Page 49 of Spotlight on Poppy

"Ok, well let's get started, Turner." She reached over with her fork and stole the last bite of his French toast.

"Did you just eat my last bite?" he asked, with an eyebrow raised. She looked at him and grinned. "It's a good thing you're cute, but you're gonna get it later."

"Promise?"

"Oh princess, you have no idea." He leaned over close to her and whispered in her ear. "You misbehave like that, and I might just have to spank you again." Her squirm in the chair let him know she liked it just as much as he did. "Or maybe I will find another way to make you pay." He bit her earlobe and she moaned.

"I'm gonna go take a shower, and then we can start our day." He gave her a quick kiss and then disappeared into the bathroom. By the time he was done and dressed Poppy was putting away the last of the breakfast dishes.

"You didn't have to do the dishes. I would’ve taken care of those."

"It's okay, I don't mind. Are you ready to get out of here? I hear my own shower calling my name."

"Let's go," he said as he took his keys off the hook by the door.

They pulled up to Poppy's house as orchard traffic was in full swing. They’d opened about fifteen minutes ago and it looked like there was a field trip today as they drove by one of the big yellow buses.

"I'm so glad I am missing field trip day, I worked on Sunday so I would have today off," Poppy said, with an amused smile as they made their way further down the drive to the house.

"Yeah? Not a kid fan?" Josh asked. He had always seen kids in his future.

"No, it's not that. It is just when there are sixty of them all screaming about apples and pushing each other to get to the cider, it’s a lot."

"Yeah, I remember trips to the orchard as a kid."

"Something about taking a field trip to your own house took all the fun out of it," she said.

They pulled up to the old farmhouse that was nestled back from the orchard and walked up to the porch and into the empty house.

"Everyone is working today, so it should be pretty quiet here. Make yourself at home while I hop into the shower." She disappeared up the stairs, leaving Josh downstairs.

He began looking around, taking the place in. This looked like a home. A real home. There was a certain level of coziness that soothed him. Everywhere were signs of a life well lived and loved. There were school pictures of Poppy and Sam on the dining room walls and a piano in the corner covered in framed photos.

He walked over to take a closer look. There was a picture of Poppy and Sam at the Grand Canyon, Poppy looked to be about seven and had the toothless grin to prove it, a picture of Sam and Jackson on their wedding day, a picture of Poppy's parents on their wedding day, next to a picture of her grandparents on their wedding day. This is what a family home should look like. This is what he had been missing. He always felt the absence of the kind of connection family could offer.

Then he picked up the picture of Poppy's mom. It was a frame with two pictures. One picture was of a tired young mother smiling while she helped a young Sam hold a baby Poppy. The other picture was one of her mother starting to look sick with cancer, though a bright smile on her face shone through, with her arms around Poppy and Sam.

That picture was hard for him to look at. It dug at old wounds that had never really healed properly. These photos were full of the joyful moments, the sad moments, all of it. These pictures showed a life, a life surrounded by a loving family to help you celebrate the good times and hold you through the bad times. He wiped a tear from his eye. He heard the back door open, and he set the picture back down.

He looked up to find Poppy's Gran coming in from the kitchen.

"I thought I saw your car out front. What are you kids up to today?" she asked with the warmth a grandmother's voice possessed. The fact that she called two people in their late twenties ‘kids’ made him smile.

"We are just going to run some errands," he said. He stopped and gave her a big smile, trying to push through the feelings clouding that smile.

As any gran can, she could tell something was off. She walked over to him and joined him by the piano and looked at the pictures.

"Lots of memories up there," she said. She picked up the picture of her wedding day. "We were married over fifty years. We made ourselves a pretty good life."

"You have a wonderful family,” he said with more honesty than she could know.

"Thank you, most days they are wonderful. That one upstairs can be a handful though," she said with a knowing smile.

Josh smiled back politely. It was true, Poppy was a lot, but that was part of what he was drawn to about her. She lived out loud, she didn’t care what people thought about her, she said what she felt, and she felt things on a bigger scale than most.

"She may be a handful,” he shrugged. “But she's worth it,” he answered with deep honesty.

"She is indeed," she said, putting her hand on Josh's shoulder. "She's lucky to have you, I have hoped you guys would get together for a long time. But no matter what happens, you are welcome in this home anytime, young man. Do you understand?"

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