Chapter 2
Chapter Two
LANDON
Pulling into the garage, I try to be as quiet as I can when closing the door on my Cadillac Escalade so I don’t wake Poppy or the boys.
Thankfully I didn’t have any more phone calls for the rest of the night, so the boys must have slept through all the drama.
Not looking my best after a long night, I walk in from the garage and kick my shoes off at the door.
I run my hands through my hair, grateful to have made it home without any more problems arising.
I’m so fucking tired that I just want to get to bed before the boys wake up in four or five hours and want breakfast.
As often as I explain to them that Christmas is still thirteen days away (well, it’s now technically the morning, so make that twelve days), they are worried that they will miss it if they don’t wake up nice and early every morning.
This was always Lucinda’s thing. The celebrations and decorations that she loved to make a big deal of, and the damn early-morning wake-ups after I had crawled into bed at two am.
I can still hear her voice when she would kiss me on the cheek and say, “Sleep, I’ve got them.
Love you.” Then she would slip from our bed, and I would fall back into a deep, peaceful slumber.
But those days are now just a distant memory.
I place my keys and phone on the hall stand as I walk into the living room, unsure whether Poppy will be awake or if she has been sleeping while she waited for me.
Not seeing her, I peek over the top of the three-seater couch, and there she is asleep on her back.
Her hands are clasped on her stomach, and her phone sits on her chest. Her blonde, shoulder-length hair lies messily on the cushion under her head, and her legs are crossed at her ankles.
Her socks are striped red and white like candy canes, and it looks as though she has just thrown on some comfy clothes to get over here quickly.
Her zip-up jacket has ridden up slightly in her sleep, and my eyes stay stuck on the slither of skin around her waist. Peeking from the bottom of her jacket is what looks like a Christmas pajama top, green with Santa heads all over it.
Ughhh, she is one of those people who think it’s “the most wonderful time of the year.” I should’ve guessed, because Mrs. B has been full of Christmas cheer for weeks.
If it weren’t for the boys, I wouldn’t even bother decorating my house, but I know Lucinda would strike me down with lightning if I didn’t give them a proper Christmas experience.
I look down at Poppy, wishing she was awake so it would make this easier. I’m tired and just want to say thank you, then send her home so I can shower and crawl into bed.
But now I’m faced with the dilemma of how to wake her so that she doesn’t jump or scream with fright.
The last thing I want is for the boys to wake up.
Looming over her is probably not the best idea, but I don’t want to touch her either.
I don’t want her telling her mother that I’m some creepy old man.
Even though I’m only thirty-eight, I feel like the last few years have aged me, and I actually do feel like an old man.
I take a couple steps back to give her some space and then whisper her name.
“Poppy.” I speak so quietly that even I struggle to hear my own voice, and she doesn’t even flinch.
“Poppy,” I whisper, a little harsher and louder now.
Her body moves at lightning speed, and she sits up, staring at me with those big blue eyes as she quickly tries to work out where she is and what the hell is going on.
“Shit, Landon, sorry. I must have nodded off.” She raises her arms above her head and stretches as she yawns.
I doubt she realizes how much of her stomach she is exposing right now, but it’s enough skin that I need to avert my eyes and look down at my hands until her stretching is done. Thankfully she is too tired to notice.
“Yeah, sorry to startle you, but I’m glad you could get some sleep.
I already feel terrible for dragging you out so late at night.
I’m sure you just want to head straight home to bed.
” I sit on the coffee table in the middle of the room with my back to the fireplace, putting some more distance between us.
“It was no trouble at all. Plus, it just saved us from one of Mom’s long-winded introductions when she gets home tomorrow. Because I’m pretty sure she would’ve been dragging me over here to meet you the moment she pulled into the driveway.” She rolls her eyes at me.
“I would be lost without your mom, she is a very kind soul.” I mean every word of it, and I want Poppy to know how much the boys and I like her mom.
“Yeah, she is. I’m very blessed. She can also be pushy, nosy, and a painful nagger, but I love her anyway.
” Poppy lets out a little giggle that’s kind of cute.
“Anyway, I’ll head home and leave you to get to bed.
I know what it’s like to work nights, but at least I get to sleep on shift—well, sometimes.
” Pushing up off the couch, she stands, and as I do the same, the space I put between us has disappeared and we are less than two feet from each other.
A bolt of electricity races through my body, sending a shockwave to my brain.
Fuck.
I step to the side quickly to get away from whatever that was. “Yes,” I grumble at her, wanting to just push her out of the house as quickly as I can, but she keeps talking.
“And don’t you have two boys who will be awake in four hours?”
I can’t help groan at the thought of it.
“Oh, that’s got to be rough. Glad I didn’t draw that short straw,” Poppy says to me, but all I can concentrate on are her exquisite eyes that have caught my attention again. It’s like she draws me to her without even trying, and that’s beginning to piss me off.
“Landon?” Hearing my name, I shake my head and come to my senses. I realize that she has been talking to me while I was zoned out, and I must appear so rude to her right now.
“Sorry, it’s been a long night. You said you were leaving?” I grumble, running my hands over my face.
“I bet. Yes, I’m heading out.” Poppy pads to the front door in her little candy cane socks, which has my sleep-deprived brain thinking about how sweet she would taste.
Pulling myself together, I follow her and stand with my hand on the doorknob. “I can’t thank you enough for your help.” I open the door for her as she slips her feet into her boots that in no way go with her outfit.
“No problem. I look forward to meeting Nash and Kade tomorrow. Good night, Landon.” And with that she is out the door and heading across the lawn to Mrs. B’s house.
“Good night,” I call after her, watching her until she walks in her front door and I hear it close behind her.
Walking back inside, I close the door and then stand in the hallway, trying to work out what the hell just happened.
I have women throwing themselves at me every night at the bar.
With their tits on display and their ass cheeks hanging out of their short skirts, they flirt and slip me their numbers on napkins, but not one of them has made me look twice.
Yet the moment I saw Poppy’s ID, there was something about her eyes that hooked me in.
Seeing her in person tonight, wearing those ridiculous socks, with messy hair and no makeup on, looking like she just got out of bed—and my body had a meltdown.
I can’t think clearly. I’m obviously delirious.
I desperately need sleep and head to my room, turning off the lights along the way, then strip down and walk directly into the shower. As much as I want to get into bed, there is no way I can sleep until I have washed off the smell of the bar and the sweat of tonight’s craziness.
But when I finally lay my head down on the pillow, it’s those blue eyes that are still looking back at me in the dark, and I just can’t shake them.
But in the silence of the room, guilt starts to hang over me for even thinking about Poppy like that.
No one will replace Lucinda, she was the love of my life.
And no one will even come a close second.
“For fuck’s sake, go to sleep,” I mumble to myself as I grab my pillow and bunch it up under my head and then roll onto my stomach.
“I don’t have time for this shit.” Reaching for my phone, I hit the white noise app I use for the boys when they are struggling and having a hard time missing their mom.
Tonight it’s my saving grace as I try to will myself to sleep, hoping that I dream of Lucinda’s beautiful brown eyes that were forever mine, because any other color is just a dangerous temptation.
POPPY
Stripping off my jacket and track pants, I quickly get under the bedcovers and wriggle to get comfortable on my back.
From the moment my phone rang, I knew tonight would be intriguing, but I underestimated by how much.
I wasn’t wrong. The voice definitely matched the body. Rugged and hot as fuck.
I’ll be having words with Mom for not bothering to share that there is a hottie living next door. Not that I’m in the market for a man. I’ve had my fill of them for this year. But it can’t hurt to admire what’s on show.
When I woke to see Landon standing in front of me, it was like hearing the call of a level-five fire alarm.
You know you are in trouble because there is danger all around you.
The lines of seriousness on that man’s forehead told me of his long night, but it didn’t stop the raw masculinity oozing from him too.