Running From Love (18 page)

He heard laughter from across the patio and turned. Poppy. She looked stunning, of course. She stole his breath whenever he laid eyes on her. She was his heart, his love, his everything. She smiled and his heart warmed.

“Beautiful girl,” Robert said. “I really like her, and so does your mom.”

“Excuse me.” He walked away from Robert. He was drawn to Poppy. He needed to be near her, to touch her, to smell the scent of cinnamon, sun, and sand  that clung to her skin. Her hair was wild and free, a mane of dark curls. She wore a white and blue dress that skimmed her curves but left a large portion of her back bare.

His body hardened for her. His eyes devoured her.

“Hello, beautiful.” Next to her now, he placed one hand on the small of her back and pulled her close. His lips pressed to hers. The party, the people, the noise fell away. All that remained was Poppy. Forever and for always she would carry his heart in her hand. The kiss was soft and lovely, with a thread of heated desire that pulsed through his entire body. He could stand here in the center of the backyard in front of five hundred of his mother’s closest friends and kiss Poppy all night.

She pulled away. Her eyes widened. Her cheeks flushed pink. A flash of surprise that caused the pit of his stomach to roll. Then the expression was gone.

“There are a lot of people here.”

“Mom’s pretty excited about this birthday. Seems she’s already got her Monday planned with your two nieces.”

Poppy squinted. “What do you mean?”

“She’s having Laura and Hazel over to swim. She’s actually taking Monday off. That’s hardly ever happens. But since I’m going into the office—”

“You start on Monday?”

Trevor nodded.

“As in day after tomorrow?”

He nodded again. “I have the entire executive team, and it’ll take me a while to get up to speed, but yeah. I start on Monday.” He tilted his head. “I thought you realized … when we talked about me taking the job.”

Poppy shrugged. “Right, I guess … I guess I just thought the transition would take longer.” She dropped her gaze. “I don’t know what I thought.”

A chill flew through Trevor’s body. This was Poppy getting nervous and preparing to run. He knew all the signs by now. She glanced around the expanse of people.

Charla walked up and handed Poppy a glass of champagne. “Uh-oh, I know that face, what’d you do, Trev, ask her to get married? She looks panicked.”

“Of course not, how ridiculous would that be, me asking the woman I love to commit to me for the rest of my life?” Trevor’s tone was a little too sharp to be taken as a joke. 

“What? What does that mean?” Poppy’s hushed voice conveyed shock and annoyance.

Well, fuck it. He was pissed and shocked and annoyed as well. “My mom asked the kids to come swimming and I’m just taking a job, Poppy. It’s not like anyone is tying you down and making you stay anywhere. Relax.”

He should stop speaking now. He should seal his mouth shut. But damn, he was tired of giving her his heart and walking around on eggshells, like he wasn’t supposed to feel or want or need. She could give a little bit back instead of taking all the time.

“Where is this coming from?”

“Really?” He narrowed his eyes. “Where the hell do you think this is coming from? I don’t know if you’re here, really here, or if you’ve packed your bags and have a car picking you up tonight to fly to Asia. Biggest night of my life and I could go home and you wouldn’t be there.”

“Oh my God.” Poppy trembled. Her hand shook.

“Poppy.” His voice softened … he suddenly felt bad for making her upset. “Please, don’t be like—”

She turned and rushed across the pool deck toward the house, with Charla right behind her. He started after her when his mom’s voice rang out across the crowd.

“Okay people, it’s time to sing the big song!” The guests closed in around Trevor as Robert emerged from the house with Ryan, carrying a giant birthday cake. The crowd picked up the tune. Trevor walked toward the cake and the candles and a future that included Up Side Burger and his family. He made his wish, but Poppy was already gone.

*

Tears streamed down her face.
Nope. Not staying. Can’t stay. Won’t stay. Don’t want to stay. Fuck him. Fuck family. Fuck the idea of being trapped.
Poppy lugged her empty red suitcase up the stairs in Malibu and plopped it on the bed. She was done. Finished. Her heart was closed tight. She was embarrassed and ashamed. How could they argue like that in front of five hundred people? And how could Trevor go and blow out his candles instead of coming after her? Poppy went to the closet and yanked two jackets from hangers. She threw them into the suitcase and then turned and sat on the bed. How could she be such a huge baby and impossible bitch? A deep breath filled her lungs and she wiped her hand beneath her eyes.

Because she was. She was damaged and that damage wasn’t getting any better. She couldn’t stay here and she couldn’t make Trevor keep paying for the damage that’d been done to her long before she’d ever met him. To do so wasn’t fair, and not what she wanted for the man she loved.

The door downstairs burst open. “Poppy! Poppy, are you here?” Trevor’s footfalls pounded hard and fast on the steps up to the second floor. She could hear him muttering under his breath. The bedroom door flew open.

Fear rode his face. Fear mixed with anger and then a wash of relief when he saw her on the end of the bed. Fear again when his gaze traveled to her suitcase.

“Poppy, don’t do this.” He walked toward her. “Please, don’t leave. You don’t have to go.”

She stood and held her hands out in front of her body to ward him off. “Please, don’t touch me. I don’t want to be touched.” Tears streamed from her eyes. “I have to go. Don’t you understand? I might stay for a day or a week or a month, but I can’t stay forever. I can’t do anything for forever. I have to go now, because this will only be harder in a month or a year.”

“Why?” Trevor asked, his voice louder, his face flashing anger. “
Why
do you have to go? I want you here. You want to be here. You wouldn’t be crying if you didn’t want to be here. Why are you doing this to yourself, to me, to us, to our family? Why would you do this, Poppy?”

“Because I can’t stay forever and I’ll damage everyone even more if I leave later.” She turned toward the closet and grabbed more clothes and threw them into her suitcase. She didn’t need to pack, she just needed the things that she brought to L.A.

“That’s crazy, you know that, right? What you’re doing to me and to Mimi and everyone who loves you, running away, it’s exactly what Therese did to you.”

“Stop!” Poppy spun toward Trevor. “I’m not Therese. I’m not doing what she did. This is different. I’m going before I have children. Before I ruin all those lives.”

“Really?” Trevor moved right in front of Poppy. “What about my life? What about what we’re going to build together? What about the children I want to have with you, Poppy? The children I’m not ever going to get to have now.”

Her throat choked and she pressed her fingers under her eyes. Breath. She had to catch her breath. She had to get out of this room, out of this house, away from this man she so desperately loved.

“You’ll find the right girl, Trevor. The girl who can stay and be Mrs. Brice and do all the right things. Be the way an executive’s wife is supposed to be.”

“Don’t walk out of here thinking you’re being noble by running away, because you’re not. You’re breaking my heart and everyone else’s heart too.”

Poppy closed the red suitcase and zipped her green backpack. She lifted the suitcase from the bed and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She closed her eyes. She couldn’t look at Trevor. Her bottom lip trembled. She turned, opened her eyes, and walked to the stairs. Without another word, Poppy left behind everything good that she was terrified she’d ruin and all the love that she was afraid to keep.

“Here’s the thing. Either you turn around the numbers for the Up Side Burger in Venice, or that store is closing.” Trevor pulled at his tie. Why the fuck was he wearing a tie? He was the boss, who said he had to wear a tie? No one. That was who. He looked out his office windows toward the long line of palm trees. His mother had finally vacated the office that had been his father’s before her and his grandfather’s before him. Now the office was Trevor’s. Adele had handed over the business astoundingly fast after Trevor’s birthday. She was busy playing “grandmother” to Poppy’s two nieces. Which didn’t help Trevor’s state of mind. He was trying to get over Poppy, not have his mother become a permanent fixture in her family’s life.

“Mr. Brice.” Michael’s voice brought him back to the meeting. “The Venice store was your grandfather’s first store, and—”

“Right.” Trevor turned toward Michael and Stephanie, who sat on his office couch. “We don’t keep things just because we’re attached to them. We keep stores open because they make money for Up Side Burger. According to the reports I’ve received, the Venice store hasn’t made money in nearly twelve months.”

Stephanie exchanged a look with Michael.

“That’s accurate, but there’s a huge street renovation taking place in front of the location.”

“Tell the manager. Numbers up. She’s got three months.”

“I’ll let her know.” Michael stood. “Anything else?” His face was grim, his lips set in a thin line.

“Not unless there’s more bad news for me today.” Trevor walked to the bar at the far end of his office and poured a bourbon. His cloud of irritation trailed behind him.

“No sir. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow.” Trevor murmured as the door closed behind Michael. He turned back toward the window and took a long slug of his drink. In the reflection of the window he watched Stephanie rise from the couch.

“You’re still here.” He glanced over his shoulder and walked toward his desk. “Haven’t I scared you off, too?”

“You’re like my brother. You’ll have to do a hell of a lot better than being cranky to get rid of me.” She walked toward him and crossed her arms. “When are you going to stop beating up on your executive staff because you miss Poppy?”

Heat shot through Trevor’s chest. How dare Stephanie. He shook his head. He turned and set his glass of bourbon on his desk. “If anyone else at this company said that to me, I’d fire them on the spot.”

Stephanie tilted her head to the side. “And if you were anyone else, with your behavior I would have quit three months ago.”

Touché. Trevor turned away from Steph. She was Robert’s daughter, and she’d known Trevor nearly his whole life. Recently, Mom and Robert had started to date, so he and Steph might officially end up brother and sister.

“You walked in here that first Monday three months ago a complete beast, and instead of getting better, you’ve actually gotten worse. What the hell, Trevor? People are starting to put together their résumés. Do you have any idea of the type of brain drain you’re about to experience?”

Trevor waved his hand. “If they want to go, then let them.”

“Let them?” Stephanie leaned forward. “You’ve got some of the best corporate execs in the world working for you, and do you know why? Because they love this place. They loved your mom and what this place stands for, but
you
, with this heartbroken bad attitude, are killing the job for all of us.”

Hot angry words wanted to pour from his lips, many of them, but he stopped. His entire body felt tired, numb, like a heavy weight that he’d carried way too long lay across his shoulders.

“You’re right.” He looked at Stephanie. “I’m being a complete dick. But she’s gone, Steph. Gone.” He dropped into his desk chair. “She hasn’t called. She hasn’t texted. I don’t even know where the hell she is.”

“My dad does.”

Trevor’s heart pounded in his chest.

“Do you want to know?” Stephanie’s voice was soft and kindness filled her words.

“I chased her down once. I gave her everything I had and it wasn’t enough. I even stayed here to run Up Side Burger for her.”

“Like hell you did.”

Trevor turned to Steph and raised an eyebrow. She stood there, arms crossed, with a stern, judgmental look on her face. He wouldn’t get any feel-sorry-for-himself bull past her. Steph was tougher than Mom.

“Okay, well, I
thought
I agreed to stay and run Up Side Burger for her, but you’re right. Running the company is what I’m meant to do. I only wish that Poppy were here too.”

“Man, you’re one pathetic Brice.” Stephanie walked toward the office bar. “Do you think your dad gave up when your mom ran away?”

Trevor spun his chair around and looked at Stephanie. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“When they first moved back to California from New York? Your mother tried to leave your dad like three times. Said she wanted to go back and be a dancer.”

“Who told you this?”

“Your mom and my dad.” Steph poured herself a vodka on the rocks. “You really should come to their Sunday dinners.” She took a long sip. “But I suppose you’ve been too busy letting your tongue run over those wounds you’ve got.”

“Ha, fucking, ha ha.” Trevor shook his head. “I’m not sure having you as a stepsister is going to be as good as I thought.”

“Oh yes it will. Who else would you feel comfortable leaving Up Side Burger with so you could go halfway around the world to find the love of your life?”

“She’s in Hong Kong?”

“I thought you didn’t want to know.”

“I don’t. Really.” Trevor scrubbed his hand over his jaw. “Because if I know, I’ll have to go find her. Damn.” Trevor stared at Stephanie. “Seriously? Three times? He had to haul Mom’s ass back three times?”

“Well, she said three, my dad said it was two and a half, because the third time she was pregnant with you and only got to the bottom of the driveway.”

“Doesn’t sound like the mom I know.” Trevor stood and pulled his tie from around his neck. “Okay, where is she?”

Stephanie slipped her phone from her pants pocket. “I thought you’d never ask.” She pressed four buttons and Trevor’s phone beeped. Stephanie turned toward the door. “See you in a couple weeks.”