Page 67 of Brewing Up a Bad Boy

Ali, who was talking to a customer, glanced over at her, one eyebrow raised. Poppy shrugged, tilting her head back toward Sera. He nodded.

As she took the glasses from Von, some of the stress she was feeling about her and Ali disappeared. They just communicated the way couples do. That was reassuring. It wasn’t something they did at all when they were married. Mainly because Ali had been so into himself and his goals.

The panic she felt from the moment he told her they wouldn’t be talking until later eased a bit. Plus, right now, she wanted to concentrate on Sera. Concern for her friend had her hurrying back to the table.

Liberty came in just as Poppy sat back down. Von delivered the wine in an ice bucket, and a few minutes later, the nachos Poppy ordered arrived too.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Liberty asked Sera. “We’ve needed a girls night, but your text sounded urgent.”

“What text?” Poppy realized she hadn’t glanced at her phone since she’d gotten to the tavern. “Sorry, I was busy...”

“Watching Ali. We know. That’s why we came here,” Liberty said.

They all had the friend tracker on their phones, so Poppy would have been easy to find. “What is going on?”

“Wes wants to get married in January,” Sera said at last.

Poppy watched her friend carefully. Why wasn’t Sera happy? “Okay, I don’t get why that’s a bad thing... I thought you were both talking about it.”

Sera cleared her throat. “We were, but tonight he said once we’re married, we’d start thinking about kids.”

Ah, kids.Sera had grown up in the foster care system. It wasn’t a topic she spent a lot of time talking about, but Poppy knew her friend still had some triggers from that. She was deeply aware of the instability of families and how fragile children were.

“Did you tell him it’s a hard no?” Liberty asked. “You can set limits. For what it’s worth, I think Wes loves you so much he’d understand.”

“I agree. He knows you, Sera,” Poppy added.

“What if this is the breaking point for him? I mean, it’s taken me forever to agree to marry him, and now that he’s brought up kids, I just panicked,” she said. “I told him we should take a break. Which he...”

“Um, he’s here,” Liberty said.

“What?”

“Just walked in the door, and he’s spotted us. Uh, he’s coming this way,” Liberty said.

Poppy hopped out of her chair and moved to the other side of the table as Wes approached. He looked...determined.

“I got your text,” he said. His jaw was clenched, and he looked tense as he sat down next to Sera.

She texted him to say she wanted a break?

“I’m sorry. I should have called you, but I wasn’t sure what to say, and I needed—”

“Your sisters. I get that. For years, I’ve shut down and walked away from the people in my life who are important, afraid of letting them see what they mean to me. I’m not doing that with you. I asked the question because I thought you might want to look into fostering to give kids a chance at a real home,” he said. “I meant it as a discussion starter, not a relationship ender.”

Sera shook her head. “You know how I am.”

“I do, which is why I’m here,” he said. “Talk to your girls, figure this out for yourself. But know that I love you, and I’m not going anywhere.”

Sera threw herself into Wes’s arms, muttering something against his neck that Poppy couldn’t really hear. She made out “love you” and “scared” and “Robinson Crusoe.” The couple started kissing, and Poppy and Liberty looked at each other.

“So how’s things with Ali?” Liberty asked, leaving the other two to make up in their way.

“Good.”

“Too good?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure. He’s on a leave of absence from his job and has been for a while. I’ve never asked why until today. We’re going to talk after he’s done working,” she said.

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