3. Poppy
CHAPTER 3
POPPY
I watch the man walk away, and I wait for the relief to come, but it doesn’t. I sit back down at the picnic table feeling worse now than I did before I confronted him. He didn’t say anything. Heck, I didn’t give him much of a chance to say anything.
I put my head in my hands. I usually avoid any and all drama, so I want to kick myself for what I did today. Why did I unleash on some stranger? All he did was scowl at me. I directed everything I felt for Adam on some poor guy.
I groan and lift my head to find a woman standing in front of me. She’s the one that went to buy items to take home earlier. I sit up a little straighter as she sits down across from me.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
I rear back, surprised. “What?”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “Colter is one of the nicest men I know, and whatever you said to him, you destroyed any progress he’s made in the last two years.”
Shocked, I shake my head. “What do you mean? He was staring at me, scowling for hours and?—”
She blows out a breath and waves her hand around. “He usually is holed up inside, so I was happy to find him out in the sunshine.”
A knot in my stomach starts to form, but the woman is glaring at me, not cutting me any slack. “Colter is one of my husband’s best friends. If you only knew the hell he’s been through these past two years. You could have just let him down easy instead of being mean about it.”
I shake my head. “I wasn’t… I mean, he didn’t ask me out or anything. He was glaring at me for hours, and I went off on him.”
She looks down the path that Colter disappeared down and then back at me. “For just looking at you?”
I roll my eyes and blow out a breath. “He wasn’t just looking at me… he was judging me.”
Her eyes round. “Judging you? Trust me when I say that Colter is the last man to judge anyone.”
Damnit, did I really screw up this badly? “I’m sorry, okay? I had a bad morning, and maybe I took it out on the wrong person.”
She laughs bitterly. “You think?” She stands up. “I just hope that whatever you said to him doesn’t set him back.”
She starts to walk off, and I bolt to my feet. “Wait…”
She turns to look at me. “Abby. My name is Abby.”
I gesture to the seat she just got up from. “I’m Poppy. Will you please sit down?” She’s about to refuse, but I plead with her. “Please?”
She doesn’t look happy about it, but she sits down and stares at me. Most people like me, but today seems to be the day that I’m rubbing everyone the wrong way. “Can you tell me about Colter?”
She rolls her eyes. “His story is not mine to tell.”
I nod. “Okay, well, can I tell you about me?”
She doesn’t answer me, but at least she doesn’t get up and walk away, so I start to ramble. “I started working at Glaze around a month ago, and this is the second week since we’ve started with the truck.”
She crosses her legs, and I settle in. “Look, I regret what I said to your friend. I had a run-in with an ex this morning, and let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. When Colter stared at me for two hours, scowling, I thought he was judging me, and I tried to talk to him, but he just stared at me, and I lost my temper.”
Abby blows out a breath. “Colter has a traumatic brain injury.”
I swear she may as well have punched me in the face. Shocked, I shake my head side to side. “No… I didn’t know…”
Abby tilts her head to look at me. “Like I said, Colter is one of the good guys, and I don’t know what you said to him, but whatever it was, he didn’t deserve it.”
I grip my hands together in my lap. I can feel myself spiraling. I’m replaying everything I said in my head, and I feel sick to my stomach. I look at the path Colter walked down. “I need to talk to him.”
Abby shakes her head. “That’s not a good idea.”
I lean forward. “Abby, please. I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but I’m not a mean person. I let my morning affect how I treated Colter, and I need to apologize to him.”
She’s shaking her head the whole time. “See, I’m pretty sure Colter won’t want that. If anything, he’s going to want to know you’re okay because he’ll be worried about you and?—”
I point at myself. “Worried about me? He doesn’t even know me.”
She searches my face. “He doesn’t? Are you sure? Because I don’t know any other reason a man that is sensitive to light so badly it causes migraines would come out here to just hang out.”
I remember Colter putting on his sunglasses when the sun broke through the clouds, and I start to reexamine everything that happened over the last few hours. Maybe he wasn’t scowling at me. I mean, sure, he was watching me the whole time, but maybe he wasn’t scowling. Maybe he was squinting because even though there were clouds, he was protecting his eyes. Maybe it was desire not disgust that I saw flare in his eyes when he looked me up and down.
“Oh God!” I exclaim and put my head in my hands. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. I shouldn’t have said any of it.” I lift my head and plead with her in desperation. “Abby, please, you don’t owe me anything, but you have to help me make this right. Oh my gosh, he has to think I’m a horrible person.”
She shrugs. “Trust me, he doesn’t. He just thinks you’re like every other person that judges him for his TBI.”
I let my head fall back with a huff. “I wasn’t judging him, at least not like that. I need to fix this, Abby, please.”
She searches my face, and I hope she sees the sincerity and the overwhelming regret I’m feeling right now. “Please.”
She finally nods her head and pulls her phone out. “I’ll give you his number, but I need you to promise me one thing.”
I dig my phone out of my apron pocket. “Anything.”
She nods. “You can text him, but don’t call him. I don’t want you catching him off guard and making him even more uncomfortable. If he wants to talk to you, he’ll call you.”
At this point, I’ll promise her anything. “I promise. I’ll text him, and that’s it. I won’t call him unless he says I can.”
She still doesn’t seem completely sure about it, but after looking up his number on her phone, she recites it to me. I enter it into my phone and then repeat it to her to make sure I got it right.
I look at the window of the Glaze truck, and Teresa is hanging out of it, throwing her hands up in the air. I want to talk to Abby more, but I know I need to get back to work. I stand up. “Thank you, Abby. I really am sorry, but I want to thank you for talking to me about this. I’m going to fix it, and I’m going to apologize to him.”
She nods her head, but as I turn to walk away, she grabs my arm to stop me. Surprised, I look up at her. She shakes her head. “Poppy, whatever you do, just don’t hurt him… okay?”
I blink in surprise. “Hurt him? I couldn’t do that.”
She smiles softly at me. “I have a feeling that you could probably hurt him more than anyone.”
I feel the need to remind her. “Abby, I don’t know him. I didn’t even know his name until you told me what it was.”
She nods. “Yeah, I know, but something got him out of his cabin, and I have a feeling it was you.”
I just stare at her in surprise and wonder if there is any truth to what she’s thinking. “I promise, Abby, I won’t hurt him.”
She nods and sighs in relief before walking away.
As soon as I get to the truck, I start handing napkins and utensils through the open window to Teresa.
“What was that about?”
I look at Abby’s retreating back. “I’m not really sure.”
Teresa leans out the window. “Poppy, what’s going on?”
I shake my head, not wanting to go into detail. I love Teresa, but I know that whatever I tell her will be told to anyone and everyone that will listen when she works her shift at the shop this week. “Nothing is going on. I was just catching up with Abby.”
Her eyes light up. “You know Abby? Do you know her brother, Zach? He is hot with a capital h.” She holds her five fingers up. “I just need five minutes alone with that man and…”
She rambles on, but I have trouble paying attention because my thoughts go back to Colter and everything I said to him. I feel a deep regret for all of it, and as soon as I get the truck back to the bakery and go home, I’m going to text Colter and just hope he forgives me.