Chapter 15
EIGHT WEEKS LATER
“The Queen of Brunch is turning down a mimosa? Are you feeling okay?” Zion, never one to let a moment of melodrama go to waste, pressed the back of his hand theatrically to Poppy’s forehead, his eyes wide with mock concern.
“Is this like an invasion of the body snatchers? Poppy, are you in there? Will the real Poppy Davies please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?” he said in the same rhythmic stylings of Eminem’s “Slim Shady.”
Poppy managed a weak smile and nudged his hand away as she sank back into the velveteen sofa and drank in her surroundings.
The bridal shop was drenched in late-morning sun, refracting through crystal pendants and gilded mirrors until the whole place glowed like a scene out of a rom-com.
The air smelled faintly of roses and starch and the effervescent optimism of new beginnings, a scent that made Poppy want to run and burrow under a weighted blanket for the rest of the day.
But she was there, upright, and determined not to be the reason her new besties bridal mood board got splattered with emotional carnage.
There was a full house in attendance at Frankie’s final fitting.
All three of her sisters, Paulina, Phoebe, and Pippa, Yaya, her mom Kerri, Frankie’s mom Cora, Teresa, and her nieces, Zoya, Finley, and baby Bristol, had infiltrated the bridal shop and were waiting for Frankie to emerge in her showstopper dress.
She was going to be marrying Poppy’s brother Liam in two days, and this was the last scheduled appointment for the tailoring sorcery that, everyone claimed, ensured a dress fit like a second skin.
Not that Frankie needed much help, the minute she had stepped into the sample gown, it was as if the silk and French lace had been engineered for her petite, curvy frame.
It was one of those rare, cosmic retail moments when salespeople wept and mothers lost the ability to speak.
Poppy was doing her best to put on a brave, happy face, but she was struggling.
She couldn’t even blame her sudden aversion to mimosas on her usual enemies, low blood sugar, PMS, or existential dread.
No, what she felt was bone-deep weariness.
For the last month and a half, she’d been locked in a barrage of packing, paperwork, and emotional triage, all while trying to maintain the illusion that she was a character in a charming small-town rom-com and any day now would be having her meet-cute, and not a recently unemployed thirty year old that just bought a fixer upper house she had no idea how she was going to renovate who still cried at pharmaceutical commercials.
She’d emptied out her entire cottage—only 700 square feet, but it felt like unearthing a mausoleum—and put her belongings in a storage unit.
And she said a surprisingly tearless goodbye to the radiology department, where she’d spent the last decade.
She would miss the people but not the monotony of the work.
Leaving the bungalow hadn’t hurt as much as she’d feared.
Most of her memories there blurred together in a pleasant, vanilla-scented montage, movie nights with her mom, experimental baking disasters, and one of her sisters crashing on her couch after “just one more” glass of wine.
The only memory that stuck in her mind like a splinter was from two months ago, and it was probably better that she forgot it.
The sheer mortifying perfection of the time they’d spent, not just the sex, although that had been next level insane, but the talking, the sharing of personal stories, the connecting.
Then there was the heartbreak that she’d fallen asleep and had no memories of AJ in her bed, but now she knew it was for the best. She couldn’t stop the rest of the night from playing on repeat in her head, it had been on a constant loop so much that the details had calcified in her DNA, so if she had fallen asleep in his arms and woken up in them, that would just be one more thing that she’d have to try and get over.
Crashing out on the couch was probably the most self-protective thing she’d ever done.
Even if he’d technically been single, the fact that a woman still had belongings at his house and that she’d expected to be invited to a family wedding out of state told Poppy all she needed to know.
Which is why she’d ignored all his calls and messages.
It had taken every ounce of self-control and discipline she had but she’d done it.
After growing up as the product of ‘the other woman,’ Poppy refused to be involved with anyone even remotely involved with someone else. No, not her.
“Are you sure I can’t tempt you?” Zion held up the flute and wagged his brows.
“I’m moving into the ADU today. And even though I don’t start until tomorrow, I don’t want to show up tipsy,” she lied. Well, not about moving into the ADU and starting her nanny job tomorrow, just about the reason she wasn’t drinking. She wasn’t drinking because she was exhausted.
Poppy decided to take the leap, or leaps, of faith and change everything.
She quit her job and re-enrolled in school online and bought a house so she could live in Hope Falls, like she always wanted to.
She was going to do her postgraduate work to get her MBA so that she could pursue occupational therapy, which was always her dream.
She still technically worked at the hospital until January.
She was taking a sabbatical, that way she could keep her medical insurance as long as possible.
While she was in school, she was going to go back to her roots. She called the guy who left his card, Deacon St. Claire. Thankfully, he still hadn’t filled the position. Her plan was to nanny part-time, get her master’s degree, and live in the ADU while she renovated her home.
“Oh, right. So that’s it, no more taking pictures of people’s skeletons.” Zion wiggled his fingers, as if it was spooky to take x-rays.
“My last day was Wednesday.” Saying it out loud was still strange. Poppy couldn’t quite believe that everything she’d been planning was finally happening.
“Do you need any help moving?” Zion offered.
“No, it’s furnished, so I’m all good.”
“Where is it?” he asked. “Have you seen it?”
“Just photos. It’s on Aspen Trail Drive.”
“Oh, I looked at a place there. What’s the address?”
Zion moved to Hope Falls when Frankie got engaged to Liam. He just picked up everything and left New York for her. They had such a special relationship. It was pure, unconditional love.
Poppy pulled out her phone and showed Zion the photos of the one-bedroom, five hundred foot ADU Deacon had sent her. “Four ten.”
“Yep.” He nodded his head in recognition. “I was going to put an offer in on four twelve next door, but an investor beat me to it. He uses it for Airbnb rentals. But four ten is nice. Your daddy has big money.”
“Do not call him that.”
“Just saying.” Zion sipped his mimosa. “So when do you get the keys to your house?”
“Soon, I’m not sure. Lauren said we should close any day now.”
“Well, I was gonna wait to give this to you, but I want you to have it when you get the keys, and with the wedding and everything, I know things are crazy this week.” Zion took a small gift bag out from under his photographer’s bag.
“What? What is this?”
“It is to celebrate you becoming an official Hope Falls resident.”
“You did not have to get me anything.”
“Yes, honey.” He nodded in an exaggerated fashion. “I did.”
Poppy opened the bag and pulled out a mug. It was one she’d seen at the coffee shop Brewed Awakenings many times and had wanted to buy for herself but felt silly doing so.
“Oh, my gosh. I love it.”
“Now that you are official, the HFE juju can start to work.”
The side of the mug had the definition of The Hope Falls Effect on it, which was something that Poppy was sure was just created for tourism, but she, as an eternal optimist, had always secretly believed in its magic.
HOPE FALLS EFFECT?
Hope Falls:
noun (place)
1. a small, picturesque town tucked in the Sierra Nevada with an idyllic landscape backdrop of lush, deep green pine trees and dotted with colorful aspens.
The heart of the town, Main Street, is a five-block stretch of small storefront businesses, lined on each side with wooden sidewalks filled with a cast of colorful characters sure to enrich your life.
Effect:
verb (action)
1. someone who never thought they would ever fall in love or fall in love again, and suddenly they meet their soul mate
2. a person who thought that their career was over suddenly gets a new opportunity that changes their life forever
3. someone who is running from something bad in their past or has issues with their family, they move here and the situation resolves itself
4. those who are lonely find support from the community
5. things magically fall into place in the following areas: love, career, friendship
6. saves people
7. heals people
8. is the missing puzzle piece in people’s lives
She felt herself starting to tear up as she wrapped her arms around Zion and hugged her mug close to her chest. It was silly, but this made her feel like she belonged, and it did actually give her hope. “Thank you!”
“Of course, my love. I got you.”
As she tucked the mug carefully back in its bag, Phoebe walked over to join them.
“I’m so proud of you for starting over like that at your age. That’s so brave,” her sister Phoebe proclaimed as she bounced Bristol, Poppy’s seven month old niece on her hip. “It just goes to show, it’s never too late.”