Poppy was back in goals. Back where she felt like she belonged, for the grand final of the season. So much for that doctor and his prognosis that her hand might never be the same. It was perfectly fine. The slightest twinge here and there, but otherwise, more than capable of allowing her to catch a high-speed soccer ball. Okay, so she’d let one goal in today. But she’d made plenty of decent saves as well. And they were up 2–1 with ten minutes to go. All they had to do was hold them off until the whistle blew and they’d take home the win.
She looked over at the sideline. Elle was pacing back and forth, shouting instructions at the team. She was stressed; the team had missed a few opportunities to score and widen the gap, and Elle wouldn’t like the game being this close. Plus her star striker was sidelined. But she wasn’t as fired up as she could have been. Probably because every now and then, she’d lean down to chat with Annalise, who was sitting in a foldout chair, cheering them on, and whenever she spoke with Annalise, Elle’s face would glow.
It had turned out that Annalise wasn’t having a miscarriage on the boat. At first it had seemed like the worst possible news. One of the paramedics had taken Poppy aside and warned her that if she was losing the baby at this early stage, nothing could be done to stop it. But as the water taxi had taken them back to the harbour, the cramps had lessened. The bleeding had stopped. Afterwards, at the hospital, the doctor had simply said, ‘Sometimes these things happen during pregnancy. It was only a very small amount of blood. Could be stress. The cramps might even have been from something she ate.’ All she could really say was that Annalise ought to take it easy throughout the rest of the pregnancy, just in case, but as far as she could see, everything was progressing normally.
Lawrence was also taking the situation really well. Most of the time. He made at least one more attempt once Annalise was back at work to win her back. But then he met Elle when she came to have lunch with Annalise. He took one look at her and said, ‘Yeah, okay, I get it. I’d fall for that chick too.’ Since then he’d thrown himself into preparation dad-mode. He was keen to share custody with Annalise, and she was more than happy with that arrangement. ‘Might be a bit of a weird family,’ she’d said, ‘but it’s still a fuck-load better than what I grew up with.’ It was nice for Poppy to see sweary, honest Annalise back on form.
She never told Annalise that she’d read any of the pages in her notebook. Annalise had opened up to her about her past and she was slowly becoming more and more vulnerable with her emotions. That was more than enough, and Poppy didn’t want to hurt or embarrass her by telling her what she’d read.
The other thing she’d chosen not to tell Annalise was about the call she’d had with Garret recently. She’d decided to keep that one all to herself. He’d phoned out of the blue and when she saw his number on her screen, Poppy’s first instinct was to ignore. But instead she’d taken a deep breath in and she’d answered.
‘Poppy! Sorry . . . I didn’t really expect you to pick up. Assumed I’d get your voicemail.’
‘Yeah, I know. I didn’t think I was going to answer either.’
‘Thank you . . . for taking my call. I appreciate it. Anyway, I just wanted to check in with you . . . see how you are. Karls and I, we treated you so badly, and I really hate that we did that to you. Looking back, we should have handled it all differently. I mean, obviously – not cheating would have been a start, but the way we ambushed you with the news, it was wrong. How are you?’
Poppy had stayed quiet, considering his question. How was she? Really, honestly, deep down, how was she? If she searched inside for that person who’d sat across from her partner and her best friend, for that person who’d felt the shock of betrayal, the loss of a great big chunk of her heart, then sure, it still hurt. The sting was still there. But not in the same way anymore. It wasn’t as sharp, it had dulled around the edges.
‘You know what, Garret?’ she said eventually. ‘I’m fucking awesome.’
‘Oh. That’s . . . that’s great.’
‘And I’m glad that you got what you wanted. I really am.’
There was a pause and she heard an intake of breath.
‘You know what’s funny?’ he said.
‘What?’
‘I’ll never really know what I did want. She fell pregnant the first time I slept with her. I mean, I love our baby girl, of course I do. But I’ll never know for sure what I would have chosen had I been given the choice. I know Karleen was cruel to you as well, when we told you the news, but honestly, she’s not a bad person. It’s just that she was insecure. I think she could tell that I still had my doubts and she was terrified that you’d see through it all. That you’d stop me from leaving. Sometimes I envy you. I envy the way you’ve always been so certain of what you want.’
‘I wouldn’t worry so much about that. I reckon things turned out the way they were meant to.’
Poppy looked again at the sideline and realised someone else was hovering not far from Annalise and Elle, watching the game. It was difficult to tell from this distance, but she was pretty sure she recognised his shape. Jack. They’d had coffee last week after she’d texted him and asked if he’d like to meet up. He’d written back within minutes:
Umm . . . YES! (and here was me thinking I’d struck out with you). Can’t believe you left me hanging so long. Name the where and when.
The date had been nice. Good, easy conversation. Great coffee, which Jack admitted was on a par with his Italian restaurant.
‘So when should we go there so I can try it out?’ Poppy had asked.
‘As soon as possible,’ he’d replied.
When they’d finally stood up and made their way reluctantly out of the coffee shop, Jack had taken hold of Poppy’s hand and held it as they crossed the road to her car. He walked her around to the driver’s side and she was saying goodbye and turning to open the car door when he gently pulled her back to face him again, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly on the lips. It was the kind of kiss that made her body tremble and her knees almost give way.
It was the kind of kiss that made her think, This really might work between us.