Chapter 21
Even the scent of sawdust and aged wood couldn’t calm Decker’s thoughts. Something had transpired back there but he’d be damned if he knew what.
It was as if there had been a silent conversation between Poppy, Kiki, and Miles, but when it came to him, he was lost in translation.
“What the hell happened back there?” he asked Miles, who was sanding down some of the original wood paneling. The goal was to get it back to raw wood, then re-stain it.
“You kind of like played it cool. Which was bad form.”
“What do you mean, bad form?”
“How did last night go?” Miles asked.
“I’m not the kind to kiss and tell.” Especially when it came to Poppy. Not to mention that wasn’t the kind of conversation one had with one’s teenaged nephew.
“Which means you at least kissed. How did things go after?”
Fan-fucking-tastic. Not only had they talked until the sun came up, but she’d held him tightly as if she were afraid to let go. He knew the feeling. He wanted to hold on to every second of last night so he could replay it over and over again.
“Everything was fine.”
“Then why is she mad at you this morning?”
Decker set down the sander. “You picked up on that, too? I thought I was just being overly sensitive.”
“Well, you are a sensitive guy, but there was palpable tension between the two of you. So what did you do? You were together. Did you fuck it up?”
He racked his brain for where he might have dropped the ball and came up short. “No.”
“You must have done something.”
“Are you blaming me? Why couldn’t it have been something she did?” Miles shot him a seriously look, and Decker ran a hand down his jaw. “I fucked up, didn’t I?”
He tried to think back to what happened and his body manned up at just the memory of her coming apart in his arms. But the surprising feeling that was pinching his chest was the reminder of her sleeping in his arms.
“Did she have an orgasm?” Miles asked.
“Seriously? This is not an uncle-nephew conversation.”
“Hmmm. So she didn’t.”
“Of course she did.” She had two, right? No girl’s ever faked it with him. Never had to. “And this isn’t acceptable talk for us to be having.”
Miles rolled his eyes. “Your generation is so stuck in the medieval times. But what I noticed was that you were kind of treating her like a buddy this morning.”
“No, I wasn’t. I was being respectful.”
“Does she know that? Because women are complex beings.”
Decker lifted a brow. “How do you know this?”
“Books. You should read some. Especially ones on how to make your woman feel appreciated. So let’s walk through what happened.”
“I was getting breakfast to bring up to her, but then she came down and I didn’t want to embarrass her, because then everyone would know exactly what we did.”
“Which was?”
“Medieval, remember?”
Miles touched Decker’s arm. “This is a safe place.”
“Your balls have barely dropped.”
“Emotional intelligence doesn’t have an age.” He hopped up on the counter. “Now, go on.”
“I got out of bed, made her breakfast, and then when she came down she was acting weird. She didn’t even touch the food. She skirted around me, then went to work.”
“Back up. You left her in bed?”
“To make breakfast. What part of that don’t you get?”
“Did you tell her what you were doing?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise. Last night was great and I wanted to show her this morning what it meant to me.”
“By leaving her in bed?” Miles shook his head with disappointment. “So she woke up and was alone. And then she comes downstairs and you’re chummy with everyone else, including Jessika, and then kind of ignore her.”
“I didn’t ignore her. I know how private she is, and I wanted to be respectful of that.”
“By giving her a doughnut? No wonder she’s mad at you.”
Decker gripped the back of his neck. “Man, how do I fix this?”
Miles sighed. “How did you get your ladies’ man reputation? Because you don’t seem to know very much about women.”
“When it comes to women, I know a whole lot, but when it comes to this woman, I don’t know, I guess I’m all thumbs. Two left thumbs.”
This woman turned him upside down and inside out and he had no idea why. It had never happened before.
“Okay, so here’s what you gotta do. Step one, you’re going to pick her some flowers from the garden. Step two, you’re going to apologize. And when that doesn’t work, because it’s not going to work, move on to step three.”
“Which is?”
“You’re going to get on your knees and you’re going to grovel and explain that you’re an idiot and take the blame.”
“Okay.”
“Then you’re going to pull her into you and give her that good morning kiss and say, ‘I’m sorry, I should have done that to begin with.’ Lastly, you’re going to say, ‘How are you feeling? I want to know what you’re thinking so I can make sure this never happens again.’”
“Then what?”
“Go back to groveling.”