Chapter Six
Six
P oppy showed up at Merle’s place at 9:00 a.m. frantically knocking on his door, followed by three text messages and a bang on his bedroom window which finally woke him. When he opened the door to his cousin, she pushed past him into the house and dumped her large purse on the hall table she’d insisted he buy before heading to the kitchen.
“Pop?”
“Sorry. I need to talk and you’re the only one who knows everything and I hated to wake you because I know you work nights—”
“It’s okay,” he said going over and stopping her frantic movements near the sink. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her.
She sighed and then hiccupped a few times before she started crying.
“What is going on?”
“Alistair is going to Gemma’s wedding and his family will all be there. He hasn’t told them we’re divorced and they want him to make amends with me—probably so they can get on my popularity with Amber Rapp’s fans.”
Fuck.
Alistair wasn’t making it easy for Poppy to move on. When she discovered he’d pursued and married her for the Kitchener tea recipe that had been guarded and handed down to her, it threw her into a tailspin. She’d bought into his whole loved-her-at-first-sight thing. When it crashed, she’d run to Merle who gave her a place to stay and heal.
They’d always been close, and he had Poppy’s back then and now. But by going to a mutual friend’s wedding with her ex-husband...
“Want me to talk to him?”
“Yes. But what are you going to say?”
“Stop being a douche? It’s over? Move on?”
Poppy smiled, though her eyes were still red from crying. She went to the breakfast bar which was the only seating in his sparsely furnished kitchen. “Thanks. But I’ve already said it.”
“Want me to say that we’re going together?” he asked after a minute. He hated family functions. But he’d do this for Poppy.
“Ah, thanks. But you weren’t planning to go. I thought you gave your parents your invite. I’d... You’d hate it,” she said.
He opened the fridge and took out two Gatorades, tossing one to her, which she caught one-handed. Poppy had some athletic skill, though she didn’t flaunt it. “But I love you so it’s not big.”
“It’s totally big,” she said after taking a small sip of her drink. She made a face and set it aside.
“We can drive down to Boston together it you want and talk to him. Or I can go by myself... Marcus took a job as a coach to the Sox farm team. I wasn’t planning on it, but I’ll go and see him first.”
“Do you think it will help?”
“It can’t hurt. Did you give him any signal that he still has a shot?”
Poppy chewed her lower lip between her teeth.
“Pop. Really?”
She didn’t say anything, and he wasn’t sure what she needed from him right now. “Am I supportive of you, or pissed off and about to give you the snap-out-of-it talk?”
She laughed. “Both. I shouldn’t be talking to him online, but he joined my secret tea society and he’s brewing beer or something... It’s been a long time and he was being... nice . You know, he’s only nice when he wants something. And he did all the things I like. I guess part of me hoped he’d finally...” she said, looking down at the countertop instead of at him.
“Don’t beat yourself over it. It’s natural to hope someone has changed. I do it with my folks all the time. So I get it. What do you want? You could totally hook up without having to go back to him.”
“I know. It’s just...sex isn’t like that for me,” she said.
“It’s personal.”
“Yeah. Not just about the physical. Actually I really don’t miss sex per se. I miss intimacy, and with him at least we know each other. Even though he sucked at the end of our marriage, there’s all those good memories too.”
Yeah. It wasn’t like Poppy had ever really pretended not to have the softest heart of anyone on the planet. She cared a lot about everyone. And Alistair wasn’t above taking advantage of that. “Let’s find you a new man.”
“I still have an old man telling everyone we’re married. He hasn’t changed his socials either,” Poppy said.
“So you change yours,” he said.
“He’ll make me the bad guy. He’ll tell everyone—”
“Who cares? The people who know you won’t believe it and yeah, I know I’m not online so it’s not like I know what that world is like. But fuck him. You should not only say you’re not married but start seeing other people and posting it.”
“When have I ever been that person?”
“Never. So why do you care what he does online? Why are you letting him control you with this ‘she’s still my wife’?”
Poppy blinked rapidly and then shook her head and when she spoke her words were low and guttural with the tears that streamed down her face. “I think I still want to be.”
“You deserve better,” he said. “But if you want him, knowing who he is...then go after him.”
He hoped she didn’t. Alistair had never been Merle’s favorite person and he never would be. He’d hurt Poppy and Merle couldn’t forgive that. But it was Poppy’s life. If she wanted the guy, then Merle would support her.
“I do deserve better. But what if there isn’t anyone else out there who wants me?” she asked.
“There is. Also being treated like shit isn’t better than being alone. I live alone and I’m happy,” he said.
Unbidden, an image of Liberty in his arms yesterday danced through his head. He wouldn’t mind living with her.
“Yeah, you’re living the dream with your two decorated rooms and empty house,” she teased.
He flipped her off and then pulled out his phone to order breakfast for them. “You going to be okay?”
“Yeah. I need to talk to the girls.”
“Why didn’t you do that first?” he asked. He seemed like the last choice for this convo.
“Sera and Wesley were at his place and Liberty wasn’t at her apartment.”
Where was she? Was she seeing someone else?
He knew he had no right to feel jealous, but his crush on her made him feel as if he did. He was putting himself out there, not lying about what he wanted. As simple and complicated as that.
Liberty woke up in her childhood bedroom with a vague memory of her mom helping her to bed and tucking her in. The smell of Italian sausage and garlic wafted through the air. She hopped out of bed and ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. She stopped in the doorway and saw her mom at the stove cooking.
Her mom looked over her shoulder and greeted her. Liberty noted that she looked tired, but it was so good to see her.
“I missed you.”
“I figured. I stopped by the care home. Nan told me about her vision and your visit. You okay?”
“No. She saw Grandpa,” Liberty said, going to pour herself a cup of coffee from the pot. She rarely allowed herself coffee, but this morning she needed it. Taking a deep breath of the aroma before she had her first sip.
Heaven.
“Yeah. I heard Merle was there.”
“Yeah.”
Her mom laughed. “So what’s going on with him?”
“Mom...”
“Liberty...”
“I’m not sure. I mean, you know I kinda like him. Apparently everyone does, even Nan. She said ‘that boy you look at when you think no one is watching’ in front of him.”
Her mom blinked, and then the saddest smile that she had seen on her mom’s face in a long time appeared. “I’m glad. That’s her sassy self.”
“I felt the same. Yesterday it felt like the dementia/Alzheimer stuff was gone,” she said.
“You know it’s not going away,” Mom said.
She rolled her eyes. Her mom was very practical, always pointing out the reality of things. Like when she was twelve and totally into Agent Cody Banks , her mom had insisted on pointing out that there wasn’t a bit of reality in it. As if Liberty was going to run off and join a secret agent program... If they’d offered, she totally would have. Still, she lived in the real world. Probably more than her mom realized. “Yeah. I just wanted to hope.”
“I know, baby. I want that too.”
Liberty wondered how Nan was when her mom got there.
“Was Nan okay?”
“Yeah. Still very clear-minded but she seemed sad. Like she knew that she wasn’t always that way,” her mom said. “It was hard to see her like that. I’m sure it was for you too.”
“It was. I mean Nan has always been the one to comfort me...not that you don’t.”
“I get it. Grandkids and grandparents have a common enemy—the parent.”
“My evil single mom who sacrificed everything to make a good life for me. Yeah, she’s the worst,” Liberty said with a wink. It was an old joke between them.
And it made that secret she was keeping feel more like a betrayal. Was she lying to herself when she said she was keeping the truth from her mom for her mom’s sake? That she even had to ask was probably the answer she was searching for.
“That’s me. So breakfast frittata? Do you have time to eat here or do you need it to go?”
She glanced at her watch. It was only nine-fifteen but she had to be at the shop by nine-forty-five and hadn’t showered. “To go, I’m afraid.”
“No problem.”
Liberty ran upstairs, showered and got ready for the day in some clothes she kept in the closet there. Her mom had breakfast ready when she came back down and packed extra for Poppy and Sera too. She hugged her mom an extra-long time.
“Why were you here last night? Was it just Nan?”
Ugh.
“Uh, well I am making some Samhain stuff for Merle and needed some herbs and oils that I didn’t have at my place. And I missed you. You’ve been gone for almost two weeks.”
She added the last bit to distract her mom because she’d always had a pretty good instinct when it came to the truth.
“I missed you too,” she said. “Why are you making things for Merle?”
“We’re hanging out,” Liberty said. Totally the truth. “He asked me to join his D her magic seemed to be settling down, or at least she was getting more used to the change that was going on inside of her. She’d been afraid to cast any spells or ask her tarot cards for guidance while her emotions were all over the place.
Yesterday Merle had calmed all of that.
“Yeah. So, full disclosure, I also wanted to find out where you were last night. Poppy said you weren’t at your apartment.”
She shook her hair as she tipped her head to the side and looked up at him. He stood awkwardly, almost defensive, but she thought—or maybe hoped—that she saw some vulnerability in his confession. “Were you jealous?”
“Did you want me to be?”
“So that’s totally a yes,” she said.
He shrugged. “You?”
“Well no, I didn’t want you to be, but I’m sort of excited that you were,” she admitted. Yesterday when she’d tried to even things up, he’d stopped her and she wasn’t sure where they stood. In the past, most men dated her when they wanted someone different, a manic pixie dream girl, and then lost interest. Like she was a one-time thing with no merit for anything else.
Merle was different. Wasn’t he?
She had to stop doing that. Had to stop putting all men in the same category and expecting Merle to be like her dad had been. He wasn’t. He never had been.
“Excited?”
“Yeah. I like it. I’m guessing you’re starting to want me for more than an extra player in your D&D campaign.”
He threw his head back and laughed. It was a long one that made her heart flutter. “Maybe.”
She walked over to him and put her arms around his shoulders, leaning up to kiss him. He tried to give her one of those chaste ones, but she was hungry for Merle and deepened the kiss.
His arms came around her. He placed his hands on her waist, lifting her off her feet so that she rested against his body. It seemed as if time stopped when he kissed her.
In this moment, everything was right in her world. Well, not everything, but enough. Nan was clearheaded. Mom was home. And Merle had been jealous and was kissing her.
She was fully aware that this would pass and reality would be back sooner than she wanted it to be. Nothing lasted forever.
But the autumn wind danced around them, chillier than it had been yesterday. The crispness made her feel alive and hopeful in a way that only the season of Samhain could. It was the end of one phase and the beginning of another one. Those words resonated in her soul, and as Merle lifted his head, his hands cupping her butt, she stayed pressed against him.
Words weren’t the only thing adding to the buzz around her.
“Are you ready for tonight?”
“Do we have to wait that long?”
His cock jumped against her stomach and he groaned. “I meant D&D.”
“Of course you did. Well yes, I am ready for that. And for anything else you might bring, Merle Rutland.”
She kissed him again before unlocking the back door of the shop. She could feel him watching her as she walked away and was glad she’d squeezed into the tight pair of jeans she’d left at her mom’s because they made her ass and hips look damn good.
She wanted him to be thinking about her all day long. Maybe tonight, after the game, she’d see if she could bring some real-world magic to their lives.