But she didn’t know why, which made no sense. He liked this woman far more than he’d planned on originally. Yes, she’d been crazy attractive from the get-go, but he hadn’t planned on her stirring up feelings the way she did with her funny jokes. He didn’t plan on her attractiveness ramping up a hundred notches while he’d watched her humble herself from the window of the nursing home to Mr. Rush about her overdue rent. She had a deep sense of integrity, and it was something too often ignored in this day and age.
Then there were her incredibly sensible quotes. Quotes eerily similar to Yash’s quotes. In fact, at one point, when she’d quoted Maya Angelou, it was the exact quote Yash had often used—he’d maybe even used Tzu’s. Still, it was uncanny.
Rolling his head on his neck to ease the growing tension there, Rick forced the image of a beautiful, naked, incredibly sexy Poppy from his mind and focused instead on the frustration he’d felt when he was unable to express himself.
He, too, was in the wildly attracted zone. He’d wanted to tell her that until his throat seized up like a car engine. So instead, he’d kissed her in the hopes she’d feel what he was feeling.
He wanted to ask her not to make any rash decisions until this demo was over and he could take some time off to spend with her.
He wanted to tell her about the visions he had of them sharing a bottle of wine, having dinner, getting to know one another, and yes, digging deeper into him rebuffing magic in general. But the Avis thing was an enormous problem.
And he’d be fucked if he knew what to do about it. Avis had been through it with him. Every exam, every late night while he worked at a diner as a short-order cook and Avis helped him study over customers’ hamburgers, every good deal they’d made together as a team and every last shitty day he’d had since Yash abandoned ship.
He wasn’t just going to up and ditch all that history because Poppy had some “feelings” she could neither identify nor back up with any proof.
But he couldn’t discard them either—because he found he cared what she thought. He wanted to get to know her.
He wanted.
He just didn’t know how to address her problem with Avis. He didn’t even know where to begin, it had caught him so off guard. But the second he got a break here, he was going to hunt her down and find a way to ask her to stay—at least until he had a voice and they could have an actual conversation.
Speaking of, he pulled his phone from his pocket, deciding to at least send Poppy a text, asking her to stay. He pulled up her name and typed out, Please stay for the umpteenth time, only to have it refuse to send.
“Rickster!” Avis shouted as he made his way across the entry of Littleton with a sweep of his long trench coat and a wave. “How are you, old man? Still having trouble with the throat?”
Rick nodded, still baffled by this sudden case of laryngitis.
Avis slapped him on the back, peering down at Rick’s phone. “You need to see a physician, my friend. And is that our Poppy you’re texting? Is my boy in like?”
Rick grinned at him, but then he remembered how Poppy felt about Avis and toned it down, shrugging his shoulders.
“I knew it!” Avis declared. “I saw the way you were looking at her, you dirty dog! Why don’t you go? I can certainly handle this alone. Everything is ready, and everyone is out of the building. No stragglers at all. As a matter of fact, they’re all meeting up at the diner across the way to watch the demo. Codgy old busybodies,” he joked affably.
But Rick shook his head in a vehement effort to remind Avis they were in this together. Besides, he wanted to be available to the people of Littleton if they had second thoughts—to reassure them everything would be all right.
Avis held up a gloved hand. “Don’t say another word…” He paused and gave a hearty laugh. “Sorry, bloke. I meant, don’t trouble yourself with an explanation. I understand why you’d want to bugger about until the demo is done. For the tenants, yes?”
Rick nodded his confirmation. How could Poppy not see that while Avis could be a real cad when it came to women, he also had a big damn heart?
“You always were an old softie, and I’m in full support. Now, I have to get moving and be sure the city isn’t going to thrust their greedy little hand out any farther for more last-minute permits. Call me later?”
Rick gave him the thumbs-up sign and smiled.
“Good enough. We’re going to be very rich soon, Rickster, my boy. Very rich indeed!” he cackled.
The prospect of the money they’d make from building these condos had at one time been insanely appealing. But today, none of that interested him. Not the dollars, not the exhilaration of a new project.
As he looked at Littleton, with its charming gardens and weird stone spiral on the roof, he experienced a stab of sadness he didn’t understand. But it was there, and it was demanding he pay attention.
Oh my God!” Poppy called out from the bedroom in the shed, pushing the white and gray-lavender comforter out of her way. “I think I found something, ladies!”