Page 44 of Spotlight on Poppy

“I just made some more of the apple cinnamon muffins. They seem to be doing pretty well.”

He picked one up and took a bite. His face contorted and he spit it out into the garbage can.

“There’s something wrong with these muffins, Poppy,” he said as he took a long drink of water.

“What?” Poppy asked. “This is the same recipe I have been using. People love these muffins.” She took a bite of one. It was terrible. She spit it out into the trash like her dad. “Those are awful.”

She opened the cupboard and pulled out the containers. The salt container was right there in front. It struck her that she must have used salt instead of sugar in that batch.

“You can’t sell those, sweetheart,” he said, still drinking water.

“I know,” she said as she swept them into the trash. “I can’t believe I did that. I’m not thinking straight today.”

“We all have off days. At least these turned out good,” he said as he snatched a donut and headed back into his office.

She picked up her phone and made her way back out to the register.

Poppy: I can't even focus today, I keep thinking about last night.

Immediately the three dancing dots appeared.

Josh: You and me both. I'm trying to do some work at the inn, but I've been distracted.

Poppy couldn't help but smile down at her phone. What was even happening?

"What's got you grinning so big?" Poppy turned around to see Sam bringing in a bushel of gourds to set out. She walked over and started helping him get them put out.

"It's nothing, just texting someone."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that I saw a certain someone dropping you off at home this morning?"

Poppy didn't say anything. She didn't need to, while her and Sam were not twins, they definitely had that connection.

“What’s going on with you two?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, I mean it’s new, but I like him, Sam. Like,reallylike him.”

“Yeah?” He looked at her with a gentle look in his eyes. “I think he’s good for you.”

“Me too,” Poppy said, thinking about him and talking about him gave her such warm fuzzy feelings, she couldn’t help but smile.

“Maybe he’ll be the one to finally get you to stay here,” he said jokingly to her. And while she still hadn’t quite made up her mind, when she thought about Josh it was different than anything she had ever experienced before.

“Maybe, we’ll have to see. It is still so new.”

“But also, he better not hurt you and all the big brother nonsense, you know the drill.”

“Right gotcha, brotherly love and support, with just a sprinkle of toxic masculinity,” she said with a smirk.

He laughed. “But in all honesty, he’s a great guy. I hope it works.” They had finished setting out the gourds and Sam bent down to pick up the box. “Don’t fuck it up,” he joked with a warm smile on his face.

“I don’t plan on it,” said Poppy.

He turned to leave, but not before an idea struck Poppy.

“Hey, he bartends over at the Lucky Saloon, it’s pretty fun. We should all go out, take a ride on the mechanical bull. You know Jackson would love it,” she said.

He chuckled to himself. “He would indeed, yeah, let’s do it.”

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