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Oh he wasgood.
I managed a drowsy nod as he backed away.
“Can I call you tomorrow?” he asked, gaze searing into mine. “Not sure I can wait until the weekend to schedule that second date.”
My smile, and yes, was easy. And as I lay in bed that night, my fingertips brushing over my un-kissed lips, I wondered if moving on from Jax was as simple as this.
A good first date and the promise of a kiss from someone new.
Maybe it was, I thought, entertaining only the briefest of thoughts about what he was doing right now.
No. Not maybe. It was that easy, I told myself.
As I drifted off to sleep, I believed it, too.
Sort of.
Chapter 9
Poppy
Four weeks later
“You look like shit.”
“I’m exhausted,” I snapped. “I think I’m getting sick, okay?”
“I can tell. Dr. Dean keeping you up too late these days?” He took a huge bite of his sandwich. “I like him. Did you see his face when Ivy beat him at chess last night?” Parker chuckled under his breath. “If he sticks around long enough, he’ll realize that’s a lost cause.”
“No, he’s not keeping me up too late. I’ve been on maybe four or five dates with him,” I said. “And one of them was dinner here last night. What am I supposed to do, sneak him upstairs into my bedroom? Put a sock on my door so Mom doesn’t interrupt?”
Parker raised an eyebrow. “Do you not remember how bad it was with Adaline and Emmett when they first got together? No one could go in the house for hours because we were afraid of what we’d walk in on.”
All he got in agreement was a pathetic sort of moaningsound. “Why are you here again? I thought you lived in Portland?”
As was his way, he shrugged nonchalantly, taking a leisurely sip of his giant glass of milk.
Milk. Like he was still a little kid. My stomach roiled unpleasantly at the sight of that glass in front of him, but I forced another bite of the leftovers I’d heated.
“Just needed a break. Felt like I haven’t spent more than a weekend here in forever.”
“Because you haven’t spent more than a weekend here in forever,” I pointed out. He’d been here a week, and every day that passed, Mom and I watched him with increasing concern. “And I don’t think you should be lecturing me on looking like shit.”
Even with dark circles under his eyes—a matching set to my own, thanks to the perpetual exhaustion I hadn’t been able to shake in days—Parker was one of those guys who was just … stupidly good looking. All my brothers were in their own way.
Erik and Ian were tall, dark, and broody with personalities to match.
Cameron and Parker were both tall too, but had the golden good looks they got from our dad. Tan skin, strong jaws, and big smiles. Since Parker started playing professional football, he’d added more muscle to his frame, and even though he still had the golden hair and jaw and all that went with it, the smiles didn’t come as easily since our dad got sick.
In fact, since he’d come home, I’d hardly seen it once.
“Can’t sleep,” he admitted gruffly.
I picked at my food, eyeing him underneath my lashes. “Is it Dad?” I asked.
His jaw clenched. “No.” Then he pinched his eyes shut. “Maybe. I don’t fucking know, Poppy. I just can’t get my head clear.”
Parker and I were the youngest in the family, even thoughhe was quite a few years older when I was born. It was a second marriage for my mom and my dad—they both brought three kids into it with them when they tied the knot. I was the only biological child from that second marriage, which only added to that whole older, protective thing my siblings had going.
