She only had a few seconds to take in the two-story brick and stucco home before she and Sam were at the front door, but Poppy couldn’t help thinking she’d seen this place before.
“Poppy…um…there’s something we need to talk about before we go inside,” Sam said, his voice coming out hesitantly and lacking the confidence normally there. “I know I should have told you earlier, but I couldn’t seem to find the right time and place. Or words, to be honest.”
Tension made her stomach clench again. And this time, it had nothing to do with meeting his parents. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he murmured. “It’s just that…”
Before he could say more, the door opened, interrupting him and startling Poppy so much that she nearly dumped brownies all over the place.
“What the hell are you two doing standing out here on the porch talking when there’s a whole backyard full of people waiting to see you?”
Poppy spun around to see a tall, well-built man standing there holding the door open, smiling at them. “You must be the mysterious girlfriend Sam has been telling everyone about that half of us thought he made up. I’m happy to see he’s not delusional. It’d be hard to hold onto a security clearance if he was. I’m Lane, by the way.” His gaze dropped to the tray in her hands. “Are those brownies? I love brownies.” When she and Sam still just stood there, he frowned. “Dude, you guys coming inside or what?”
Sam pinned his friend with a look. “Give us a minute, huh? I need to talk to Poppy first. We’ll be right in.”
Lane snorted. “Forget it, Dude. Did you miss the part where I said that everyone’s waiting to meet your girlfriend? If I don’t show up with you guys in the next sixty seconds, the whole Team is going to be out here, along with your mom and dad. So, stow the romantic chatter until later and let’s go.”
Before Sam could say anything, Lane stepped out of the doorway and herded them inside like a couple of cats. Poppy started to laugh, but the sound quickly got stuck in her throat as she abruptly remembered why she’d recognized the home. She’d been here before. At one of the lowest moments of her life.
Crap.
Sam took her hand, slowing her down a little as they followed Lane toward the sliding glass doors that led to the backyard. “I need to tell you something before we go outside. I swear I never meant to hide this from you, but I didn’t want to mess up what we had.”
Lane was already through the door, announcing their arrival to what sounded like fifty people. Poppy had no idea what Sam was going on about, but as she hesitated in the middle of the all-too-familiar living room, she knew she had to tell him about the last time she’d been at his parents’ house before everything blew up in her face.
“I’m a Navy SEAL,” he blurted out before she could even think about how to start her own confession.
One moment, Poppy was staring at him in shock, and the next, Lane reached back into the house and grabbed her hand, dragging her and Sam out onto the big deck overlooking a perfectly manicured back yard with half a dozen picnic tables and a seemingly endless amount of lawn chairs.
“Everybody, this is Poppy,” Lane called in a loud voice. “She’s actually real, so to all relevant parties, pay up!”
Poppy ignored Lane—and Sam for that matter. Instead, she gazed out across the yard, surprised at how many of the people she still recognized, even though almost a year had passed since she’d sat at one of those very same tables making a total idiot of herself.
The first person that caught her attention was Dalton. Because, of course.
He stared at her, his face going pale as she stood there rigid as a board, watching first confusion and then something that might have been terror cross his face. Poppy wondered if it was the realization that he’d slept with the woman that Sam was dating or if there was something else freaking him out.
She got her answer when an attractive blond woman walked over to Dalton and handed him a beer before casually wrapping an arm around his waist. A moment later, a little girl with dark blond hair tied up in a ponytail raced across the yard to join him and the woman. The smiles on the trio’s faces—along with the wedding rings on the couple’s left hands—filled in the blanks.
Dalton was married to a woman with a kid.
That certainly explained why he looked so uptight to see her. He was probably worried she’d make a scene and blow what he had with his new family.
If only she could tell him that was the furthest thing from her mind.
“Poppy, this is Wes and his girlfriend, Kyla,” Sam said, interrupting her thoughts and forcing her attention to the dark haired, blue-eyed guy and the petite, pretty girl standing in front of them. “He’s one of my best friends on the Team.”
Poppy went on automatic pilot, shaking hands and greeting people, even taking the hard seltzer someone offered her. There were Hayley and Chasen Ward, who’d gotten married since she’d seen them last, followed by a whole string of SEALs who’d been at the previous cookout Dalton had brought her to. Thankfully, all of them acted like they were meeting her for the very first time or things would have been even more awkward than they already were. And in a way, she supposed they were meeting the real her for the first time.
It was kind of like she was meeting each of them for the first time, too. Besides Hayley and Chasen, she hadn’t remembered any of their names. Then again, at the time, she’d been more focused on playing the vapid airhead Dalton had thought she was. She cringed as she remembered making some seriously insipid comments to Hayley about how Chasen had rescued her from terrorists in Africa like a character in a romance book. One look at Hayley’s face told her that the woman still remembered every single regrettable word.
“And this is my mom, Melissa, and my dad, Kurt,” Sam said as they came to a stop in of his parents, neither of whom looked thrilled to see her. “Mom, Dad. This is Poppy McCoy, my girlfriend.”
Poppy held her breath as she shook each of their hands, waiting for the sky to fall. Any second now, Sam’s mother would start ranting about her son bringing home a bimbo stripper. Because, as far as Melissa knew, that’s exactly who Poppy was when she’d been with Dalton.
Kurt, who looked like an older version of Sam, said it was nice to meet her.
“We’ve heard a lot about you,” Melissa said with far more calm than Poppy expected. An elementary school teacher, she had dark eyes and wore her brunette hair up in a messy bun. “You’re a math professor at San Diego Mesa College, right?”
Poppy froze, unable to speak. Was this Melissa’s way of saying she was going to cover for her? Or was the woman expecting her to “come clean” about the whole stripper thing when she’d very briefly dated Dalton?
“Yes,” Poppy said, finally finding her voice. “I’ve been teaching there for almost a year and a half now.”
Maybe it was the tone of Poppy’s voice or the fact that she wasn’t using the airhead vocals she’d put on when she was with Dalton, but either way, Melissa’s gaze sharpened considerably.
Poppy glanced at Sam out the corner of her eye. From the look on his face, he was picking up on the strange vibe going on between her and his parents. She opened her mouth, ready to put it all out there, but before she could say anything, half a dozen cell phones rang, including Sam’s, making most of the women jump in alarm.