“Congrats, bro!” The brothers clinked the bottle necks together before Niko pulled Poppy into a hug. “Welcome to the family, Sis.”
“Thank you!” Poppy smiled as she embraced her soon-to-be brother-in-law.
Her mom and Teresa both cried as they hugged her. Miss Carol squeezed her extra tight and told her she ‘got a good one.’ She could not be happier that Miss Carol was there for the engagement. AJ’s cousins and aunts were big huggers and all pulled her into very long embraces. She didn’t mind, but she felt horrible for AJ, who endured the same. She was trying to figure out how to extract him from the hug-fest when she heard.
“Nofuckingway.”
Poppy spun around to find Tiana, perfectly composed Namaste, Om Sweet Om Tiana with an expression on her face that if looks could kill, this wedding would have a fatality, staring down at her phone.
“Tiana, what’s wrong?” Poppy rushed to ask.
Her friend blinked as she lifted her head. She looked like she didn’t even know where she was. “Sorry, I’m so sorry. I’ve gotta go.”
When Poppy hit rock bottom on her fertility journey, she’d gone to her first yoga class, sobbed the entire way through, andTiana invited Poppy out for a girl’s night. She’d helped her out of a dark spot, and Poppy aimed to return the favor.
“No, wait.” Poppy managed to turn her back around at the same time AJ joined them, placing his hand on Poppy’s lower back, either hearing or sensing that something was wrong. "What’s wrong?”
Poppy could see Tiana didn’t want to say what was going on, but she relented. “My ex is here, in Hope Falls, and he’s staying through Christmas.”
“How do you know?”
“His mom messaged me. She wants to see me.”
“You’re still close to his mom?”
“Yeah, I love his family. They didn’t…” she hesitated, “cheat on me.”
“Wait, he’s here? In Hope Falls? Doesn’t he live in Ohio?”
Her ex played professional football for the Browns.
She nodded.
“Does he have any family here?“
“No. Just me.”
“Why is he here?”
“I won.”
“What?”
“In the divorce settlement, I won everything I asked for, he swore to me that as long as he drew breath, he would make my life miserable. This is justoneof his creative ways to fulfill his promise”
Her phone vibrated. She looked at it and said, “Oh no, it looks like he’s not alone.”
Her expression looked more like concern than anything else.
She turned the phone around. On the screen was a striking woman with green eyes and auburn hair. She wore an off the shoulder sweatshirt that revealed a tattoo on her shoulder and was snuggled up to Poppy’s ex in a booth in Brewed Awakenings.
“That’s Gianna,” AJ stated.
Poppy looked up at him. “You know her?”
“That’s Niko’s ex-girlfriend.”
“The one that was off and on for ten years?” Poppy asked. AJ had talked about how toxic Gianna was.
