Fourth Down (7 page)

I parked my truck in the lot and swung
open the door to the shop. There was a small reception area with
desks for Josh and Mitch and a small office for Grady off to the
side. The rest of the shop was an open warehouse space where
several boats could be worked on at once. All three men stuck their
heads out from various boats when the door chime signaled my
arrival.

“Good morning, Ford. It’s good to see
you, son,” Mitch said, coming over to shake my hand. Grady’s dad
had been the main male influence in my life growing up, and I felt
like shit that I hadn’t kept in touch with him very
well.

Grady walked over too, wiping his
greasy hands on the bandana he pulled from his back
pocket.

“What did we do to deserve a visit
from Ford Walsh? And so early in the morning?” He joked. Then he
took a step back out of my reach and said, “This isn’t about your
cowboy pictures, is it? Lindsay made me send them. I
swear.”

I had to laugh at that. “No, man. It’s
not about the pictures. Although I will be planning some sort of
payback for that.”

“So what’s up? You never just stop by
to chat.”

I blew out a breath. “Yeah, that’s
sort of the point. Do you and Josh have a minute?”

“Sure,” Grady said, waving Josh over
to the large table in the middle of the work space. He looked
curious and concerned.

Josh came over and sat down. “Hey,
Ford. What’s up? Everything okay with your mom?”

“Oh, yeah. She’s fine…I mean, she’s
dying. Like really dying. The doctor gave her a few months
left.”

Josh and Grady both spoke at once.
“Dude, I’m sorry.”

I took off my hat to scratch my
forehead. “Thanks. But that’s not why I’m here,” I
began.

“You’re pregnant,” Josh said while
somehow keeping a straight face.

Grady laughed loudly, and I rolled my
eyes.

“Ha ha. Very funny. Listen, guys, my
mom brought it to my attention that I’ve been a lousy excuse for a
friend lately. Well, actually for a long time. She told me about
Leah’s…miscarriage. And about your dad thinking he might have
cancer, Grady.”

They traded glances, and Josh spoke
first. “Yeah, it was hard on Leah, but we’re past it now. We have
Maddy, and she’s perfect.”

“I know, but the point is I didn’t
know about it. You guys didn’t think I could handle it or
something,” I grumbled.

More glances between my friends.
“Look, Ford, we know you’ve had a hard time adjusting to being back
here. We just didn’t want to heap any more shit on your
plate.”

“I get it. But I don’t need you to
tiptoe around me.”

Josh clapped me on the back. “What is
this? Are you in a 12 step program where you have to right all the
wrongs in your life?”

I elbowed him in the gut. “Shut the
fuck up.”

Grady laughed and then fell silent
when I glared at him. “We’re just kidding, Ford. We appreciate the
sort of apology, and we promise not to keep anything from you ever
again. Hey, did you know that it’s Lindsay’s time of the month and
she’s got terrible cramps.”

Josh chimed in as well, “And Leah got
her period last week for the first time since Maddy was
born.”

I turned around and threw my hands up.
“You guys suck. I’m outta here.”

They were both howling with laughter
at my expense.

“Dude, come back. We promise to tell
you the important stuff.”

I kept walking and flipped them off
over my shoulder. Even with the unnecessary information about the
menstrual cycles of my buddies’ girls circling my brain, I felt
better having talked to them.

On the short drive to the community
center, I thought about Poppy. My mom was right that I owed her an
apology. She was just doing her job, and unfortunately she entered
my life on the exact day that it went to complete shit. I parked my
truck and tossed my hat on the seat beside me, ruffling my hair
with my fingers. Hopefully I could say “I’m sorry,” she would
graciously accept and we could both go on with our days.

I hadn’t been in the community center
since I was a kid, and not much had changed. Same yellow walls and
linoleum floor. Same old ladies in track suits walking laps around
the building. I stopped at the front desk and was directed down a
long hallway to the yoga room.

Looking in the doorway of room 114, I
saw several middle age women rolling out mats on the floor and
chatting with each other. Poppy stood at the front of the room with
her back to me, her head tipped back as she took a drink from a
water bottle. Her hair was wound up in a messy bun on top of her
head with a few tendrils escaping to frame her face.

It wasn’t like I didn’t notice that
she had a great body and a pretty face. I was still a guy after
all, but all of our previous interactions had been clouded by my
anger. First at the bar when I thought she was trying to drink
underage and since then when I blamed her for my mom’s death
preparations.

Now that I could appreciate the view
without any added emotions, my eyes followed the long line of her
neck to her shoulders bared by her tight tank top. She was slender
but toned, and her small waist flared out slightly to her hips.
Before I could take in the curve of her ass and long legs, she
turned around and looked right at me like she knew I was there. It
was only then that I noticed the entire front wall was lined with
mirrors. Her cheeks were flushed, and I knew she had caught me
ogling her. Hey, I was still a guy.

The women in the class were starting
to get situated on their mats, so I better make this quick. Walking
to the front of the class, I smiled at Poppy. She looked more
surprised now than she did when she noticed me in the
doorway.

“You’re smiling,” she
stated.

I raised an eyebrow. “Hello to you
too.”

She shook her head and dropped her
gaze. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve never seen you smile before.
I thought maybe you didn’t know how.”

Her words were teasing, but her tone
was completely serious. God, I have really been an ass if this girl
who I’ve seen numerous times over the last two weeks didn’t think I
knew how to smile.

“Yeah, I don’t do it much.” I looked
down and saw her bare feet and toes tipped in blue polish. This was
hard. Along with smiling, apologizing wasn’t something I did
much.

“Listen, Poppy, I want to apologize
for how I’ve been acting. I have a lot going on with my mom, and
I’m not handling it well. But, I shouldn’t take it out on you.
You’re just doing your job.” I paused and waited for her to accept
my apology so I could leave. When she didn’t respond, I looked up
from her toes into her hazel eyes.

Her eyes were kind, but there was a
hint of a smile on her face. She still didn’t say anything, so I
had to ask, “I said I was sorry, Poppy…do you accept my
apology?”

She glanced over to her waiting yoga
class that was watching our interaction intently. This was getting
really awkward, and I was fighting the urge to bolt.

“I’ll accept your apology on one
condition.”

Shit, she was going to make this hard
on me. “What’s the condition?”

“You have to buy me
coffee.”

Okay, I could handle that.

“After class, which you have to stay
and participate in,” she said with a full blown smile.

I tilted my head and frowned at her.
“Seriously?”

She crossed her arms across her chest,
which only emphasized her already perky tits.

“Fine,” I muttered. How hard could it
be? Even if I couldn’t play professional football, I was still in
great shape. Poppy handed me an extra yoga mat and pointed to an
open spot right in the front row.

“Alright everyone, we have a new
student today. This is Ford, and he is a yoga virgin.”

I shook my head as all the women
applauded and one of them whistled. Seeing that everyone was
barefoot, I took off my shoes and socks and pulled my sweatshirt
over my head. We all stood on our mats and followed Poppy through a
series of easy stretches. It was hard to keep from staring at her
as she stretched her body in ways I could only imagine.

While I could barely touch my
fingertips to the floor, she pressed her palms on the floor with
her nose practically to her knees. No one else in the class was
much more flexible than me, so that made me feel a little better.
But the fact remained that I was the only dude in a yoga class full
of middle age women. I would have to make Poppy swear to never
speak of this again.

After the opening stretches she guided
us in some crazy moves that made me feel like a human pretzel. Or I
would have if I could actually do them. While I was trying to bend
myself into something called downward dog, which was basically my
hands and feet on the floor and my ass in the air, Poppy walked
around and adjusted our stances.

From my position upside down I saw her
blue toenails approaching before I felt her hands on my back.
Applying pressure to my shoulders she leaned down and said, “You’re
doing great, Ford. This could help with your leg, you
know.”

How the hell did she know about my
leg? Oh, wait. She has been spending hours at a time with my
mom.

At the end of class I was sweating,
and muscles I didn’t even know I had were already feeling sore. No
wonder Poppy’s body was so amazing if she did this every day. I
hung out at the back of the room and watched her talk to just about
everyone in the class. My t-shirt was drenched, and she looked as
fresh as she did before class started.

When the room finally cleared and
Poppy pulled on a pair of boots and a sweatshirt over her tank top
and skin tight leggings, she came over to me with a shy smile. The
confidence she projected in front of the class was gone as she
scuffed the floor with the toe of her boot.

“You ready for coffee?” I
asked.

“I accept your apology, Ford. You
don’t have to buy me coffee. I really just wanted to get you to
stay for the class.”

“Come on, it’s the least I can do.
That was the best workout I’ve had in a long time,” I
replied.

On my way here this morning I wanted
to get in, apologize, and get out. The last thing I expected was to
be roped into a yoga class. Now, she was giving me an out. So why
didn’t I want to take it?

She shrugged. “Okay, if you’re
sure.”

I put my hand on the small of her back
and guided her through the doorway. “I’m sure. Let’s
go.”

There was a small coffee shop just
down the block from the community center, so we decided to walk
there. Poppy ordered some soy latte thing, and I stuck with black
coffee. She tried to pay for hers, but after a short argument she
gave in and let me buy. I followed her to a table by the window,
and we sipped our drinks in silence for a while.

“Does your leg hurt more when it’s
cold out?”

I hadn’t even realized I was rubbing
my knee until Poppy spoke. “Yeah, cold air, the rain. I really
should move to the desert,” I joked halfheartedly.

She seemed uncomfortable, and I knew
that was my fault. Hell, she was probably expecting me to start
yelling at her any second. I turned my baseball cap around
backwards on my head and rested my forearms on the
table.

“I really am sorry, Poppy. You’ve
helped my mom a lot with things that she thought she couldn’t rely
on me for. I know it’s your job, but thank you for
that.”

She reached across the table and
hesitated for a moment before placing her hand on my arm in a
gesture meant to comfort. “I know what it’s like to lose a parent.
My father passed away from cancer when I was ten years
old.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Poppy nodded and took a sip of her
coffee, licking a bit of foam off her lips. She opened her mouth
then closed it, like she wanted to say something but was holding
back. I raised an eyebrow, silently urging her to continue. For
some reason I wanted her to keep talking. The soft sound of her
voice was soothing, and her eyes became more expressive when she
spoke.

“He was sick for a long time. At least
it seemed like forever to me at the time, but it was really only
about eight months. My mom kept reassuring me that he was going to
get better. No one ever told me there was a chance he might not
make it.”

Poppy’s hand was still on my arm and I
had to resist the urge to turn it over and capture her hand in
mine. Of course I was attracted to her. Who wouldn’t be? She was
beautiful. But it was more than physical attraction that had me
wanting to touch her. My mom was right that I needed to climb out
of my hole and pay attention to the world around me. I barely knew
Poppy, but it hurt me to think of her hurting. She was just a
little kid when she went through what I was going through now, and
I would bet my life that she handled it better than I
was.

As if she knew where my thoughts were,
she pulled her hand back into her lap. Looking past me out the
window, she continued, “The day he died I said goodbye before I
left for school. He never got out of bed anymore, so I sat beside
him and told him about some stupid thing we were doing in art
class. If I had known I would never see him again, I would have
told him how much I loved him, how much I would miss him…” Her
voice trailed off and she quickly swiped at her eyes. A few more
tendrils had escaped from her bun to fall around her
face.