7
Poppy was restless. She couldn’t sleep worth a damn and it was all Felix Sinclair’s fault. If he had left her alone to stew in her misery, then she would be…exactly where she was right now.
Tossing and turning all night had become a ritual for her. If she
were lucky, she managed a couple hours of sleep each night, and it looked like tonight she had met her quota. The sun was still hours away from rising. She hated this time of night, when the whole world except her seemed to be at rest. It was an eerie silence, like a blanket of nothingness had been laid down. She felt alone, desolate, and absolutely wretched.
Throwing her arm over her face, she focused on her steady breathing, trying desperately to lull herself back to sleep
, but her eyelids felt like they had springs in them and her thoughts were running wild.
She tried again and again,
burning through another wasted hour, but it was no use. She was wide awake. Still, she didn’t have the strength or the will to get out of bed. It had become her sanctuary, her safe place to fall. If she turned over to face his side of the bed, she could still smell Felix on the sheets. It was all she had left of him, and didn’t that just make her the most pitiful creature on the planet.
Looking around the room, Poppy noted all the things that belonged to Felix. By her not allowing him back into the house, she had inadvertently trapped herself inside with him. There was no place that she could look without being reminded of him. He was everywhere—in her nose, in her bed, on her nightstand, strewn across the bathroom counter.
There was no escape. No relief. Just constant, unrelenting heartache.
Irritated with herself and the endle
ss bout of melancholy, Poppy threw back the blankets and kicked her legs over the side of the bed. She was on her way to the bathroom for a good long soak in the tub when she noticed something was off.
Where was Bo?
Looking around the room, she saw no sign of him. He was always in his corner, her silent sentinel, but tonight he was nowhere to be found. Her heart punched against her ribcage as a sliver of panic set in.
Maybe he got thirsty and went down to the kitchen for a drink of water, she reasoned. Listening hard, she thought she might have heard a small rustle downstairs, but she couldn’t be certain.
When the furnace clicked on, her nerves twitched and as the warm air began to blow through the room, Poppy laughed at herself. She was being a dope. So what if Bo wasn’t in his bed? Had she been in bed where she was supposed to be, then she wouldn’t have even noticed his absence in the first place. He was probably restless because she was restless.
In the hall, Poppy went into the bathroom and drew herself a warm bath, pouring plenty of bubbles inside. Hopefully, it would be enough to relax her, but she already knew there was no hope for
any more sleep tonight. The best she could hope for was an uneventful day ahead of her.
As she slipped into the water, Poppy thought about the first time she had met Felix. He had been so cute, cold and chattering from exposure. She had been attracted to him from the moment she laid eyes on him. A sad smile formed as she recalled the embarrassing moment when she’d fallen into the tub with him, inadvertently feeling him up, and setting off a chain of events that would lead her to the happiest moments of her life.
She ignored the stab of pain in her chest, because that night had also led her to this moment. She was alone now, steeped in depression and crippled by heartache. What a difference a day makes, or in her case, a moment.
As she drew a mound of bubbles up to her chest, Poppy heard the sound of Bo’s nails clacking up the stairs. She listened as
he created a commotion in the hallway then settled until it was quiet again. He must have been downstairs like she thought, just getting water or food. Knowing that he was asleep just a few feet away was comforting. At least Bo would never leave her for another woman.
Poppy stayed
in the tub until her fingers and toes pruned and the water grew too icy to tolerate. No longer warm, but chilled enough to make her teeth chatter, Poppy pulled the plug and grabbed a towel from the hook. As she stepped out and dried herself off, her ears kept pricking.
Bo must have been restless, unable to sleep until she was there with him. She heard him moving around in the room, th
e hallway, then the room again, almost as if he were pacing the floors. Hurrying through her routine of putting on lotion and combing out her hair, Poppy tidied up the bathroom before heading out to offer her comfort. Bo was just as sensitive to her emotions as a child and she hated the thought of him being upset.
The moment she stepped out of the bathroom, Poppy knew something was off. Call it women’s intuition, but she knew she wasn’t alone. The air didn’t feel right. Her ears strained as she struggled to pick up any foreign sounds, but all she could hear was the soft roar of the furnace blowing and water glugging down the drain as the tub finished emptying.
Taking cautious steps, Poppy entered her bedroom and stopped dead in her tracks.
There must have been fifty candles lit. They dotted every surface of the room—the dresser, both night stands, even some on the floor along the walls. They ranged in size, from tall, fat pillars, to
tea lights, each of them on their own dish to prevent spillage from the melting wax. All of them were white, and the scent…the whole room was filled with the smell of gardenias.
She began crying before she knew what she was crying about. There was only one reason she could think of for all of this, and
all of it pointed to Felix.
“
I know how much you like candles.” Poppy stiffened at the sound of Felix’s voice. “I know I’m the last person you want to see,” he said gruffly as he walked up behind her, “but I received some good advice from a friend that I couldn’t ignore.”
His warm, strong hands rested on her shoulders causing Poppy’s entire body to quake
with the surge of emotion that racked her, but she couldn’t allow them to cloud her judgment. Inhaling deeply, she swiped the moisture from her cheeks and eyes before turning to face him. “What advice was that?” To break into her house and redecorate? She’d bet Tate was behind this, if she weren’t already certain that the man didn’t possess a single romantic bone in his body. It must have been Jon, then.
Cupping her face tenderly in his hands, Felix appeared to be a man who had been drowning and finally came up for air. “To do everything in my power to get my woman back.” Poppy opened her mouth to protest, but Felix cut her off. “Can we sit down? I have a few things I want to say to you
, and I would like for you to listen before you say anything. Okay?”
Poppy hesitated, unsure if this was a good idea, and then nodd
ed. How much more damage could he possibly do, she asked herself. She was already a broken down mess, so letting him say whatever he needed to say shouldn’t be too much of a hardship to bear.
Climbing onto the bed, Poppy pulled the blankets over her lap and held them balled in her fists against her stomach. She needed a barrier between them, a small measure of security, because whenever Felix got too close, she felt her world tilt on its axis.
Felix smirked at her as he cocked one leg up on the bed and angled himself toward her. “First off, I want to apologize for the mess downstairs. I kind of broke your favorite teacup when I climbed through the kitchen window.”
Poppy’s mouth gaped open. “You…wait.” She shook her head. “Why didn’t you just use your key?”
He gave her a wry look. “I would have if I had thought it would get me past the chains and chair wedge up against the door.”
A furious blush flooded her cheeks and Poppy looked down at her hands, fighting a smile. “Yeah…I stopped doing that after the first week.”
Felix rubbed his inner thigh. “I wish I had known that before I scraped the shit out of my leg. Surprisingly, windows are not as easy to climb through as they make out in the movies.”
A laugh escaped and Poppy covered her mouth. Felix’s expression warmed. Reaching out, he picked up her hand and began playing with her fingers. “That night at the condo…I wasn’t lying when I said that it wasn’t what it looked like.”
Poppy pulled her hand away from his and tucked it under the blankets.
Felix grimaced, but he pressed on. “Gianna is an old friend and I was calling in a favor. We’ve been working together for weeks
, putting together all these details so I could surprise you.”
Poppy glanced around the room at all the candles. He had gone through a lot of trouble. It made her wonder what he was up to, what the surprise was, but she was also soured to it because he hadn’t planned it alone. He’d planned it with
her
.
“Obviously, that backfired.” Reaching out again, Felix dug her hand free of the blankets and gripped it tight. His face was tight with worry and grief so profound
that Poppy couldn’t look away. “I should have told you from the start. When you asked me what was going on, I should have told you everything. God, you gave me so many chances, but I was so determined to make everything perfect, I failed to see what it was doing to us.
“After you left the office, I talked to Jon. I told him everything, and this is what he told me to do.” His hand s
wept out, encompassing the room, and Poppy felt a modicum of relief at knowing this Gianna woman didn’t have a hand in all of this after all. “He told me that I needed to lay it all out on the line. No more waiting. No more lies. He made me realize that no matter how I do this, no matter how perfect I try to make it, in the end the only thing that matters is what your answer is.”
Poppy frowned as she tried to decipher his meaning. Never breaking eye contact, Felix called softly over his shoulder and Bo came trotting into the room wearing a big, dopey grin and a wide black ribbon tied around his neck.
Et tu, Bo-Bo?
“He’s been practicing
.” Felix smiled nervously as Bo came to stand at his side and plopped his butt down on the floor. Tugging on one side of the ribbon, Felix held his hand out as it unraveled. Poppy gasped into her hands, as a glittering diamond ring tumbled into his palm.
“My presentation is a little off since I had to rush it a bit, but this is what I have been working on. This is the reason I have been putting in extra hours at work, leaving early and coming home late…lying to you.” His voice dropped off and Poppy found herself looking deep into the vast ocean of love swimming in his
dark eyes. “Poppy, Gianna is my jeweler.” And suddenly, everything became so clear, Poppy felt the urge to laugh. “Will you forgive me?” He held the ring out to her and Poppy choked on fresh tears.
Looking at Bo, she realized why he was smiling. He was just as happy as she was at that moment. “How did you get inside without h
im killing you?” she asked. Bo panted happily, as she patted the top of his head.
“I bought him off with a giant barbeque bone.”
“Men. So easily swayed.” Poppy shook her head at the both of them. Her gaze landed on the ring that Felix continued to hold up between them. “So this is what you were doing the whole time?”
“This was what I was doing.”
“And you weren’t sleeping with that woman?”
“No, never.
She’s an old friend, and she’s the best in the business, so I called in a favor. Nothing more.” Rising, Felix eased down beside her and caressed the side of her face. “You’re the only woman I want.”
Her heart soared with his words. She knew without a doubt that he was telling her the truth, but there were still so many things they needed to work out. “What about the condo?”
“I don’t care about the condo. I care about you. If you want to live in the country, then I’m on board with that. As long as we’re together, it doesn’t matter where we live.”
He was saying all the right things, everything she wanted to hear, which gave her pangs of guilt. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance to explain.”
Sliding his hand behind her neck, Felix pulled her closer and pressed her head against his chest. She could feel his heart pounding beneath her cheek and knew he was feeling as mixed up as she was. “You don’t need to be sorry about anything. I’m the one who screwed up. I should have told you the truth from the beginning. We could have avoided all of this.”
They sat in silence, holding each other, finding strength in each other’s arms until both their hearts calmed and the danger had passed. Poppy drew back just enough to maintain contact but
to still be able to look into his eyes. “Thank you for telling me the truth, even though it took you forever.”
Felix grinned. “Thank you for not calling the cops on me. I’ve never been to jail before, but I hear it kind of sucks.”
“Thank you for loving me.”
“No problem. You make it pretty easy to do.”
Poppy pinched his side lightly. “That’s not the answer I was looking for.”
Bending his head, Felix dropped a quick kiss to her lips. “I know.” Releasing her, he slid off the bed and dropped down onto one knee. “I love you, Poppy Montgomery. I love you to heaven and back again, with all of my heart and soul. I swear never to lie to you again. If you look fat in a dress, I promise to tell you.” She slapped his arm playfully and they both laughed. “So what do you say? Will you put me out of my misery and be my wife?”