AJ felt the energy shift once again with Poppy. He could feel her pulling away, her walls going up. He’d never been so in tune with or recognized another person’s emotions before. It made him feel uncomfortable and also addicted. He felt closer to her than he had to anyone else in the world, and yet she was pushing him away more than anyone else ever had.
“I have to go, and I think it’s probably best if we just leave last night as what it was and nothing more.”
“What it was?”
“Yeah.” She smiled, turned, and walked away.
For AJ it was the best night of his life, clearly we had different versions of what it was.
15
EIGHT WEEKS LATER
“The Queen of Brunchis turning down a mimosa? Are you feeling okay?” Zion, never one to let a moment of melodrama go to waste, pressed the back of his hand theatrically to Poppy’s forehead, his eyes wide with mock concern. “Is this like an invasion of the body snatchers? Poppy, are you in there? Will the real Poppy Davies please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?” he said in the same rhythmic stylings of Eminem’s “Slim Shady.”
Poppy managed a weak smile and nudged his hand away as she sank back into the velveteen sofa and drank in her surroundings. The bridal shop was drenched in late-morning sun, refracting through crystal pendants and gilded mirrors until the whole place glowed like a scene out of a rom-com. The air smelled faintly of roses and starch and the effervescent optimism of new beginnings, a scent that made Poppy want to run and burrow under a weighted blanket for the rest of the day. But she was there, upright, and determined not to be the reason her new besties bridal mood board got splattered with emotional carnage.
There was a full house in attendance at Frankie’s final fitting. All three of her sisters, Paulina, Phoebe, and Pippa, Yaya, her mom Kerri, Frankie’s mom Cora, Teresa, and her nieces, Zoya, Finley, and baby Bristol, had infiltrated the bridal shop and were waiting for Frankie to emerge in her showstopper dress. She was going to be marrying Poppy’s brother Liam in two days, and this was the last scheduled appointment for the tailoring sorcery that, everyone claimed, ensured a dress fit like a second skin. Not that Frankie needed much help, the minute she had stepped into the sample gown, it was as if the silk and French lace had been engineered for her petite, curvy frame. It was one of those rare, cosmic retail moments when salespeople wept and mothers lost the ability to speak.
Poppy was doing her best to put on a brave, happy face, but she was struggling. She couldn’t even blame her sudden aversion to mimosas on her usual enemies, low blood sugar, PMS, or existential dread. No, what she felt was bone-deep weariness. For the last month and a half, she’d been locked in a barrage of packing, paperwork, and emotional triage, all while trying to maintain the illusion that she was a character in a charming small-town rom-com and any day now would be having her meet-cute, and not a recently unemployed thirty year old that just bought a fixer upper house she had no idea how she was going to renovate who still cried at pharmaceutical commercials.
She’d emptied out her entire cottage—only 700 square feet, but it felt like unearthing a mausoleum—and put her belongings in a storage unit. And she said a surprisingly tearless goodbye to the radiology department, where she’d spent the last decade. She would miss the people but not the monotony of the work.
Leaving the bungalow hadn’t hurt as much as she’d feared. Most of her memories there blurred together in a pleasant, vanilla-scented montage, movie nights with her mom, experimental baking disasters, and one of her sisters crashing onher couch after “just one more” glass of wine. The only memory that stuck in her mind like a splinter was from two months ago, and it was probably better that she forgot it. The sheer mortifying perfection of the time they’d spent, not just the sex, although that had been next level insane, but the talking, the sharing of personal stories, the connecting. Then there was the heartbreak that she’d fallen asleep and had no memories of AJ in her bed, but now she knew it was for the best. She couldn’t stop the rest of the night from playing on repeat in her head, it had been on a constant loop so much that the details had calcified in her DNA, so if she had fallen asleep in his arms and woken up in them, that would just be one more thing that she’d have to try and get over.
Crashing out on the couch was probably the most self-protective thing she’d ever done. Even if he’d technically been single, the fact that a woman still had belongings at his house and that she’d expected to be invited to a family wedding out of state told Poppy all she needed to know. Which is why she’d ignored all his calls and messages. It had taken every ounce of self-control and discipline she had but she’d done it. After growing up as the product of ‘the other woman,’ Poppy refused to be involved with anyone even remotely involved with someone else. No, not her.
“Are you sure I can’t tempt you?” Zion held up the flute and wagged his brows.
“I’m moving into the ADU today. And even though I don’t start until tomorrow, I don’t want to show up tipsy,” she lied. Well, not about moving into the ADU and starting her nanny job tomorrow, just about the reason she wasn’t drinking. She wasn’t drinking because she was exhausted.
Poppy decided to take the leap, or leaps, of faith and change everything. She quit her job and re-enrolled in school online and bought a house so she could live in Hope Falls, like she alwayswanted to. She was going to do her postgraduate work to get her MBA so that she could pursue occupational therapy, which was always her dream. She still technically worked at the hospital until January. She was taking a sabbatical, that way she could keep her medical insurance as long as possible.
While she was in school, she was going to go back to her roots. She called the guy who left his card, Deacon St. Claire. Thankfully, he still hadn’t filled the position. Her plan was to nanny part-time, get her master’s degree, and live in the ADU while she renovated her home.
“Oh, right. So that’s it, no more taking pictures of people’s skeletons.” Zion wiggled his fingers, as if it was spooky to take x-rays.
“My last day was Wednesday.” Saying it out loud was still strange. Poppy couldn’t quite believe that everything she’d been planning was finally happening.
“Do you need any help moving?” Zion offered.
“No, it’s furnished, so I’m all good.”
“Where is it?” he asked. “Have you seen it?”
“Just photos. It’s on Aspen Trail Drive.”
“Oh, I looked at a place there. What’s the address?”
Zion moved to Hope Falls when Frankie got engaged to Liam. He just picked up everything and left New York for her. They had such a special relationship. It was pure, unconditional love.
Poppy pulled out her phone and showed Zion the photos of the one-bedroom, five hundred foot ADU Deacon had sent her. “Four ten.”
“Yep.” He nodded his head in recognition. “I was going to put an offer in on four twelve next door, but an investor beat me to it. He uses it for Airbnb rentals. But four ten is nice. Your daddy has big money.”
“Do not call him that.”
“Just saying.” Zion sipped his mimosa. “So when do you get the keys to your house?”
