Poppy shook her head. “And Isaiah is my foster sister’s ex-fiancé. We all have reasons things shouldn’t be. But they are. And sometimes you can’t fight it. Love doesn’t ask permission. Love gets in the cracks. And it expands. And it finds us sometimes when we least expect it.”
“So, you don’t judge me?”
“I’m going to judge you if you don’t put on some lipstick for the video. But I’m not going to judge you for falling in love with a difficult man who may or may not have the capacity to love you. Because I’ve been there.”
“And it worked out.”
“Yes,” Poppy said, putting her hand on her stomach. “It worked out.”
“And if it hadn’t?” Faith asked.
Poppy seemed to consider that for a while, her flawlessly lipsticked mouth contorting. “If it hadn’t, it would have still been worth it. In my case, I would still have the baby. And she would be worth it. But also... No matter what Isaiah was able to feel for me in the end, I never would have regretted loving him. In a perfect world, he would have always loved me. But the world isn’t perfect. It’s broken. I suspect it’s that way for your Levi, too.”
Faith nodded. “I guess the only question is...whether or not he’s too broken to heal.”
“And you won’t know that unless you try.”
“That sounds an awful lot like risk.”
“It is. But love is like that. It’s big, Faith. And you can’t hold on to fear. Not if you expect to carry around something so big and important as love. Now get some lipstick on.”
Fourteen
She was finished designing the house.
That day had been inevitable from the beginning. It was what they had been moving toward. It was, in fact, the point. But still, now that the day had arrived, Levi found himself reluctant to let go. He found himself trying to figure out ways he might convince her to stay. And then he questioned why he wanted that.
The entire point of hiring her, building this house, had been to establish himself in a new life. To put himself on a new path. The point had not been to get attached to his little architect.
He was on the verge of getting everything he wanted. Everything he needed.
She should have nothing to do with that.
And yet, he found himself fantasizing about bringing her into his home. Laying her down on that custom bed he didn’t really want or need.
He hadn’t seen the designs yet. In fact, part of him wanted to delay because after he approved the designs, Jonathan Bear would begin work on the construction aspects of the job. Likely, any further communications on the design would be between her and Jonathan.
Levi should be grateful that once this ended, it would end cold like that. For her sake.
He wasn’t.
It was a Sunday afternoon, and he knew that meant she had dinner with her parents later. But she hadn’t left yet. In fact, she was currently lying across the end of his bed, completely naked. She was on her stomach, with her legs bent at the knees and crossed at the ankles, held up in the air, kicking back and forth. Her hair had fallen in her face as she sketched earnestly, full lips pursed into a delicious O that made him think of how she’d wrapped them around his body only an hour or so earlier.
“Don’t you have to be at your parents’ place soon?” he asked.
She looked over at him, her expression enigmatic. “Yes.”
“But?” he pressed.
“I didn’t say ‘but.’”
“You didn’t have to,” he said, moving closer to the bed and bringing his hands down on her actual butt with a smack. “I heard it all the same.”
“Your concern is touching,” she said, shooting him the evil eye and rolling away from him. “It’s complicated.”
“I understand complicated family.” He just didn’t want to talk about complicated family. He wanted to get his hands all over her body again. But he could listen to her. For a few minutes.
“No,” she corrected. “You understand irredeemable, horrendous families. Mine is just complicated.”
