“No.” She shook her head and blinked, and he saw that her eyes were shimmering with tears.
His confusion snowballed as his brain worked overtime trying to compute all the different variables that could possibly be upsetting her, but he was unable to come up with any.
“I liked you so much, and we hadn’t even known each other twenty-four hours.” She inhaled a shaky breath. “Honestly, I liked you before I met you. I almost wasn’t going to go to the wedding, but then I saw your picture, and I knew I had to go. I asked Liam about you the day before?—”
“What did he say?” He didn’t care about too many people’s opinions, but Liam's he did.
“Um…” Poppy’s eyes looked up and to the left, it was a sign she was trying to recall. “He said you were single, no kids, just got back from deployment, worked in intelligence,didn’tdo CrossFit, which would have been a deal breaker?—”
“That’s a two-way street.” He smiled. This woman could not get more perfect.
“It’s like a cult,right?” she exclaimed before continuing, “He said you were funny and really smart. He told me the scores you got on your SATs and ACTs, and I know they were really good, but I don’t remember, sorry.”
His smile widened. “It’s fine.”
Fuck, she was adorable.
“He said you were asked to join Mensa when you were seventeen and that he didn’t think you were a big drinker, and if you were a serial killer, you were smart enough to get away with it. Oh, and you were a good guy, thebestguy he knows.”
“He said that?” It made AJ happy to hear. Liam was someone AJ truly respected, always had. He looked up to so few people, because they tended to disappoint him, but Liam never had.
Poppy nodded.
“I knew who you were before the wedding, too,” AJ confessed.
“You did? How?”
“Frankie called and asked me if I knew anyone with the last name Davies. We didn’t know Liam had changed his name from Sterling. When I was looking into it, I saw your picture.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What picture?”
“It was you on the steps of the hospital with about twenty?—”
“No!” she shrieked and covered her face with her hands. “You saw thestaff photofrom three years ago. I didn’t know we were taking photos that day. I just got back from Cabo with Carmen, my work bestie, and I was so bloated from all the tequila and hadfreckles,so I just kept trying to make everyone laugh so their eyes would be closed and they couldn’t use it, but they ended up liking it because everyone looked so natural. It totally backfired.”
“When I saw that picture…” AJ reached out and pulled her hands down from her face so she wasn’t hiding herself. “I felt you through it.”
She stared up at him, and he thought she was going to argue with him or tell him that it was weird, but she didn’t. She looked… relieved, and she tentatively put her hand on his chest. “That’s what I felt when I saw the picture of you. It was you and Niko with Frankie, but all I saw wasyou. I couldn’t explain it, but yeah, that’s it, I felt you through it.” Her lips curled and her eyes twinkled. “No wonder Mensa asked you to join.”
He covered her hand with his, holding it in place.
“Can I ask you something?” She bit the inside of her cheek.
“Anything.”
“Are you sure you don’t want kids, because I can’t…”
“No, I don’t. I have never wanted kids.”
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she lifted them up to meet his and stared at him through inky lashes. “I’m sorry I didn’t return your messages. I was just… Ireallyliked you, and I knew you could hurt me. I was just scared to get hurt.”
The vulnerability in her words and her eyes…it was radiating off of her.
“I liked you, too,” he admitted. “I still do. I thought about you every day. Several times a day. All day, in fact. I couldn’t stop. It was…frustrating.”
Her lips curled at the edges slightly as she repeated, “Frustrating.”
“Yes,” he confirmed with a growl, and her whisper of a grin spread to a full-blown, high-wattage smile.
