Page 34 of When You Had Me Adapting

“I would never lie. To her or to either of you. Fuck, Poppy, you were like my sister. Logan, you and Tanner are like my brothers. Tell me what I can do to make this better. Please. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Poppy turns to face me. Her eyes dart back and forth between Logan and me. He stands and walks to meet her in the kitchen. He places his plate in the dishwasher and then whispers something in her ear.

Think Jace. Fucking think of something.

“What if I talk to her? Convince her to hear me out. Maybe she remembers something that will help me remember who she saw me with.”

“She’s not going to talk to you on her own,” Poppy says. “After the other night she’s afraid you’re going to continue to lie to her.”

“Please.” My voice sounds desperate. “At least let me try. If she doesn’t believe me, then I’ll back out of all of your lives. It’ll be like I never came back.”

“That’s not what we want, Jacks,” Logan says.

Poppy bites her lip and twirls a piece of her hair around her finger.

“Fine, I’ll help you talk to her, but that’s it.”

CHAPTER 16: WHAT’S KICKIN CHICKEN?

LACEY

Cute Stalker: Want to meet up for a drink in Atlanta tonight?

Lacey: I might be able to clear my schedule

Cute Stalker: How about 8 pm?

“What has you looking so happy?” Poppy asks as I throw my luggage into the back of her car and slide into the passenger seat.

“A cute guy I met at the conference,” I say coyly.

“Holy shit, Lace, spill.” She turns on her blinker and I click my seatbelt across my lap. She pulls into the flow of traffic and starts to drive towards the interstate. My phone pings again. How I’m feeling must be written all over my face.

“I haven’t seen you like this in years. Don’t leave me hanging.”

“I don’t know. We met at the airport on the way down to the conference. Neither of us knew anyone, so we started hanging out.”

“And?” She draws out her question and wiggles her eyebrows at me.

“And nothing. We hung out at the conference, drank ourselves silly in EPCOT, and now we’re meeting up tonight for drinks.”

“Lacey!” She slaps my leg.

“Truly, it’s nothing. We had like one moment on the little boat ride in the Mexican restaurant where I thought he may kiss me, but he didn’t. We had a good time and it was fun to get away from here and forget about all the drama.”

My phone pings again and I let out a laugh.

“For nothing, he sure is making you laugh.”

“He sent me a video of these people drinking in EPCOT and I’m afraid we were much worse off. Anyway, enough about that. How are things here?”

She doesn’t respond immediately. Instead, she leans forward and turns off the radio, so we’re now sitting in complete silence.

“Jace had dinner with Logan and me.”

“Oh, how was that?” I look at my nails, feigning indifference, but my gut twists at the idea that she would have dinner with him, especially after the other night.

“Interesting…” She comes to a stop at a red light and turns to face me. “He didn’t know you went to D.C.”

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