Chapter 26
Poppy pulled her jeans up and automatically sucked in her stomach as she tugged the edges of the waistband together to attempt to button them, but it was a lost cause.
She had officially grown out of her first pair of jeans.
In fairness, they had always run a little small for her.
She pushed them down her legs and grabbed another from her drawer.
Before pulling them on, she turned and looked in the mirror.
Her belly was definitely belly-ing. She’d been doing her best not to pay too much attention to her condition just in case…
the fact that she was referring to her pregnancy as a condition was proof of that.
But she knew, deep down, that if the worst happened, she would be devastated. Completely, totally, devastated.
She shook that thought off as she stepped into the second pair of jeans. They were a little snug, but she was able to zip and button with no issues.
In two days she had her twelve-week checkup. After that she’d tell people. She placed her hand on her belly, which, as of now, looked bloated, but in a month or so, she doubted she’d be able to keep it a secret even if she wanted to.
After pulling her hair up in a ponytail and putting on a hoodie, she checked the time.
Shit, she was running late and would have to skip breakfast. And she didn’t even have a power bar because she’d spent the afternoon creating Wednesday Adams instead of doing her weekly shopping.
She’d have to grab something while she was out.
She had to get going because she was scheduled to see the house and to work on it today with AJ, and she wanted to get an early start, but after coming home late from the party, she hit the snooze not once but twice this morning, so now she barely had enough time to brush her teeth.
Last night something transpired between them.
She wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it was something.
Still, even with that, nothing had changed.
She told herself she wasn’t disappointed, but she was lying.
Her heart ached just thinking about the way he’d remained quiet on the drive home.
When they got home, he walked her up to the door and told her goodnight.
That was it. Once she was inside, he turned around and walked back to his house.
As she replayed the night over in her head, she realized that she’d probably seemed crazy getting jealous of him.
They weren’t together. They were friends who had enjoyed benefits a couple of times, and he’d been supportive of her.
He said things, nice things about liking her, but he could mean that as a friend, a friend who is carrying his child.
And she’d been the one to set the boundaries. She’d said no sleepovers, no more sexy-time showers, and it was for her own protection. If she spent every night with the man doing all the things she wanted to do with him and then he left, she wasn’t sure she could survive it.
Her phone rang with a FaceTime and she was about to hit ignore when she saw who it was, and nerves began to pop in her belly like corn kernels in a pot of grease.
She’d spoken to Miss Carol on the phone but hadn’t FaceTimed since she found out she was expecting.
If she kept making excuses as to why she wasn’t available for a FaceTime, she was scared her honorary grandma was going to show up on her porch.
She pressed the green accept button, and white curly hair, round rosy cheeks, and square red-rimmed glasses filled the screen. Miss Carol worked as Mrs. Santa Claus every holiday season and went as Betty Crocker for Halloween on more than one occasion.
“How was the party? Did you kiss under whatever the Halloween equivalent of mistletoe is?” Miss Carol always got straight to the point and skipped formal greetings.
“It was good, and I don’t think there is a Halloween equivalent of mistletoe, but even if there was, there was no lip action at all.”
“Well, there should be. How is school? How is your mom? How is the new job? New house?”
“School is hard, harder than I thought it would be.” In fairness, that might have something to do with other factors that were distracting her, though. “Mom is good, I think she is seeing someone, she keeps asking me to go to dinner.”
Miss Carol nodded in commiseratory understanding.
She knew that was Poppy’s mom’s M.O. Whenever Kerri met someone new, it was always the same, she wanted her daughter to meet them at a dinner, and then she wanted her to talk about how amazing they were for hours on end and give her Poppy’s approval because, since her father died, she said she needed her blessing from now on.
She didn’t, and Poppy certainly didn’t need to give it.
“Job is good. Tabitha is a doll. So sweet.” She took a breath. “And the house is…yeah, it’s good. It’s coming along.”
“What’s wrong with the house?” Miss Carol seized on Poppy’s hesitation like a dog with a bone.
“No, nothing. I had just planned on doing most of the work myself, but I’ve been so busy, so my neighbor has been doing most of it. I haven’t actually been over there that much. I’m going today though, and I’ll send you pics.”
Miss Carol stared at Poppy. She could tell that she wasn’t quite buying her story. She felt herself melting under Miss Carol’s scrutiny.
Right before she was scared she was going to crack and confess a litany of sins, including: stealing Fruit Stripe gum when she was ten, TPing Principal Norton’s house with Jamie and Mary Snelling, and drawing penises on the boys lockers with Clarissa Holt and Jana Frasier in retaliation for them freezing all the girls bras during P.E. a loud knock sounded.
Saved by a knock.
“Oh, that’s me. I gotta go. Love you.”
“This conversation isn’t over. Love you.”
Poppy disconnected the call and exhaled in relief. Miss Carol was suspicious, but she’d made it through the call with her none the wiser. And she hadn’t technically lied. She had planned on doing the work herself, and her neighbor was doing it.
After grabbing her purse, Poppy opened the door, and her heart practically leaped from her chest. AJ stood on her porch looking sexier than anyone should legally be allowed to look.
A navy blue Henley pushed up on his chiseled forearms, faded blue jeans that were worn in all the right places, not from some manufacturer but from hard, physical labor and work boots with scuffs that showed he knew his way around a job site.
If Chef AJ was sexy, Construction AJ was sexy on steroids.
Instantly, she felt happier, lighter, like she was walking on clouds.
This was bad. Her mood should not be dependent on a man. No matter who that man was to her.
She smiled. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
Her heart was beating so hard, so loud, she was sure he could hear it as they walked to his truck and he helped her inside.
The moment she settled in the seat, the delicious aroma of hot chocolate drifted up to her nostrils.
She looked to her left and saw a to-go cup and a brown paper Brewed Awakenings bag.
AJ climbed in the passenger seat and, without sparing her a glance, said, “It’s for you.”
“For me?” Her mouth watered as she opened up the brown bag to find a toasted everything bagel with light butter. Her teeth sank into the bready goodness, and she nearly had a foodgasm. She was happy to have her appetite back, at least for today.
“How did you know I haven’t eaten breakfast?” she asked as she chewed.
“You stayed up past ten last night, so you hit snooze at least twice, which meant you rushed around to get ready because you wanted to get started early this morning. Also, you didn’t do your grocery shopping yesterday because Zoya was over last night getting ready for the festival, so you are probably planning on doing it later today, so you didn’t have anything quick to grab, and you thought you would grab something later for lunch. ”
Poppy knew that AJ couldn’t actually read her mind.
He may not even be particularly intuitive, he just observed her behavior and took note.
Still, it was unnerving to have someone who paid such close attention to every minute detail of her life.
She’d never experienced that before. He’d done that the first night they met when he talked about what her house said about her.
It was difficult to explain, but he made her feel not just seen but important.
She tried to remember that it wasn’t about her.
The past few weeks, he’d gone above and beyond anticipating her every need. Frankie had mentioned to her at the party last night that AJ always had a strong sense of right and wrong. His sister didn’t know that she was telling someone who was carrying his child, but she was.
In AJ’s mind, the right thing to do was to take care of Poppy right now.
His attentiveness was more about her condition than it was about her, which said a lot about his character considering he never wanted to be a father.
Knowing his motivation should make her separate herself from him emotionally because it wasn’t about her, unfortunately it was having the opposite effect.
AJ pulled up to Poppy’s house and felt his body tense. He knew this time was going to come, but he’d compartmentalized it in his mind for a future worry. But now the future was here. This could go either very badly or very good, he didn’t see a world where it wouldn’t be in one of those extremes.
Poppy was fully aware he’d been working on the house, but she didn’t know the extent of his labor.
He hadn’t lied to her, he just hadn’t been forthcoming with all the details.
They’d discussed the scope of work the day she got her keys.
He knew her line-item budget. He knew where she wanted to spend her money and how much she had to spend.
He just hadn’t discussed his budget with her.