Page 17 of Poppy Kisses (Return to Coal Haven #3)

Chapter Eight

Poppy

Jensen and I were seated across from Clover and Elijah in a booth at Rattler’s.

Clover’s boyfriend was a choice. Of what, I wasn’t certain.

He was handsome enough. Very good-looking with his short, styled hair and business-casual clothing.

He reminded me of the finance bro I told Jensen about.

I might just be irritated with Elijah because I hadn’t gotten my sister to myself since she’d arrived.

I might be protective of my barely younger-than-me sister, but I hadn’t felt this way about Lily and Eliot or Violet and Evander.

Yet I had a similar emotion when it came to them and their exes.

Dread pooled in my stomach, but I put on a smile as Clover gushed about the food to an unimpressed Elijah.

“Afraid this place is more my brother’s speed,” he said in what I expected was a practiced, cultured voice. “I’m more of a sushi and sashimi guy.” His mouth turned up. “You know the difference between them?”

I snuck a glance at Clover, but her adoring stare was on her new boyfriend. “Yes,” was all I said.

“I’m sure I’ve had both,” Jensen said congenially. “Sashiu—” The rest of the word got garbled. “Sash-sh—” He winced. “Sorry. Tongue-tied.”

Elijah’s laugh dripped with obnoxiousness. “It’s not a hard word, my man.”

“He just got tripped up, my man,” I said in a sweet voice. Jensen’s snort was quiet.

Clover’s startled gaze landed on me. She was lucky I didn’t launch into a diatribe about how dyslexia affected speech and it was more than just flipping sounds around like aminals instead of animals.

Sometimes it was remembering the correct word, knowing it but not being able to say it, but that wasn’t my issue to discuss.

Could I say “dyslexia” really quietly around Elijah’s phone so he could be served all sorts of ads for learning programs?

Wait, my feeds weren’t full of ads for it, and I talked about dyslexia all day.

I could run ads when I opened my center. But I’d wait until then. I should have at least the key to the house first.

Jensen laughed. “Sometimes my tongue doesn’t cooperate. Sashimi,” he said deliberately, “isn’t something I eat a lot.”

“Not landlocked like you are.” Elijah’s grin rubbed my last nerve.

“Omaha is quite the coastal Mecca.” My sarcasm came out stronger than I intended, and I earned a sharp glare from Elijah.

Clover shot a warning look my way. I’d try to rein it in.

“I’ve lived other places. Sacramento, Miami, a summer overseas.” Elijah snapped his cuffs back and rolled his sleeves up.

“Remington is the chef here,” Jensen said, his tone light, but I caught the competitive glint in his eyes. “He says he’d offer more choices beyond walleye, but the resort on the lake is superb, and he doesn’t want to compete with their seafood and sushi menu.”

“The population cannot handle both.” Elijah had a rich man’s laugh. “And there is a snake on the logo, so I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.”

Elijah couldn’t handle not getting in the last word.

Clover rubbed Elijah’s arm. “I’m sure you’ll find something you like. Everything I’ve had here has been great.”

Jensen nudged me with his knee under the table. We were mere inches from each other. “What’s your favorite Rattler’s special?”

“Ribeye. It’s the only place that can compete with Dad’s grilling.”

I ignored Elijah’s dubious expression. Clover was leaning over him, studying his menu.

“One of my top choices too.” Jensen searched my gaze as if to ask if I was okay. I peeked at my sister and her boyfriend, then rolled my eyes toward Jensen.

He smirked and covered it up a second later. “Go ahead and get a drink. I’ll drive.”

“You sure?” I asked. Auggie was at Jensen’s mom’s place, and I could be a driver.

“Completely,” he said. “Go ahead. They have some of Reservoir Barrel’s beer on tap.”

Well, when he put it that way. They had the same pale ale I drank with Jensen the other night. I didn’t drink away my problems, but between the mindfuck of Jensen offering to compliment me only for me to run off scared and then not being able to talk to Clover, I just wanted to relax a little.

Winding down at Jensen’s was getting harder. He was home, for one. I had to see those wide shoulders. I stared out the window way too much when he swaggered from the shop to the house.

I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

For the inevitable Hassie comparison. It had sat wrong with me as a kid.

Funny at first and then more proof that I’d never live up to Rodeo Barbie.

Life after that had only proved that I didn’t need Hassie to fall short, but this was like returning to the scene of the crime.

I’d be holding my hands out and asking for my knuckles to be slapped.

Two years with Dillon had made me even more sensitive. My figurative knuckles were permanently bruised, and Jensen’s absurd level of hotness didn’t help. It’d only sting worse.

And now, I couldn’t tear my bestie away from her new man long enough to talk to her.

I could turn to Lily and Violet, but they had lives.

They had husbands and kids, and I just wanted to bend a friend’s ear with my drama.

Besides, being so close in age, Clover knew Hassie.

She’d commented so many times that Hassie was a know-it-all and not fun to play with.

When we ordered, Elijah had to ask the poor teenage server a zillion questions about the cut of meat, quality, freezer time. I had no idea there was so much to know about asparagus.

“He has allergies,” Clover whispered across the table when he’d started on the type of oil used for cooking.

I respected allergies, but Elijah was probably more allergic to not being the center of attention.

Jensen leaned back and stretched an arm around me. My heart skipped a beat and I stiffened.

“Linda, twelve o’clock,” he said under his breath.

Sure enough, Linda and Darren had entered and wandered into the bar section. Disappointment filled me. I’d gotten a thrill for nothing.

Clover saw how Jensen was sitting, then followed our gazes. “Oh my god. Good catch.” She rubbed Elijah’s leg. He had finally finished ordering. “Remember? I told you about the houses.”

She’d told him? Was she trying to claim her property? I didn’t want her to have to put up with Elijah for a whole year.

“Family, am I right?” he said, smirking.

Jensen let out a good-natured chuckle. “More like wills and trusts.”

Elijah shrugged him off. “I’d be screwed. My grandma keeps mixing up my name with Sully’s.”

“Van,” Clover said. “Doesn’t your brother like to be called Van?”

“Probably.” Elijah made a whaddya do? face. “Sullivan. Sully. If he leaves my parents’ basement, he can call himself whatever he wants.”

“Is it just the two of you?” Jensen asked like he was trying to move the conversation beyond insulting relatives.

The time between ordering and getting our food felt like an eternity.

When the plates showed up, Jensen removed his arm, and I spied on my aunt and uncle.

The movement caught Uncle Darren’s eye, and Jensen tossed him a wave.

I did as well. Linda spotted us, and while her smile was faint, it was wide for her.

Tonight did double duty. I met one of my date obligations, and we looked like a real couple to my aunt and uncle. The drawback was that I missed the heat of Jensen sitting so close. Each time we had to pretend to be a couple, I liked it more.

* * *

“Insufferable,” I mocked after we returned home. The night was cool, and I wasn’t ready to go in yet. I aimed for the porch, and Jensen kept pace with me. “‘It’s not a hard word, my man.’”

“Calm down, tiger. I’m used to stumbling over words around people.”

“It doesn’t matter.” I whipped my head toward him.

He should not have to be used to getting called out for a simple error.

“Mr. And That Summer Overseas can learn some manners. Maybe his brother’s in the basement to keep from dealing with people like him.

I can’t believe that guy. Clover must be dickmatized. ”

“That’ll do it.”

“Ugh. Do you think she’s going to ask him to marry her so she can get her home?”

Clover could not be that desperate. We still had time before the terms of the trust ran out. “He took one look at the motel and insisted on going to Bismarck to get a room.”

“Was it the ‘don’t clean fowl in the shower’ sign that scared him off?” He shook his head. “I’m surprised, honestly. I remember Clover as precocious. She knew her own mind, and then to show up with…him.”

“I wonder if it’s all of us,” I mused and took a seat on the porch swing.

Clover hadn’t had more luck than me, but Elijah was the most blatantly obvious cocksucker.

“Lily’s the youngest, and she’s been married twice.

Violet was almost married twice. I don’t think she and Willis would’ve lasted long.

” I had to think Violet would’ve eventually seen what we all had.

“Even Alder married twice. Now you and me.” That was odd.

Talking about our impending nuptials so casually.

Hey, we’re getting married. How ’bout a beer?

“She’s feeling the pressure?”

“Only from herself. But…” I debated telling him what was on my mind.

He was waiting for me to continue. This guy listened.

Actually, he always had. He had listened when we were on the playground, and that was why he had always amped me up, goading me to push myself harder and go farther faster.

He thought I could do it. “When we were kids, we’d talk, you know.

Little-girl stuff about our weddings and what our husbands would be like. ”

“And you mentioned an outdoor wedding at your aunt’s old place?” The corner of his mouth lifted, but he wasn’t teasing.

“Yes. Small, almost intimate. Clover had said she wanted something similar with the lake as a backdrop.”

“Which lake? Nelson?”