“Yes, you would’ve, Poppy. You’re a strong woman, stronger than you give yourself credit for. I’ve just been giving you the tools, but you’ve been doing all the hard work. Now, go and relax for the rest of the day. And how about we make our next session after your coffee with Tessa? We can go over anything you need to from that meeting and then do some work on that fire memory. Does that sound like a plan?”
“Yes, it does.” I take my phone from my bag and message Landon that I’m ready to leave. “I’ll see you then.”
Chapter Twenty
POPPY
Walking out the clinic’s front door, I’m not at all surprised to see Landon’s car is already parked out front of the building. I smile, thinking he has probably been here the whole time. He’s standing alongside his car, leaning against the passenger-side door, with his head down and looking at his phone with that intense, broody look he gets sometimes when he’s concentrating or deep in thought. His ankles are crossed, in his perfectly contoured black jeans that frame his ass nicely and the chest-hugging maroon t-shirt I bought him when I went shopping with Autumn a couple days ago. It looks so damn good on him that when he pulled it on this morning, I had the instant urge to rip it off him. Something about the way it sat across his shoulders, framing his perfect wedge-shaped torso, then so snug around his solid biceps without being too tight, caught me off guard. And the V-neck helping to show off his chest, hinting at just a bit of chest hair, nearly left me undone.
The image of Landon in front of me is certainly GQ model worthy, especially with the seriously sexy look on his face.
But the moment he hears the door of Meara’s office close, his head whips up, and his gaze meets mine, his sexy smile lighting up his eyes and my heart at the same time.
He’s moving from the car quickly toward me, even though I don’t need his help to walk anymore now that I’m just using a cane for a bit of extra stability if needed. But that doesn’t change his caring nature and need to be close by my side, just in case.
“How did it go?” he asks. “You look good, great in fact.” He stops in front of me and leans down to deliver a quick kiss on the lips.
“That’s because I feel good. I have so much to tell you.” Taking his hand in my free one, I keep walking toward the car with him by my side.
“Well, aren’t we lucky we have a thirty-minute car ride for you to fill me in. Then two hours at home without the boys where we have the option to stop speaking completely,” Landon finishes saying as we get to the car. He opens my door, helping me into my seat, then leans in closer, his lips tickling my ear with his whisper hot against my ear, “Because if you think you’re happy now, then just wait until I get you naked and fuck you so hard you see stars. That’s what we call the Landon Fuckabliss.” The caress of his breath against my neck has me shivering at the same time I let out a groan, but it’s not from the tingles he’s giving me.
“Ughh, seriously?” I sigh, as he flashes me a cocky grin, before closing my door and moving quickly around the car to get in his side. Shutting the door behind him, he scrambles to put on his seatbelt. “Fuckabliss?Where the hell did that word come from?” I ask over the sound of the engine starting and Landon’s music filling the car speakers.
“I made it up. But you have to admit that it works. I fuck you so good that you end up in a place of pure bliss. Sofuckablissis that blissful spot in the universe where you feel so fucking good.It’s a magical place that only I can take you to.” Landon glances across at me, his deep dark eyes glistening mischievously, a look he only gets when we’re together, alone, and without a care in the world. And when his sole objective is to show me how much he loves me. Oh yeah, I want to go there too.
“How long until we get home again?” I ask, feeling a slight blush on my cheeks as I clench my thighs closer together to try to calm the tingle that’s already starting, even before he’s touched me.
Landon laughs easily. “Too long. Now tell me what happened with Meara and Tessa. We both need a little distraction.”
“You think?” I tease and then start from the beginning, telling him about my first memory of the fire and then about Tessa.
And the whole time, all I’m thinking is how grateful I am that I have Landon to share my life with now.
LANDON
Poppy and Tessa have been working on their relationship over the last few weeks. Poppy is slowly starting to trust Tessa and laying the foundations for a friendship going forward. Just watching them, I can see they’re both starting to feel more comfortable around each other. But now Poppy is worried that Tessa still doesn’t have a job. Tessa has dropped a few comments at their coffee meet-ups about struggling financially now that her savings are running out.
I don’t want Tessa to become a burden on Poppy, or Mrs. B either, for that matter. When Poppy accidentally let it slip that Tessa was struggling, Mrs. B was already planning on setting her up in the spare bedroom. It’s who Mrs. B is, a person who would give her last dollar to someone she thought needed it more than she did.
Poppy has taken Mrs. B to a couple of the coffee mornings with Tessa so she can get to know her too. And from what Poppy tells me, it’s all been very nice and pleasant, but I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I know if it were my parents turning up out of the blue, unannounced and uninvited, it would only mean they were after something from me. I had way too many of these visits from them, where they would turn up at my home or work, looking for money or wanting me to serve them free drinks, or both. And even once my mother came into a bar I was working at, demanding I go and bail my father out of jail.
I know my past trauma has probably made me cynical, but I can’t help being a little wary of Tessa. My therapist equates it with the guard I have up from my parents, and he’s working with me to try to let that down, but it’s slow progress.
I’m trying not to let Poppy see my hesitation with Tessa, because she’s starting to get attached to her more than she ever thought she would. They say blood is thicker than water, and maybe it’s the case here for Poppy, but I know it will never be that way for me and my parents. I hope to never see them again, and that my sons are spared the heartache of knowing the type of scum they have as grandparents. We’re better off without them in our lives, and the boys have Lucinda’s parents who are amazing, even if only from a distance. The moment Lucinda’s mom and dad found out about Poppy and me, they were so happy for us. You can’t ask for more than that from your in-laws. Plus, the boys have the best type of grandmother living next door, proving my point that you don’t need that thick blood to be a family; the water in the relationship my boys have with Granny B is as pure as the water from a mountain spring.
And if I have my way, eventually she will be their grandmother through marriage. Because the longer Poppy and I are together, the stronger the feeling in my chest becomes for me to put a ring on her finger and make her officially mine. Itshocked me in a way, because after I lost Lucinda, I swore I would never remarry. I didn’t want to feel that excruciating pain again.
Yet here we are, almost living together, like a close-knit family, and I couldn’t be happier.
If we can just get that stuck memory of Poppy’s to release, then maybe we can start making decisions about our future. Poppy and Meara have tried hypnotherapy a couple of times to help Poppy remember the missing parts of her day, but she just can’t recall those important ten minutes or so during the peak of the fire. It’s this crucial memory that holds the key to everything Poppy is questioning. If she can just unlock that vision, it will hopefully explain why she reacts the way she does to her crew, the thought of going back to work, and the knowledge that the ceiling didn’t collapse on its own.
Meara keeps reassuring Poppy that her memory will resurface eventually, but my girl has run out of patience. And I can’t blame her.
“You look fine, and don’t worry, Landon won’t expect you to know everything on the first day. Plus, Charlene is awesome, she’ll look out for you.” Hearing Poppy’s voice alerts me that she’s coming in through the back door of the bar with Tessa. I sigh, knowing tonight will be a long night.
And I know I’m probably going to regret this, but I still think it’s the right thing to do.
I offered Tessa a temporary part-time job in the bar, mainly to keep an income in her pocket but also to prevent her from relying on Poppy for her livelihood, especially since Poppy isn’t working either. She’s receiving workers’ compensation from the fire department, but I don’t want her then handing it over to Tessa to keep her afloat.
