Page 78 of Brewing Up a Bad Boy

This second chance with Alistair felt like a miracle. The one thing that she would have predicted would never happen. He’d changed, he was honest with her, and as much as she was afraid to trust that he’d stay, she also hadn’t asked him to.

She had to take a risk.Ugh.But the truth was there. That life she wanted to manifest was right there at the edge of her current one. She had to jump toward him, let him catch her.

Or fall, her subconscious pointed out.

Or fall...but that would be better than living with the doubt.

Liberty was crying when she was done, and Sera had a huge smile on her face. Her friends were all in the same zone she was. Poppy and Sera swarmed around Liberty, hugging her until she hugged them back.

“Okay?”

“Yes. Just making peace with Nan’s situation. And thanking the goddess for Merle.” Liberty turned to Poppy. “You?”

“Letting go of eighteen-year-old me and finally admitting I’m ready to love again,” she said.

Sera hugged her tight. “I’m glad.”

“Me too,” Poppy admitted. “You?”

“Just envisioned my life with Wes.”

“Happily ever after?” Liberty asked.

Sera nodded.

“It’s about time. You two are a perfectly imperfect match,” Poppy said.

“Aren’t we all?”

“Yes. I think trying to be perfect or meet an expectation was the downfall of Mrs. Alistair Miller. This time, I’m just letting him see me, hairy legs and all.”

“Good for you. Merle already knew about my rough edges. I’m not like you two. I don’t know how to be proper.”

“We know,” Poppy and Sera said at the same time, and they all laughed.

They finished their bottle of rosé, then lay on their backs, looking up at the moon. The power that had started to stir in Poppy at the Tor on the eve of the summer solstice was back. It had wrapped all around her, leading her to the power that hadn’t been given to her on that night but had always been there deep inside of her.

The power she’d been afraid to admit she had. But life had forced her to use it. She’d survived and found her own way because of that strength.

It didn’t come from the bonds she formed, though they certainly helped her. The bonds were there because of that inner strength. Surrounding herself with people who resonated with her and brought out the best of her.

“I love you two,” Poppy said.

“Same,” her friends said in unison.

Now she needed to take her new knowledge and that energy from the night and use it to tell Alistair how she really felt. She had to see if this time, they could make a real go of being a couple.

It wouldn’t be easy.

But it could be perfectly imperfect. She wanted that for them, the figuring out where to live and how to blend their lives together. She knew they could do it. The couple they’d been when they married wouldn’t have survived, but this time...

Waiting for Poppy at the bottom of Hanging Hill might not be his smartest idea, but he’d decided to stop hiding. And once a decision was made, he had to act on it. He still had shitty impulse control. Something that his therapist would no doubt want him to keep working on.

Not now. Not until he told Poppy how he felt.

The first time he told her he loved her, they’d been words. Just words. There hadn’t been anything more than the most casual of feelings tied to them. At that time, he didn’t believe that love was real or that he was even able to love the way she did.

He hadn’t thought anything about them at the time. They were the words that were required to get her to marry him. He’d known from the beginning that Poppy would never marry a man who wasn’t in love with her.

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