Rich shakes his head, that smile fading to a frown. “No one's heard from her since Pippa—” He glances over at Eddie, who sheepishly looks away. The man still blames himself for her death too.
“Damn, do you know where she is?”
“Last I heard, she went to college, but I don’t know,” Rich informs me, scrubbing at the back of his neck. “She kinda disappeared when Amber did.”
Eddie freezes, then pretends to be elbow deep in car repair. He’s not even touching anything with his wrench.
“Sorry, man, I know you hate hearing her name,” Rich quickly adds.
The girl in the shop saunters over, standing in front of Eddie like he’s her next meal. She barely looks my way; her attention is solely on him. “Is it okay if I get out of here and clean up for later?”
“Sure, but before you go, let me officially introduce you to Wesley. We call him Voorhees. Sorry that I got so caught up with him being here that I forgot to introduce you two.”
Extending my hand, I hold it out for her to shake. “You’re just being stingy. I get it. I wouldn’t want to introduce her to me either, with a face like this…” My hand waves over my scar. “Chicks dig the scar.”
Sammie giggles.
Rich watches as she lays a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, her voice dropping into a seductive whisper. “See you tonight?”
“Yup, I’ll pick you up around seven.”
The second she leaves, Rich is pissed. “I fucking knew it,” he grumbles, kicking at a tire as he passes it.
“Knew what?” Eddie fires back.
“That you were fucking hot for her.”
“Who wouldn’t be?”
Rich can’t help but laugh. “I just can’t believe you’re actually following through with it. That’s a real woman, Eddie, not just some toy to play with.
“I know.”
“You better treat her right,” Rich threatens.
“Trust me, Krampy, I haven’t felt like this about a girl in a long time.”
“And what if Amber were to walk through that door tomorrow? What would your tune be then?”
Oof, he said her name out loud. This isn’t going to be good.
Eddie’s voice raises, his anger cracking like a fresh spark. “That won’t fucking happen.”
“How do you know? It hasn’t been five years yet.”
Fuck, now Rich is bringing up Eddie’s mother’s prophecy? Not good. Not good at all.
After Amber left Eddie at the altar, his mother predicted she’d be back, but it may take up to five years for her to return. Those five years are almost over now, and no one has seen or heard from Amber in that amount of time. It’s crazy when you think about it. The two were head over heels for each other, and now she’s just gone, leaving him here to harden and go cold without her.
“Yeah, but it will be in a few months. Then what? I’m good, man. I’m over her.”
“I really hope you’re right, Eddie. Sammie’s a good girl. She deserves to be treated with respect. Hell, if I had a chance with her, I would’ve made a move on her long ago, but I saw the wayshe looks at you. I’m nothing in her eyes compared to you. So, treat her fucking like the queen she is, or so help me…”
“I get it. I get it. Don’t worry, I have every intention of treating this one right. This time I’m going all in.” Eddie sounds like he’s serious but we all know he’s still holding on to the one girl that has his heart. Just like I am.
Many people have asked me why I’m so in love with a girl that treats me like shit and hates to even look at me. And for a while, I really didn’t know how to answer that question without saying I like a good chase. But these past three years have put a lot of things into perspective for me. It’s not just the chase that keeps me holding onto Poppy, it’s everything. That day she caught me trying to steal her dad’s car, changed me. She could’ve ratted me out, but she didn’t. She let me go. That told me more about her than she’d like to believe.
Unlike her, I knew almost immediately that she was my person. Call it love at first sight. Call it infatuation if you want, but something in my bones just tells me that Poppy Kiplinger has and will always be the only girl I’ll ever want or need.
