Her shoulders sagged, and she patted Poppy’s hand with her gloved one. “You know, sometimes, I don’t even know if I can pinpoint it. It comes and goes. Lately, it comes a lot more than it goes. I’m supposed to be the nurturer—the peacemaker. It’s a label I’ve had since we all hooked up. Somehow, I’m just compelled to keep Marty and Nina from killing one another. It’s what I do. It’s what I’ve always done since we met almost nine years ago. But I find more and more, I want to kill them rather than fix them.”
“So you’re tired? Maybe not so much of the role, but of the lack of appreciation they give that role? Because I want you to know, they respect the hell out of you for putting up with them. Still, I can only imagine what it’s like to get between a werewolf and a vampire when they want to eat each other’s faces off.”
Wanda barked a laugh and squeezed her hand as the crisp autumn air whirled around them. “They don’t really want to eat each other’s faces off. They love each other. I love them. I love them maybe even more than some of my own family except my sister, Casey. But I need something, Poppy. Something more I can’t put my finger on. Something right on the tip of my tongue…I just don’t know what. I mean, I have so many amazing things in my life. I want for literally nothing. I have an incredible husband, the girls, and the tons of friends we’ve made along the way while we cobbled together OOPS. It’s selfish to consider I need anything else.”
“Yeah. You’re the most selfish person I’ve ever encountered, Wanda. I mean, all selfish people drop everything they’re doing and rush to the aid of someone they don’t even know in order to help them. God, when will you ever think about anyone else?” Poppy teased.
Wanda’s smile, so elegant and beautiful, wisped across her face before she sobered. “I guess I don’t think about that as being unselfish.”
“Maybe that’s why you’re where you are now.”
Wanda looked at her, her unlined eyes confused. “I don’t get it.”
Poppy knew what Wanda needed—knew it in her soul. But as taught by Calamity, she was only a guide to an end game. She couldn’t force the answers down Wanda’s throat. Wanda had to find them on her own.
“Maybe you need something just for Wanda sometimes, and I’m not talking about shopping or a dress or even a hobby. I’m talking about something that fills you up, makes you want to get out of bed each morning.”
“I thought OOPS did that for me. I love helping people. I’m not as crazy about the scrapes and bruises and the occasional ruined outfit, but there’s almost nothing that gives me greater satisfaction than getting people through a paranormal crisis in one piece, helping them find their fates, leaving them happy and healthy. I’ve made so many wonderful friends because of it. How can I feel anything else but fulfilled, Poppy?”
Poppy smiled now, too, leaning back against the bench they sat on, watching the bright colors of fall drift to the ground in the swirls of leaves. “Yeah. You’re amazing at it, too. If I could choose a mother outside of my own, the very awesome, though sometimes smothering Rose McGuillicuddy, I’d choose you, Wanda. You’re smart and funny, and above all, you’re nurturing and supportive.”
Wanda cocked her head, her eyes far away. “We can’t have children. As wonderful as my life is, it’s the one thing I wish were different.”
“You’d make an incredible mother.”
“You think?”
Wrapping an arm around her slender shoulders, inhaling the scent of Wanda’s lightly floral perfume, Poppy nodded. “Oh, I don’t just think, Wanda. I know. I know you’re all things good—all things kind. Maybe you just need to hear someone say it out loud.”
As they sat together and watched the leaves drift and the chilly midday wind blew, a tear slid from Wanda’s eye. One she didn’t bother to dismiss or ignore. One from deep within, from the core of her enormous heart.
Wanda was realizing it was time to tweak the direction of her life. Maybe take a small detour and see what was around the bend.
And that was exactly as the universe planned.
What in all of fuck had happened to his voice?
As he scribbled out his signature on yet another work order for the demolition of Littleton, he used his eyes to apologize to one of the demo guys.
But the hearty man with shoulders as wide as a redwood slapped his back. “No worries, Boss.”
Running a hand through his hair, Rick tried once more to speak but could do nothing more than hiss a crackly response. Which brought him back to his conversation yesterday with Poppy.
Damned if he understood what she’d meant about Avis, but damned if it hadn’t left him tossing and turning last night. Her words had been clear as day. She didn’t like him. She thought he was a bad person.