Fourth Down (16 page)

Wyatt walked over with his phone.
“Showtime, Grady. Taryn said it’s time for you to go up and talk to
Lindsay.”

Grady blew out a breath and
automatically reached to run his hands through his chin length
hair, but stopped when he remembered it was pulled back into a
ponytail. With his hair back, his face clean shaven, and the suit
covering all his tattoos, he looked like a different person. When
the huge smile broke out over his face as he headed up the stairs,
I realized it wasn’t what he was wearing or how he looked that made
him different. It was Lindsay.

I was at college when he met her five
years ago and when she left him without an explanation. He was
mostly over his self-destructive phase by the time I moved back
home, but he wasn’t the same guy I’d known all my life. When
Lindsay left, she took part of him, the best part, with her. Now
that they were back together, that part was back and then some. It
was like she made him a better person, and anyone could see she
made him happy.

It wasn’t a question that Poppy made
me a better person, or at least want to be a better person when I
was around her. Could she make me happy? Was she my Lindsay? It had
been so long since I could describe myself as happy, that I wasn’t
sure I even remembered what that would feel like. But if anyone
could bring that back to me, it would be her.

As I watched Grady come back down the
stairs looking like the cat who ate the canary, I kicked myself for
not thinking to ask Poppy to come with me to the wedding. It wasn’t
anything new. I’d been kicking myself every day since Thanksgiving
for turning down her obvious invitation to take things further
during our encounter in the parking lot.

Wyatt clapped me on the shoulder as he
came to stand next to me. “Whoever she is, you shouldn’t let her
get away. I know that look, Ford. I fought my feelings for Taryn
for a long time. It would have saved a lot of time if I accepted
what I knew from the beginning. She was it for me.” He turned his
head, and I followed his line of sight to watch Taryn come down the
stairs. She was beautiful, and she looked at Wyatt with such love
in her eyes that I had to turn away. It felt like I was invading
their privacy just by being in the same room.

Josh and I took our places next to
Grady and the minister, while Taryn and Leah stood on the other
side of the aisle next to where Lindsay would be in a few minutes.
The music changed, and Lindsay entered the living room on the arm
of her uncle James.

There was that goddamn look again,
this time between Lindsay and Grady. It wasn’t so much that it made
me uncomfortable as it made me envious of what they had. Of what
Taryn and Wyatt had. And Leah and Josh. They had someone that loved
them above all others. Someone that they could depend on and plan a
future with.

Just like being happy, planning a
future was something I hadn’t done in a long time. With the
situation with my mom and my possible plans to move to Louisiana,
it didn’t make sense to be thinking about a future with Poppy. And
honestly, as I watched Lindsay and Grady take their vows, I wasn’t
thinking too far in the future at all. I was only thinking that it
was New Year’s Eve, and there was just one person I wanted to be
with at midnight.

The ceremony was quick and followed by
endless pictures, food, drinks and dancing. I suffered through
mingling and even some dancing when Leah forced me. The food was
good, but I stayed away from the alcohol. My head needed to be
clear when I went home to Poppy. I didn’t have a plan of what I
wanted to say. All I knew was that I needed to kiss her again. She
had told me not to start something again that I didn’t intend on
finishing. If she wanted a relationship, then that’s what I would
give her. My longest relationship hadn’t lasted more than two
months in college, so I really had no idea what I was getting
myself into. The only thing I knew was that I needed her however I
could get her.

Finally it seemed late enough that it
would acceptable for me to bow out, so I went over to the table
where Lindsay and Grady were sitting with Leah and Josh to say my
goodbyes.

“It’s not even midnight yet,” Lindsay
said to me.

“
Yeah, sorry guys. I’ve got
something to take care of. Congratulations, I’m really happy for
both of you.” I felt bad for leaving before it was over, but I’m
sure they would get over it.

Grady followed me to the back door.
“Ford, wait up.”

“I’m sorry, Grady. It’s
just…”

He waved off my apology. “It’s fine,
dude. I get it.” He pulled an envelope out of his inside jacket
pocket and held it out to me.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a thank you for helping me pull
this off.”

“You didn’t need to get me anything. I
was happy to help. You’d do the same for me.”

“Yeah, I know. Listen, I know you’re
going to LSU for your interview. That’s an extra plane ticket so
you can take Poppy with you. Now if she wants her own hotel room,
that’s on you,” Grady said, slapping me on the back before walking
back to the party.

“Hey, Ford!”

I turned back around just in time to
catch the keys to Grady’s bike before they hit me in the
face.

“Did you forget that Josh picked you
up?”

Oh, yeah. “Thanks,” I said. “For
everything.”

Shit, it’s almost midnight. I shoved
the envelope in my jacket pocket and drove home as fast as I could
given it had been a while since I’d driven a motorcycle. First, I
needed to kiss Poppy. And pray she didn’t slap me and tell me to
get lost. Then, I needed to ask her to go with me to my interview
at the end of the month. And pray she would say yes.

I parked Grady's bike in the driveway
behind my truck, which was parked slightly off center. Hmmm. Not
important right now.

When I let myself in the front door, I
expected to hear the TV counting down the remaining seconds until
midnight. But the house was silent, and a quick search of the
downstairs turned up nothing. Fearing the worst, I took the steps
two at a time and opened the door to my mom's room with my heart
pounding in my throat.

Seeing my mom lying in her bed and
hearing the light sound of her breathing calmed me down. I quietly
shut the door. Where the fuck was Poppy? I was on my way back
downstairs when I caught sight of something in my room.

Standing in the doorway I took in the
sight of Poppy curled up on my bed, hugging my sweatshirt tightly
to her chest. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was deep and
even. Sound asleep. In my bed.

I moved to the side of the bed and sat
down on the edge. Poppy stirred but didn't wake up. She moved her
head farther down on the pillow and pressed her face against the
fabric of my sweatshirt. That action caused a sharp ache dead
center in my chest.

She looked so peaceful I hesitated to
wake her. Her long hair was tangled on the pillow, and the curve of
her hip as she lay on her side was so enticing. I lightly ran my
hand up her leg and over her hip, stopping at her waist. With a
gentle push I rolled her on her back and lowered my head to brush
kisses across her cheekbones.

Before she was fully awake, her arms
wound around my neck and she breathed out my name. I pulled back to
watch as her eyes fluttered open and recognition dawned.

"What are you doing?"

I lowered my head again, so our mouths
were just a whisper apart. "I'm finishing what I started," I
murmured against her lips.

Poppy's breath escaped her in a warm
brush across my mouth. She rose up to close the distance between us
and pressed her lips to mine. Her lips were soft and parted for me
almost immediately. She tasted even better than I remembered, and I
stroked her tongue and sucked on her full bottom lip as I moved to
stretch out next to her. God, this felt good. She felt
good.

Before we took it any farther, we
heard a sound that had my heart pounding in my chest again and put
fear in Poppy's eyes.

A loud thud from my mom's
room.

Chapter Eleven

Poppy

I paced from my kitchenette to my
bathroom to the window and back. This had been my route all day
from the time I arrived home from the hospital at 5:00 am this
morning. There may have been a couple of hours that I drifted off
to sleep when I laid down on my bed to cry, but other than that I
had been pacing.

The doctor said Maggie had most likely
suffered a blood clot in her brain, and that she was unconscious
before we even heard her fall. I was glad she hadn’t been in pain,
but it still hurt so much.

The few minutes between when we heard
her fall and when the ambulance arrived were still a blur. She was
barely breathing and unresponsive. Ford was eerily calm as he
dialed 911 and stood to the side, watching as I checked Maggie's
pulse and respiratory rate. His face was a mask, showing no
emotion. Not like he was hiding it, but like he was completely
numb.

The paramedics arrived and worked fast
to get Maggie into the ambulance. Jumping on a motorcycle that was
parked in the driveway, Ford told me to take his truck and go home
and he would call me. But I went to the hospital. That way I would
be close when he called.

I sat in the waiting room for over two
hours until the nurse took pity on me and updated me on Maggie even
though I wasn’t family. She had been unresponsive since I found her
and was on life support. Maggie being Maggie, she had signed a
living will expressly stating that she did not want to be kept
alive by machines. It was now up to Ford to pull the plug. I
returned to my chair and waited some more. I waited for Ford to
call me.

But he never called.

At around 4:00 am, the same nurse came
to sit beside me. She quietly told me that Maggie was gone and that
Ford had left the hospital. The tears that had run dry sometime
around 2:00 am came back full force, and I had to constantly wipe
them away as I drove home in Ford’s truck.

On my way to my apartment I drove by
Ford’s house, but he wasn’t there. I thought about leaving his
truck and walking home but decided against it. If I had it at my
apartment he would have to come to me eventually. I had to know
that he was okay. I wouldn’t be okay until I knew he was
okay.

After a shower and a crying fit that
turned into a nap, I began my pacing. Around noon I gave in and
called Ford…a few times. He never answered or returned my calls
even though I left several messages begging him to just let me know
that he was okay. I thought about calling his friends, but I didn’t
know them and I didn’t know if he would want me to tell them about
Maggie.

It was after 7:00 pm now, and pitch
black outside. There was some sort of rain snow mix pelting my roof
and window, adding to the feeling of desolation inside my
apartment. After peeking out my window and seeing nothing but
darkness and Ford’s black truck still parked in my driveway, I fell
onto my bed and buried my head under my pillow. I was thoroughly
exhausted from the raw emotions of the last twenty four hours and
getting hardly any sleep since the night before last.

From my spot under my pillow I heard
what sounded like a muffled knock at my door. Bolting upright I
leapt off my bed and ran across the room. As I swung open the door,
tremendous relief swept through me as I saw Ford taking up the
doorway. The relief was short lived as I took in his haggard
appearance. He had traded his suit from last night for jeans and a
hooded sweatshirt, no coat despite the frigid temperatures. At
least he had the hood up over his head.

Ford’s eyes were dry but bloodshot,
and the stark pain drowning in those blue depths made my own begin
to tear up. He was soaked to the bone, like maybe he had been
walking outside for hours. When I grabbed his hand to pull him
inside, it was ice cold. I was overwhelmed with a need to take care
of him. To make him feel better.

“How long have you been outside?
You’re freezing!”

Ford just shrugged one shoulder, but
didn’t say anything. I was so glad he was okay, at least in the
sense that he was alive, and that he was here with me now. It
wouldn’t work to push him to talk when he obviously wasn’t ready.
So, first things first. We needed to get him dried off and warmed
up.

“Ford, we need to get you out of these
wet clothes.” The situation was worse than I thought, because he
didn’t even crack a hint of a smile when I basically told him to
get naked. He just let me lead him into my bathroom and watched
silently as I turned on the shower and adjusted the
temperature.

“Once you’re in the shower, I’ll come
get your clothes and put them in the dryer,” I said as I turned to
leave the room. I waited outside the bathroom door for a few
minutes until I heard the shower door shut. Then I slipped in and
gathered up his clothes and shut the door quietly behind me, trying
my hardest not to stare at the outline of Ford’s body through the
frosted glass shower door.

Given the miniature size of my
apartment, I was only able to fit a small stackable washer and
dryer in the closet off the kitchenette. It would take at least
three cycles to dry Ford’s wet jeans and sweatshirt. Hoping it
wouldn’t be too much of a fight to get him to stay here with me
tonight, I threw his boxer briefs and t-shirt in the dryer and hung
his jeans and sweatshirt over the top of the door. I had already
spent one night and one day worrying myself sick over his
whereabouts and well-being. He owed me a good night’s sleep, and
the best way to get that was for him to stay here with
me.