Page 72 of For You I'd Mend
“Did he make her a spring of Rowan?” I asked, slightly shocked. I mean, Cal was cool and all, but I couldn’t see him making something anywhere near as detailed as this.
“He made her a C out of gold. I’d never made a pendant before, so I played around with some sterling silver first.”
“I love it,” I said. “I have a chain upstairs. Let me get changed, and we can go.”
“Take however long you need,” he said, settling back on the couch.
As I ran up the stairs, it hit me. Though he’d apologized for making me feel sick, he hadn’t promised not to hurt himself again.
Chapter twenty-two
Theo
We’d talked every dayfor over a year. I’d seen her naked. I knew what her face looked like when she came. Taking Poppy on a date was nothing to worry about. Or it shouldn’t be. My palms sweated as I waited for her to change, my knee bouncing with the same hurried rhythm as my heart.
“When you’re nervous, your body feels similar to how it feels when you’re excited,” Rowan said, slipping beside me on the couch. “Telling yourself you’re excited can help reframe your feelings from something negative to something positive.”
I wish it was that easy to get my mind and body under control. It was sweet she wanted to help, but no amount of positivity was going to calm me down. “Thanks, Rowan,” I said and forced myself to smile at her.
“Oh, you are so faking that smile,” she said and giggled.
“Distraction sometimes helps,” I said, my knee slowing.
She nodded. “No wonder you’re friends with Cal. He could talk to a fence post.”
The look on her face when she spoke about Cal put a genuine smile on mine.
“Let’s go before Antonia’s fills up,” Poppy said, running down the stairs with a pair of black heels in her hand.
She was so beautiful I couldn’t speak. In the span of five minutes, she’d somehow managed to apply makeup that made her green eyes pop and turned her lips a bold red. She’d changed into a black dress that hugged her hips then flowed out in a puff of tulle. It was edgy and feminine. Just like Poppy.
“I usually wear this with combat boots, but would you mind if I borrowed these?” she asked Rowan.
“Please,” Rowan said. “My poor heels haven’t been worn since the accident.”
Poppy bent and slipped the shoes on her feet, giving me a flash of her cleavage beneath the pendent I’d made. I no longer felt nervous, but I was at high risk of embarrassing myself when I stood up. Rowan got up first and fussed around with Poppy’s choppy hair while I took a couple breaths to get my body under control. Though they were the same height, the spiky heels made Poppy tower over her sister.
I stood and crossed the room to them. Poppy still only came to my chest, but our height difference had shrunk considerably. “You look incredible,” I said.
She blushed and fidgeted with the tulle on her skirt. “Mind giving me your arm?” she asked. “I’m not sure I can walk on these toothpicks.”
I took her hand and kissed it before I wove her arm through mine. We headed for the door with Rowan following us like a mom sending the kids off to prom. I half expected her to demand a picture. She pulled out her cell as she closed the door behind us, and I had a feeling Cal was getting a moment-by-moment recap.
“Holy crap, I didn’t think about the weather,” Poppy said, snuggling up to me. I was roasting in my jacket, so I let go of her long enough to remove it and draped it around her narrow shoulders.
“The truck should still be warm,” I said and opened the passenger door. Poppy had climbed into my truck many times, but never in shoes like these. Somehow, she managed to hoist herself up, her fine ass level with my hands. It took everything in me not to grab it before she wiggled into the cab.
“Aiden finished the sliding door on Friday,” I said as I climbed into the driver’s seat. “I have a key for you back at the house. It opens the front door as well.”
“First date and you’re already giving me a key,” she said with mock surprise.
“Not your typical first date.” I reached my hand over the center console and laid it on the bare skin where her dress ended in a puff of fabric. She started to squirm as I rubbed lazy circles on her thigh.
“You made your point,” she said pulling my hand from her leg and locking her fingers with mine. “I’m starving, but if you keep touching me like that, I’m going to need a detour to the air mattress.”
“No more air mattress.”
“Oh,” she said in a small voice. “OK.”
