Page 46 of No First Kisses

“I love you, Poppy.” He kisses me gently, before helping me get back on my feet. “I wish I loved you enough to walk away from you but I don’t. I’m a selfish asshole, and now that I have you in my arms every night, I’m never going to leave you again.”

Sniffling, I smile at him as sweetly as I can. “That’s the most romantic thing you’ve said to me today.”

“Come on.” He grabs my hand, pulling me behind him up the stairs to our room. “I want to clean you off in the shower and do it all over again.”

I definitely come.

Five more times.

16

LOGAN

Poppy’s coffee sits on the table for her first thing in the morning, and I watch as she waddles into the kitchen. It is a waddle, too. There is no hiding how hard it is for her to get around.

When she sits down and pulls it closer to her, I notice the package on the table.

“What’s this?”

Poppy glares at me, refusing to acknowledge I’ve even said anything until after she starts the only bit of caffeine she gets for twenty-four hours.

Like the smart man my momma raised me to be, I don’t say anything else until she has a few sips and leans back with a satisfied smile on her face.

“I’m jealous of that coffee,” I tell her with a half smile. When she raises an eyebrow, I shrug in response. “I’m serious. I wish I made you smile like that.”

“You do.” Poppy lifts her coffee back up to her lips. “In bed. At least, sometimes you do. Sometimes, you make me scream.”

“Damn it, woman.” I reach down and adjust my raging hard-on. “You can’t tell me that right before I have to go to work.” Of course I’m hard. The woman in front of me is my living wet dream and has been since I was old enough to know better.

All I get from her is a smile as she sets her cup down and reaches for the envelope I asked about before she distracted me with talk about sex.

“I have no clue what it is,” Poppy tells me while she tears into it, or tries to tear into it. “I thought it was just another thing your mom or mine bought, but it was sent to the office instead. I was gonna put it in the nursery, but honestly, I don’t want to open that door and fall into a pit of cleaning and organizing it, since you said you wanted to do it after the baby shower this weekend. So, when Nia dropped it off, I left it here.”

When she doesn’t get the envelope open on her third try, I pluck it out of her hands and rip it open in one attempt. Then I hand it back to her. She turns the envelope upside down on the table next to her cup and gasps.

“What is it?” I lean over, trying to figure out what would get such an intense reaction out of her.

Poppy lifts a chain up, and on the end is a familiar charm.

“Holy shit.” Poppy pushes away from the table and shuffles awkwardly in the other direction. “Are you coming?” she calls back over her shoulder.

I follow, not sure what the hell is happening.

“Look.” Poppy holds up the necklace and points at one of the photos on my wall.

Flipping on the hall light, I step as close as I can and still have to squint to see what she is talking about.

“This charm. The locket. It’s something my mom bought for me when I was a kid. I gave it to Lettie for her sixteenth birthday. Before… Anyway. My mom got it from an antique store or an estate sale, and she gave me permission to give it to Lettie. I thought it was lost because your parents couldn’t find it after she died. I looked for years for a replacement. No one knew about this, Logan. No one but Lettie.”

Poppy’s voice breaks, and I pull her into my arms despite the rage coursing through me.

“I wonder if my mom found it and stuck it in the mail. Or maybe it was one of the detectives. I know right now, everyone is going back through all the evidence and case files from Lettie’s death,” I explain, lying my ass off.

Poppy sniffs. “Okay.” She shuffles back to the kitchen. “I’ve gotta finish my coffee before it gets cold and I have to reheat it.”

She knows I’m lying, though, and she doesn’t call me on it.

“I’ve gotta go,” I call to her back. “I’ll be home late, so try not to get too bored, okay?”

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