“No, upstairs. Apparently, we have to dress for dinner.”
“You don’t, at all,” Poppy said, but Faye kept on going.
“Faye,” Turner demanded, still Faye didn’t stop and disappeared out of the room with the kids.
Poppy couldn’t remember ever clearing a room so fast.
Turner whipped around to his mom. “What the hell?”
“Calm down,” Val said, gesturing with both hands, and looking to her. “Do we have time to sit for a minute?”
After checking the clock, Poppy nodded. “Yes. Dinner will be announced. As long as we’re in the room before my father, it’s fine.”
“I have to shower,” Turner said.
She smiled, thinking how the tables had turned. “You have time.”
Leaning in, he raised one shoulder in a half shrug. “Depends.”
“On?”
“If I’m showering alone.”
“Turner!” Poppy exclaimed, pushing him down onto the couch as Val sat. “Your mother is in the room.”
Turner yanked her down beside him before looking his mother in the eye. “There’s a lot of things we didn’t talk about, Ma. I know you knew stuff even if we didn’t talk about it, but now all the obstacles are out of the way, I’ve gotta lay it all out for you.”
“Go ahead, son.”
“Poppy and me had sex,” he said like it was the most normal thing to confess to a parent. Mortified, Poppy pushed him, not that it did any good. “A lot. In a bunch of different places. Pretty much everywhere in the Venture. Standing, sitting, lying down. On the floor, on tables, against walls. Even on the workbench. Dad would be pissed.”
“What are you doing?” Poppy hissed. “Are you trying to kill me?”
Val laughed. “There’s no reason to hide anymore, and he might be surprised about his father,” she said, taking a deep breath. “My boy’s telling me all the things he’s wanted to tell me for weeks.”
“Months,” Turner said. “I’ve never felt like the way Poppy makes me feel. It’s true, you were right. When it’s real, there isn’t any doubt. Just by existing, she makes my life better.”
“Did you tell her all of this?”
“She’s a stubborn woman, Ma. She doesn’t always hear me.”
“I hear you,” Poppy said. “I just have other things to consider.”
He laid a possessive arm across her lap. “Like what?”
Poppy wrapped her arms around his. “Like we live a thousand miles apart for starters.”
“I already told you we’ll live wherever you want to live. I got a job within twelve hours of scaling your castle walls. I could’ve had a lease within twenty-four hours, but you wouldn’t let me sign anything.”
“You own a building,” Poppy said, using his arm to pull them closer together. “You don’t want to live out here.”
“I want to live where you want.”
“You did notice how your sisters reacted when I walked in the room, didn’t you? You have your work cut out for you, First. If your family hate me, there is no chance for us.”
Turner set his sights on his mom. “What is going on with them? Why the cold shoulder? They should hear Poppy out.”
“I can’t justify what I did.”
Val raised her brows. “What makes you think they’re angry with Poppy, son?” That startled both of them. “Faye’s pissed about the whole situation. That you were ashamed of your feelings for Poppy.”
“That wasn’t it at all.”
“If we’d known about this, as a family… Faye and Charley are arguing a lot. Charley is upset at Poppy and I think there’s something going on related to David Leicester, though I don’t have a clue how he’s involved in any of this. Zoey and the twins are their usual teenage selves. There hasn’t been much time to talk to them about their feelings… Autumn asked what was happening, I said we’d need a report from you. I knew you loved Poppy, I’ve known that for a while, but it wasn’t my place to tell the girls. Especially if you decided not to be together, that might just confuse them.”
“We’re together, Ma.”
“Turner,” Poppy said, giving his arm a shake. “We don’t know that for sure yet.”
He didn’t respond to her and just kept on addressing his mother. “They can be mad at me, that’s fine. I can handle pissed off sisters.”
“This is new to them,” Val said. “They’ve never had to share you like this. And, in the past, you’d never have left the state without dragging each of them aside and giving them fifteen instructions about looking out for each other. When you were just gone, they were scared. Faye’s way of processing fear is to get