Page 15 of Poppy Kisses
Color leached from her face, but she nodded. This had to be just as weird and confusing for her, but her reaction made her look ready to vomit. Mutual benefits weren’t enough if the idea made her miserable.
“Poppy, clearly you don’t like the idea?—”
“I haven’t had… Men have let me down.” She swallowed, and vulnerability shone from her eyes. “I was never what they wanted, and I’d resigned to never getting married. But this is a business arrangement. Right?”
Her earnest question caught me off guard. She sounded like she needed it to be nothing but a business deal. It was.
So why was there an emptiness inside my chest? “I’ve been through one empty marriage before,” I said carefully. “I don’t care to do it again. So, yeah, just a contract. We each hold up our end and we’re good.”
“We go our separate ways after a year?” she asked cautiously.
But she’d still be in Coal Haven? My neck was tight when I thought she could leave at any time. “In a year, we go our separate ways.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
We eyed each other.
She cocked a hip out. “I’ll let Aunt Linda know. And I’ll have to tell my parents. My siblings know what’s up, but everyone else will have to believe it.”
“Except Auggie.” My son had already seen one failed marriage. I wasn’t going to let him think I’d let down another woman, nor could he start thinking he wasn’t enough for the women in his life.
A crease formed between her brows. “Of course. I wouldn’t want him getting hurt in the process. Whatever you need to tell him, I support.”
Her care when it came to him hit me down deep. “Okay.”
“Okay.” She nibbled on her lower lip.
Could a guy do that while kissing her? Just pull that plump flesh between his teeth and?—
“I should tell my parents first. How should we say we met?”
“Won’t the truth work?”
“Your son is a client. Confidentiality.”
“It’s fine.”
“Would Auggie care if people knew? Some kids are really private.”
He might not. He’d been doing sessions for two years. It was a normal part of life for him now. But that she asked? My appreciation grew. She’d shown him more consideration than his own mom. “We can just say we met through Debbie and let people fill in their own blanks.”
Relief crossed her face. “Yeah. That’ll work. And we don’t have to live in the house. Aunt Linda won’t rent it out if we’re renovating. I just have to have been married at least a year to get ownership, but I’m sure she’ll let me work out of it if I’m married.”
Wild rules. “You can live here until the year is up.”
Her mouth dropped open. She closed it. Blinked a few times. Had she not thought about living arrangements? Had wrapping her head around marrying me been that overwhelming?
But then I’d been married before. She hadn’t. “Will you want a wedding?”
“A wedding?” A look of horror crossed her face. “God no. All that planning?” She shuddered. “Lily, Violet, and Alder all did ajustice of the peacewedding. Well, Violet and Evander had an early ceremony so they could get the house faster and had a reception the next summer. So no. No need for a real wedding.”
She might not want the planning, but there was a longing in her expression that suggested she’d like something more than stopping in an office downtown.
“So?” she asked. “Are we doing this?”
Her gaze stroked down my stain-splattered hoodie that read “Hollis Cabinets,” then lower to my carpenter jeans with a hole in the knee. I leaned against my workbench and crossed my arms. “You don’t want to.”
