Deflated, I sank down onto the couch and listened to him ramble on about how proud he was of me and how Jacob was going to have a heyday with this. Apparently, he’d gone out for lunch and was missing all of the action.
“Thank you,” I said softly.
“Keep it up, Poppy! This will be good for all of us.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ivan
Not only didI have a front-row seat to the kiss Poppy and Donovan shared, but I also got to relive it on every social media page and magazine cover within a five-mile radius. Every time I blinked, there it was again—her lips pressed against his, her eyes half-closed, and that look of quiet surrender that should’ve been mine.
Going on a run before the girls woke up was supposed to clear my head, but now it just made everything louder. The streets buzzed with headlines and whispers. My lungs burned from more than exertion.
The gym was worse than running. Loud, crowded, full of people pretending not to look at me while they gossiped. The girls were all bright laughter and perfume, snapping photos in the mirrors, replaying the video ofherwalking into the park like it was a scene out of a movie.
“She’s so lucky,” one of them said near the treadmills.
“God, he’s gorgeous,” anothersighed.
They meant Donovan.
But my brain suppliedPoppy.
Lucky.
Gorgeous.
Mine.
I slammed the weights too hard on the last rep, and the noise made half the room turn. I didn’t care. I couldn’t stay there any longer.
Back in the locker room, I stood under the cold shower until the sting became numb. The water beat down hard enough to drown the noise, but not the thoughts. Not every little thing about her that made her special, that made me want her so much more.
I wanted to hate her for it—for letting him touch her, for smiling at him like that, but I couldn’t.
Because when I replayed the moment in my mind and on every magazine cover, she didn’t look in love. She looked like she was pretending.
That tiny detail—that tiny piece of hope was poison.
By the time I got back to the penthouse, the girls were awake. Jane was humming in the kitchen, and Poppy was sitting at the counter scrolling through her phone. She looked up when I came in, eyes flicking to my soaked shirt and the tightness in my jaw.
“You okay? Rough morning?”
“The gym was packed,” I mumbled as I yanked the fridge open. It was still full of those little black containers that held food Poppy hated. I was practically a garbage disposal at this point; I didn’t bother with even tasting it. Igrabbed a yogurt parfait and dug in. I didn’t care that it had Jane’s name on it or that she was shooting me eye daggers from across the room. I neededsomethingto get me through this morning.
From across the room, I could see what was brightly on display there. Her looking up at Donovan right before they kissed. The whole thing had to be orchestrated, right?
“Don will be here soon,” Jane announced as she skipped to her bedroom.
I scrubbed my hand down my face and tried to look at anything else. Today she had a ton of appointments. She was meeting with a personal shopper, going to her first workout class, and then meeting with bakers.
“It was just one kiss, Ivan. You don’t have to look like the world ended.”
My spoon hit the counter with a clatter before I could stop it.
“Didn’t know I was making a face,” I said, voice rough.
“You always make a face.” Her lips twitched, softening the blow, but it didn’t help.
