Rowdy(43)

“I’m sorry. I just . . .” She shook her head a little and clutched the strap of her purse. “Have you ever thought you knew someone—like knew everything about them—and then—poof—it turns out they were a total stranger all along?”

I had no idea why she was asking me that, or who she was, or what she was all about, but I felt kind of bad for her because she seemed a little lost and that was something I could entirely relate to. Not everyone got a pristine backstory.

“More than once.”

I had thought Poppy was the one and I had been wrong about her and who I thought she was. I had needed Salem, relied on her to be my calm in the storm, but she had left me adrift in the treacherous ocean of uncertainty, and now I didn’t know what to do with her and the way I wanted to cling to her in a dangerous way all over again. She wasn’t who I had thought she was either—then or now. Probably the most important person I had thought I knew inside and out was myself. It wasn’t until Poppy broke my heart, left me empty, that I had to really look at myself and figure out who I was going to be without her and without the love I had nurtured for years and years. It took striking out on my own, giving myself over to art and a new life in a new place, for me to figure out who Rowdy really was.

“Did it make you feel like you should have known better all along?”

“It made me feel like I should have paid closer attention to the signs that were already there.”

This was an odd conversation to be having with a stranger on the corner of a busy intersection.

“Maybe that’s what I should’ve done.”

I smiled at her, after all she was good-looking, and a few weeks ago I probably would have asked her out even though she was miles out of my league and not even slightly my type.

“If it was a guy that pulled one over on you, don’t sweat it. You’re a pretty girl and we’re generally not worth it.”

She shifted a little and gave me that smile laced with soul-deep sadness again. “Oh, he definitely isn’t worth it.”

My phone beeped in my pocket and I pulled it out to see a text from Salem saying my first appointment was waiting on me. I swore under my breath a little and gave the blonde one last grin.

“I always say things happen for a reason. If he fooled you for a while there was a reason behind it. You weren’t meant to know the truth until it was the right time. I gotta run, but take care, okay?”

She looked like she wanted to say something else and I could have sworn she was going to reach out and grab my arm but I didn’t have time to chitchat with her anymore. When the light changed I bolted across the street and hustled to the shop.

It took Poppy telling me no to get me to the point where I could leave. It took what I had always thought was a shattered heart to make me finally admit that what I wanted for myself was something different from the path I had been on all along. I needed Poppy to get me to Phil and I needed Phil to get me to Denver and the family I had always wanted but had never had. All the bad things had led to all the great things including the raven-haired goddess that was glaring at me with baleful eyes as I scooted into work almost fifteen minutes late. If she had never left there was a good chance I never would have latched on to her sister in the first place. All of it was a chain reaction getting me to the here and now and to the fact that all that first love I was so convinced was everything was really turning out to be nothing.

“Don’t look at me like that. I got waylaid by a pretty lawyer on the corner. I would’ve been on time if she hadn’t stopped to talk to me.”

Salem’s eyebrows shot up and her bloodred lips quirked up at the edges. “The same one that came in here? Sayer? She’s the one I spilled coffee on the other day. She’s very nice.”

I nodded and leaned on the counter, way more interested in talking about us than the lawyer. “Wanna hang out tonight?” I wiggled my eyebrows at her, which made her laugh.

“Sure. I have something I want to show you anyway. I can come over to your place later.”

My mind immediately detoured into the gutter while I thought of all the dirtiest, sexiest things she could possibly have to show me.

“Cool.” I rapped my knuckles on the counter and told her suggestively, “Bring the puppy. I don’t think I’ll be sending you back to your own place.”

She rolled her dark eyes and flipped her long hair over her shoulder. “Pretty sure of yourself, Rowdy.”

My client was watching me from my station, and I had kept the poor girl waiting long enough. I pushed off the counter and didn’t bother to answer Salem. She knew as well as I did that the two of us alone in a private place was going to end up in nakedness and sexiness, so there was no use in trying to deny it.