“Of course. As always! You’re staying with me, right?”
Poppy’s eyebrows scrunched together. “I don’t have to.” Translation:You’ll break my heart into a gazillion pieces if you don’t let me.But as hard as Sadie took being dumped by Buck, she couldn’t fault her friend.
Sadie smiled. “You do have to. Who am I going to celebrate with if you don’t st—”
“Poppy Boucher. Long time no see.” Buck’s voiced boomed over the crowd.
Sadie cringed and slowly turned as he approached them. He’d left his table to walk the floor and check out the other vendors. Not that she was spying…just…she noticed.
“Oh no,” she whispered. It was two vipers in a pit, and she was the only rat. Poppy and Buck hated each other from the moment they’d met.
“Why is he here?” Poppy hissed. “The last time we talked, he was gonna be in Seattle.”
“He was…”
Poppy pinched her lips together, letting go of Sadie and dropping her fists to her hips. “Well, if it isn’t the devil himself.” The woman had no concept of an inside voice. Truth be told, she had two settings: loud and louder.
Buck rolled his eyes. “I’m not the bad guy, Poppy. No matter what she’s told you, it was all mutually agreeable, and the judge decided in my favor.”
“Yeah, that only meant he didn’t have any sense either,” Poppy replied. “You schemed her out of it.”
“Even if I agree with that…she seems to be doing fine.” Buck waved a hand at Sadie’s display. “This work is better than anything she did at Empire Designs.” His gaze landed on Sadie, and he smiled. “Right, Sadie? And you’ve moved on. I mean, didn’t you introduce me to your boyfriend today?”
Poppy jerked her attention to Sadie, a flash of shock showing in her eyes before she recovered. “That’s right; she’s doing better than ever.”
Oh no. Poppy was going to helpfully embellish.
“Uh.” Sadie patted Poppy on the shoulder. “Uh—”
Poppy leaned back, and her gaze flicked around the convention center. “Yep, she’s engaged to Xavier Parker. Did she tell you that?”
Sadie’s eyes widened. Engaged to Xavier? Oh, sweet mother of mercy. Yeah, back in the day she’d crushed on the guy, and now she regretted ever saying anything. “Oh, she’s being—”
“Being modest, right, Sadie? You’d never go around rubbing your good fortune in everyone’s face.” Poppy grinned.
“Poppy,” Sadie said, never dropping her smile.
“Is that who was in the beaver suit?” Buck asked. “Xavier Parker?”
Poppy squared her shoulders and looked down her nose at Buck. “Yep, Xavier is a class act. He doesn’t need to flaunt his success likesomepeople.”
Oh, crud. The rabbit hole was getting deeper and darker. Maybe a backhoe would come along and bury Sadie when she died of embarrassment.
Buck’s eyes glittered. He was going to expect her to be on Xavier Parker’s arm when she showed up at the restaurant, and the way Buck was looking at her, he knew that wasn’t going to happen. “I didn’t think Xavier Parker was going to be here.”
“Uh.” Uh again? Her vocabulary had condensed to two letters and assembled into the lamest word ever used as a reply. “Uh…” She was mentally stuttering.
Buck nodded his head, a smug smile on his face. Oh yeah, he knew it was all smoke. “Well, that’s great. I guess I get to meet him tonight when we have dinner to discuss that new business deal. Maybe he can explain why you aren’t wearing an engagement ring.” He turned and walked to his table as an attendee wandered up to it.
Poppy turned on Sadie. “Business deal?”
“He says he has this thing for me. All legal with documentation and everything.”
“And you’re considering it? Have you lost your mind? And what beaver was he talking about?”
Sadie raked a hand through her hair.
Poppy snorted. “What did you do, Sadie Baylor?”
