Page 2 of Poppy Kisses (Return to Coal Haven #3)

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 the p.

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 and gawwdd. 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.

“So three of your siblings have moved to Coal Haven and you’re next?” he asked.

The timer on my phone blared and I jumped. I tapped it off. “Sorry, Jensen. I have another session.”

“We need to catch up.”

Fear climbed into my throat, choking out the yes! He might be divorced, but he could still be hung up on her. It’d been hard enough to hear the comparisons when I hadn’t thought he was an Adonis.

“I’ll be around,” I said noncommittally. “I’d better get going. Nice to talk to you!”

I clicked out of that session and grimaced. Could I have sounded more insincere? It had been nice to see him. Was I curious to know more? Yes, but also, I’d had enough of people like Hassie Heart. Wait, or did she go by her married name? Hassie Hollis?

Jensen might be tight-lipped around his son, but I had no wish to learn he hadn’t changed in the last twenty years.

The way he’d been smitten, I didn’t have to hear the story to know the divorce hadn’t been his idea.

He’d have gone to hell and back eight times and asked her if she’d needed anything on his next trip.

Someday, I’d find a man like that. But it wasn’t Jensen Hollis.

* * *

Jensen

I stared at the “session ended by host” flag in front of me. Poppy Duke.

A fondness welled up inside my chest. Poppy had been part of the “Sporty Spice” crowd, as one teacher had called us.

A group of us who’d played together at recess.

We’d eaten lunch together, and sometimes we’d hung out.

Hassie had competed in horses, Poppy had been big into soccer, and I had played football and ran track.

Auggie plopped into his chair at the table with his bagel in front of him. I didn’t have to look behind me to know that two cupboards and a drawer were probably left open. “Was Poppy nice?”

“She was real cool.” Memories surfaced, and I stared at the screen, seeing her face where there was only Auggie’s background of Hassie curving around a barrel on one of her horses, Gone Girl. “She made me laugh, and she didn’t put up with my shi—you know.”

Auggie gave me the same dubious look his mom would shoot me when I would suggest a date night that didn’t include buckles, bronc riders, or barrels.

“She’s a soccer player,” I said. Did Poppy still play?

Her light-brunette hair had been pulled back, but those big hazel eyes were the same.

It was how I’d recognized her beyond her name.

Her freckles, too, but those eyes always told me how she was feeling.

They flashed fire when she was pissed, turned cold when her stubbornness kicked in, and sparkled like a lake on a gorgeous summer day when she was happy.

Today, she’d been guarded. Her enthusiasm hadn’t matched mine.

I’d been fucking thrilled to see a friendly face again.

“Cool,” Auggie said. “I like soccer.”

He was obsessed about it. When I was trying to relax at night, he was doing drills with the soccer ball in the living room. The toe taps and penguin warm-ups I’d taught him had come from Poppy. “Yeah. You ready for school?”

“I haven’t finished eating!”

“I know, but is everything else ready?”

“My backpack’s not.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You’re supposed to do that before bed.”

“You told me to shower.” His bagel was abandoned. “I fed Luna.”

He loved our black Lab, so I didn’t worry about feeding her.

“Eat, or we’re going to be late.” I had to give up on the bus.

He—we—were perpetually late, and I had to drive him most days.

This way, I didn’t have a shame on you call from the driver or the school.

The chidings were valid, but it had sucked.

Especially if it’d been done by email and my replies had been littered with typos.

Auggie pouted, but he dug into his bagel.

I kept an eye on the time. We had fifteen minutes.

The drive to town took eight. Another two in the drop-off line while he gathered everything.

I didn’t want to add up getting in and out of the car and what Auggie would inevitably need to run back into the house for before we’d even left.

I inhaled a steadying breath. If I rushed him, it’d only delay us more. I opened my email app.

A reply from an estimate I’d sent a couple days ago waited for me.

Thank you for the information. We’re going to have to pass.

Damn. My cabinet business was like a goose with a busted wing, flopping around on the ground and not really taking off.

I’d had a good feeling about this couple.

They’d bought a house built in the seventies and had contacted me for a refacing.

Easy enough and I had a good portfolio. Five years’ worth, but my independent work outside of contractors was spotty.

At least I could make my own hours, and with Auggie, I needed the timing down.