the crowd of parade participants, a horn sounded, and Molly grinned. “Okay. Let’s do this. We’ve got twelve fur babies to find homes for.”
Nate poked his head out the window, a sloppy grin turning up the corners of his mouth when Molly sidled up alongside the truck and grabbed his face with both hands. She kissed him long and slow, and damned if Poppy could look away. In fact, she bit her lip and felt like a grade A pervert for watching. But it was hard to look away—they were so in love, it was a tangible thing, big and alive.
It hit her then, a sneak attack when she wasn’t expecting it. Loneliness. It washed over her, gathering steam like a locomotive, and by the time Molly came up for air, Poppy felt tears sting her eyes. She had to mentally give herself a shake and push it all away.
She put Mabel in the front seat beside Nate and grabbed her stack of flyers. They moved to their place in line. She pasted a smile on her face and did what she did best: acted. Played a part. No longer was she a sad and pathetic creature with no love to speak of, pining after a man who’d broken her heart when she was sixteen. Today, she was the good friend who was more than willing to walk the streets in major heat to help out a friend and all the adorable animals that needed homes.
She got on with things. Poppy smiled and waved and handed out flyers to hundreds of folks, always looking over their heads, searching for the one face she didn’t want to see but couldn’t help looking for. She wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or relieved when they finished up back at the staging area and there’d been no sign of Boone.
She’d just waved goodbye to Molly and was about to head to her car with Mabel when she spied Elise Avery waving at her from a hundred feet away. At her side was Boone’s son, Benji, who took off at a run when he recognized Poppy. The little guy didn’t stop until he stood in front of Poppy, flushed face smiling up at her, his eyes wide and adorable as he shoved up his glasses and angled his head a bit. He held out his hand.
“I brought Harry with me.”
She looked down and spied the gargoyle she’d given him the day before. “I see that. Is Harry behaving himself?”
Benji nodded. “Yep. He’s a good little gargoyle.” He knelt. “Can I pet your dog?”
“Sure can. Mabel loves kids.”
Elise reached them and put her hand on Benji’s shoulder. “Something wrong with your ears, little man? I told you to stop.”
Benji shrugged and held up Harry. “He made me do it.” Then Benji snuck a look at Poppy. “He’s not behaving right now.”
“Is that so,” Elise responded. “Maybe I should I take Harry and put him in my pocket.”
“No, it’s okay,” Benji said quickly. “I tolded him to stop being bad, or no ice cream.”
Elise ruffled the boy’s head. “Let’s hope he listens.” She glanced at Poppy and raised a questioning eyebrow. “I guess we missed Molly?”
Hell, yes, Poppy thought. She’d never seen two people skedaddle out of a place quicker. Considering they had some loving on their minds, she couldn’t blame them.
“They had to…head back to the shelter, I think.”
“Shoot. I was hoping to talk to her about adopting—”
“The white-and-gold doggie!” Benji interrupted. “Nana says he needs extra special help because he only has three legs!”
“He’s a sweetie, that’s for sure.” Poppy nodded. “I’ll be seeing Molly in a couple of hours, and I’ll let her know.”
“Would you? That would be great.” Elise beamed. “I’ve been thinking of adopting for a while now. The house is so quiet.” She paused. “Are you going out to Wyatt’s? I hear it’s going to be quite the shindig.”
“That’s the plan.”
“Boone got caught up with something this morning, so I’m taking Benji out to meet him.”
Poppy didn’t quite know how to respond, so she said nothing, which led to a bit of an uncomfortable silence.
“Have you seen him much since he’s been home?” Elise asked.
“Me?” Poppy shook her head. “Ah, no. Not really. I mean, I saw him last night downtown, but he left early and…I’m not really sure what time? Or where he went or who he was with. And ah, that’s about it.” She managed to stop the word vomit before it became a mess.
“I wonder what he’s