Chapter 43
Feelingthe cool bite of the pole against my palms, I swing my leg into the air and arch my back, letting muscle memory keep me from careening to the ground as I spin. I inhale calmly and let my mind go blank.
Engaging my abdominal muscles, I tuck the pole behind my knee and let myself drop until I’m horizontal with the ground. One hand gripping the pole above me and one below, I extend my other leg and hold it straight out, my toes pointed at the opposite wall.
The burn in my muscles brings me back to earth, each inflation of my lungs strained as I fight to keep my breaths even instead of staggered with exhaustion. A week without pole feels like a lifetime. The separation was worth it, but now that I’m back, I want to spend as much time as I can in my studio.
I may not have been doing my usual sort of physical activity while in Bora Bora, but I sure as shit wasn’t lazing about. I think I worked up more of a sweat in the bedroom with Garrison than I ever have on a pole.
We only got back to town a few hours ago, but he was accosted by Wade before we had the chance to adjust from vacation mode back to regular life.
Garrison’s absence is doing alarming things to me. I keep looking for him, waiting for one of his surprising kisses or smacks on the ass. I’m colder than usual, as if the man stole my body heat when he dropped me off at home and headed back to the ranch.
Of course, I didn’t expect him to blow off Wade and everyone waiting for him just to stay with me longer, but that doesn’t make the separation any easier. I miss him, and maybe that’s why I’ve been working myself so hard in the studio.
I need to do something besides think of him.
“Knock knock!” a cheery voice sings at the same moment the studio door swings open.
My grip on the pole gives as I jerk and curse. I swing upside down, the skin behind my knee making a terrible ripping sound as it rubs down the pole on my descent. Air explodes from my lungs in one painful swoosh when I hit the ground, splayed out flat on my back.
“Oh shit,” Bryce mutters.
I stare at the ceiling, not prepared to try and get up yet. “Hi. How bad is it?”
“Where does it hurt? Here?” Anna asks, now kneeling at my side. I hiss in confirmation when she carefully prods at the patch of burning skin behind my knee. “No blood. Just looks really sore.”
“How about we don’t play surprise Poppy when she’s hanging sideways on a pole. Sound good?” I groan. My shoulder screams at me when I push myself into a sitting position. “I think I swallowed a few notches of my spine.”
Bryce ignores my whining. Instead, she extends a hand for me to take and helps me to my feet before doing a quick up-and-down scan of me. “Put a sign on the door next time you’re planning on doing all that fancy aerial shit before you wind up with a broken neck.”
“I think you’ve gotten too used to thinking you own the place, Ice. You’re a bit bossy today. Anna, tell her to be nice to me, please.”
“She’ll do no such thing.”
Anna rolls her eyes and shoulders Bryce out of the way before sweeping me into a hug. “I missed you, Pops. We were just excited to see you and didn’t think before rushing in.”
“It’s all good, love bug. I’m just being grumpy. I missed you too.”
“We stopped at your place first but figured you came here when you weren’t home. You doing okay?” Bryce asks suspiciously, knowing me too damn well.
I set my hands on my hips and nod, making quick work of catching my breath. Sweat drips between my tits and down the back of my neck, and suddenly, I wish I hadn’t opted out of wearing a shirt so I could wipe myself off.
The neon pink sports bra with two thick straps over my shoulders does shit all to hide the tan lines left behind from the bikini I wore through most of the past week, but I love having them visible. It’s why I shoved the thin cotton shirt I had pulled out to wear today back into my drawer and left the house in only this bra and tiny spandex shorts with a baggy pair of sweatpants over top.
I wouldn’t dare show up so close to the fire station in just my shorts. Those poor men would simply have no choice but to ogle me and then blab about it to my brother again.
Sucking back a snort, I focus on my girls again. Anna has a brightness to her that I only see when Brody is close by, so Garrison must have been right about him being finished in Calgary by now. It gives me peace of mind to know they’re together again. While they’re both beautifully independent people, they’re just so good together that you can’t help but want them side by side all the damn time.
Bryce is just downright antsy for answers from me. She doesn’t bother pretending otherwise. I’d be surprised if she doesn’t pull out a written list of questions the moment I give her the go-ahead to dig into me and everything I’ve done over the past few weeks. Which, come to think of it, will probably be right now.
“Can I give you a hug before you sink your nails into my brain?” I ask her.
Bryce huffs a laugh but tugs me close a beat later. Her soft pomegranate scent is an immediate comfort as I breathe her in and grin.
“You stink like sweat,” she points out before stepping back and wrinkling her nose.
I laugh, grinning wider. “Good. I hope it got all over your fancy clothes.”
“They’re not even that fancy. It’s called having a dress code for work that isn’t workout clothes. And it’s new. I don’t have a choice to not follow it.”
“You look like a grandma,” I state.
“Poppy’s not wrong,” Anna puts in, cocking her head at Bryce as she eyes her outfit. “The skirt is a bit outdated.”
“She’s being far too nice. You look like a fucking grandma,” I tell her.
Working at the tiny city office doesn’t have a single perk that would make dressing in a pencil skirt made from scratchy fabric that hardly even shows a slip of ankle worth it. But it was an easy job for Bryce to get, considering her father is Cherry Peak’s current mayor, and the town isn’t really flooding with other openings.
The dress code must have been enacted while I was gone because I’ve never seen her wear something so hideous before. Dress pants and a cute blouse, yes, but not . . . this.
“The collar on the shirt hides my favourite tattoo,” she grunts, tugging it aside to show the blooming willow tree that crawls up her right collarbone and toward the hollow of her throat.
“What’s the point of the whole prim and proper look? There are what, three people that go to the office a day?” I ask.
She scowls. “If that.”
“I was going to ask if the office had an opening of any sort, but now, I’m not so sure it’s worth it,” Anna says.
My brows scrunch as I focus on her. “Has something happened to the salon?”
“No, no. Nothing like that. I’ve just been asking around town for any openings literally anywhere. I had a new client the other day who just moved to town and needs a job. I’d take her on at the salon, but I’m not quite ready for anyone else yet,” she explains.
“She just moved here?” Bryce asks, scowling at the sleeves of her white button-up blouse as she tries to tug it up to itch at her wrist.
Anna picks up on it, too, and chokes back a laugh. “Last week, I think. Into the house on the corner of Third that’s been for rent for as long as I’ve been here.”
“That place is a death trap. Haunted, too, by the looks of it. Nobody’s lived there since before we were even born. It’s falling apart,” I say, concern for a nameless woman taking root inside of me. “Do you have her number or anything? Maybe we should all introduce ourselves. Make her feel welcome, you know?”
“Like you did with me,” Anna says softly.
My chest warms. I reach for her hand and squeeze it. “Just like we did with you. And look at us now. Three peas in a pod.”
“It’s two peas,” Bryce corrects me but doesn’t turn the idea down.
I brush her off. “You can fit far more than two peas in a pod. That’s a ridiculous saying.”
“You know what else is ridiculous?” she asks, steering us into a direction I’m immediately cautious of.
“What?” I play coy, avoiding her eyes.
“Sit down, Poppy. It’s time to spill every single bean you’ve been keeping in your can.”
Anna bursts into laughter a beat before I do. I gasp a breath, eyes blurring with tears as I howl into the studio. My stomach muscles are sore by the time Anna’s croaked words cut through.
“Never . . . say . . . that . . . again. Never.”
Bryce’s cheeks pinken as she glares at the both of us. She all but stomps toward the pink couch I have in the corner of the room beneath the Beautifully Bold neon studio sign. Tossing herself down on one of the three cushions, she fixes us beneath a glacially cold blue gaze.
“Sit,” she orders.
“Fine.”
Anna offers me a sympathetic smile before we sit on the couch, flanking Bryce. The little devil chose the middle seat on purpose so I’d be forced to answer her questions instead of hiding behind Anna.
“Garrison told me you packed my suitcase for me, so clearly, you don’t hate him as much as I thought you did,” I say after a moment of uncomfortable silence, each of us waiting for someone else to speak first.
“It was that or let you go naked, and I didn’t think you’d appreciate that while you were still upset with him,” she mutters. “Besides, I’ve never hated him. I’m just cautious of him. For good reason, might I add.”
“I think it’s safe to say we were all cautious of him,” Anna says.
My mind zeroes in on a single word and focuses on it. “Were?”
“I’m more curious than anything else, I think,” Anna says.
I nod. “Alright, well then, ask what you need to. Both of you.”
Bryce is the first to go, to no one’s surprise. “Do you love him?”
I suck in a breath, blinking slowly. “Not pulling any punches, are you?”
“I don’t pull punches when it comes to you and your feelings, Pops. You know that already.”
“Damn right,” Anna agrees.
I flick my eyes between the two of them, reading the honesty in their expressions. I’m lucky, I know that without a doubt. These are the two people who are going to pick me up off the ground and put me back together once he leaves.
“Yes, I love him. I love him a lot. Even before he swooped in to save me from that absolutely disastrous date you set me up on, Bryce. And don’t think I’m not going to kick your ass for that either.” I jab a finger at her, and she sucks air between her teeth.
“Okay, I take full responsibility for that guy. He seemed decent enough, but to be fair, I was just trying to test Garrison for you. That guy, whatever his name was, he was just a little piece of cheese that I was hanging in front of your man’s nose,” Bryce explains, defending herself.
I rest my arm on the back of the couch and lean my cheek against it. “I’d probably have done the same thing.”
“If there’s one thing that will pull a man’s head out of his ass, it’s knowing someone else is scoping out his woman. Brody’s jealous streak is one of my favourite quirks, and clearly, Garrison’s is even more fierce,” Anna says with a smirk.
Bryce snorts out a laugh. “That’s an understatement.”
“You have to fill in all the blanks for us now. Like what happened in Bora Bora and why you were home later than we expected you to be,” Anna prods, tucking her knees beneath her.
“Honestly, we didn’t even do that much in Bora Bora. We spent all our time swimming, sunbathing, and, you know, having a shit ton of sex. All three at once, more often than not. Doing a million things didn’t feel necessary. Just being together was enough. I could have stayed there for the rest of my life,” I tell them, unashamed of how dreamy my voice sounds.
My lips tug into a smile at the memories that follow, taking me back to being held in Garrison’s arms with the warm sun on my shoulders and a lightness in my chest that would be impossible to recreate sitting here right now.
“Look at you right now,” Anna murmurs, watching me with a soft gaze. “You do love him.”
My throat tightens, but I ignore the sensation. “I do. I really do.”
Bryce’s expression doesn’t give away what she’s thinking. But I know that if she didn’t approve at all, she’d tell me so. Her approval is important to me. With how close our friend group is, how could it not be? Yet at the same time, I wouldn’t let her disapproval sway anything in my mind.
“Where did you go yesterday instead of coming home?” she finally asks.
“He took me to Toronto. I met his parents, and it was incredible. His mom is so adorable and sweet—you’d both love her. She’s got spunk too. And she offered to teach me to bake. Me! We’d hardly known each other for three hours by then, but I felt like I’d known her for years,” I ramble, my hands moving this way and that in front of me.
“She sounds like Eliza,” Anna notes, her approval obvious in both her physical appearance and tone.
“Oh, those two would get along so well. I was expecting her to be kind, but I wasn’t ready to fall in love with her too.”
Bryce’s features have softened, the blue in her eyes no longer glacial but warm like the water in Bora Bora. “Sounds like you had a good time, Pops.”
“The best, Ice.”
“Was Reggie there?” Anna asks.
I swallow, suddenly thrown back into those moments in the kitchen when I heard Garrison fighting off tears. I won’t ever forget that moment between him and his father, even if I only witnessed it on the other side of a wall.
Everything that was said between them broke a piece of their relationship, only to mold it back together into something far better. They have a long way to go still, but they laid the groundwork. Things can only go up from here.
“He was. I didn’t spend much time with him, though,” I choose to say, not offering anything else.
I love my girls, but details aren’t their business.
“Does he love you back?” Bryce asks.
“I don’t know. He hasn’t said it.” Every word I speak makes it harder not to flinch.
“He will. He does,” Anna states.
Bryce holds my gaze. “If that’s the case, then we need to get to know him properly.”
“Only if you promise not to get me up on that mechanical bull again.”
“He better keep his head out of his ass, then,” she says with a shrug.
“What about tomorrow night at Peakside?” Anna suggests.
Bryce nods. “He has to come as your boyfriend, Poppy. That’s the only way it will count.”
“My boyfriend for the next two weeks,” I correct her.
She makes a disbelieving sound in the back of her throat. “That’s an entirely different problem, but I’ll leave it for now. We’ve grilled you enough, and you fucking stink.”
I laugh, the sound a mix between self-pity and genuine humour. “You’re such a charmer, Bryce. It’s a wonder you’re single.”
“She’s single ’cause she’s too hot for anyone in Cherry Peak,” Anna pipes up, standing from the couch and stretching out her back.
Bryce winks at her, a hell of a lot less tense than a few minutes ago. “Careful, I don’t think Brody would appreciate it if I stole his girl.”
“Stop flirting. You’re making me jealous,” I mutter.
Laughter escapes all three of us, and I soak it up, storing the sound deep in my soul for the moment in the near future where I’m going to need it more than anything else.