AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No one questioned me later that night when I told them I was going for a drive, wisely assuming the space would be a good thing for everybody. It was only a partial lie—I did, in fact, drive the long way to the Blum farm, but only because I was early.
I parked where I’d parked last night and made my way down the overgrown trail to the pool, my worries leaving me with every step. I’d expected to be alone for a while, but I heard music first, then saw the glow of light. And then I saw Poppy, her hair long and loose, in a white sundress that I immediately wanted to rid her of, despite how pretty it was.
She jumped when I stepped out of the thicket, her hand flying to her chest. “Jesus, Duke. You scared the hell out of me.”
Chuckling, I approached. “Sorry I’m early—I didn’t think you’d be here yet. I just… I needed to get out of there.”
She walked back to the bed of her truck for supplies. “I imagine you did. What happened?”
I followed, helping her with the blankets and cushions she’d brought. “Nash asked or a chance, and I gave it to him.”
“But you don’t believe he deserves it.”
“I want to believe him, I do. But we’ve been down this road before, and it ends at the edge of a cliff. Where do you want these?”
Poppy unfurled a woven blanket and laid it out, reaching for another. “Right here’s fine.”
I put them where she gestured, sitting when she did amongst the pillows and camping lanterns.
“You’re on a lot of old roads these days, aren’t you?” she asked.
My gaze drifted to the pool behind her. “I don’t know why I thought it’d be any other way, coming here. It’s probably why I stayed away so long.”
“Out of sight, out of mind. It’s how I survived you leaving. Mostly, I just imagined you dead.”
“Wow,” I said on a laugh.
“I mean, not dead dead, just disappeared off the face of the planet. It was easier than thinking you were out there in the world being happy after you’d made me so miserable.”
“I’m sorry, Poppy.”
She sighed. “What sucks is that I actually believe you. I did wonder though…” She shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
“What?”
Poppy met my eyes. “Would you have done it differently?”
I drew a long breath and let it out. “Some of it. I would have done more to spare your feelings.”
“But you were never coming back.”
I shook my head. “I wanted to. The night before I left, the last time I saw you, I told my parents I was quitting school so I could be with you and help with Nash.”
She paused, met my eyes. “What?”
“Mama and Dad talked me out of staying. Told me to wait until the summer to decide, but you and I broke up before then.”
She glanced down, watching her fingers as she picked at the blanket. “And then you never came back.”
“I loved you too much to be certain I’d get on the bus back to school.”
“I didn’t know.”
“How could you? I couldn’t tell you either—knowing you wanted me to stay would have made it worse.”
“So I’ve been hating you all these years for nothing?”
“I mean, not nothing. I didn’t do right by you, Poppy.”
“Well, you make an excellent villain, in case you didn’t know.”
I laughed. “But everybody loves me.”
“I know! It’s the worst.” She sighed. “It helps that you didn’t cheat on me, even if you did date that girl immediately after I hung up on you. It’s so weird Evangeline is her sister,”
“Not really. You know, all Lana ever wanted was to be on a yacht in the Mediterranean. Ang wanted a career. Their parents think she’s crazy for it.”
“Rich people, am I right?”
“Took me a long time to get used to it. The rich people life. But… those years at school and with those friends felt like living a double life. Now it’s been my life for so long, this is the life that feels strange.”
“You were always too big for this town.”
“Does your sudden understanding mean that you forgive me?”
“I want to say yes.”
“But…”
“You walked away from us like we meant nothing to you.”
“That was part of the problem, Poppy. You meant too much to me. You were the only thing keeping me tied to home, and I hung onto that for as long as I could.”
Her face bent, but she glanced at her hands to hide it. “But it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.”
“You’re more than enough. But you weren’t leaving Lindenbach any sooner than I was coming back. I needed to take the opportunities at Harvard—you didn’t want me to give that up, did you?”
“No. Never.”
“Then you see the problem.”
Silence fell over us.
“And now you’re here,” she said. “And you want to take the town from me.”
