Chapter 10 #2
I gave a little scootch, making room for the stunning redhead to plop down beside me.
I’d gotten to know the sweet, personably innkeeper over the past several days, even taking some time one evening to join her for tea on the back porch of her large yet charming home.
It was hard to put a finger on her exact age, because whatever skincare regimen she used was fantastic, but I put her somewhere near my age, maybe a couple years younger.
She’d been so easy to talk to that I found myself opening up and telling her some about my past and what had brought me back.
She was so gorgeous you might have expected her to be conceited or vain, when truthfully, she was anything but. I enjoyed time in her company, and, dare I say, she was starting to feel like a friend.
Silence enveloped us for a few peaceful minutes before she finally broke it. “Saw you stomping out to the laundry room earlier like you were pissed at the world. If I didn’t mention it already, that’s a complimentary service we offer. Unless you’re unsatisfied with our sheet-washing skills.”
I let out a snort and gave my head a playful shake at the mischievous smile she was wearing. “Your sheet-washing skills are up to the task, I promise. These were just…extenuating circumstances.”
A beat passed, then another before Poppy let out a knowing hum. “Those extenuating circumstances have anything to do with a particular biker that I’ve seen cruising around my inn the past few days?”
My head whipped around to face her, my eyes widening so much it was a wonder they didn’t pop right out of my skull. “What?”
“Roe,” she answered my squeaked question, clearly already familiar with the man.
“Saw him leaving here a little while ago, and I’ve seen him on that bike of his, riding past the inn at a crawl like he’s desperately looking for something.
” The humor melted from her features, leaving something more serious in its place. “Or someone.”
I pushed the fact that Roe had been spying on me to the back of my mind, determined to forget all about the flash of heat that knowledge created low in my belly. Nope. Nu-uh. I did not care that he’d been around. I really didn’t.
Instead, I focused all my energy on something else.
I had to admit I found it a little surprising that a woman like Poppy would know a guy like Roe.
They were from two totally different worlds.
And from how she spoke about him, I got the impression it was more than just in passing.
It was funny, because I’d met Poppy’s husband, Jase, and he was the very definition of buttoned-up and moneyed.
I wasn’t sure I’d seen the man in anything but a suit in passing, his hair always in perfect place. “You know Roe?”
She nodded, expression innocent like it was nothing.
“We’re friendly. I know a good few of those guys, actually.
They’ve helped a few of my friends out when they got into a bind a few years back.
Can’t say we’re besties or anything like that, but what I know of them I like. Same with my other friends.”
I turned back to the sky, letting out a groan as I scrubbed my hands over my face. Of course the new friendship I felt budding would somehow be tied to my past, because I’d obviously done something epically stupid in a past like that set karma out to get me.
“It’s complicated,” I said, heaving out a sigh as an invisible weight pressed down on my chest.
“Most love stories are.”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes dramatically. “It’s not a love story, believe me,” I said dryly. “If anything, it’s a melodrama with a shitty ending.”
It was her turn to scoff. “Hate to break it to you, babe, but most love stories are rife with melodrama. But something tells me yours is far from over.”
I shook my head, trying to steel my words as I insisted, “Oh no. My story is long over.”
“I thought that too, after my first real heartbreak. I thought for sure I was done.”
I followed suit as she sat up, turning to face her before wrapping my arms around my bent knees and hugging them to my chest. “This was before Jase?”
She nodded again, a dreamy quality stealing over her features as she thoughts of her husband crossed her mind.
I’d seen that look on her face many times.
Just as I’d witnessed Jase’s complete inability to be in the same room as his wife and not touch her.
The two of them were so sweet, so in love, that more than once, I’d experienced a pang of longing for what they had.
You only had to be near them for a short time to see how much they loved each other.
It was written in the way they looked at each other, especially when the other wasn’t watching.
“Yeah, but you obviously moved past it. I mean, you married the guy.”
“Not for love,” she stated, shocking the hell out of me. “Not at first, anyway.”
My curiosity was well and truly piqued. “What do you mean.”
“I mean, we didn’t marry for love. That came later.
It’s a long story, but the short version is that Jase needed a wife to prove to his board of directors that he was more than just a playboy so he could take the company over from his father, who was a giant trash heap of a human being, by the way. ”
My jaw nearly hit the ground. “So you married him to make him seem more serious?”
She nodded, smiling unabashedly. In fact, if the light had been better, I would have sworn her smile was tinged with triumph.
“Sure did. And it was the best decision I ever made. Jase changed my life, and it was all for the better. Even during the hard times, even when we’re fighting more than usual, or when the stress has pushed us close to the breaking point.
All of that is still better with him than if I was going it alone.
I married him because he needed help. The love might have come later, but it came.
” That dreamy expression returned to her pretty face. “And it came strong.”
That sounded like something out of a romance novel, and I loved that she found that. But… “That doesn’t mean it’s meant for me,” I said in a hushed voice. “My heart’s been broken so many times it’s being held together by glue and tape.”
Poppy pushed to her feet, dusting her behind off before reaching out and offering me a hand up.
“Look, I’m not going to pretend to know what’s best for you, but I’ve caught the look on his face more than once as he’s cruised by, and that’s a face of a man who’s still very much in the thick of his feelings for you. ”
She gave my arm and affectionate squeeze, and with that parting shot, left me standing in the middle of a peaceful meadow with a scrambled brain.