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Just when I’m about to close the space between us, she looks up, like she can feel me. Our eyes meet, and it’s like I can’t breathe. She sucks the air right out of my lungs when her smile doesn’t falter. Poppy doesn’t look at me like she hates me, and I can’t fucking move.
“You gonna fix this?” Hayes asks.
“He has to. I refuse to lose the help.” Wells grins when I look over at him.
“You won’t,” Hayes tells him. “Because if he doesn’t fix it, I’ll swoop in to be the rebound. And once she’s had me —”
“Finish that sentence, Hayes Black, and Momma will be cryin’ over your grave this time next week.” I give him a look, and he and Wells both just laugh and back up with their hands in front of their chests. Little shits.
“Alright. Wish me luck.” My palms are sweating as I grip the gift bag, wiping the other on my jeans. Jesus, this woman makes me feel like a kid caught with my hand in the damn cookie jar.
“Get on your knees if she won’t listen,” Hayes adds.
“She’ll listen,” I hear Wells tell him as I start to walk toward her. “She might show him her right hook first. But she’ll listen.”
I won’t pretendI’m not angry, but seeing Rhett walking across the yard with a literal bag full of flowers in his hand, looking nervous as hell, has eased it a bit. God, I love that man. Through the anger and the hurt, I love him. And if he’s showed up tonight, that must mean there’s still something here that we can work on.
“Still wearin’ my hat” is the first thing he says when he walks up to me.
“Never did like doing what I was told.”
“I was thinking about getting some of Katherine’s famous cobbler,” River says, looking back and forth between us. “Maybe the kids want some?”
They both scream and carry on, jumping off the truck bed to dance around in circles on the ground. I can’t help but laugh as I watch them, my loud, happy family.
“I highly doubt either of you have had dinner yet,” I tell them, effectively bringing down the mood. They both groan and roll their eyes.
“Poppy’s right. Can you at least eat a few bites of somethingbeforestuffing your faces full of cobbler?” Rhett asks.
“How about we just go fill our plates with anything and everything we want?” River winks down at them, and I have a feeling she will not be enforcing the real food first rule. Oh well, worse things have happened than kids having dessert for dinner.
Rhett waits until they walk off before holding my present out with a straight arm. He looks ridiculous, just standing there all sheepish while holding a bag full of wildflowers. It’s oddly endearing seeing him like this. I’m used to the Rhett who has nothing but grumpy quips to say. Not the Rhett that struggles to look me in my eyes.
“Joey was insistent that we fill it with flowers instead of tissue paper,” he says as I start pulling them out and laying them on the truck bed next to me. He sits down and watches. “And I personally don’t think you need what we got you.”
I finally get to the present and pull out my very own cowgirl hat. It’s a beautiful tan color, with a dark brown rope around it that instantly reminds me of the rope Rhett tied me up with.
“Mainly because I like seeing you in mine,” he says as I run my fingers along the smooth felt.
“Even though you told me to take it off?” I can’t resist — I had to get a jab in. And this conversation has to start somehow.
He sighs and takes my hurt hand in his own, running his thumbs over the knuckles. I hit Ethan really hard, and I’ve never punched anyone before, so I had no clue what I was doing. That led to poor form, which has resulted in bruised knuckles and a very sore wrist that seems to be a bit swollen.
“You punched him.” He brings my knuckles to his lips, and my stomach does about a thousand somersaults.
“He deserved it.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to do it myself.”
“You were too busy not listening to a thing I had to say.”
He sighs and tugs me closer to him, so close that I can smell my favorite cologne. I use a spritz of it every time I steal one of his shirts, wanting to sleep with the smell when I’m in my own bed.
“Poppy.” His hands run up and down my forearms and then hold my hands. He finally looks me in the eye. “I fucked up. I saw him touch you, pull you close to him, and then heard him talk about takin’ you back to the city…I saw red. I saw my ex standin’ there, not you.
“Everything came rushin’ back,” he continues. “How Leah left me and the kids for the city, how Dean has left us over and over again for the damn bottle, and how Addie left us for good.”
I reach out and wipe a stray tear from his cheek. My heart hurts for him.
