brought in. It’s perfect.”
“Perfect,” he muttered. “One of them looks at you sideways and I’ll throw them the hell out.”
No matter how much he wanted to stand up for her, Poppy doubted he could do something like that to his mother and sisters. His dedication to his family was just one of the reasons she loved him.
“No. You won’t. I did wrong, Turner. I have to accept that. They have every right to be mad.”
“You were protecting yourself and your family. The point was to get away from this life. If you told the girls about it, they’d have treated you like the person you didn’t want to be.”
True, but they wouldn’t necessarily see it that way. “I told you the truth, which, by the way, we don’t have to tell them if you don’t want. I don’t want to be the cause of any friction in your relationships with them, so if you want them to think you were in the dark too, that’s okay.”
“I won’t apologize for you confiding in me. This is different. You’re supposed to confide in your guy, Candy. We were never just friends.”
They were supposed to be just friends. Friends with benefits later in their association, but friends all the same.
“Why did I tell you the truth?” she asked herself, letting go of his hand to coil both of her arms around one of his. “You just… I wanted so bad to be close to you.”
“No more apologies. It worked, didn’t it? We tell each other everything now.”
Not exactly everything. Poppy hadn’t admitted the truth of her love for him.
Noah spun around to come running back over, his arm stretched back toward the house. “That’s Poppy’s house, Uncle Turner.”
“Aunt Poppy,” he said, bending down to scoop the little guy up and swing him around to his back. “Did you like the plane, Sport?”
“It was just us. Grama says planes have other peoples on them.”
“Aunt Poppy has a private plane.”
“Uh, it’s my father’s, the company’s, I think.”
“You know what that means, little buddy,” Turner said as they ascended to the rear terrace. Poppy pointed to the door they needed to use. “We’ve got a plane in the family now.”
Noah tightened his arms around his uncle’s neck. “Is that why you marrying her, Uncle Turner?”
“Yep,” Turner said. “That and the rack.”
“First,” Poppy hissed. “Don’t listen to him, gorgeous boy. You go get your mommy. She’s in the drawing room.”
Turner put Noah on his feet. “What’s that?” the little one asked.
“Fancy name for a living room,” she said, guiding him through the dining room and pointing to the drawing room door. “Through there, honey.”
As he ran to push open the door, Poppy paused.
“What’s wrong?” Turner asked, laying a hand on her back. “Baby?”
“I should let you go in there alone.”
“You’re not afraid of sisters, you know how to handle them,” he said, pulling her to him to kiss her hair. “This is family, babe.”
“I’m not afraid. I just feel like maybe you should have some time alone with them, to explain what’s going on.”
“Doesn’t work that way,” he said, turning her back to the door frame to press her up against it.
“It doesn’t?”
He shook his head. “No. We deal with everything together.”
“We do?”
“Yeah,” he said, crouching lower until his mouth danced in front of hers. “ ‘Cause we’re together.”
It felt like a lifetime since they’d stood so close to each other. Every time he got up close, she was drugged by their attraction. How could one person touch every part of her, inside and out, all in the space of a second and without actually laying a finger on her?
“We’re together?” she asked, fighting her urge to lean on him.
One side of his mouth rose. “We are.”
His certainty was like a warm blanket. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he said, linking their fingers. “Come on.”
Leading her away from the threshold of the dining room, Turner took her to the drawing room, pushing the door further open to reveal all of the Maddoxes there waiting for them.
As soon as they saw her, conversation died. Val twisted around in her seat on one of the couches, seeking what silenced her daughters.
The moment she spotted her son, Val sprang to her feet. “My boy!”
“Ma,” he said, going over to his mother, taking Poppy with him.
“Come on, you three,” Charley said, opening her arms to herd Zoey and the twins toward the door.
“Charley,” Poppy said, appealing to her friend.
She didn’t respond and the four went out without another word.
Faye stood up next, Ashlee in her