Page 55 of Viking Vengeance Cruise

“I make jokes about it because the jokes are free and the therapy wasn’t.” I soften. “But yes. It hurt. For a while there, my heart and I weren’t on speaking terms. I thought I wasn’t enough, and I mourned what I believed we had and what we lost.”

Poppy nods, slow and quiet, and lets the moment sit between us.

I tuck the nod away for later. Some women nod along to be polite. Poppy nods along in the original language.

“That honey-blonde hair,” Magnus murmurs, circling her slowly. “The way she moves. Graceful. Controlled. I’d wager she’s excellent at keeping secrets. Among other talents best practiced behind locked doors.”

I take a long sip of my latte to keep from agreeing out loud. The trouble with Magnus is that underneath all the leering, he’s occasionally right. It’s his least attractive quality.

“So between the kids, the surgeons, and the cookies,” I say, steering us somewhere lighter, “I’d say we’re practically twins twice over.”

I snap up another cookie, and she belts out a genuine laugh. “You know, Trixie, when I saw you at the bon voyage party, I remember thinking you looked like someone I’d want to be friends with. You just have this energy that feels real.”

“That’s possibly the nicest thing anyone’s said to me all week.”

Maybe all year, if we’re not counting Ransom’s sweet nothings. Although those tend to run less nice and more naughty. I keep that tidbit to myself.

“I mean it.” She reaches over and squeezes my hand. “And I’m so sorry you got caught up in all this. Especially when Astrid, you know... grabbed you and shook you like a rag doll. It must have been horrible.”

Magnus straightens. “She comforts. She connects. She makes you feel seen. A triple threat. I’d like to teach her a lesson or two of my own. Lesson one takes place in the bedchamber. So do lessons two through twelve.”

It takes all of my strength not to roll my eyes.

“It was pretty awful,” I admit. “But you were there, too. That couldn’t have been easy.”

“No.” Her smile fades. “I keep replaying it. One minute she was making a toast, the next...” She shakes her head. “I’ve known Astrid for twelve years. She could be demanding, sure, but she built something special with this club. She brought women together. She made us feel like we belonged somewhere.”

“You two were close?”

“Close enough.” She reaches for another cookie and winces. “Oh, sorry.” She clutches at her shoulder.

“Are you okay?” I reach out in case I need to catch her before she topples off the bench.

“I’m fine.” She winces again as she rights herself. “I had shoulder replacement surgery about nine months ago. Let’s just say the wheels of healing churn about as slowly as the wheels of time.”

“Tell me about it. I pulled something in Gothenburg reaching for a cinnamon roll, and I’ve been babying it ever since.”

We trade a quick laugh.

“Anyway,” she continues, “Astrid and I had lunch sometimes when she was in my neck of the woods. She’d text me book recommendations, ask about my projects.” Poppy’s voice wavers. “She remembered my kids’ names. She sent my daughter a graduation card. She was thoughtful that way.”

Tears glisten in her eyes, and the grief there is real. You can feel the loss radiating off her.

“She sounds like she was a good friend,” I say carefully.

“She was.” Poppy wipes at her eyes. “Sorry. I’m usually better at holding it together.”

“You don’t have to hold anything together with me.” And I mean every word of it. Whatever else Poppy Lindgren may or may not have done, grief this raw deserves a soft place to land, and I’m happy to be the landing pad.

“Look at her,” Magnus says quietly. “Tears, vulnerability, shared humanity. If she needs a shoulder to cry on, mine is bare, broad, and historically very popular.”

I shoot him a look before he can wander back into triple-threat territory. Or her bedchamber.

I hand Poppy a napkin.

She dabs at her cheeks and laughs a little. “Here I am, crying over cookies in Stockholm. Now there’s something that wasn’t on my bingo card.”

“Grief doesn’t keep a schedule or a dress code. And it has no problem crashing bingo, either.”