She might not have said she wanted to settle down with us, have our babies, and let Nolan and me take care of her for the rest of her life, but I would still take it as a good sign that those things might eventually happen.
“Before we go anywhere else, I need to change into jeans. Strange, Muri didn’t comment on me still wearing the same dress as last night, but then she wasn’t dressed at all and seemed a bit preoccupied. So, anyway, can you take me to my bungalow, which in all honesty is close enough to walk?”
She pointed out the small building, and we slowly cruised up outside.
“We’ll wait right here for you,” I said because if we entered the bungalow with her there was a good chance we’d take a lot longer than necessary to get back to the big post-storm clean up.
I was sorely tempted to offer her a hand in picking a replacement outfit.
Nolan must have shared my thoughts because when she closed the door of the truck and walked over to her room, he said, “Damn. Are you sure about this? You know we should be going inside with her.”
“Yeah,” I said as I admired her figure from behind. “We should be going inside all right.”
“It’s not too late, dumbass. We could jump out of the truck right now and give her a hand outta that dress again.”
“Don’t think I don’t want to, dude. But my brother practically begged us to come and help. We’re two young guys with an all-terrain four-wheel drive, a winch, and tools on board. People in town are counting on us.”
“You’re right.” He sighed. “They need us, and I need her.”
It didn’t take long before she returned to the truck and dressed altogether more suitably.
“Where are we going?” Poppy asked as we drove away from the resort. “I really do appreciate y’all letting me tag along for this, by the way. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a storm like this come through. Would you believe, L.A. weather has made me miss rain and storms like we get out here?”
“We’re glad to have you along,” Nolan said from the back seat. “You don’t need to thank us. We should thank you for hanging out with us. Especially since this can’t be what you had planned for today.”
Her sweet smile was contagious. “Plans change. I planned to go to a wedding, but it looks like that’s off. And I’m glad to be with my two guys. It might not be as much fun as other things we might’ve done together,” she paused, and I saw her cheeks start to flush a delicious pink. “But it’s good karma, right? And every minute counts if we only have a few days to hang out with each other.”
“That’s true,” I nodded even though I flinched at the reminder that our time was very limited. “It’s good to see you’ve become a little more spontaneous while you’ve been out in California. The Poppy I remember always had a strict plan and a schedule for every minute of the day.”
Nolan snorted. “Except for those days when we made her forget all of her plans.”
Damn, how I missed those days. Back when our biggest worry in life was getting caught fooling around. Back when we had no idea what life had in store for us and how hard it would really be.
Back when we took for granted that we’d be together every day.
The flush in Poppy’s cheeks deepened. “I still have plans. I just...” She looked back and forth between the two of us with that same sweet smile that made me want to pull over and kiss her. “I’m just old enough to be flexible. And plans have to change sometimes.”
“Oh really?” I grinned. “That’s good to hear. I like this older, more spontaneous version of you even better—which, for the record, I didn’t even think was possible.”
She laughed. “You’d better watch out. There might be sides of me you haven’t even seen yet.”
Even knowing she was joking—or mostly joking, at least—didn’t stop me from getting a little turned on. “In that case, we’re going to have to spend a lot more time together. Nolan and I are gonna need to see all of those new, sexy sides of you.”
“Amen to that.” Nolan rubbed his hands together with a grin on his face. “Let’s skip helping out the cops for now and head back to the ranch. We can be investigating those sexy sides within the next twenty minutes.”
I clenched my jaw and tried not to let my dick do the thinking for me. “So. Damn. Tempting.”
“God, y’all haven’t changed a bit.” She shook her head, then nibbled at her bottom lip. “But I love it. Still, we should be responsible today. We said we’d help, so it would be pretty rude to change our minds. We can’t leave other people trapped in their homes or whatever.”