Love Me Forever - Juliana Stone Page 0,1

back and scratched under his nose. “But everyone calls me Benji.” He paused and frowned. “Except my mom and my nana.”

“Well, Benji, my name is Poppy.” She pointed toward the back. “Why don’t you follow me, and I’ll show you to the bathroom.”

“I’m thirsty,” he said, following her to the back of the shop. “Do you have a Gatorade?”

“No. But I have water.”

She scooted him toward the bathroom and, while he took care of business, grabbed a water bottle from the small fridge in the back. She waited for him to finish, sent him back in to wash his hands when he tried to sneak that one past her, and handed him a bottle before pointing to the door.

“Do you want to have a look and see if your dad is out there?”

“No,” Benji said, greedily drinking from the water bottle. He swiped at the corner of his mouth and pointed to a shelf above her sales counter. “What’s that?” he asked, taking a step closer to get a better look. “Is it a monster?”

“It’s called a gargoyle.” A leftover from Halloween, the fierce creature sat on the shelf between several small ferns and some pottery.

“It looks like a weird lizard.”

“You’re right. It does. They were used centuries ago to ward off evil spirits.”

His eyes widened. “Cool.” He took another sip of water. “Do you know what a pterodactyl is?”

“A dinosaur?”

He shook his head vigorously. “That’s what everyone says, but it’s actually a flying reptile. I read about it in the book Daddy gave me last week.” His face fell. “I wish the big meteor didn’t happen and they were still alive.” He scrunched up his nose and tugged at his glasses again. “What happened to your face?”

“I…” She laughed. “You sure do ask a lot of questions.”

“That’s what my nana says.”

“That so?” Poppy replied as she grabbed the gargoyle off the shelf and handed it to Benji.

“Yep.” He nodded. “She told me that if I’m not careful, my tongue is going to run away with me.” He frowned, turning over the gargoyle. “But that doesn’t make sense.” He looked up at Poppy. “Does it?”

“No,” she said with a chuckle, shaking her head. “It doesn’t.”

“Why do grown-ups say things that don’t make sense?”

“I have no idea.”

“My dad says it’s because he can.”

“That sounds like a dad answer.”

Benji shrugged. “I guess so.” He finished the water and had to stand up on his tiptoes to reach the counter, where he carefully set the empty bottle down. Then he turned back to Poppy, gargoyle still clutched in his hands. “Did someone hit you? Does it hurt? I got one last year from my friend Teddy, but it was an accident. His lacrosse stick caught me in the eye. Daddy says that’s what happens when you don’t pay attention and look where you’re going.” He angled his head. “Did you know it’s called a hematoma? My dad had a big one two years ago—”

The bell jingled over the door, and Benji turned, eyes wide, that big open smile lighting up his entire face. “Daddy!” The boy ran like a cheetah, darting around several displays and disappearing from Poppy’s line of sight. She glanced at the clock on the wall, completely miffed with Christy, and stepped out from behind the counter.

And that was when her world continued its downward spiral and her day officially fell into the toilet. Benji had been scooped up into the arms of the one man in Crystal Lake she’d been avoiding for months.

Boone Avery.

He stood just inside her boutique, smiling at his son. Yep. All six foot four inches of him. Dressed casually in cargo shorts and a plain white T-shirt, his wide shoulders, long legs, and thick head of dark hair were hard to miss. His profile could have been carved by Michelangelo himself. He set Benji down and gestured with his big hands, smiling down at his son in a way that still got to her.

After all this time. Dammit.

“Seriously?” she muttered to herself. “Not fair.” She smoothed out an errant auburn curl that kept tweaking at her nose. Poppy remembered those hands like it was yesterday—which was sad, really, considering she’d last felt them when she was sixteen. Her heated cheeks and rapid breaths told the story.

“Are you okay?”

“What?” She tore her gaze from Boone and looked down at his son, who had performed some kind of ninja move and had moved to stand inches from her while she’d been ogling his dad.

“You have a funny