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Her nose scrunches up. “Sort of.”
“What do you mean ‘sort of’? You either have or you haven’t.”
“Well, I’ve tried talking to him a couple of times, but I just don’t know what to say. There was one time I had to ask him to pass the pastel paints in art class. Does that count?” she asks, hopeful.
I chuckle. “I’m going to tell you a secret.” I lean forward and usher her closer with my finger. She moves to the edge of her seat, looking very solemn. I barely hold in my laugh at her serious expression.
“Boys like it when girls talk to them.” Her face drops, like she’s disappointed in my advice. “That may not be what you want to hear, but it’s the truth. Did you ever think that Noah may be in the same boat as you? Maybe he likes you just as much as you like him, but he doesn’t know it because you won’t talk to him?”
She sits back in her chair, and in true teenager fashion, crosses her arms over her chest and pouts.
“Well, why do I have to be the brave one? Why can’t he talk to me first?”
“Because boys his age are cowards.”
“What do I say to him?”
I shrug. “Whatever you want to.” I give her one more piece of advice, one I prefer she takes, but know she won’t. “Or you can let the whole thing go and forget about him. Boys are stupid anyway. You don’t need them in your life.”
The only response I get from that is an eye roll.
“Do you think you could talk to Mom and Dad about Noah going to the concert with us?”
The extra ticket she wasn’t sure about.
I should have seen this coming. This girl is really going to get me killed. Bea and I are close, and I’m sure I could talk her into it, but Owen is a different story. He’s extremely protective of his girl, with good reason. When Poppy and I have girls, I know I’ll be the same way. There’s no way anyone could talk me into letting my fourteen-year-old girl go out on a date. Maybe I’ll allow her to go once she reaches thirty.
Maybe.
“I’ll see what I can do.” At her hopeful expression, I continue. “But, I can’t promise anything.”
She squeals as she gets up from her chair and launches herself at me. She lands in my lap and throws her arms around my neck. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She punctuates each thank you with a kiss to my cheek. “I love you, Uncle Ash.”
“Love you too, Kia Bear.” I ruffle her hair. “Now, go back inside before your friends think you are neglecting them.”
She jumps up and bounces on her feet to the back door. Before she pulls it open, she turns back around. “Gammy was looking for you earlier.”
I nod and she goes back inside. I get up from the chair and turn back to face the backyard, resting my hands against the railing. My mind wanders back to Poppy. As much as I love my family, I really don’t want to be here. I’d much rather be back in Atlanta, especially with what happened last night. The only thing keeping me here is knowing Rex has Poppy’s back. I have every confidence that Rex and his men will keep her safe. He’s the only one that I trust enough to get the job done right. And between him, his crew, and me, I’ll find out who this fucker is and he’ll regret the day he decided to fuck with her.
I’ve been checking the ping reports regularly throughout the day. I not only sell internet security to clients, I use my own product. The reports show there’s been no attempts of hacking into the video feeds. But how did the guy know about them? There’s not a soul besides myself that know they exist. How in the fuck does he? And he has to know. He knew exactly where to dip his head to avoid the cameras.
I pull my phone from my pocket and lean my elbows on the railing. I spoke with her briefly this morning, but I feel a need to see her. Bringing up the video feed, I search for Poppy in her house. When I can’t find her, I bring up the tracking app for her car. She’s at the park that’s just down the road from her place. I can picture her now, sitting under her favorite tree as she reads and feeds the ducks. She does this often. One day, after noticing her going there several times, I decided to follow her. I sat in my car and watched as she pulled a blanket and small basket from her backseat and walked over to a big old oak tree. After she laid the blanket out, she sat and pulled out a sandwich and plastic bowl. Several minutes later, a few ducks waddled over and she pulled out slices of bread and proceeded to throw small chunks at them. The smile on her face as she watched the ducks eat had my chest aching. After she ran out of bread, she pulled out a paperback, laid on her back, and read. I’ve followed her several more times since then. I can tell it’s something she really enjoys doing, because she always has a peaceful look on her face when she’s there.
An image of her standing outside her house the night I came to her pops in my head. I sat in my car, my hand on the gearshift, ready to pull away, when I saw her out of the corner of my eye. I watched, my breath caught in my throat, as I waited for her to come to the decision on whether or not to close the distance between her and my car. My emotions were still raw from having touched her. If she had decided she was done with our game and walked to the car, I wouldn’t have stopped her. I wasn’t ready to show her my face, but I also didn’t have the willpower to speed away and leave her standing there, beautifully wrapped in a sheet. Even through the distance separating us, I saw the indecision on her face. As stupid as it would have been on my part, my hand reached for the door handle until she took that first step back. Both disappointment and relief made their way inside my stomach at that move.
Shaking my head to clear it, I close the app and pull up Rex’s number.
“Rex,” he grunts in his usual harsh tone.
“Everything good there?” I ask.
“Yes. I’m sitting in my truck watching her feed fucking ducks. She’s been at this park for hours.”
I chuckle, knowing he’s just being a dick on my account. He takes his job very seriously. He may hate parts of it, but he’s very thorough and does a damn good job.
“I really appreciate you doing this.”
“Who is this girl to you?” he asks.
