Running From Love

by Maggie Marr

  Charla furrowed her brow at Ryan, even though a smile curled over her lips. “You wouldn’t make the same trade for me?”

  “Well, of course, but thankfully no one is asking me to.” Ryan squeezed Charla’s hand.

  “I’m going home. Tomorrow. Since Poppy is already in Los Angeles, I’ll give her some space.” He looked at Charla. “Will you give me her sister’s address?”

  “She’ll kill me,” Charla said.

  “Or thank you when she comes to her senses,” Ryan countered.

  Charla scrolled through the contacts on her phone. “Okay. “I only have a landline number.” Sent.” She glanced up at Trevor. “Didn’t come from me until she’s in a white dress and you’re kissing her in front of a gazillion friends.”

  “From your lips to God’s ears.”

  Charla stood and pulled Trevor into a hug. “We’ll come to L.A. soon to see you and Poppy.” She looked into Trevor’s eyes. “I know you love her, and I think deep down she knows that too. That’s what’s scaring her.”

  Trevor nodded. Now he just had to convince Poppy to let go of her fears.

  Ryan grabbed Trevor’s hand and slapped him on the back. “Go get the girl.”

  “I plan on it.” Trevor headed toward the door. He had a flight to book, suitcases to pack, and a girl to find.

  Chapter 5

  Mimi waited in arrivals, just past all the drivers in dark suits holding signs with names. A stroller stood beside her, and a four-year-old girl spun circles around her. Mimi was round and full-faced, her hair falling in wild strands from the loose bun on her head. Dark circles shadowed her eyes. “Thank God you’re here.” Mimi reached out her arms and wrapped them around Poppy. She smelled of oatmeal and milk. Her shoulders started to tremble.

  “Mimi, don’t cry.” Poppy pulled back and her gaze searched her sister’s face. Her strong older sister, who’d always been so steadfast and courageous, was fraying at the edges.

  “Mama, up!” cried the little girl. She jumped up and down, her brown curls bouncing around her face, and tugged at Mimi’s skirt.

  “Hi, Laura! Come give me a hug.” Poppy reached out her arms toward her niece, trying to divert her attention from Mimi, who was obviously at her wits’ end and completely exhausted.

  Laura’s eyes widened, and she shrank back behind her mother’s skirt. “It’s Aunt Poppy.” Mimi placed her hand on top of Laura’s curls. “You remember Aunt Poppy? She was here for your birthday, just before Hazel was born.”

  Laura wore a skeptic’s gaze, but she stepped forward and examined Poppy.

  “I’ve brought you a gift.” Poppy pulled a plush purple elephant from her bag and presented it to Laura. A smile spread over her niece’s face and with that, the skeptic was won over. She grabbed for the toy and crushed it to her chest.

  “Love elephants!”

  “I thought you might.” Poppy leaned over the stroller and peeked in at the second cherub. When last Poppy had seen her sister, Hazel had still been cocooned inside her mother and Mimi had been nearly ready to burst.

  “Oh, she’s beautiful,” Poppy cooed. The baby slept, and Poppy knew better than to wake her.

  “First nap today.” Mimi wiped her fingers under her eyes, her expression frazzled. “She must know I’m anxious. She hasn’t been settling well.”

  “Where’s Daniel?” Poppy’s brother-in-law was usually a help.

  “He left last week for Vancouver. On set for the next three months. Won’t be back at all for six weeks.”

  Oh my. Poppy forced a smile. She didn’t want to give up three months of her six months off to help Mimi, but she would. How many times had Mimi taken care of her? How many years? How much of Mimi’s adolescence had she missed trying to mother Poppy? “Therese is in the hospital, Daniel is gone, and you’ve got these two itty-bittys to take care of on your own?”

  Mimi’s lips pulled down, and the tears that had stopped seconds before threatened again. “I know. I’m so sorry. This is meant to be your vacation and you were on your way to Hong Kong, but I just”—she covered her lips with her fingertips—“oh my God, Poppy, I think I just might be losing my mind.”

  “But you’re not.” Poppy put her arm around her big sister. “I don’t know how you do it. I’m here. Let me help.”

  Mimi nodded and a half-smile curled the edges of her lips. How long had it been since Mimi had showered or eaten or done anything for herself? Too long. It felt like since before Laura was born. Poppy grasped the handles of the stroller and pushed. Laura held onto her mother’s hand as they walked out of the airport and across the street to the LAX parking garage.

  Six months ago Mimi had held onto the dream of never owning a minivan and keeping her cute little zippy Mini. Not anymore. That fantasy was long gone.

  “I need to go to the hospital. Can I drop you at home, put the girls to bed, and go?” Mimi pulled the door handle to open the sliding door of her minivan and started strapping the girls into the mommy-mobile. “Unless you wanted to come with me to see,” Mimi paused, and a grimace passed over her face, “Therese.”

  “You can call her Mom. I know you’ve gotten closer, especially since the baby.”

  Mimi shut the door and turned to Poppy. “She’s changed. Really. She … she, the remorse—”

  “Will never be enough,” Poppy muttered. She attempted a half smile, but it was wan. She bit her sharp tongue. “I’ll stay with the girls and put them to bed. Just drop us and go to the hospital.”

  Mimi squeezed Poppy’s arm and walked around the back of the van. Poppy opened the passenger door. Hazel’s wails greeted her from the back seat. Oh my, she longed for the street sounds of Hong Kong. She got into the front seat, pulled out her phone, and scrolled.

  Her stomach tightened.

  Text after text from Trevor. She couldn’t answer him. There was nothing for her to explain. She’d decided, long ago, that love and romance ended with commitment, which then led to drudgery. Her eyes slid toward Mimi, who blew an exasperated breath from her lips and glanced into the rearview mirror. The evidence both beside her and screaming behind her bore witness to the truth in her theory. Drudgery then lead to the death of love which culminated with abandonment and heartbreak. At least, that were the memories from her own childhood.

  “Hungry,” Laura whined from the back seat.

  Hazel screamed.

  Poppy loved her two nieces, and yes, she would help her sister, but no, this wasn’t the life she wanted. Tooling around Los Angeles in a minivan, unshowered and exhausted, with two small children wailing in the back seat? No. Absolutely not.

  Mimi took a deep breath. “I have crackers, Laura.” She turned to Poppy. “Can you reach into the bag just behind us and get out the little Tupperware container with the goldfish?”

  Poppy nodded. She couldn’t do what Mimi was doing. Not for eighteen years. Putting every desire of her own on hold so that she could take care of two little people? The domestic life wasn’t for her, nor was commitment. She peeled the lid off of the Tupperware container and handed it to Laura. Mimi slowly pulled through the parking garage toward the exit gate. Laura stuffed goldfish after goldfish into her mouth until her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk’s.

  “Thirsty,” Laura said through munched-up cracker.

  “Here’s her sippy cup.” Mimi pointed to one of the cup holders in the console between the front seats as she fed the parking ticket into the machine.

  Poppy lifted the sippy cup. Beneath it oozed brown and gooey mushed banana. Her nose wrinkled. Eww. Just eww.

  “Why won’t it take the ticket?” Frustration laced Mimi’s voice.

  “Thirsty, thirsty, thirsty!” Laura shrieked. She sounded like an unattended inmate in an asylum.

  Hazel howled.

  Poppy pulled open the glove compartment, looking for something, anything she could use to wipe off the big brown banana turd hanging from the bottom of the sippy cup. Pacifiers, hair clips, a brush … but no napkins or wipes. Hrm. A petrifie
d half-eaten cheese stick? What was the car meant to be? A compost bin on wheels?

  “Thirsty!”

  “Damn machine,” Mimi muttered.

  Poppy’s head felt on the verge of exploding. She grabbed for her bag … nothing. No tissues, no napkins, no …

  “Here.” Mimi took the cup, wiped the gloppy banana goop from the bottom onto the edge of her shirt, and passed the sippy cup back to Laura.

  Poppy stifled the gag reflex in her throat. Mimi gave her a sidelong glance, obviously noticing that she was turning a slight shade of green.

  “Once you give birth, you have no shame.”

  The gate lifted and Mimi gunned the minivan out of the garage. Poppy leaned back in her seat. Nope. Commitment? Mommy-hood? Marriage? Definitely not for her.

  Chapter 6

  The same driver who had chauffeured Mom to and from work since Dad died picked Trevor up at LAX. Instead of continuing up the 405 to the Sunset exit that would lead to his childhood home, they headed west on the 10.

  Of course. Trevor relaxed into the soft leather seat of the town car. Today was a weekday. Since before Trevor graduated high school, Mom never got home before seven thirty p.m. Trevor could set his watch by Mom’s day. Up at five a.m., leave the house at seven a.m., come home by seven thirty, in bed by ten. The only modification had been when Trevor was still living at home. Then she’d picked him up at school, come home, helped him with homework, and fixed dinner, where his father had joined them. When Trevor headed to bed for the night, his parents headed back to work in their home office. There had been very little variation.

  The car pulled into the parking garage of the Up Side Burger Santa Monica headquarters. From the location and the outside appearance, the building might pass for a low-rent warehouse. It had been just that when Trevor’s grandfather had shrewdly bought the property, but since then the inside had changed from a warehouse with a metal desk and a rolling chair to a luxe interior done in Up Side Burger’s signature colors of red and blue. Trevor got out of the car and took the elevator to the third floor. He exited the elevator and smiled at Becky, his mom’s executive assistant for the last twenty-five years.

  “Trevor, you’re back!” Becky jumped from her chair and walked from behind her desk. She hugged Trevor and a smile broadened across her face. Becky, her brother Robert, and his daughter Stephanie were like family. Really, the only thing close to family that he and Mom had left. “Your mom is so excited. Could hardly wait to get you back to Los Angeles.” Becky nodded toward the closed office door. She lowered her voice. “Doubt she ever lets you leave again.”

  “How’re you? How’s Steph?” Steph was four years older than him and was like a big sister. She’d finished grad school before he did and immediately started working with Trevor’s mom at Up Side Burger once she graduated. Steph loved Up Side Burger. Always had. Steph’s passion for Up Side Burger was similar to what Trevor remembered his grandfather Harold and grandmother Estelle having. Even as a kid, Steph always wanted to go to an Up Side for her birthday. Mom joked that Steph would probably have her wedding reception at the Up Side Burger on the Santa Monica Pier.

  “She’s good. Your mom has her in the finance division now.”

  “Really?” Trevor scrubbed his hand over his jaw. “Mom finally let her stop being a fry cook?”

  “You know your mom only makes you guys do that stuff the first year,” Becky said. “Besides, she’s right. Good for all of us living the cushy life at corporate to know how the restaurants run. I loved those days.”

  “That’s a twenty-five-year-old memory for you. The time away from the fryer has numbed the pain. Plus, when you did it, you only had to be there a week. Me?” Trevor planted his hand on his chest. “Not only did I have to do a full year after grad school, I started working in the restaurants when I was fourteen.”

  Becky waved her hand. “Cry me a river, Trevor. Up Side Burger is a good gig. We’ve always had people lining up to get jobs.”

  Trevor leaned toward Becky. “Whatever. Mom is a beast. She makes all the other MBAs stick it out for six months. But me and Steph? She made us each be a fry-jockey for a year.” Trevor shook his head with mock disdain. “You put on a cap and flip burgers six days a week, ten hours a day, for twelve months.”

  Becky laughed.

  In truth, some of his best memories at Up Side Burger were when he’d worked at the restaurants. He’d started as a fourteen-year-old in the Valley taking out the trash, scrubbing bathrooms, and mopping floors. Not because his parents needed him to—by then they’d already moved into their Bel Air manse—but because they wanted him to learn how to work, to never be entitled, to not become like some of those silver-spooned trust funders he’d just spent the last six months waiting on at Mesquale.

  At the time, working as a mop boy at Up Side Burger had sucked. He was the owner’s kid and the founders’ grandkid. Everyone knew it. He’d learned more lessons riding a mop at Up Side Burger than he’d learned getting his MBA at one of the top business schools in the country. He’d also sorted out what he wanted in his life. He’d learned about how hard his grandparents and parents worked. How much they’d sacrificed. He’d learned that money, no matter how much, didn’t buy happiness and it didn’t equal substance. Nope. Some of the best people he’d met and still knew worked hourly and survived paycheck to paycheck.

  Even flipping burgers was a good gig when it came to Up Side Burger. His parents and grandparents could be proud of that. They always paid above minimum wage, included healthcare benefits, and offered tuition reimbursement for employees who had worked with the company for over twelve months.

  “Trevor!” His mother stood just outside her office door.

  His heart warmed. No matter how much they disagreed about his future, she was family. Adele Brice was a beautiful woman. Even he knew it. Damn, he took pride in it. Tall with a sharp jaw, patrician nose, and bright blue eyes. Her hair fell in a straight bob to her shoulders. Even now, at five p.m., nearly the end of her day, her white shirt was crisp and clean. Her suit pants still held a crease and she still wore her heels. Mom was a machine. Clocking in for however many years? All while raising her own kid and taking care of her husband. He hadn’t really understood just how dedicated she was until he’d grown up, worked a job, and seen what it took to keep that kind of dedication about anything.

  She pulled him into a hug. A tiny gasp came from her mouth. Her whole body stiffened … wait, was she …

  “Mom? Are you crying?” He pulled back and examined her.

  “No, of course not.” She smiled and waved her hand in front of her face. “Why would I cry? My only son and last living relative just returned from six months in the middle of the Pacific.” She reached toward a box of tissues on Becky’s desk.

  “Told you,” Becky said and lifted both eyebrows.

  “Mom, come on, I wasn’t gone that long. And you came to Mesquale for an entire week while I was there.”

  “One week. I’ve seen you one week in half a year.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “Trevor? Any mother on the planet will tell you that is completely unacceptable.”

  He smiled and so did she. While her words were most likely exactly how she felt, her tone was teasing.

  “You all set in there?” Becky tilted her head toward Adele’s office.

  Adele nodded. “You take off.”

  “Just waiting on Steph.” Becky pulled her purse from the bottom drawer of her desk and turned toward the windows that looked out into the hall. “And there she is!”

  Trevor turned. Steph’s face lit up and she waved to Trevor. Steph was beautiful and wonderful and Trevor had always adored her the way an almost–little brother should.

  “Trev! You’re back!” Steph pulled him into a hug. Her black hair tickled his face as she squeezed him. “Dad said you’d be home this week. He said to carve out some time for a workout.”

  “He’ll totally kick my ass.”

  “Yes, he will,” Ste
ph laughed. Her dad had been head of security for Up Side and the Brice family for over twenty years.

  “Look at you, a suit and heels? Who would have thought?”

  “Come on, you’ve seen me in a suit before.”

  “It’s been a while,” Trevor joked. “Last time I was here you were opening the new restaurant in Valencia. You walked in here one day wearing a uniform. Not a suit.”

  “I remember that I actually considered leaving Up Side Burger that day. It was a tough open.”

  “You never told me that.” Concern fluttered across Adele’s face.

  “Why complain?” Steph shrugged. “Complaining wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Just had to dig in my heels and work a little harder. Hard work can get you through just about anything.”

  “Wow, sounds like she’s been taking lessons from you, Adele.” Becky lifted her purse over her shoulder. “You all go on and work yourselves from here to the grave, because I know you can’t help it. Me? Two more years, and I’m out. Okay? I got my whole retirement planned in Paris. You want, you can come with me, Adele.”

  Adele flashed her gaze toward Trevor. “Just have to convince this guy that it’s time for him to start running the place.” She squeezed Trevor’s arm and he stiffened.

  “You two go on and enjoy your dinner. She’s been working with the corporate chef on a little dish just for you.” Becky winked.

  “See you later, Trev,” Steph said, walking with her Aunt Becky toward the elevator doors. “Don’t forget, my dad expects to see you for a little Krav Maga in the next couple of days.”

  Trevor waved to Stephanie and Becky as they got onto the elevator. He turned toward Adele. “Letting people slack a little bit. Getting soft in your old age?” he teased.

  “Maybe.” Adele walked into her office. “I’ll have you know that I now go home early on Wednesdays and Fridays.”

  “Like noon early?” Trevor walked past the couch and chairs and toward the giant conference table.