Then it hit me.
I realized why all of this felt so real. My heart beat faster in my chest. Because if it was real … if I
had judged this correctly…
“Poppymin?” I asked and took a deep breath. “This isn’t a dream … is it?”
Poppy shifted to kneel before me and placed her gentle hands on my cheeks. “No, baby,” she whispered and searched my eyes.
“How?” I whispered in confusion.
Poppy’s gaze softened. “It was quick and it was peaceful, Rune. Your family are okay; they are happy you’re in a better place. You lived a short but full life. A good life, the one I always dreamed you would have.”
I froze, then I asked, “You mean…?”
“Yes, baby,” Poppy replied. “You’ve come home. You’ve come home to me.”
A huge smile spread across my lips, and a flood of pure happiness washed over me. Unable to resist, I crashed my lips to Poppy’s waiting mouth. The minute I tasted her sweet taste on my lips, a deep peace filled me from within. Pulling back, I pressed my forehead to hers.
“I get to stay here with you? Forever?” I asked, praying it was true.
“Yes,” Poppy answered gently, and I could hear the complete serenity in her voice. “Our next adventure.”
This was real.
It was real.
I kissed her again, slow and soft. Poppy’s eyes remained closed afterward, then as a blush spread on her beautiful dimpled cheeks, she whispered, “A forever kiss with my Rune … in our blossom grove … when he finally came home.”
She smiled.
I smiled.
Then she added, “… and my heart almost burst.”
Prologue
Savannah
Age thirteen
Blossom Grove, Georgia
ICOULDN’T HEAR ANYTHING BUT THE DEAFENING BEATING OF MY HEART. Too fast in rhythm, thundering like the destructive summer storms that ripped through Georgia when the heat soared.
My breathing grew labored as my lungs began to slowly cease to function. The air that was in my chest hardened into granite boulders, pushing down on me so hard that I was frozen in place. Frozen looking at Poppy fading away in the bed. Seeing my parents clutching on to one another like they were dying too. Their baby, their first daughter losing her fight with cancer before our very eyes, death hovering beside her like an ominous shadow, readying to take her away. Aunt DeeDee stood with her arms wrapped around her waist as though it was the only thing keeping her standing.
I felt Ida squeezing my hand so hard she could have broken bones. I felt my younger sister’s slight body trembling, no doubt with fear or pain or complete disbelief that this could actually be real.
That this was actually happening.
My face was soaked with the tears that fell in rapids from my eyes.
“Savannah? Ida?” my mama said softly. I blinked through the watery haze until I saw my mama before us. I began to shake my head, my body seeming to jerk back to life from its numbed, catatonic state.
“No …” I whispered, feeling Ida’s terrified gaze fix onto me. “Please …” I added, my near silent plea drifting into vapor in the stagnant air around us.
Mama bent down and ran her trembling hand down my cheek. “You need to say goodbye, baby.” Her voice wobbled—hoarse and exhausted. She looked over her shoulder, to where Rune was sitting on the bed, laying kiss after kiss on my older sister’s hands, her fingers, her face, looking at his Poppymin like he always had—like she had been designed solely for him. A choked cry escaped my lips as I watched them.
It wasn’t real. This couldn’t be real. She couldn’t leave him. She couldn’t leave us …
“Girls,” Mama pushed again, urgency in her tone. My heart fractured when Mama’s bottom lip began to tremble. “She …” Mama closed her eyes, trying to gather some kind of composure, cutting off whatever she was going to say. I didn’t know how she did it. I couldn’t. I couldn’t face this. I couldn’t do this.
“Sav,” Ida said from beside me. I turned to look at my little sister. At her dark hair, green eyes, and deep-set dimples, her skin, which was red from crying. At her sweet, heartbroken face. “We have to.” Her voice was shaking. But she nodded her head at me in encouragement. Right now, Ida had more strength than I could muster.
Ida stood, never loosening her iron-tight grip on my hand as she guided me up. When I was on my feet, I glanced down at our clasped hands. Soon, this is how it would forever be. Just our two hands, no third to hold, to guide us.
I followed behind Ida, each step feeling like I was wading through molasses as we approached the bed. It was positioned to look out of the window. So Poppy could see outside. Falling pink and white cherry blossom petals drifted by on the breeze, scattering onto the ground as they dropped from the trees. Rune looked up as we approached, but I couldn’t meet his eyes. I wasn’t strong enough to see him at that moment. The moment we had all been dreading. The one, deep down, I never really believed would arrive.
As I took as deep a breath as I could, Ida and I rounded the bed. The first thing I heard was Poppy’s breathing. It had changed. It was deep and rattly, and I could see the exhaustion, the struggle on her pretty face …
The effort it was taking her to simply hold on for just a few minutes more. To remain with us for as long as she could. Yet, despite it all, she widened her smile when she saw us. Her sisters. Her best friends.
Our Poppy … the best person I had ever known.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.