Chapter 31
Thirty-One
Finn
“Finn!” Chloe calls, dragging a little girl behind her I’ve never seen before. “Finn!”
“I’m here, buttercup,” I say, crouching down. “What’s up?”
She lifts her hand—still interlaced with the other little girl’s. “This is Holly!”
I smile. “Hi, Holly.”
She smiles back shyly.
“You have such pretty eyes,” I say. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that particular shade of gray before.
It’s almost like…
Storm clouds.
“Thanks,” Holly says before allowing Chloe to drag her off. My little charge shouting, “Daddy!” across the back yard.
Daddy—Rhodes—turns and smiles, scooping her up and tossing her over his shoulder. She shrieks will glee and he’s smiling wide, and the worry inside me fades a little.
He’s been off for a few days.
Quiet and maybe a little distant.
But the team has also had two games—one of them away—and they were tough battles that brought him home late and left him exhausted…
And maybe a little frustrated too.
Because his game is off too.
Hopefully, Jean-Michel’s annual pool party will smooth down the sharp edges of his mood.
Now is it still technically winter? Yup.
But California weather means that it’s nearly ninety degrees outside. Warm enough to swim—especially since the pool is heated.
Not that the kids—or the hockey players—mind.
It’s chaos in the best possible way.
There are kids and adults everywhere, dogs running around, burgers on the grill, music drifting through the backyard, and enough floaties in the pool to make it look like a toy store exploded.
Chloe is having the time of her life, laughing her head off as Rhodes threatens to toss her in the pool.
“She belong to you?” I hear.
I turn and see a woman with long brown hair and striking green eyes, and smile. “The little speed demon in the pink swimsuit?” I nod because she is mine in everything but blood. “Chloe never stops. Her new best friend yours?”
She laughs. “Yup. Holly is the tiny tornado in the purple one.” She extends her hand. “I’m Poppy.”
We shake. “Finn.”
Poppy nods toward the cat hair clinging to my black cover-up. “Did Chrissy con you into adopting a cat too?”
I chuckle. “Not today. This is just evidence from one of the kittens Chrissy’s dad and his wife are fostering.” I attempt to brush off the hair, realize it’s futile and shrug. “The little kitty decided I was her personal jungle gym.”
She laughs.
Then we get to talking.
About her adopting a cat from Chrissy’s rescue, and how once Chrissy’s got an idea, she rides it through to the end…
That end now being Chrissy setting up a huge rescue center just outside of Cedar Hollow.
“When I mentioned the land was for sale, I didn’t think it would work for her,” Poppy says.
“Cedar Hollow is small and a little isolated, but when Chrissy came out and looked at the plot, she said it’s perfect—near enough to Harrisburg so she can draw in the city folk and not too far from Cedar Hollow, along with Redwood Bluff and Crest Harbor. ”
“I haven’t been up there, but...” I tell her about my show at Bits & Bobs.
“Oh, you’ll love it,” Poppy says with a smile.
“Cedar Hollow is one of those special places—small and quaint and everyone knows everyone (sometimes to a ridiculous extent). But it’s…
home.” She sighs, her eyes drifting from mine, her thoughts suddenly seeming to be very far away.
“I think there’s something in the water that makes people not want to leave. ” A beat. “Or almost everyone, anyway.”
I study her closely.
And wonder who left her.
She seems to shake herself, plaster a smile on her face. “And thus concludes the tale of how I’m somehow now part of a cat rescue.”
I laugh. “Welcome to the club.” Then I lean closer. “And be careful, or soon enough you’ll be waylaid by Rory and her adorable pups.”
“Then adopting them too,” Poppy quips.
“Exactly.”
I glance over at the pool where Chloe is laughing so hard she can barely stay upright, Holly right beside her. Rhodes is nearby, keeping an eye on them both.
My heart squeezes.
He’s such a good guy.
“How’s it being so close to Harrisburg?” I ask. “With the Hawks there and everything?”
Poppy’s smile goes a little strange around the edges.
“Cedar Hollow won’t ever change,” she says softly.
“It’ll be a small town forever, but I can’t lie—it’s nice having the city close.
People come in for the restaurants, stay at the inn, get married on the beach.
” Her mouth curves. “Though, town lore says that Cedar Hollow deals in love almost more than any other currency.”
“That sounds…dangerous?”
“It is,” she says dryly.
“Do Hawks players ever come into town?”
Poppy snorts. “No. They don’t come within ten miles of the place unless they want to get contaminated by love.” She draws the last out by about ten syllables and I laugh again.
But Poppy’s not laughing with me.
And there’s something sharp hidden in emerald-green of her eyes.
Something broken.
Before I can ask if she’s okay, Rhodes comes up beside us carrying two dripping little girls. “Anyone know what I should do with these two hooligans?”
“We’re not hooligans!” Chloe protests.
“What’s a hooligan?” Holly asks.
A sideways shrug. “I dunno.”
Rhodes laughs and sets them down where they giggle and squeal and dance around before joining in on a game of tag.
He’s smiling as he watches them run, but he slips an arm around my waist, drawing me close.
See? He’s fine. Totally fine. Nothing weird going on at all.
“Poppy and Holly live in Cedar Hollow,” I tell him.
“Where you’re doing the new market?”
I nod, a blip of pleasure sliding through me that he remembers. “And it’s also the site of Chrissy’s new rescue center.”
His brows drag together and he’s quiet for a moment. “Isn’t that also where Storm Harrison grew up?”
Poppy jerks. “Uh, yeah,” she says after a beat. “Actually, we grew up together.”
“How’s it having him back in town?” he asks quietly.
Her gaze drifts again. Then she gives us that brittle smile again. “He’s a hockey player.” A shrug. “Which means he avoids Cedar Hollow—and all the town brings alongside it—like the plague.”
I open my mouth.
But then there’s a cry of pain, and we all turn as one, see that Holly has fallen.
She’s sobbing, holding her knee.
“Excuse me,” Poppy tells us before rushing over to her daughter.
Jean-Michel is barely a heartbeat behind her, first aid kit in hand as he kneels at their sides.
It only takes an ice pack and a bandage to put Holly to rights.
But as I look up at Rhodes and see the shadows creeping back in his eyes, the tension clinging to his shoulders again, I realize what’s bothering him won’t be nearly as easy to solve.