AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They were definitely having a talk later. Likely a long one. One that included showing her exactly why it wouldn’t happen again.
Friends and family were gathered around the tables sectioned off for the party at the bar. One table held a multitude of gaily printed bags and unwrapped presents, while another held a half-eaten two-tier birthday cake.
Laughter and general cheer filled the more than two dozen friends and family who had gathered for Lilith’s birthday. Though it was mostly friends. A few cousins and two brothers were the only family who cared to show up.
Still, Lilith was laughing and having fun. Dressed in a short, snug, black lace skirt, vest, black netted print stockings, four-inch heels, and a wide belt at her hips, Lilith looked like the wild spirit she was.
Poppy laughed as one of their male friends tried to get her friend onto the dance floor and once again Lilith turned him down. She never danced with anyone. If she danced, she went out on the floor with Poppy, Sasha, Erika, or Saige, never alone and never with a man.
She knew them all far too well, Lilith would laugh when asked why she refused to dance with a man. And when she danced with a man, she wanted to at least entertain the idea of being sexually attracted to him.
Sitting at a table with Sasha, Erika, Lilith, and Lilith’s brothers Sam and Bannon, Poppy sipped at the beer she’d ordered and discreetly checked the time on her phone.
She had to leave before it was too late. She had rolls to bake, a chicken stuffing casserole and lasagna to slip into the oven for dinner the next day at her parents’, and a variety of other things to complete.
She still had no clue if Jack was actually going to join her the next day. A part of her was hesitant about it. Jack hadn’t had family growing up; he might not understand a lot of the interaction and friendly fussing at one another.
Finishing the beer, she’d just sat the empty bottle on the table when a sudden silence descended over the tables around her. Glancing up, she turned in the direction everyone was staring, and just barely kept her mouth from falling open in shock.
Four men—in snug blue jeans, leather biker’s chaps, snug T-shirts, and boots—entered the bar and headed for them, with a scowling Jack in the lead.
And they carried birthday bags. Gaily printed, pastel-tissue-paper-peeking-out birthday bags.
From her periphery, she watched Lilith slowly sit down in her chair as the four men moved toward her.
“Happy birthday.” Jack shoved a bag at Lilith, then moved to Poppy, his gaze stormy.
The other three men were a little more graceful about it, but Hank, the last one, paused a minute.
He cleared his throat and handed Lilith his bag.
“I have a baby sister,” he said quietly. “She said you never crash a girl’s party without gifts. Happy birthday.”
He sat the bag at her feet, then moved for the bar with the other two men.
Jack slid a chair over from another table and positioned it behind Poppy and a bit to the side before sitting in it. Propping his elbows on his knees, he shot her a glare.
“You didn’t tell me about the party.” It was a smoothly delivered accusation.
“You didn’t leave me your cell number or bother to text me so I could get hold of you,” she pointed out.
“Hmm,” he murmured, though whether it was in agreement or protest she had no idea.
Damn, he looked hard and dangerous, she thought, trying to focus her gaze on Lilith, who, in her bemusement, was pushing the tissue paper aside to peek inside the bag Hank had given her.
“He doesn’t seem like the birthday-present-buying type,” she reflected as Lilith’s expression softened as she pulled away the tissue paper, then tucked the bag under her chair.
“What did he get her?” Poppy turned to Jack, curious now.
“Fuck if I know,” he growled. “I think Hayes got some kind of wind chime, though. Lucas started into a lingerie store, but Hank jerked him back and sent him into a candle store. It would have been laughable under any other circumstances.”
“And what did you get?” she asked.
Suddenly Lilith laughed, with one of the most melodic sounds Poppy believed she’d ever heard, and Poppy turned in her direction.
She held up a slate plaque with the words “MY WINGS ARE OUT FOR REPAIR SO I’M RIDING MY FRIEND’S BROOM…” Beneath it dangled a shapely witch flying on a broom.
Poppy smiled and felt something melt in her heart at the fun-filled grin on her friend’s face as she tucked the plaque back in its foam-lined box and replaced it in the bag.
