“No! What we talk about! You. Family. Babies. Your baby sister gets married. You need wife!”
Poppy watched as Mr. Santino checked back out of the conversation, sitting beside Yaya, quietly eating his food. He was so unassuming, so opposite of Yaya, but somehow they worked.From the first interaction she’d witnessed of the couple, when she’d had to take Mr. Santino to radiology for x-rays after he’d been shot and Yaya came with him, chewing him out for being curmudgeonly, Poppy had been fascinated by the couple.
“Adonis Josiah Costas!” Yaya snapped, using his full name when her grandson didn’t respond to her question.
“This is not the time or place,” AJ responded calmly.
“What time? What place?” Yaya fanned her arms around. “This is family! Of course is time and place.”
Poppy tried to act as disinterested as possible, but she couldn’t hide the fact that she truly wanted to hear what he had to say. And she also couldn’t hide the fact that she was a notorious eavesdropper.
“I told you, I don’t want kids.”
He doesn’t?
Poppy had only looked at her infertility from one perspective. She’d been so upset about not being able to have kids, she hadn’t thought at all about being with a man who didn’t want children. All she’d seen were the negatives. But maybe this was a tick in their compatible column, not that he needed another. That is if he was even still interested in her. His eyes looked interested in her when they were in the hall, but shehadignored him for two weeks after they hooked up. In her defense, a woman had broken into his house to retrieve her belongings after they broke up because he hadn’t taken her to an out of state family wedding… That screamed messy, and Poppy was trying to clean up her act.
The rest of the dinner was spent with both AJ and herself out of the spotlight, except when other people were telling stories about them. She tried not to broadcast her hyper-awareness of the man beside her, but it was nearly impossible to do. His earthy musk drove her wild, the deep timber in his voice sent shockwaves rippling through her. Any contact, no matter how small or insignificant, an arm or hand grazing hers, causedtingles to spread through her body like butter on a hot frying pan.
As the dinner was coming to an end, Poppy wished that they’d had more one-on-one time to speak. Even though she knew they would see each other the following day at the wedding, she was desperate to spend more time with him.
She was trying to think of a way to drop into the conversation that she knew he was staying next door without seeming creepy or stalkerish, but she wasn’t sure how to do that. The Costas and Davies clan collectively did not leave lulls in conversations. They interrupted and spoke over one another.
Before she knew it, everyone was standing and collecting their coats. She’d hitched a ride from Zion, who walked over and extended his elbow. “Uber for Poppy.”
“You didn’t drive?” AJ asked.
Poppy glanced up at him, and her insides did cartwheels. “No.”
“I can give you a ride,” he offered.
“Are you sure?”
His lips curled in a lopsided grin. “It’s just next door.”
Poppy’s eyes widened slightly in shock. How did he know that? How long had he known that? Had he been avoiding her?
“Um, okay. Yeah, thanks.”
Zion grinned, his eyes bouncing between them. “See you crazy kids tomorrow. DoeverythingI would do,” he added with a wink.
Poppy smiled, shaking her head as she lifted her hand and waved to Zion, then turned back to AJ. “How did you know I was staying next door to you?”
AJ helped her on with her coat and his lips grazed the cusp of her ear as his hot breath fanned across the bare skin of her neck. “I saw you when I was doing dishes and you were walking home with the girl.”
A shiver ran down Poppy’s spine as lust clogged her throat making it difficult to speak. She managed to swallow it down, but just barely. She looked up at him over her shoulder. “You did?”
He nodded, the intensity in his eyes stole her breath. “I thought you might be with him.”
“With him? I’m not, no it’s not?—”
“I know that now. But I didn’t like it.”
The way he said he didn’t like it caused her sex to clench with need as she swallowed a whimper. He didn’t like it? Zion said AJ didn’t get jealous… Was he jealous?
Her mind was still spinning with questions when she felt the weight of AJ’s hand on her lower back as he ushered her out of the restaurant. When the valet arrived with AJ’s truck, they climbed into the SUV and neither spoke on the way home. The silence was thick but not uncomfortable, it was the kind of silence that felt loaded, like a first move in chess. As he drove the short distance from the restaurant to the rental house, Poppy’s mind raced. She couldn’t take her eyes off AJ’s hands on the steering wheel. They were big, capable hands, and she remembered exactly how they’d felt on her body, all the things he could make her feel with those hands.
When they pulled up into the driveway of AJ’s Airbnb, her heart bottomed out. She did not want the night to end. He came around and helped her down and neither moved. They just stood there staring, as if they were both afraid moving would pop the bubble they were in, and the night’s magic would be over.
