by Tonya Kappes
Caught up in the pleasure pulsing within her, she drew him near in a kiss full of passion and need. Her tongue ravished the sweetness of his mouth as she unbuttoned the first button of his jeans, tugging slightly so the button fly would snap open, letting out what was beneath.
A slight gasp escaped her when her hands caressed the size of his length. He stepped back, keeping his eyes on her, and pulled his T-shirt off over his head and stepped out of his jeans.
“Is it too greedy to tell you I want all of you?” he said but didn’t wait for a response. He was going to take what had been rightfully his all this time.
She crawled backward in bed and he crawled forward, his hands grabbing the edges of her panties and slipping them over her hips and down her legs. For a moment he stood there, caressing her with his eyes. Poppy pulled the tank shirt over her head with a slow, fluid movement, letting him take all of her in, all of her willpower slipping away. She reached out, pulling him firmly between her legs.
Wrapping her legs around him, she pulled him deeply into her, his thrust slow and measured. Much different from the teenage boy he’d been.
As a man, he watched her intently as their bodies moved with each other. She was aware he was letting her body fully enjoy what he had to offer. Her body responded over and over. He kissed her gently, letting his lips fall to the nape of her neck.
Little groans escaped his lips, his breath hot against her neck before he let out a sigh of satisfaction. All of Poppy’s troubles faded away as she went with him to a place of rapture.
She crawled into his arms, snuggling there. Neither of them said a word. Their bodies had done all the talking they needed to do.
“Here,” Brett whispered, and picked up the locket he had given her years before and dangled it in the air.
Poppy turned to face the window and pulled her black hair off her neck. Brett clasped the necklace around her neck and gently kissed the dangling locket when she turned back around.
They slept, him holding her through the night, until her alarm went off; then they made love again.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Well, good morning, you two.” Elizabeth was already dressed, sitting at the kitchen table with the Hudson Hollow Journal and a cup of steaming coffee. There was sarcasm in her voice, “I’m glad someone is getting lucky around here.”
“I am a little embarrassed.” Poppy flushed as a warmth flashed over her.
“Why?” Brett sat in the chair and tugged her into his lap. “Because the right two people are finally together?”
“Finally!” Elizabeth clapped her hands together and grabbed her purse off the table. “I’ve got to go figure out what we can do to save this farm.”
“Or land from condos.” Poppy wouldn’t mind if a family was moving in if she couldn’t buy the place, though she really wanted it. It was the fact that if a big corporation came in and took her weeping willow tree along with all the memories, it would leave nothing but a large brick building that overlooked the lake.
Poppy’s phone rang from the bedroom, echoing through the old farmhouse.
“Who on earth is calling at this hour?” Poppy jumped up. Her heart racing, her feet keeping up.
Brett was right behind her.
She grabbed the phone and looked at the number.
“Shit.” She eased herself on the bed, prepared for why Sunshine was calling her. She stared out the window overlooking the lake, drawing in what little serenity she could, and answered, “Hello?” “Um-hmm.” She paused. “Okay.” She looked up at Brett. The crease between her eyes deepened. “Please keep me posted.”
“Are you okay?” Brett sat down next to her, stroking the back of her head.
“No. The Coach broke out again.” She sucked in deep breaths. “They don’t know how long he’s been gone.”
“They are going to find him. It’s going to be okay.” Brett knelt down in front of her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his head against her stomach.
“Oh my God!” Poppy jumped up, sending Brett to the floor. She planted her palms on the window to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was.
The Coach was on the dock with the fishing net in his hands.
She darted out of the bedroom and down the steps, hitting the screen door handle with her palm. She’d made it to the dock before the screen door had time to slam shut.
“How on earth did you get out?” Poppy ran up to the Coach and threw her arms around him.
“Get out?” the Coach questioned her. “I told you we had to get up before the rooster crows to get these jugs. Now, Mary Louise, I know you never liked to fish, so you go on up there and get dressed for school.”
“But, Papaw.” Poppy pulled away from him. She rarely called him by the name her mother had wanted her to call him. “It’s me, Poppy.” She took his head in her hands, forcing him to look at her. “Your Poppy seed.”
“I told you to go get ready for school. Or Nelva will keep beeping that blasted bus horn, waking up all the fish.” He pointed to the house.
“Brett!” Poppy yelled up to the house. “Call Sunshine and tell them he’s here.”
“You’re going to visit the old people at Sunshine today?” he questioned.
“Yes, and I’m going to take you with me.” She knew if she worked the angle as pretending to be her mama, as he thought she was, she might get him to go with her. “Remember you are the chaperone.”
He looked at her with curious eyes and simply nodded his head.
“You stay right here while I go get my purse and keys.” She smiled and held her hands out for him to stay.
He nodded.
She ran up to the house and looked back at him, standing there on the dock with the net still in his hands.
“Get my keys,” she called through the screen door and looked back at the dock. “Brett!” she screamed and ran back toward the dock when she didn’t see the Coach still standing there.
The dock was teetering from left to right. The lake was disturbed. The net was floating in the water near the dock.
“Papaw!” She screamed frantically, running along the edge of the dock before she jumped in and felt of his shoe wedged beneath the dock.
She dove down with her eyes open and pulled his shoe off. His body floated to the top.
Gasping for air, she pulled him over and held his chin up in the crook of her elbow before she felt Brett reach down and pull him up.
The distant sounds of the ambulance echoed throughout the hollow, getting louder and louder as it got closer. Poppy hadn’t stopped giving the Coach CPR since Brett had pulled him from the lake.
“Poppy.” Brett tapped her shoulder. “The paramedics need to take over now.”
But Poppy didn’t stop; she just kept going, watching the Coach’s chest with each breath to see if he was going to start breathing on his own.
“Poppy.” Brett tapped another time, only to grab her shoulders and pull her back into his arms, shielding her from the paramedics as they took over.
Poppy sobbed, the tears glistening on her pale face. She clung to Brett, desperately needing something to save her from the agony settling in her bones.
“No!” she screamed as a raw and primitive grief overwhelmed her.
Her body slowly rocked back and forth as Brett cradled her, whispering in her ear how it was going to be okay. Only she knew it wasn’t.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The news about the Coach’s death ran through Hudson Hollow like wildfire. The screen door might as well be taken off the hinges because it was like a revolving door. Someone would bring in a dish and leave, while another person was coming in with another one.
There was nothing like a death that brought the residents of Hudson Hollow together. Especially when one was as loved as the Coach.
Mary Louise and Ted had come over to the farm after the doctor at the hospital had informed them of the Coach’s passing. It was the place everyone would gather. Aunt Pris had found the na
me of the lawyer representing the Unbridled Corporation to see if she could get the finalization of the sale of the farm postponed until after the Coach was buried. Luckily, the lawyer gave them an extension, which also gave Pris more time to get information for Poppy on who the owners were.
Poppy couldn’t bring herself to leave her bedroom. She beat herself up over the fact that she’d left the Coach on the dock to go grab her car keys. Lily had told her over and over there that was nothing she could’ve done and reminded her of what the Coach used to say: “When it’s your time to go, the good Lord is going to take you no matter what.”
“It wasn’t his time,” Poppy spat and looked up as though God’s face was on her ceiling. The sound of voices trailed through the window and she looked out.
The entire front yard was filled with cars. The big oak tree was the center to a few people who had gathered under it. She could hear them telling stories about the Coach, each one upping the other, all earning laughter.
She couldn’t take it. Couldn’t they see the community had just lost someone who’d kept them glued together? Couldn’t they see she’d lost the glue to her own life?
She put her hands over her ears to block out the stories and the laughter that had found its way into the old farmhouse. The sounds seeped through the holes between her fingers and made her fell as if she were going mad.
She jumped out of the bed and raced down to the kitchen. Everyone in there stopped what they were doing and stared at her.
“Can’t this stop?” Tears rolled down her face. “His body probably isn’t even cold yet and y’all are carrying on, laughing about the good ol’ times.”
“Poppy, honey.” Mary Louise stood up from the table, her cheeks red with embarrassment. “Your papaw would’ve wanted everyone to come here and remember the good times. Now, please have something to eat.”
Poppy glared at her mother. It was just like her to offer Poppy food when things weren’t just so. It was her mom’s cure for all things. Food. Or, as the Coach called it, “southern comfort for the soul.”
“How can you eat?” Poppy’s nostrils flared. At this moment she hated her mother. “Your father has just died a tragic death.”
“Poppy, my father died a long time ago. The man who died today was just a shell of my father. I’ve been grieving my father’s death long before you came back to Hudson Hollow.” The words Mary Louise flung at Poppy stung almost as bad as the Coach’s death. “Now, go on and get a piece of the Derby Pie Louetta brought over. It’ll make you feel better.”
A piece? Poppy walked over to the counter and grabbed the entire foil pie plate and a plastic fork from the bundle someone had stuck in a red Solo cup.
“Let her go,” Mary Louise said when Ted tried to stop Poppy.
There were so many things Poppy wanted to say to her mama, but the time was not now, so she pushed the back door open with her rear end, flinging it wide. There was only one place that was going to make her feel better: the weeping willow.
She stalked across the backyard and through the field. She parted the cascade of the willow branches and hid herself under the umbrella, letting the branches shut out the outside world.
She planted her back up against the trunk of the tree and shoved forkfuls of the walnut tart on the pecan pie into her mouth, letting the hefty dose of bourbon melt in her mouth along with the bitter dark chocolate. If her mama hadn’t been in the kitchen with the women from the Baptist Church, she would’ve grabbed something stronger to drink.
“There you are.” Elizabeth parted the branches and eyed Poppy. “I just couldn’t believe what happened while I was gone.” She plopped down next to Poppy. “I’m sorry.”
Poppy didn’t respond. She just kept shoveling bites of Derby Pie in her mouth.
“If you think you are going to get drunk on what little bourbon Louetta put in there, you have another thing coming. But…” Elizabeth pulled out a flask from the waistband of her pants. “I found Troy’s flask underneath my seat this morning as I waited outside the Unbridled corporate office today.”
Poppy suddenly remembered what she had sent Elizabeth off to do. Now it was more important than ever to try to keep the farm. It was the last real memory she had of her and the Coach.
“What happened?” Poppy shrugged the pie plate toward Elizabeth.
Elizabeth took a bite, closed her eyes, and enjoyed every chew. “Delicious.” She licked her lips.
“First off, the office is one room that is being rented from a larger office space. There is a young blond girl with awful bleached hair sitting at the one desk with a phone. She told me that her boss rented the office on a monthly basis and paid her a couple of thousand dollars a week to sit there and do nothing.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Can you imagine?”
Yes, Poppy could imagine. Rob threw around money to her like that all the time when he would go out of town. Too bad she hadn’t thought to be smart enough to open her own bank account. She would have had enough money to buy the farm and then some.
She took another bite of the pie and let Elizabeth continue.
“Anyway, the girl wouldn’t spit out the name of her boss. She was a tough nut to crack, but I got her.” Elizabeth winked. She opened her mouth for Poppy to put another forkful of Derby Pie in her mouth. “I told her that I would fix her hair for free if she gave me a tad bit of information about him. She agreed, and on her lunch break, we went to Sally’s Beauty and picked up everything I needed. Then we went back to her little apartment and I fixed her right on up. She looked a hundred times better.”
“What about the information?” Poppy asked around a mouthful of pie.
“Oh, yeah.” Elizabeth rubbed her hands together and pulled out her phone. “Here is the good stuff. She told me that her boss was in town for a meeting with his lawyers and the best she could do for me was to wait outside in the main office lobby and wait for him to enter the office.” Her nails clicked on the phone screen. “This man walked in and I knew him. But I couldn’t remember where from. Then it hit me. I remembered him standing up at the Corner Baptist Church with none other than yourself.”
Elizabeth held her phone out for Poppy and exchanged it for the pie plate. Poppy took her fingers and enlarged the photo.
“That is the man who own Unbridled Corporation.” Elizabeth looked pleased with herself. “I told you he was a bastard.”
“He is a bastard.” Poppy looked at the photo of Rob Ellington in one of his Ralph Lauren custom suits that she had picked out for him, down to the red silk handkerchief neatly folded and tucked into the front pocket of the pinstriped jacket.
There were two other men in the photo. Poppy recognized the short bald one as the Ellington family lawyer. The other one she didn’t know.
Poppy had sworn Elizabeth to secrecy about the knowledge she had collected. She felt somewhat better with the information. She knew Rob had only bought the land to hurt her. To drive the nail even further; he knew how much she loved it and would build condos on the land just to prove his point. He was in charge. There was only one way to stop him. It was up to her to save the farm and let the Coach rest peacefully in the hereafter.
She and Elizabeth climbed out from under the weeping willow and walked back to the house. Some of the people were gone, but most still lingered. The Baptist women had cleaned the dishes and had Chester Castle cornered. By the look on his face, they were questioning him about the new morning show, especially yesterday’s broadcast.
Poppy was stopped by everyone she passed and given a hug, along with their whispered words that they were there if she needed them. She simply smiled and thanked them for coming and told them how much they’d meant to the Coach. In the corner of the family room, Lily, Elizabeth, Aunt Pris, Brett, and Sadie were huddled together. She reached her hands up to the back of her neck and unclasped the locket, putting it on the foyer table.
Poppy felt defeated. She felt tired. And there was only one thing to do. She slumped up the stairs to her room and quietl
y shut the door behind her. She sat on the edge of the bed and reached for the phone on her nightstand. She flipped it open and stared out the window at the lake that had once given her life and now had taken her life away. She tried to steady her shaking hands as she punched the numbers on the phone.
When Rob answered, she spoke in a monotone voice. “You win. I’m in Hudson Hollow. Send someone to come get me.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“What do you mean, you are going back?” Elizabeth had slammed the door in Rob Ellington face when he showed up on the front porch while she was drinking her morning coffee.
She had stomped up the steps to Poppy’s bedroom to confront her about why Rob Ellington was standing at the screen door with a smug smile on his face, demanding to see his wife.
“Don’t worry. You can stay here as long as you want.” Poppy was putting on the black dress for the Coach’s memorial.
A simple memorial service was all the Coach had wanted, according to the will they had found in a coffee jar in the office of the house. He had left everything to his Poppy seed. But the sale of the property was legal and binding. If Poppy went back to Rob, the farm would stay as it was, and life in Hudson Hollow would continue. It was her life that would be altered forever.
The only person Poppy hadn’t heard from was Virgil LeMasters. He was the Coach’s lawyer, and Poppy remembered the Coach telling her a couple of days ago to go see Virgil. She felt the Coach must’ve known his days were numbered if he made that request. She had given the information to Aunt Pris. Everything was out of her hands. She had sacrificed her own happiness for the sake of her papaw’s wishes and the community. It was her own little demon to battle. and Hudson Hollow was worth it.
“There is no way I’m letting you leave without a fight.” Elizabeth’s eyes teared up. “Is this because he’s holding this property over your head?”