to his like a magnet any time he was near. I didn’t need to see him in order to know he was close.
“How are you feeling?”
I looked back over my shoulder and managed a minuscule grin. “Better, thanks.”
Jase didn’t look convinced, stepping closer and pressing his palm to the small of my back. “You sure?”
“It’s nothing, really. Just a stress headache.”
At that, his expression fell into a contrite frown. He knew why I was so stressed, and he was taking that blame on himself, just like he did with everything. Suffering alone instead of sharing the burden with the people who cared about him.
“Poppy, if you’re not feeling good, I could drive you back to the inn. Just say the word. Shane’ll understand.”
It hadn’t been lost on me that, in all the time Jase and I had been together, he’d never once referred to the inn as home. I hadn’t minded so much when we were good, thinking he’d eventually warm up to it, and that I’d make him happy enough to want that to be his home. Once we got back from Connecticut, it had started bothering me more. Now it just hurt.
“I want to be here. This is a milestone for Brantley and I wouldn’t dream of missing it.”
Crazy Beautiful: a Redemption novel Page 21
