Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37

M ax was upstairs searching and Poppy was in the kitchen getting ready for her meeting and I was in the shop, behind the counter, trying not to hyperventilate.

I was safe. Poppy was safe. Max wouldn't leave until Serena and any other threat were gone, we had a place to live, we were going to be okay . . . I don't think I'd realized how terrified I'd been. If you're a single mother, you don't have time to be terrified, you just keep moving, you keep hoping . . .

We were going to be okay. I needed to tell Poppy that.

I started around the counter to tell her and caught sight of my bottle with its rose boobs and poppy trim on the bottom and that blank, blank face. And that was wrong.

There wasn't anything new on there; I'd changed more in the past three days than I'd changed since I'd come to Rocky Start, but that bottle was not caught up. That bottle was not me, it was stagnant and empty and . . .

No, that wasn't true. Three days ago I wouldn't have glued those rose boobs on there.

Three days ago, there wasn't Max. Max in my life and in my bed and in my head, making me warm and telling me things I hadn't known.

Max had said something earlier about grocery shopping making me happy, and I do like looking at food, choosing it, but the grocery never made me happy before because I was always adding things up in my head, putting stuff back. I'd been so money-conscious all of my adult life, so penny pinching , and now it looked like I was going to be free of that. People who said money wasn't the important thing in life never had to navigate life without it. But now . . .

Now I'd bought anything I'd wanted at the grocery that afternoon—I'd bought carrot cake that somebody else had made , that was insane—because I had the money to do that. I mean, I had it somewhere, I hadn't found it yet, but I wasn't worried about it.

Because I was free. Not of trouble, the vampire was still in town, not even free of worry about money, but freer than I'd ever been in my life. I owned a building and a car and possibly some cash if Ozzie had stashed some. All of a sudden, I had options .

I thought about it and then went upstairs to where Poppy kept our board games and stole some Monopoly money. There was plenty there; Poppy had ordered extra at twelve because we were running out playing it, she'd gotten so good at amassing it. I took some of the new bills and went back out to the bottle and accordion-pleated six of them to give them some dimension, and then I pinched them in the middle and glued the pinch together so that the bills looked like wings. Wings made out of money.

And then I glued them to the back of my bottle, about two inches above the rose butt, so that self-portrait could fly, just like I was going to do. I put an old heart charm over the messy join in the middle, not sure why, just trying to make things neater, and then I thought, No, that's Ozzie, loving us silently and leaving us free.

I cried for him then. Damn it, Ozzie, why did you have to die?

When I walked into the kitchen ten minutes later, red-eyed but not as soggy, Poppy had her group with her. Mei, Marley and Reggie, and Owen, Reggie's crush. Behind all of them, Darius was shepherding them in, wearing jeans and a black tee, looking very dapper, classic Darius. I didn't want Poppy getting serious with anybody before she went off to college—options, Poppy, don't latch onto the first guy you sleep with like your mother did—but I was also pretty sure that Darius was a really good guy, and it was her life. If she stuck with him, she'd probably get crap from people who didn't like seeing a white girl with a Black boy, but she could handle that. It was very hard to harass Poppy without losing a metaphorical limb.

Maggs was in the middle of them getting a lot of hugs and belly scratches.

"Can I see you in the hall for a minute?" I asked Poppy.

The table erupted in a chorus of "ooohs," and Darius said, "That's never good."

"Today it's good," I told them and followed Poppy into the shop.

"What is this going to be?" Poppy said, looking at the bottle. "I like the wings."

"Self-portrait," I said. "Pay attention. I have news."

"Is this about the will?" She was instantly serious and, I saw for the first time, afraid. "Who got the building?"

"We did," I said, trying to wipe the fear off her face. "We're okay, we own the building."

Poppy sucked in a breath. "You're kidding . We're not moving?"

"Nope. He left us the truck, too. And the contents of both."

"Oh, Ozzie ." Poppy's eyes got brighter, and then she burst into tears.

I started toward her, but Darius came in from the kitchen, looking tentative, not wanting to interrupt but worried.

"Everything good here?" he said, and Poppy turned to him, and he was there in an instant, his arms around her. "Whatever it is," he told her, "we can handle it."

Poppy nodded against his chest.

Yeah, he's a keeper .

"It's good," I said. "She's crying from happiness."

"I never understood that," Darius said to Poppy. "Isn't that counterintuitive? Oh, wait, you're Poppy Malone. You always do your own thing."

He was teasing her, trying to make her laugh, and she did look up and smile at him through her tears.

"One more thing," I told her. "I've got a copy of the will for you to have. He says in there that you were the best thing in his life."

Poppy burst into tears again, burying her face in Darius's chest.

"This t-shirt is my last clean one," he said, holding her closer.

Poppy lifted her head. "I just miss him ."

"He loved you," I said, and Poppy's face crumpled again, and Darius kissed the top of her head and held on.

Max came down the stairs with something in his hands and stopped.

"What's wrong?" he said fiercely, focusing on Darius, who met his eyes and didn't blink.

I stepped between them. "Happy tears. I told her about the will, that we aren't moving, what Ozzie said about her. I think she was a lot tenser about that than I realized. This is Darius, Poppy's excellent boyfriend."

"Oh," Max said. "He didn't make her cry?"

"No, I did. Happy tears," I said.

"That never made any sense to me," Max said, and Darius looked down at Poppy and said, "See?"

Poppy raised her head and looked at him. "That's because you're men." She sniffed. "A woman would understand."

"Good thing I've got a woman to explain it to me then." Darius smiled down at her. "Come on, let's get to work." He kept his arm around her to the door and then he turned around. "Thanks for that ‘excellent' bit, Ms. Malone."

I smiled at him, and then they were gone.

"Is she old enough to date?" Max said.

"That's a joke, right? She's eighteen, nineteen in two months. She's old enough to do anything she wants. "

His eyebrows went up. "She's sleeping with him?"

"Yes, Dad, and she's using protection and Darius is very responsible. Really, Max, he's a keeper."

A cheer went up inside the kitchen.

"I think Poppy just told them we aren't moving." I smiled up at Max.

"Hmm," Max said, still focused on Darius. "I knew his father. Tiny."

I laughed. "Luke is anything but tiny."

"That's why he was called that."

"What did they call you?"

"Max."

"Come on."

He sighed. "Mad Max."

I frowned. "Did you have an anger issue?"

"No." I must have looked dubious because he explained. "Luke isn't tiny, right?"

I nodded.

"I was known for being calm when the shit hit the fan. Thus, Mad Max."

It made sense, sort of. "And how were things upstairs?"

"I found the bank book for Poppy," Max said, handing it to me. "Like in the will. I don't think she'll need student loans."

I opened it, and inside it had Poppy's name on it. Only Poppy's, so not a joint account with Ozzie.

It also had three hundred and eight thousand, two hundred and seventy-seven dollars in it.

I blinked and had to read that total once more and check to see where the commas were.

I thumbed through the back pages.

Ozzie had deposited varying amounts in that account every month since Poppy was born. Right from the start, right after she was born, even before we were certain we were staying here.

Poppy could go to college. Ozzie had saved for Poppy to go to college. And he'd never said a word. The few times he'd been around when Poppy and I had talked about applying to schools, he'd never chimed in with, "By the way, there's a boatload of money in a checking account for you, whatever you decide to do."

Asshole. I loved him. "My God."

"I didn't find a bank book for you," Max said, almost apologetically.

I shook my head, still staring at the book. "I don't need one, I can make it on my own, he gave me the building, for heaven's sake, but Poppy . . . This is going to make a world of difference. This is enough for college and a great start on life. Ozzie could be a bastard, but I never doubted that he loved Poppy. Even so, this is . . . remarkable."

"He had the money," Max said. "He walked away with millions, remember?"

"Yeah, but we never saw any of it." I looked up at Max. "He didn't spend much. I mean, I knew he must have had another source of income, but I figured it was something he was doing in the summers, when he'd drive around for days. The shop definitely wasn't making money. Poppy had a million ideas for the shop, the best one was selling on eBay or Etsy, but Ozzie forbade her to mention anything about the place online. Then again, Pike said the two of them bought the town, so maybe there wasn't much left over." I closed the bank book and put it in my apron pocket. "Huge relief. Huge ."

He held out a blue zip bag. "And there's this for you to start with. Fifty grand in cash. It was in Oz's go bag. He's also got a bunch of foreign cash there."

I took the bag and opened it, not believing it. "Fifty thousand? Fifty thousand dollars ?" Then the other shoe dropped. " A go bag?"

"In case he had to leave in a hurry. There were passports in a variety of names. Some for you and Poppy, too. Looks like he wasn't going to leave you here if there was danger."

"Oh," I said, for lack of anything else. Ozzie really had been looking out for us. He'd have taken us with him if he'd had to leave. I blinked back tears. Damn it, Ozzie, why did you have to wait for your will to tell us you loved us?

"I need a drink," Max said. "A Coke," he amended and started for the kitchen door .

"Uh, there are kids in there—" I started, but he had stopped with the door open, and the kitchen fell silent.

I'd forgotten the first impression he made. They must have thought the Grim Reaper had come for them.

"Coke?" he said to the kitchen.

"I'll get you one," I heard Poppy say, and he went in and the door swung shut behind him and I was alone again.

I should have cried happy tears. Except Max would probably have left, not put his arms around me.

Darius really was a keeper.

So, I was beginning to think, was Max, in a different way. Mad Max. Who was always calm and steady. Then I remembered last night. Not always.

I heard them talking, Max asking questions.

After a little bit, Poppy came out of the kitchen. "Max said you had something to show me?"

"Yeah," I said. "Ozzie loved you a lot."

"You said that already," Poppy began, and I handed her the bank book.

She opened it and caught her breath.

And then we both cried.