“Pops, oh my god, have you checked your phone?” She strides over to me, her phone in hand, waving it around.
“No, I… I haven’t really been on it…” I stammer. It’s true, other than my phone call with Ethan last night, I’ve barely looked at my phone at all. Jett and I have been… otherwise occupied and I’ve been so caught up in…him.
“I’m so sorry, Poppy,” Wren hands me her phone, and I’m not too sure what I’m about to see. It’s an article that came out just this morning, hot off the press news.
The headline reads:PROFESSIONAL PLAYBOY AND HIS BOGUS BRIDE OUTED.
My stomach drops, and I’m too stunned for words. I can’t even start to consider what this might mean. Will I lose the café? If everyone has found out that this marriage is a sham, surely I’ll lose it. Maybe worse… could I be arrested for fraud?
I blink slowly as I look around the café and consider that this place I love so much might no longer be mine. I don’t even know what will happen to it if it can’t be claimed as part of Aunt Dahlia’s estate. What will become of Thistle + Thorne? What will become of me?
This café has been my entire life, itismy whole life.
For years I’ve hidden behind this café because I’ve beentoo scared to leave my comfort zone. I might have been willing to spread my wings a bit, but now having my livelihood ripped out from under me? It’s too much.
Wren is still staring at me, trying to gauge my reaction because I still haven’t said anything.
“Does Jett know?” She asks when she realizes I’m in shock.
Jett.
What’s going to happen with…
I turn to look at the stairs up to the apartment to find Jett at the bottom, standing there in a grey cotton t-shirt and blue striped pyjama bottoms.
He was supposed to be getting ready to train with Mark and Dan today. He’d somehow convinced them to train him at the Heartwood community centre, but he’s not even dressed. His hair is a mess, and there’s practically no colour in his face.
“Nuclear knows,” he says, before I have a chance to ask him about the article. “They know about us.”
CHAPTER 41
POPPY
My gaze darts backand forth between Jett and Wren, all of us speechless, unable to make sense of the way everything has been upended.
A few grumbles from customers interrupt the silence hanging between us. A lineup has formed at the counter, now a few people deep.
“I…” I stutter, unable to form a complete sentence as I point toward the till and the people I have to somehow serve with a smile on my face. I’m unsure if I can even summon one right now.
Shock has frozen me in place while it hollows me out.
“Don’t worry about the café, I can handle it.” Wren holds out her hand, gesturing for me to give her my apron.
I hastily untie it and hand it to her, flashing her athank youexpression as I set down my broom and close the distance between Jett and I.
“Let’s talk about this in private,” I say, turning an equally stunned and frozen Jett around and pushing him towards the stairs.
Wren greets the first customer as we make our way up, away from the café full of people staring at us.
“Drip coffee only, people,” she barks down the line, and I internally cringe. “Take it or leave it.”
Wren has never been much of a saleswoman, but at this point I don’t have a choice but to leave her in charge.
The silence is tense as Jett and I enter my apartment, and I shut the door behind us. Neither of us have any words. Of course, we always knew this was a possibility, but I don’t think either of us fully anticipated that it could actually happen.
Not once our marriage started feeling real.
At least it did for me, and I’d be willing to bet anything that it did for Jett, too.
