The guy that had been staring quickly walked away.
“See.” She pointed to the stranger. “People are literallyterrified of me because of that nickname.” A drop of something green and slimyfell from her arm. “What is that?! I have to go to the doctor! No, I hatedoctors. But what if I just contracted something in that dirty city water? Gah,I have to! What the hell is my life?!” She ran away before I could get anotherword in.
“Don’t jump in any more lakes because of me!” I yelled afterher.
“Then don’t make eye contact with me ever again!” she yelledback before sprinting over the little bridge, leaving a trail of wet footprintsbehind her.
She really was adorable. And a little crazy. And definitelynot a sign from Brooklyn. Besides, I didn’t feel drawn to her. Not the same wayI felt drawn to Kennedy. I sighed. I was going to hell.
I turned to the restaurant. Even though Ash was crazy, Iwished I was running in the opposite direction of this restaurant like her. Becauseat least she was nice crazy and not mean crazy like Poppy. I sighed and pushedthrough the doors of the venue Brooklyn and I had chosen for our wedding. SurelyMr. Pruitt had invited Poppy to the wedding. She knew what this place meant tome. And she was going to purposely shit all over it. Not that it mattered. Ihadn’t come here since Brooklyn died.
Poppy was already seated in the restaurant. She was easy tospot. She was the only one with an evil smile staring directly at me. I wasprobably crazy, but I would have risked another night with Ash over this anyday.
“Hey,” I said when I reached the table.
Her gaze scrutinized me from head to toe. “Do you have algaeon your shoulder?”
I looked down at my right shoulder. There was definitelysomething green on there. I pulled my sweatshirt off and plopped down across fromPoppy. “So what’s good here?” I lifted up the menu so I didn’t have to look ather.
“I thought this was one of your favorite restaurants?”
So she did bring me here to torture me? “Not anymore. And Ithink you know why.”
She reached out and pulled the menu down so I’d look at her. “Matthew,I didn’t ask you here to be spiteful. I honestly thought you liked thisrestaurant.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. Anything Poppy did waspart of some bigger scheme. But she seemed different than she had in my officethe other day. Her face didn’t look as stiff. She almost looked…kind.
The waiter came over. “Hi, I’m…”
“Can’t you see that we’re in the middle of a conversation?”Poppy snapped.
Wow, okay, not kind then.
“Sorry,” the waiter said. He went to walk away.
“But we’ll have two glasses of champagne to start,” Poppy said.
He nodded before practically fleeing.
“Champagne?” I asked. What in the hell did we have tocelebrate?
“It feels like a good evening for champagne.”
I had nothing to say to that.
She leaned back in her chair. “You know…both my parents passedaway when I was in college.”
I was starting to wonder if evil people were bad at seguesbecause they were so socially unaware. Or did she think talking about death wasa champagne kind of thing? That wouldn’t have surprised me.
“It was a tragic accident,” she said.
I’d heard about her parents’ deaths. And I was sorry for herloss. But it was no accident. Her parents died in a shoot-out at a restaurant. Icouldn’t sit here and pretend they were good people. Innocent lives were lostthat night. It had been all over the news.
“Uncle Richard is really the only father figure I have left.”
“I’m sorry about that.” And I truly was. Because having Mr.Pruitt for a father was worse than not having one at all.
She smiled. “Why do you hate him so much? He always speaks sohighly of you.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
“It is.” Her lips pouted slightly as she stared at me. “Imean, I guess he is a little displeased with you right now.”
“About that. If he wants to hurt me? Fine. But Scarlett…”
“I really don’t want to talk about business tonight.”
“I’m only here to talk about business.”
Her eyes searched mine. “Is the thought of getting to know methat awful?”
“I fell in love with a member of your family. Mr. Pruitt killedher. And Isabella forced one of my best friends to marry her. And then after hefinally divorced her, she went even more psycho and tried to have him and hiswife…”
“I’m not Isabella.”
“You could have fooled me.”
She lowered her eyebrows. “I know my cousin had her flaws.”
“It was a little more than that.”
“Fine, she was crazy,” Poppy said with a laugh.
And for some reason I smiled too.
“It’s a lot of pressure being in this family. Uncle Richardis very hard to please. And honestly? I had no desire to take over thebusiness. It was always supposed to be Isabella. There were even rumors in thefamily for a few months there when we all thought Brooklyn might be handed thereins.”
That never would have happened.
“But…here I am.” She shrugged. “I’m actually kind of good atit. And I enjoy the work. It’s given me something to focus on after my divorce.”
“You could just get a normal job.”
“Now where’s the fun in that? Besides, you got a legacy job. It’snot that different.”
“I earned my position. And it is different, Poppy. My job islegal.”
“So is mine.”
Did she honestly believe that? I stared at her and shesmiled. It didn’t look quite as evil as before, but the message was stillclear. She wasn’t stupid. She knew what kind of business she was about to take over.
“I’m no accountant though,” Poppy said. “Uncle Richard hadIsabella study the appropriate subjects in college to prepare. But I was neversupposed to take over. You do accounting though,
