“I can help. Just tell me what to do,” she offers grinning sweetly.
“Do you know how to cook?” I ask, taking the vegetables over to the sink and rinsing them.
“I learned to cook quite young. There were times my mom held more than one job so Ryse and I would make dinners together,” she explains. It feels weird to learn things about my best friend through his sister but not much can be done about that.
“Yeah, I hear that, although my mom wasn’t working jobs. I cooked for Logan and me but it always tasted like crap.”
“Should I be worried now?” she chuckles.
“Nah, I’m decent. Since I moved into this place, I’ve had to make my own meals. I figure it can’t be hard to follow a recipe,” I explain. Truly, I don’t know how to cook if my life depended on it. I depended on Cole’s and Wolfe’s cooking skills for a while but here in the hockey house, everyone is for themselves where meals are concerned. I put whatever I can together but right now I want to impress Poppy and do something nice for her.
“Okay.” She takes a seat on a stool. “So how was your week?”
“It was all right until last night’s game,” I say.
“I watched the highlights. No big deal,” she says. “You guys got this.”
“Thanks.” I put the pasta to boil on the stove. “So there was something I wanted to mention.”
“What’s going on?” she asks, furrowing her brows.
“I somehow found Scarlet on Instagram and we got to talking about the past,” I share as I move on to slice some mushrooms and basil. When I look up, I see Poppy looks stiff.
“Oh,” she says.
“I mean it was weird. I don’t even know how it happened. One minute I was scrolling through her pics and the next I was messaging her.”
Poppy stands from her stool. “It’s fine, Declan. I should probably go.” She moves to leave.
“No.” Shit why am I so bad at expressing myself? “I don’t want Scarlet. What I’m trying to say is that somehow Scarlet called me and we spoke about the past.”
Poppy watches me carefully.
“And. . .” Poppy waits with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
“She said she was in a really bad place. Her parents broke up and her dad left them, and she was somehow projecting her feelings about her family on me.” I shake my head. I don’t even know if I’m making sense. I’m just really nervous because I’ve never felt this way and I don’t want to screw things up between us, but somehow it feels like I am.
Poppy doesn’t say a word.
“Scarlet said what she did that night when she overdosed didn’t really have anything to do with me or what happened between us. She was in a bad place and she got help,” I say.
“That’s good,” Poppy replies, but it isn’t enough. My heartbeat is ridiculously fast.
“Yeah, she’s got a fiancé now. She also brought some things to my attention.” I lick my lips because my mouth feels drier than the Sahara.
“Oh yeah, like what?” she asks, and she drops her arms from her chest almost like she’s deflating.
“I’m hoping to draft by the end of the year,” I say.
“I know,” Poppy says softly, and a small smile touches her lips.
“In the past when I thought about my life, I. . .” Shit this isn’t easy. “I always figured I’d leave or the person I was with would leave. Scarlet thinks it’s because, you know, my father took off on us. So when I was with her I was always getting ready to leave. Truth is, I didn’t feel about her the way I feel about you.” I lick my lips and look in her eyes. “I’m trying to say that I really like you, Poppy. I’m going to draft but I’d like to see where this can go.” I wait anxiously for her to say something. Anything. But she just watches me carefully, her eyes are filled with emotion but which emotion I can’t tell.
“Say something here, gorgeous,” I snicker.
“I-I like you too, Declan. I-I’m sorry,” she laughs nervously. “This was very unexpected. I’m glad you’re seeing things differently. My dad left us too, but my mom was so amazing. She had to work hard and barely had time for us, but she did her best to give Ryse and me everything she could. I know you didn’t have that, but it does exist,” Poppy assures.
“I’m starting to see that,” I say. Watching Wolfe and Cole fall in love may have something to do with it too.
“I really like you too, Declan,” Poppy says, coming at me with her arms wide. She wraps them around my neck and presses her lips to mine.
“My hands probably smell like mushrooms,” I warn her because they are still wet from washing and cutting the mushrooms.
“I don’t care,” she says. I take her in my arms and kiss the hell out of her.
We continue to cook. Poppy helps me with the sauce, which is a little more complicated than I anticipated with the fresh garlic, cream, and touch of flour. As we move side by side in the kitchen together it feels like there’s been a shift between us.
We finally sit down, and I pour us each a glass of white wine to go with the pasta.
“It turned out delicious,” Poppy says, twirling her fork through the long noodles.
“It did,” I agree, taking her in. Something is happening as I get this feeling inside my chest. It feels good, warm, and full. All weird adjectives I know, but I’ll take it. I think back to the days that Cole and Holland were preparing meals in our kitchen. Watching them fall in love from the outside was weird and I was a skeptic.
“Tell me how your week went,” I say to her.
“Nothing too interesting,” she says, and then she gives me an update about her classes and asks me what she should write about for the Spotlight.
“Can you write that you’re slowly stealing my heart?” I ask her. I meant it as a joke at first but obviously it’s what I’m feeling.
“Declan,” she chides.
“Poppy, the gossip mill at this school is strong. The bunnies are always trying to get me into bed, and I know they talk about me a lot. We can put their suspicions to rest. Write about how we accidentally met at the bar after you were catfished and I came to the rescue.” I smirk.
“I didn’t need rescuing for the record,” she says, lifting her finger to make a point.
“I know,” I say smiling. “But it could be an intriguing story.”
“You’re forgetting one important detail.” She raises her brows.
My eyes widen. “Shit. I got carried away in the moment.”
“My brother would have your balls on a butcher’s block.” I press my thighs together at the visual.
“Somehow it’s easy for me to forget about your brother and all outside complications when I’m with you.”
“I feel the same,” she says, and she takes my hand in hers. “But I grew up with Ryse. He won’t accept this.”
Ryse and Poppy are tight. I don’t want to come between them. Hell, I don’t want anything to come between me and Ryse either.
We finish our food and head upstairs.
Poppy giggles as I lead her to my room. I cock a brow. “It’s the wine and I can’t believe you’re taking me to your room. This feels scandalous.”