Poppy's Picnic (Poppy's Place Short) (4 page)

He pulled away, but she snagged his elbow before he got too far. He turned with an eyebrow high. “You have a different plan in mind?”

She hadn’t earlier, or at least hadn’t executed it well, but now that Trevor knew and had shared such joy, she wanted to tell each of the others with the same specialness. “I do now.”

Chapter Four

Cody stretched his legs in front of him, fresh from a shower that did away with the last of the pea patch dirt. They’d be back at it the following week, but he’d come to terms with it by the end of his row. So what if he hated peas? Sometimes the challenges he faced weren’t only beneficial to the task at hand. They were growing experiences. If he kept telling himself that, surely he would believe it before he was once again bent over plucking itchy bastard plants from the ground.

“Brat, hamburger, or steak?” Poppy called from the kitchen.

The charcoal rattled in the hot grill, and Cody’s mouth watered. “Steak, please. Maybe two if they’re smaller cuts.”

“You bet.”

She sure sounded happy. He’d expected pouting or lingering anger, but when Trevor returned to the pea patch, he’d been all sorts of perky. There’d likely been some make-up sex. He fiddled with the hem of his loose khaki shorts. Maybe he should pick a little fight.

The door slid open behind him. Cody pushed to his feet to help, but Trevor stepped out carrying a tray heavy with meat.

“Poppy needs your help inside,” he said, heading for the grill.

“If there are vegetables involved, I’m out.”

He strode inside the house, his muscles tired and sore from bending all day. Stopping at the fridge, he grabbed a bottle of beer. After hours in the pea field, he’d been called to the barn to check a steer. Fresh from his hot shower, he was ready to eat, drink his beer, and hit the hay.

He found cups, plates, chips, and other food set out, but nobody stood at the counters or sat at the large table. The girls were still with his parents, baking a special treat for after dinner. Dee had mentioned Baked Alaska. He could only imagine what that was, but since Alaska was cold, he hoped it was ice cream—maybe like fried ice cream, only baked?

“Poppy?” he called.

“Down here.” Her muffled voice came from the basement.

He set his beer on the table and rolled his shoulders. The only thing she could need his help with down there was carrying stuff. What was one more load, really? He stepped down into the cool, open space. Poppy had taken over the basement kitchen for canning, but the long counters were empty of the usual slug of glass jars for him to heft. He checked the left side hall where they kept storage items and followed a light to find Poppy stretching for a high box.

“Hey, I got it.” He hurried to her side and grabbed the precariously perched tote, but it was too late.

Tiny clothes fell all over him, even as he kept the plastic tub from landing on either of their heads. He set the tote to the side, surrounded by a mountain of clothes he hadn’t seen since Lola was a newborn.

“Oh, thank you.” Poppy kissed his cheek and started tossing items back in the box. “I should have waited, but I got kind of excited.”

“Yeah, wait next time. Is that the one you needed?”

“It sure is.” She held a tiny yellow pajama set against her stomach. “This would work for a boy or a girl, don’t you think?”

He tossed more clothes in, wondering if his beer would still be cold when he made it back upstairs. “Sure. Who’s having a baby?”

“Me.”

Poppy waited for Cody’s reaction. She’d wanted privacy, and in the small storage room, they had it, at least for a while. Still flying high from Trevor’s amazing reaction, she expected Cody’s to be good. When he slowly stood up, eyes wide and a growing grin on his face, she squealed.

She leapt into his arms, kissing everywhere but his mouth until their lips collided. She teased his tongue with flicks. The towering boxes around them trembled and toppled. She leaned left to dodge a comforter, but didn’t let him go.

He pulled back and looked around. “Ah, screw it.”

The world spun, before she found herself on her back, surrounded by winter linens.

Cody planted his hands on either side of her shoulders. “How many weeks?”

“Nearing two months now.”

He nodded. “San Antonio. I guess I have to quit bashing Texas. Some amazing beginnings have happened there.”

“So, you’re happy about this?” She ran her fingers through his hair, still damp from his shower.

“Very.” He pressed a dry peck to her lips. “Are you feeling all right?”

“Just tired and goofy.” She winced. “And apologetic over the pea patch. We can really let them go if you hate them.”

“No way. It’s baby food. If I don’t have to eat it, then I don’t mind keeping it going.” He relaxed against her, the weight of his body welcome. “Damn, this is good news. Who else knows?”

She wrapped her legs around his waist. “Well, you, Trevor, and your parents—who knew before I told them, by the way. So, now I only have Michael to tell.”

“You going to throw baby clothes at him, too? I am so in love with you. Thanks for having another one of my babies.”

She pressed her lips to his and stroked his back, squeezing the strong muscles along her path to his ass. She settled both hands there, giving it a pat as he took over the kiss, his tongue doing the teasing this time. She followed his waistband to the front of his shorts.

He pulled his mouth away. “I can’t believe you’re going to try to seduce me in the closet surrounded by this huge mess after you just told me you’re pregnant.”

She patted his cock through his shorts. “What, you can’t tell me you’d say no.”

“Daddy! Mommy! We want to eat,” Lola and Miranda called from not far away.

Poppy let Cody go free. “Fine, you’re safe from my wiles. For now.”

He stood and lifted her up under the armpits. She grabbed his shoulders when he kept her off the ground longer than anticipated.

“What are you doing?”

“Worried I’ll drop you?” He faked release, and she held on tighter. “Don’t worry, darlin’, I’d never let you fall. Haven’t so far, have I?”

He eased her to the floor outside the closet. She pulled him down until they were nose to nose. “You never have, and I know you never will. I’m so excited to have another baby with you. Now, I need to tell Michael. Please don’t spill the beans in front of the girls.”

“You got it.”

“Why were you in the closet?” Lola asked.

Poppy stood on her tiptoes to find her youngest peering around the corner. “We were getting a box. Is dinner ready?”

“Dad said unless you want your steaks crispy, you’d better get your rear in gear,” Lola called.

Miranda popped her head around as well. “He really said a-s-s. Grandma swatted him with a paper plate.”

The girls stomped back up the stairs, and Poppy patted Cody’s cheek. “We will celebrate later tonight.”

He hugged her. “I just want to hold you in my arms all night and bask in the joy of this new development.”

She laughed. “You’re sore from tidying up the garden, aren’t you?”

He put his arm around her shoulder and led her away from the mess. “I honestly don’t know if I could get in any position to have intercourse tonight. Lifting you out of the room might be the last chivalrous act I do for a good three days.”

Chapter Five

Michael tossed a piece of wood in the pit. Sparks flew up, but the bottom embers glowed just enough to guarantee a slow burn. He’d looked forward to a fire all day and maybe having s’mores with the girls. Even with the kids staying with the grandparents, he still wanted the solace of flame and smoke. Not that he expected to be alone for long. One, if not all, of his fathers would wander out before long, needing an escape from the gigglefest of a “sleepover.”

He rubbed debris from his hands and settled in his chair, laptop on the side table. The top log tumbled deeper, sending up more smoke. He could fuss with the blaze all night, making it perfect, or he could get to work.

He’d avoided checking his e-mail while they fussed in the garden—maybe the distraction accounted for why he hadn’t minded weeding all day. Then dinner with the family gave him even longer to delay—stepping away to see to work would have been rude. Crickets chirped and lightning bugs circled near the tree line. He was out of excuses.

He scanned past notes from colleagues until he found the e-mail from his professor. A mosquito crawled across his hand, giving him one final excuse for delay, but it took only seconds to crush it. Michael held his breath and opened the file.

The sliding glass door opened after he read the second paragraph. Duane stepped out with a bottle of water. “Mind if I join you?”

“Sure.”

Michael closed down the Internet, but he’d already seen the news. There was no un-seeing it.

“How’s your night?” Duane asked.

He tipped his head back to see the stars. “Honest, pretty fucking shitty.”

Silence met his curses, but he didn’t care. This was the kind of epic failure moment he hadn’t endured since he quit the police force in California. There’d been reasons, plenty of them, but he’d still left, abandoning his commitments. He’d walked away from a woman he wanted to love, a job he genuinely enjoyed, and headed home with his tail between his legs. Failure.

“You’re going to have to elaborate,” Duane said.

“My advisor e-mailed me. I won’t be eligible to apply for the Bar exam until next winter—a year and a fucking half from now instead of in a few months like we planned There was an administration change last year…. Fuck, I couldn’t even read the rest. I knew I might need to take some stupid remedial classes, but Admissions swore the paperwork went through, that I was in the clear. These classes are not even law related—bullshit they should have had me do at the start but said I had qualified transfers.”

He wanted to throw something. He’d busted his balls for months on end to finish before Christmas. It had been his ultimate goal, to start the new year as a lawyer. Now, he could only retake courses he’d already mastered once. More money. More time. More…bullshit.

“That is a pisser, son,” his father said. “I’m not even sure I know anyone who we could talk to in order to straighten it out.”

“I’m not a fucking teenager who needs your help.”

Duane whistled. “You sure sound like one.”

Michael tore his fingers through his hair. “I’m nearly forty, and I haven’t started my career. This is crap. I’m supposed to have my shit together and support my family.”

“So do it. Keep helping Cody on the ranch and Thomas at his office until you can take your test. Once you can, ace the damn thing and quit your bitching.”

Michael snorted, but the short burst of laughter didn’t feel at all jovial. “Right. I’ll get on that. No bitching.”

“Listen, bud, it’s not the end of the world. We all run into unfair setbacks. You’re ready for that test. Thomas swears to it all the time. You’re ready, you know what you’re doing, and you could be practicing law tomorrow. Doesn’t mean shit if you still need credits. Sucks. I know. I’ve been there.”

Michael was complaining to the wrong one of his fathers. Duane had served as a nurse in Vietnam, a position rife with many added tasks during wartime. He’d returned home and, according to Mary, spent the next three years swearing through med school.

“I’ll just get over it,” Michael muttered.

“You’re damn right you will. It’s a hard blow, though. You deserve to be angry. Give those administrators hell. Use that law crap you already know to make sure you don’t pay a cent for those extra classes they said were already yours.”

“I don’t know how you handled it. Mom told me you were ready to open your own practice within a few months, but you still had to deal with bullshit. It kills me knowing I’m not doing a hell of a lot for Poppy and the kids. Even if Cody and Trev do fine, I still want to be adding to our household”

“I understand. When I came back, I was about as helpful as a third nipple on Paul.”

“I shouldn’t have compared, Dad. I know you had your reasons,” Michael said.

“We all have our reasons. I’m glad you don’t have mine.” Duane tossed a log into the fire. “Mine left me coming into a new relationship with bindings on my mind, keeping me from seeing the good in front of me. Hell, my hands were even literally tied for a while. It shakes a man not to be the one his woman needs. You don’t have to worry about Poppy. That girl—she’s gold, just like Mary.”

“Yeah, we’re lucky guys,” The reassurance and camaraderie eased some of his irritation. It would take time before he felt back on track, but the desire to throw things had passed. He picked up the beer bottle he’d set next to his chair.

“And hey, who’s to say having a lighter load the next year and a half is all bad? With a new baby on the way, I bet this whole mess is going to turn out to be one of those incognito blessings.”

Michael paused with his beer bottle halfway to his mouth. “Come again?”

His father coughed and rubbed his mouth. “Um, nothing.”

The events of the last few weeks came into crystal clarity, and all dredges of his bad mood, his bitterness and disappointment, shoved off to the back of his mind. “You said there’s a baby on the way.”

“I didn’t say shit.” Duane pushed to his feet. “Not a single word. I’d hate to, but I’ll call you a dirty liar if you tell your mother I let it slip. Yep, dirty, dirty liar.”

He rushed off, not even grabbing his water bottle, but Michael’s mind already raced to his wife. If Duane and his mother knew, Michael had to assume it wasn’t quite a secret. He should have realized something more was going on. All the signs were right there. He stood and doubled back for his laptop. Duane’s words rang truer than ever. He and Thomas would attack the school Monday morning. They’d figure out the best ways to go about finishing the credits he needed, but with a baby coming, he could only be grateful if he had a little spare time.

Michael doused the fire and hurried inside before the smoke hit. He watched the pit through the window for a moment to make sure it was out. Lights from his parents’ side of the house still glowed, but fewer than when he first went outside. The television droned on, Cody lying on the couch in the glow of a cops and robbers show. Michael left it on and headed for the cluster of bedrooms. If he turned it off, his brother might wake up, and Michael was hoping for some alone time with Poppy.