Page 15 of Forever Focused

One month later, Poppy was standing in the line outside of Madison’s café. The line was quite long, and she was really relieved that she worked for herself. If this was her ten-minute break, she would have never made it inside. As it was, she would be doing a review of the location and adding it to her post regarding the Tyler area for travel.

Only to see a dark head she recognized being yanked forward not a second before she heard a familiar voice.

“Employee coming through! Coming through!” Michael was calling out loudly, walking past everyone who had been waiting for quite some time in line, heading up to the very front like he was God’s gift to humanity. “I’ll be right back with a treat for you all!”

For a split second, Michael’s eyes met hers and widened slightly, almost in alarm, right before Emmett Wilkes tried to jerk his arm from Michael’s grasp.

“What are you doing?” Emmett hissed in disbelief, passing her spot in line.

“Getting us in here – so shut up and follow me,” Michael snapped hotly, completely ignoring her. Frankly, Poppy was not surprised in the slightest. The infernal man had gone out of his way to do that several times, so what was once more?

“Madison’s going to be furious at you!”

“She’ll live…” Michael tossed over his shoulder, moving further away.

Poppy listened to the ripple of voices that ran down the line of potential customers and knew this wasn’t good. Perhaps she would do an individual review for Madison’s café instead of lumping it into her Tyler, Texas post. She wanted her friend’s café to succeed and knew there were bound to be opening day ‘hiccups’ to deal with – but five minutes later, still standing in line, she never expected to see an ambulance arriving with lights and sirens flashing.

“What in the world…?”

“What’s happening?”

“Oh my gosh, we are never going to get inside at this rate…”

“I’m outta here…”

Poppy quickly spoke up in defense of her friend – while at the same time watching to make sure it wasn’t Michael being taken into that ambulance.

“I’d wait, watch to see what is happening, and usually they give out a bunch of free coffee vouchers when something occurs out of their control,” Poppy said loudly, moving forward as she spotted Michael.

“Michael! Michael!” she began, waving at him. “Get some of your sister’s business cards and help me handle this!”

For a moment, Poppy almost expected him to ignore her once more, to leave her standing there among the chaos and in disbelief, she saw Emmett Wilkes being carried out on a stretcher that looked almost too small for his frame, clutching himself. Her mouth dropped open in shock.

What exactly happened inside the building?!

Michael walked up to her with two pens and a handful of business cards with a logo in the corner. He gave her a hard look, handed her half the stack, and pressed his lips together.

“Let’s fix this for Madison,” she whispered supportively, knowing now wasn’t the time or place for a reunion while his twin sister’s new franchise was falling apart before their eyes.

“Sign it, date it, and give them thirty days to redeem it for a free small cup of coffee,” he ordered – and she agreed, trying not to fall into his beautiful gaze or melt at the sensation of being so close to him. “Poppy… thanks.”

“Of course.”

She turned from him, determined not to let him down, and moved down the line, explaining what was going on.

“Everyone, because of the long wait and whatever is happening, Miss Petersen wants to assure you that you will love the café. Please take this card and come back for a free coffee on the house within the next thirty days…”

Poppy heard Michael saying the same thing as he moved down the line, at her side, handing out business cards just as quickly as possible. He was nearly repeating her words verbatim, scribbling his name on the card, and making small talk to alleviate the strain of chaos unfolding around them.

She could hear Emmett in the background, several others pushing past, the police sirens in the distance, just as a news crew in a van arrived. Oh yes, this was going to be quite a mess to recover from.

“Is Madison okay?” she hissed.

“Would you be?”

“No.”

“Then ‘No’…”

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