Chapter three

Poppy

I twirled in my swivel chair until I felt queasy, hoping it would give me a new perspective. When I felt two rotations shy of puking, I gripped the side of the table and waited for the studio to stop spinning. The clay sat in the familiar lump, drying. Two hours of staring at it and not a flicker of an idea.

“Knock, knock,”

Lauren said as she busted through my studio door.

“You’re supposed to wait for me to invite you in.”

“You’d have ignored me.”

“Because you’re interrupting my process.”

Lauren poked her finger in the mound of clay. “Is this the same one from Monday night?”

“It is.”

“Uh oh. What’s wrong?”

“When did you decide I couldn’t be left alone with my thoughts?”

“You mean sulking.”

Lauren flicked the long braid she always wore over her shoulder and smirked.

“Do you want something or are you just here to annoy me?”

“Rowan said you two looked at spaces for the bakery today. See anything good?”

“She was there. Why didn’t you ask her?”

“I did. Now I’m asking you, so I can figure out how it really went.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Rowan worries too much. You don’t worry enough. I’ll blend the two accounts together and get a good idea of what you saw. I’m not leaving until you tell me.”

She lifted the edge of a drop cloth that covered a failed piece from last year. “Is that a tree?”

“Stop snooping,”

I said, grabbing the drop cloth from her grubby hands. It was a tree. A sculpture that hadn’t quite worked out, but I liked too much to toss. “There were a few places, none of them perfect. Aiden has some ideas about how to make one of them work. He’s drawing up a rough design with measurements he took today.”

“That’s weirdly nice of him,”

Lauren said, taking a seat on the lumpy futon I kept in the studio to crash on whenever I worked late and was too tired to walk across the yard to the house. She toed off her UGGs and tucked her feet under her butt. “He’s usually such an asshole.”

“What did Aiden ever do to you?”

“Did he or did he not kidnap you last summer?”

I waved my hand. “That was nothing. He was being a good friend.”

“By kidnapping you?”

Technically, he’d handcuffed us together and took me to a field so I could be with Theo on the anniversary of the accident. Aiden’s methods were a little rough, but I’d wanted to be there, despite Theo not inviting me. “Aiden can be an ass, but he’s decent. He offered to do whatever work we needed to fit out the bakery as a wedding gift to Rowan and Cal.”

“Huh.”

Lauren flopped back on the futon and stretched out like she intended to stay awhile. I wouldn’t have minded if she fell asleep and took a nap while I stared at the blob. I had no idea how the woman hadn’t worked herself to death with the hours she kept at Karma.

She closed her eyes but just when I thought she’d nodded off, she let out a huff. “I still don’t like him.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

I was curious about the tension between Lauren and Aiden, but I figured if she wanted to talk about it, she would. I was just relieved she had the ability to dislike someone. I worried Lauren’s whole earth mother vibe made her too forgiving sometimes.

“So,”

Lauren said, opening her eyes and sitting up straight like she was about to run a board meeting. “How’s the wedding planning going, really? Rowan keeps saying everything is fine.”

I punched my fist into the clay and started stretching it into a pancake. “Rowan’s stressed. She’s afraid her divorce from dickhead won’t be finalized in time. I told her April was cutting it close, but she didn’t want to miss any business during the summer wedding season.”

Lauren narrowed her eyes. “Is Brad fighting the divorce?”

I hissed at her. “We do not speak his name.”

“Sorry,”

she said, holding up her hands. “Is dickhead fighting the divorce?”

I shook my head, fighting the urge to smile because hearing Saint Lauren call someone dickhead made my day. “It just takes a while, and for whatever reason Rowan and Cal can’t stand the idea of waiting to plan the wedding until after it’s done.”

“Because they’re in love,”

Lauren said, matter-of-factly.

“You don’t need to wear uncomfortable, overpriced clothes and eat an elaborate cake in front of everyone you know to prove you love someone.”

Lauren laughed. “I wouldn’t say that too loud if you want to keep growing your custom cake business.”

My phone buzzed on the worktable.

Theo

Mr. Twillings talked your neighbor Mrs. Adams into registering. Half the class is from Sullivan Street now

Great. Everyone will be knocking on my studio door asking for help

Sorry. I didn’t think of that, but you really should be teaching the class

Hell no. If I was the teacher, I couldn’t tell Twill to bite me when he got on my nerves. And he will get on my nerves

You probably could. It’s a volunteer position

No, thanks. I’ll just help you with whatever you need

Three dots appeared, then disappeared.

“Texting Theo?”

Lauren asked, smiling at me.

“How’d you know?”

“Because he’s the only one who makes you grin like that. You are so not just friends.”

“I wish,”

I said, abandoning the clay to flop onto the futon beside her. My phone buzzed in my hand and we both looked at it.

See you tomorrow

“I don’t get that one,”

Lauren said, frowning. “Normally, I’d say you weren’t sending him the right signals or something, but it’s pretty obvious you like him.”

My stomach dropped. “Is it?”

“In a good way,”

Lauren said, giving my arm a squeeze. “I mean, you never snap at him like you do everyone else.”

I shrugged. “Never had a reason to.”

“Oh,”

Lauren said clapping her hands together. “That’s it?”

“What’s it?”

“I’ve never seen you back down from anything, Poppy. Why haven’t you just yelled at him to kiss you already or done it yourself?”

“Because,”

I said, looking at my silent phone. “What if I repulse him, but he’s too nice to tell me until I push the issue? You can’t come back from an embarrassment like that. Our friendship would end, and he’s the only person in this speck of a town who gets as excited about art as I do.”

“Trust me, you do not repulse him. You’re hot.”

“I am not.”

“I’ve heard talk at Karma. There’s plenty of guys in Peace Falls who think you’re gorgeous.”

“Too bad the one I want doesn’t want me.”

“Maybe he’s gay.”

“He’s definitely not gay.”

Lauren raised an eyebrow at me.

“I’ve seen his art,”

I said with a shrug.

“And you can tell the man’s sexual orientation from his art?”

“That and the fact he screwed half a dozen girls in his early twenties who won’t stop talking about it.”

Lauren cringed. “That had to be fun to hear.”

My face warmed. I knew way more about Theo’s penis than I should. Guess women don’t forget a dick with hardware. I may or may not have asked follow-up questions. I’m pretty sure I could sculpt an accurate representation, if I wanted.

“Bet he’s packing,”

Lauren said, fanning herself.

“Can we change the subject,”

I said, feeling my body temperature rise as well.

“God, I miss sex.”

“So have some. There’s bound to be someone willing at Church. I’ll be your wing woman Friday.”

Lauren sighed. “Pretty sure I’ve been out with every single man in Peace Falls.”

“What about Aiden?” I asked.

Lauren patted my knee. “On that note, I’m off. What’s the address of the place you think might work?”

“47 Main.”

“Nice! That’s smack between Karma and Cal’s office. Are the other two on Main as well?”

she asked, shoving her feet back in her boots.

I shook my head. “One’s in Jericho and the other is by the high school.”

“The Main Street one sounds like a no-brainer.”

“It needs a lot of work, and Rowan got twitchy with the rent numbers.”

“Yeah, that figures. Which do you like?”

“I don’t care as long as it’s not my mom’s kitchen. All I need is a worktable and peace and quiet.”

Lauren frowned. “So maybe not Main Street then.”

I sighed. “No, Main Street makes the most sense from a marketing perspective. I already told Rowan we’re not selling baked goods to randoms off the street. That part is business-to-business only. I only want people in the bakery if they’re placing an order for a custom cake or a huge event.”

“Well, I approve seeing as I can’t mark up your baked goods at Karma if you’re selling the same ones down the street.”

Lauren opened her arms.

I made a show of begrudgingly accepting her hug before she left, but I might have let her squeeze me longer than usual. Sculpting was my emotional outlet. Without it, I found myself leaning into any affection I could grab. Theo’s continual rejection wasn’t helping either.

I settled back in my chair, grabbed the clay, and started working it through my fingers, clearing my mind of everything. I closed my eyes, because nothing else had worked, and let my hands move where they wanted.

“Crap on a cracker,”

I said when I opened them a half hour later and found a thick one-eyed monster staring up at me. I squished the clay back into a ball, which was likely as close as I’d ever come to touching Theo’s penis.