Page 35 of Brewing Up a Bad Boy

“I did.”

The night had cleared a lot of the gray clouds that she’d allowed to color her world. Sex with Ali always left her feeling mellow. That hadn’t changed. Neither had the intensity, the way it built into an intense storm and then crested and left her feeling everything at once.

“Shower? Bath? Drinks in the garden?”

Ali seemed lighter as well. There was always a hint of darkness in the upper-class boy he’d been. Tonight, though, that boy seemed to be gone.

“Drinks in the garden. That’s new.” Ali hated bugs and being outside most of the time.

“Trying to change things up,” he said, wriggling his eyebrows at her. “You said you wanted to see the moon.”

“I do. Let me grab my journal and moon stuff,” she said. “Meet you back down here.”

Stepping away from him, he caught her by the waist and pulled her close, her back pressed to his front. He rested his forehead against her shoulder. “Thank you.”

The words were low, but she heard them. Putting her hands over his and squeezed. This was new, so they were both figuring it out. But she hadn’t realized how it had been affecting him that she had withheld part of herself from him.

His arms dropped, and she continued up the stairs. Right now, she was just going with her emotions. Spending time with Ali felt right. Though there was a tiny warning in her mind that she still had to meet with his family and deal with their demands.

The Ali she saw here was more like the Ali she’d met at uni. The man who had swept her away. Still, her heart felt wary. Like going with these feelings was a one-way ticket back to the misery that he’d left her in before.

Not fair at all.She’d said the past was behind them.Easier said than done.

She washed up, putting on a pair of shorts and a tank top. He said he’d wait in the garden, so she couldn’t take too long, but she really needed to talk to Liberty and Sera.

Doing some quick time zone calculations, she figured it was only 5:00 p.m. in Maine. She hit the group video chat button as she sank down onto the floor next to her bed.

“Hey, girl!” Liberty answered the phone. Poppy noticed she was in the backroom of her shop. “I told Sera you wouldn’t be able to go one day without checking in.”

“Oh, yeah. The shop. How’s it going?”

“Good, but that’s not why you called. Hold on. Merle, watch my shop for me?” Liberty asked as she moved through the tea shop into Sera’s bookshop.

Sera must have had a customer, because Poppy heard her tell them to have a nice day before she was next to Liberty. “You okay?”

“Yeah...”

“That yeah is giving me...no?”

“Ali and I almost hooked up. It was great, and I totally wanted it. Right now, I’m trying not to project that he’s the same guy he used to be.”

Sera nibbled her lip and then nodded. “I get it. That fear is hard to let go of. What are you scared of? Naming it helps.”

“That’s true. Once I realized why I was obsessed with meeting my biological father, things shifted for me,” Liberty said.

“I’m scared that I’ll fall for him again and believe the changes in him, and he won’t have changed.”

The words were sort of rambling but came straight from her soul. Her friends weren’t going to be able to magically take away the fear.

“If he hurts you, I will curse him. No joke.”

“Thanks, Lib.”

“You’re not alone this time. Also, you’ve changed a lot, why wouldn’t he have?” Sera asked. “It doesn’t mean he’s perfect now, just different. I’d focus on the differences.”

“Good idea. Love you two.”

“Love you,” they both said.

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