Page 30 of Poppy Kisses
“I like it. It’s bright.” She dried another plate and guessed the correct cupboard to put it in.
A lump formed in my throat. She was learning my home, making it hers. Temporarily.
But I liked it. I hadn’t had this with Hassie. Auggie got his energy from her, ping-ponging from task to task, barely sitting idle. I’d been alone while I’d been married. I wasn’t alone now.
She leaned against the counter and twirled the towel while waiting. “I’ll test out the office tomorrow. I have a few sessions.”
“Recruiting your own clients yet?”
She didn’t look at me. “Not yet. I’d like to be able to get into the house first.”
Made sense, but also, wouldn’t she want to be recruiting her own client base? It wasn’t my business to run, but if she wasn’t successful, she might decide to move. My roots were here. Hers could be anywhere. “What are you calling your center?”
“Um…”
I stopped with my hands still in the water, halfway through washing the pasta pot. “You don’t have a name yet?”
“I had to find a place to live and work first.”
No office. No name. Had something happened to make her jump in with half a plan? “Was this a sudden decision?”
She scowled at me. “No.”
I bumped her shoulder, my hands still buried in suds. “The four-ten I used to know liked to have a plan. She planned the shit out of a science project.”
“I’d like you to know that I got second place in the science fair in sixth grade.”
“After the girl who tested different flavors for medicine?”
“When it’s something that’s already out there and tested?” Outrage filled her face. Just the reaction I was going for. I chuckled, and she shot me a glare. “I’m still mad.”
“You don’t say?” Her anger had been epic the next school day. She’d ranted so long that the playground monitor had to threaten her with detention if she didn’t quit holding audience and go inside. “So? Your decision wasn’t sudden. Was your move?”
I wanted to know more, and I’d keep scrubbing the already clean pot to make it happen.
“No, I planned it.” She shifted her weight on her feet. She was still wearing shoes. What would it be like to see her in her pajamas? Or would she treat her room like a hotel? She’d leave fully dressed, and I’d never see her less than presentable?
Did she wear a nightshirt? Would it be long, to her knees? Or short enough that her ass cheeks hung out? Heat curled through my blood and headed south.
I rinsed the pan. “Then why do you make it sound like you packed up and moved on a whim?”
She didn’t look at me when she shrugged. “Kinda felt like I did when I didn’t have a secure income before leaving my job and breaking my lease.”
“Why didn’t you open officially if you can remote work?”
“Are you going to compare notes with my dad?” Her tone had an edge that went beyond joking. This was a sensitive subject.
I finished a saucepan and rinsed it. Then I took the towel from a startled Poppy and dried it, keeping my attention on her. “I’m not criticizing you, Poppy. I just feel like we should get to know each other if we’re going to be living and working together.”
She considered me with wary eyes. Her sharp mind was working. “I want to make sure I get it right,” she finally said. “I’ve heard all of Debbie’s horror stories. Did you know that Debbie had to move almost as soon as she opened?”
I hadn’t seen the place she worked out of now. “Doesn’t she work from home too?”
Poppy nodded. “So do all of her full-time tutors. It can be hard to get people to trust a company based out of a house, to pay all that money to a tutor they’ve never met. Most people don’t have experience with Orton-Gillingham-based teachings like Barton uses, so they don’t know how to verify the center isn’t scamming them. It can take time to see improvement in their child at school.”
“Why’d she quit renting the space?” I preferred having my own shop. I had assumed Debbie functioned as she did because it worked best for her. Mostly I wanted Poppy to keep talking. She had moments where she was open and I got to see that fearless girl I knew. Then other times, she closed up. A riddle I wasn’t supposed to solve.
“A law office was on the lower floor of the office she’d set up,” Poppy continued and I soaked up her lilting voice. “An accounting firm was next to them and then some sort of certification office was on the other side. No one who was used to kids who maybe can’t monitor their volume and want to do wind sprints down the hallway.”
