Page 3 of Poppy Kisses
Auggie slipped off Jensen’s lap and trudged into the kitchen and out of my view.
A beat of silence passed before the corner of Jensen’s mouth lifted. “Small world, huh?”
“Yeah, right?” I was in his small world. I’d enjoyed being out of it for the last twenty years.
“How’s Billings?”
Surprise curled through me. He’d remembered where my family had moved? “It was good.” I’d made a new friend group and it’d been freeing, but I’d also missed him and Hassie. “I’m in Casper now. I mean, I was. I’m relocating.”
“Where to?”
“Uh, I wouldn’t mind settling in Coal Haven. I’m in town, actually.”
“No shi—kidding.” His gaze slid sideways. Auggie must be in earshot. “Auggie finally gets an in-person tutor?”
Debbie’s center was out of Dickinson. Unless Jensen wanted to drive Auggie on two-hour round trips twice a week, his only choice was online lessons. “I don’t know. I’m subbing for the distance students.” Her waiting list was so large she’d almost begged me to start my own center. And after one too many glasses of wine, I had agreed.
What had I been thinking? What made me think I could pull this off? Debbie had all the faith in me even after I told her about my failure in Casper. We’d gotten our master’s together in occupational therapy and then she’d recruited me into the dyslexia tutoring world, along with several other OTs we’d trained and worked with. I’d done it as a side hustle throughout my career, and now, I hoped it could be my career. At least I could work without having an official base.
Jensen clicked his tongue. “Shame. These online sessions get long for him.” He ran his hand over his hair, mussing it until it stood on end like Auggie’s. Now I remembered. “I did cabinets for Alder. Did he tell you?”
“No, but he was probably distracted by getting back together with Daisy.” I loved my brother, but until he and Daisy had remarried, we hadn’t talked a lot. He’d been my uptight oldest brother, and I probably topped his list of annoying sisters.
Jensen frowned. “They were married when I did the installation.”
Right. They had been. But they hadn’t been back together. “Yep.” Before I ended up explaining about my grandma Annie’s trust and the property my siblings and I were each left—if we were married—I scrambled for a subject change. “How’s Hassie? I heard you two got married.”
His expression went blank and his gaze darted in the direction Auggie had gone. “She’s, uh, probably in Oklahoma. Maybe Nebraska. Or Nebraska and then Oklahoma.”
“Oklahoma,” Auggie called from the direction a cupboard had just banged.
Jensen’s jaw went tight. “She’s on the barrel racing circuit but also teaching lessons too.”
“Teaching barrel racing?”
“Yep.” He popped thep.
Hassie had been the rabid horse girl growing up. She raised horses, talked about horses, and spent all her time out of school on horseback. For a while, she’d been my best friend, but as we neared middle school, even at my young age, I could tell Hassie had my back only as far as it served her. I’d say no one could love Hassie more than she loved herself, but she’d been the center of Jensen’s world for as long as I’d known them.
“We’ve been divorced for five years,” he said.
“Oh.” If I had paid attention to more than the muscled caps of his shoulders, I’d have noticed he wasn’t wearing a ring. That didn’t always mean anything, but if Jensen didn’t have a Hassie Heart tattoo, I’d lose a year of wages to my next youngest sister, Clover. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugged, but his expression remained void. Auggie must be listening in. What other subject could I touch on that would be less awkward?
“How’s your mom?” I had liked Erin Hollis. The day of his dad’s funeral ran through my head. One of the saddest days I’d ever known to that point in my life. For Jensen? I couldn’t imagine, and he hadn’t talked much about it except for one time after the funeral service. It was the only time he hadn’t looked at Hassie like she’d hung the moon and stars.
“She’s good. World’s proudest grandma.”
I laughed. His mom had always brought goodies to school. Our class had looked forward to class parties and holidays because that meant Erin brought her treat bags. “I’ve never been able to find anything to compare to her cookie pizza.”
Jensen’s grin spread wide. “If I tell her that, you’ll have a batch delivered to wherever you are.” He squinted at the screen. “Where are you? Alder’s?”
“I got a motel room. Daisy and Alder offered, so I’m going there tonight. Lily has little ones that’d make it hard for me to have quiet sessions. Same with Violet, but they just have wee little Willa. Still, a baby crying is too distracting for the students.”
He folded his arms in front of him andgawwdd. His muscles. Did the cabinets he made install themselves if he called them a good girl? Where was the scrawny boy who helped me work on my cone drills while also telling me it was lucky he didn’t play soccer or I wouldn’t have a chance?
The man in front of me could decimate me at everything.
