Page 1 of Forever Focused

CHAPTER 1

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MICHAEL

Talk about ‘forbidden fruit’…

That single thought went through his mind every time Michael laid eyes on the girl before him – Poppy Walters. There was something about her that just spoke to his soul in a weird way that he recognized. Sometimes, he and his sister, Madison, would exchange a look and could interpret it – but they were twins, so no one thought twice about it but Poppy.

“She’s a force of nature,” he whispered under his breath, feeling it with every ounce of his being. It was like the sky was a weird yellowish-green shade before a thunderstorm. Ominous, lingering, and you knew it was coming but didn’t know how bad it would be.

Poppy looked over her shoulder at him, and he nearly laid a hand over his chest to calm the flapping of his heart deep within his chest. A small, upturned corner of her lip told him in no uncertain terms that she knew the effect she had on him. It hadn’t been a secret either. Even her father had caught him sniffing around Poppy several times.

He couldn’t help himself – and she certainly wasn’t discouraging it. No, in fact, it was like she was feeling and interpreting the same things. His father had pulled him aside several times, reminding him of the rules for the Air Force Academy because he was leaving very soon. In fact, this birthday with Madison was the last they would celebrate together for several years, holding out for graduation from high school to go – and it was time.

His moment was nigh, as his father would say dramatically causing Michael to roll his eyes and share a grin with his dad which drove him nuts. Both he and Madison had his father’s coloring, but their personality was an odd combination of both parents – and that was exactly why they were so spoiled. His mother could do nothing wrong, and everyone in town knew it.

That thought froze in his brain as Poppy looked at him once more, turned, and walked toward him, almost like a tiger about to play with her prey. Me, he swallowed. I’m the prey and would absolutely lie down, belly-up, and let her attack me.

“Michael,” she breathed, giving him a half-lidded look that immediately drew him to his feet. Without a word, she took his hand and pulled him forward toward the hangar, not breaking the look they were sharing as she tugged him out of sight of the runway. She put her back against the building and continued to hold his hand like a puppeteer with her favorite marionette. He put his other hand on the building beside her, propping himself from her and fighting the urge to kiss her.

“Poppy…” he whispered huskily as her infinitely dark eyes swallowed him whole. He could drown in those black pools without a second thought and saw the corner of her lips turn upward.

“You look at me like you want something…”

“I’d have to be blinded not to seek you out, and even then, I’d still try…”

“This feeling…”

“Is incredible…”

“It’s like I’m staring at part of my…”

“My soul…”

He could hear his father’s voice in his head, warning him, cautioning him, urging him to take things slow. Yet when he looked at her, it was so hard to pull back or retreat when he felt like he was falling into an abyss that he desperately wanted to dive into.

“I’m going camping with Madison,” she whispered, laying a hand on his chest that made him feel like a mature man, not a boy inside of a grown body – and that was dangerous for both of their futures. His dad was right, yet he was ensnared thick and unable to fight it.

“I’m flying out for the Academy…”

“So this will be our last chance to see the stars together for some time…”

“Poppy,” he softly spoke, leaning forward helplessly, needing to kiss her. “I’m going to be gone…”

“Then leave me with a kiss, a memory to hold close, so I don’t feel so isolated from you. Are you coming back?”

“My home is here,” he answered, smelling her perfume and leaning closer as she angled her head up toward him in an age-old spell. “Of course, I’m coming back.”

“To me…?” she breathed against his lips – and he was gone. Gosh, he loved this being unlike any other, and it was going to kill him to be apart from her. It was the craziest thing, too.

Madison used to say that being a twin was like being a part of a binary star, circling each other, and he agreed. Poppy, however, made him realize they were not stars orbiting each other tightly in succinct round orbits but comets. Beings of light with elliptical paths allowing for a strange attachment as he pulled from the other person. He saw this same thing occurring with his own eyes the moment Madison laid eyes on Emmett Wilkes. Their ‘orbits’ would stretch, move, bend, and flex… and her path would suddenly include Emmett. He had seen it several times, and while he didn’t believe in a bunch of meta-physical hooey – this was something that he knew deep in his soul.

Michael was meant to be with this woman before him – and froze.

“Poppy-girl? Where are you…” followed a split second later with a very upset exclamation. “What the…” before all Hell broke loose.

Michael heard his mother’s exclamation, heard Poppy’s mother shout something, and saw his father heading for him out of the corner of his eye as he started to turn from Poppy, every self-preservation instinct yanking him back from the edge of certain death.

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