Page 26 of Finding Her

bear

But as it was, we were sitting around a large circle table in the nicest restaurant in town.

The scene might have been perfect, if it wasn’t for the fact that he’d not only invited the boys, but also Claire to come along.

Tino, who was sitting across from me, looked like he was holding back laughter the whole night at the way Claire was tucking herself into my side and stealing food off my plate.

It was so nice to have supportive friends.

Crossy kicked me hard under the table as I was taking a sip of coke. I choked, spilling the drink all down the front of my white shirt. When I glared at him, he just loudly said, “Oh, oops! Guess you need to go clean up in the washroom.”

It was an obvious set-up, I just wasn’t sure why he wanted to get me away from the table so badly.

But I also wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth—I had the chance to get away from Claire and I wasn’t wasting it.

I jumped to my feet, trying not to make it look like I was outright running away from her as I walked off and ignored the way she called out cleaning tips after me.

I didn’t catch any of it over all the conversations going on in the restaurant at once.

I was so focused on my destination that I wasn’t looking around, and so I didn’t notice a girl coming from the other way, bumping straight into me.

“Oh! Sorry!” She said.

And suddenly, Crossy getting me to walk over here was all making more sense.

“Poppy?” I asked, frowning as I glanced at her.

She looked… different. I guess I was so used to seeing her in her school uniform that I was thrown off by the light-blue dress she was wearing now.

And she’d paired it with heels that made her a little taller, so the top of her head was up to my nose now, instead of my chin.

She’d even curled her hair, soft waves cascading over her shoulders.

She looked amazing. Almost like she was dressed for a…

My jaw ticked. Like she was dressed for a date.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. She tilted her head and crossed her arms behind her back, looking at me almost flirtatiously. Or maybe that was just the date outfit talking to me.

“Oh, um...” I gestured toward the bathrooms, feeling like an idiot.

She laughed. “No, I meant in the restaurant.”

“Oh,” I said again, because apparently I was incapable of forming coherent sentences around her. “My dad brought the team here to celebrate the win.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder.

Her gaze followed where I pointed. “Oh, that’s your dad? I saw him at the game. He looked kinda angry.”

“Yeah, he usually looks like that,” I admitted with a half-shrug. “He just, uh, takes hockey really seriously.”

She raised her eyebrows. “More serious than you?”

I chuckled humorlessly. “Much.”

She kept staring at me, like she was waiting for me to continue. Either that, or she was trying to read my mind. Either way, I found it disconcerting—and for once, it was me who started to fill the silence.

“My dad’s hockey-obsessed. He was a professional athlete and he pushed me into hockey as soon as I was able to walk.

The only reason I’m on the team is because of him.

” Then, realizing how that sounded, I continued, “I mean, not that I don’t like hockey!

Because I do. I really do. I just don’t know that I would have wanted it as a career if it wasn’t for him. ”

Her eyes darted over my shoulder to look at him then she looked back at me again. “So, why don’t you tell him that?”

I stared at her, taken aback. I hadn’t even given her the full story—the way that every time I wanted to quit, he told me how disappointed he would be in me, and that whenever I tried to follow any other interest, he’d told me that I shouldn’t be distracting myself from what really mattered.

That sometimes I wondered how he would react if I decided I didn’t want to go to the NHL or if I hung up my skates sometime in college.

It wasn’t that I was itching to quit, it was just that I would have liked to know that I had his support either way.

“My dad’s not really the kind of guy you say no to,” I said. She opened her mouth, probably to protest, so I jumped in and said, “Anyway, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, I’m here with my sister and her boyfriend,” she said. She looked a little taken aback by the sudden change in subject but didn’t comment on it. “They’re in town, so they thought they’d take me out to dinner.”

I almost sighed in relief. Just her sister and her sister’s boyfriend. Poppy wasn’t on a date. Although, just to be certain of that, I asked, “So just them? You didn’t bring anybody with you?”

“Well, I offered for Lilah to come with us, but she had something going on.” She shrugged.

“Not sure what. And sometimes it’s just nice hanging out with my sister one-on-one.

Well, I guess it’s not really one-on-one because her boyfriend’s here, but…

” She trailed off from her rambling and flushed.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to corner you into a conversation. ”

“You didn’t,” I said honestly. And then we just stared at each other, neither one of us moving away.

We were probably blocking other people from getting around us in this aisle, but for some reason, I didn’t want to step away from Poppy.

It was rare that I saw her outside of school hours and for some reason, I didn’t want to give it up.

“Do you want to meet them?” she asked suddenly. “My sister and her boyfriend, I mean. Most people are more interested in meeting him—he’s kind of famous—but I’m guessing you’re not a boy band fan.”

I blinked. Famous? Boy band? None of that made sense, but my mouth betrayed me. “Sure.”

Poppy grabbed my hand to lead the way back to the table.

Sparks burned up my arm, and I almost pulled back instinctively.

But I managed to stop myself, and it was a good thing too, because then Poppy slipped her hand properly into mine, interlocking her fingers.

And I realized that I never wanted my hand to be touching anything else again.

We weaved our way back through the crowd, going the opposite way of my dad’s table, thankfully.

We came to a stop at a four-person table near the front of the restaurant, where a couple was sitting together on one side.

The girl who looked somewhat like Poppy, with dark brown hair and dark eyes, though her hair was curlier.

And the boy looked familiar, as if I’d seen him on TV but I couldn’t quite place him.

“Guys,” Poppy said, pulling me forward so that I was standing right up next to her. “This is Bear.”

She put a hand to my chest as she said my name, like they needed confirmation that it was me.

But all I could think about was the last time Poppy had touched my chest like this, back in the supply closet.

The way she’d been standing so close to me.

The sound of my name on her lips. Every night since then, I’d laid awake wondering how it would have gone if the custodian hadn’t opened the door right when he did.

“And Bear, this is my sister Ivy, and her boyfriend, Zach.”

Ivy smiled brightly at me. Zach pulled his mouth up slightly, in what could almost be a grin, and nodded.

“It’s so nice to meet you!” Ivy said, smiling up at me. Her gaze darted to Poppy. “You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend.”

Poppy’s smile dropped, and she looked completely shocked, like she didn’t see any way that this could somehow be misconstrued as us dating.

Holding hands while we walked, her hand on my chest now, her bringing me over to meet her family.

And I almost stifled a laugh at the utter confusion on her face.

She looked at me, and then she looked at Ivy, and went, “He’s not my boyfriend! ”

I was a little offended at the insistence in her voice.

“Oh.” Ivy’s face flushed red. “I didn’t—sorry, I just?—”

“He’s just a friend,” Poppy continued. “My partner in gym class. I think I told you about him, right?”

Ivy’s eyes lit up in a way that told me that yes, Poppy had absolutely given her all the details about our gym class and why we were partners in it. And I internally groaned, hating that my humiliation was spreading beyond just Hartwell’s four walls.

“Right. So, is your name actually Bear, or...?” Ivy asked hesitantly.

“Levi,” I said quickly. “Bear’s just a nickname.”

“That’s fun. I wish my name had nickname potential, but Ivy’s kind of basic.”

“Same with Poppy,” Poppy added. “Our parents just picked two flowers and called it a day.”

“I think Poppy has nickname potential,” I said.

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Pipsqueak.”

She glared at me. “You are not calling me Pipsqueak.”

“Wanna bet?”

She rolled her eyes and groaned. “Okay, and I think that’s enough meet and greet for today!

“No!” Ivy said quickly. “I mean, Bear, why don’t you sit down and join us?” She asked, indicating the fourth chair at the table.

“Oh, I, um…” I awkwardly tried to reject it, but luckily Poppy jumped in before I had to and said, “No, he’s here with the group. We should let him get back to them.”

“Right.” Ivy squeezed her eyes shut in embarrassment. “Of course, right? That’s why people are at restaurants.”

Zach threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side, and kissed her on the cheek, like he was trying to reassure her. In some strange way, the movement reminded me a lot of something I would do with Poppy.

“I’ll let you get back,” Poppy said. “Or I can walk you to your table if you?—”

“No,” I said quickly. “I mean, that’s okay. You don’t need to walk all the way back.” Silently, I added, Because I do not want to subject you to the wrath of my father.

Poppy squeezed my hand once more before letting go. “Okay. I’ll see you at school. Oh and Bear? Good job today.”

I was running on a high the whole way back to my table. Good job today —she’d been at the game. And even though I couldn’t prove it, I liked to think she’d been there to watch me.

“Who was that?” Dad asked as I sat back down. “The girl you were standing with?”

He didn’t sound totally angry yet, but he definitely didn’t sound pleased, and I knew that would only get worse if I told him the truth about Poppy. So I just forced a neutral frown and said, “Nobody.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You were with her for quite a while if she’s just a nobody.”

“She’s a girl from school. She’s a little obsessed with hockey, so she wanted to show me off to her friends. Thinks I’m a big star.”

All the other boys at the table carefully avoided looking up, but Claire had a Cheshire Cat grin on her face.

Dad just grinned and said, “Because you are!”

I tried to smile back, but my stomach twisted, because there was no way in the universe that I would ever think of Poppy as being a nobody.