Relief crashed over her. She wasn't doomed, after all.
"Thank you!" Poppy threw her arms around Cooper, smothering him in a hug. "Seriously, thank you!"
Cooper froze, clearly surprised. For a moment, his body was solid against hers, and even separated by their layers of bulky winter wear, Poppy could swear she felt the heat from his body, all the way to her bones.
Her breath caught. They were back on her porch, the place it had happened. Only this time, she knew what was coming.
She knew how good it would be to taste his lips again.
Releasing him, Poppy slowly stepped back to solid ground. She caught his eyes, and she could see it there: the same desire that was singing in her veins. A low heat burning, ready to flare brighter in the dark.
Oh God. This was it. Time seemed to slow as she parted her lips and took a breath, and leaned in to-
"I'll see you then."
She felt the gust of cold air replacing his nearness as Cooper stepped back. He jammed his hands in his coat pockets, looking at the ground. "Good luck with the writing," he said gruffly, then turned and hurried back to his truck before she could get a word out.
Poppy quickly turned and let herself in, slamming the door shut behind her. She sank back against the solid wood and took a trembling breath.
What just happened there?
Nothing. A whole lot of nothing-exactly the way it should be, she reminded herself. She hadn't come here to get entangled in romantic drama with Cooper, she was here to leave all of that behind her and work. And for the first time in too long, Poppy finally had words dancing in her brain, sentences waiting on the tips of her fingers.
No more distractions, however tempting.
She grabbed her computer, turned on the study light, and got to work.
10
It rained all week, and Poppy loved every minute of it. With the outside world damp and grey, she had the perfect excuse to hide herself away at the cottage again-except this time, instead of staring at her blank screen with a sense of looming dread, she was writing.
All day long.
This was when she loved her work: when a story finally took flight, and she was so caught up in spilling the words onto the page that she didn't even notice the time passing. She surfaced briefly for food, and to shower, but aside from the essentials, Poppy blocked everything out and just wrote. No distractions, no calls; she ignored her emails, let her phone go to voicemail, and just threw herself into the book.
It felt good to be back on her game again. Sure, the chapters were messy, and she was sprinting to make up for lost time, but that crushing panic was finally gone, and it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Speaking of . . . Poppy paused to massage her aching neck. She'd been hunched over her laptop for days, and even though she tried to take breaks to stretch and walk around, she felt the tension running tightly across her shoulders and back. She glanced outside. The rain had finally passed, and she'd woken that morning to find clear skies and a bright horizon. Maybe she should take a real rest, and walk into town. She'd pretty much lived off store cupboard pasta and soup all week, and she needed fresh groceries and supplies if she was going to keep up this pace.
The phone rang, and Poppy reached for her cellphone before she realized it wasn't hers, but the landline. She picked up the retro red handset Aunt June had in the corner. "Hello?"
"Hi, Poppy," a friendly voice said. "It's Mackenzie, we met the other day? Caffeine addict, fan-girl . . ."
"Hey." Poppy smiled. "I remember, how's it going?"
"I'm great. I didn't have your cell number, but I figured I'd give you a call," Mackenzie said. "My book club is meeting tomorrow, and I know you're probably busy, but Franny's made her plum cobbler, and it would be a crime for you to miss out."
Poppy hesitated. She didn't want to interrupt her progress on the book, but she knew a break would be good for her. She'd been holed up for so long, she hadn't had a chance to meet any more Sweetbriar citizens, and Mackenzie seemed like fun.
Besides, home-baked plum cobbler was too good to resist.
"I'd love to," she said.
"Yay!" Mackenzie exclaimed. "It'll be fun, I promise. It's my turn to host, so just come by Fired Earth around four. It's the pottery studio on Main Street."
"I know it." Poppy smiled. "Can I bring anything?"
"No, you're good," Mackenzie said. "Unless you have a bottle of wine or two knocking around."
"Wine?" Poppy was surprised-especially because they were meeting in the afternoon.