But her heart began to thrash even as she planned to stick to her guns. The sour look Rick gave her, the look of utter surprise, sliced right through her. So she attempted to soften the blow. “Look, I know he’s been your best friend since college. I know he’s like family, but—”
She stopped talking then when her phone pinged an incoming text—but there was no point in finishing. Rick’s face, if not his text, said it all. His disappointment, his hurt was plain to see. He loved Avis. She was saying shitty things about someone who’d been in his life for a very long time.
But his next words, written calmly and meticulously, chilled her. “I need to wrap my head around this, Poppy, and right now, I don’t think I can.”
Then he turned on his heel and walked his perfectly perfect ass right out of her apartment door.
End conversation.
Chapter 16
“You okay, Kitten?” Wanda asked, dropping down beside her on Rick’s lush patio couch, where she sat in companionable silence with Carl, watching leaves fall by the outdoor fireplace.
Wanda held up a blanket with a smile, encouraging Poppy to sit under it with her. “Poppy?”
Weeell, I just had sex with my assignment. Incredible sex. But when all was said and done, and I told him I was feeling some weird feelings about Avis, he got a little bent out of shape, and we had a fight—a very quiet one, but a fight nonetheless—and then he left early this morning without speaking a word to me.
But she wasn’t ready to talk about their encounter yesterday yet. She’d spent all night long fretting over it, fretting over Rick’s reaction to her feelings about Avis.
Today was Halloween and this blood moon everyone kept talking about was happening. After tonight, she could go off to Familiar Central with January and fix what was broken. Then everyone could go back to their families.
She snuggled under the blanket and sighed. “I’m fine. Really. Who wouldn’t be fine with Carl for company? Does it get any more handsome than this?”
Carl thumped her arm and grinned his crooked grin before pushing his hands back into the pocket of his hoodie. “Nicccce,” he husked out.
Impulsively, Poppy leaned up and kissed his lean cheek. “Thank you, Carl. Let’s always be friends, okay?”
He placed his dark head against hers. “Yesss.”
Nina’s head poked out of the shed then, her face full of worry. “Carl? Where the hell are you, buddy? Jesus and lost and found, you gotta stop running off!”
“He’s with us, Vampire!” Wanda called out before pointing to the shed. “Better go see what she needs, sweetie.”
Carl slipped from the couch, leaving just her and Wanda.
“Wanna talk about what’s upsetting you so?”
When she’d awakened this morning, one of those instincts she was still adjusting to, had struck her and it had to do with Wanda’s relationship with both Nina and Calamity. It had to do with Wanda dismissively pooh-poohing Nina’s concerns about over indulging Calamity’s misbehavior and why she was giving the adorable feline such enormous leeway.
Tucking the blanket around Wanda’s chin, she said, “Nope, but I do wanna talk. Got a minute?”
“I always have a minute, Poppy. What’s up?”
She’d been feeling this weary sort of worn-out vibe from Wanda since they’d met, and she had this crazy idea she wanted to share. “You’re sad, Wanda. Mind if I ask why?”
Poppy didn’t want to intrude, they’d only known each other a scant few days, but for once, outside of Nina’s riveting, though almost-comical outbursts and Marty’s beautiful but chaotic swirl of activity, Wanda deserved someone to see she was in need.
She’d never say as much. In her eyes, that was complaining, and Wanda Schwartz-Jefferson didn’t complain.
She was grateful for her life, her world and everything in it. In fact, she experienced extreme discomfort when she even considered saying what she was feeling out loud in order to avoid appearing ungrateful.
Wanda sighed with a small smile before she said, “This intuition thing is definitely your bag, Poppy McGuillicuddy.”
She smiled and grabbed her new friend’s hand. “Yeah, tell that to the boss. He seems to think I’m a complete moron for calling his douchebag business partner a lying dick. If I could just prove he’s a lying dick…” Poppy shook her head. This was about Wanda. “Forget that and talk to me. I feel a deep disturbance in you, but I can’t pinpoint what’s causing so much unrest.”