that choice, her parents were at the gate, blocking any chance for the women to be together.
“I haven’t called her. She doesn’t know we’re here.”
“You should call, she’ll be worried. And invite her here, if she wants to come, we’ll send a car to her place and the jet will be waiting for her.”
A modest laugh escaped Zoey’s lips. “Her head would explode. It’s nuts that you have all this. I never saw Turner in a big fancy house like this… But there’s a lot of land, he’ll like that.”
“Your brother is not living here. Truth is, I think he’ll have trouble keeping Grammie away from the Venture when she learns about it… Though, hell, they’re buddies, who knows what she knows. They’ve probably already got a plan to take over half the country. With her money and his skills, they could rule the world.”
Shifting onto her side, Zoey hugged her tight. “I’m happy you’re going to be my sister. I never knew Turner was so smart to find, like, the perfect woman.”
“I’m far from perfect, but yours might be.” Pulling Zoey higher, Poppy kissed her hair. “You should call her. Don’t let her think for even a second that you don’t care.” Turner had said something like that to her once. His little nuggets of wisdom were giving her all kinds of clarity. “Don’t hold back. You have to fight for love… like Turner did.”
If it had been on Poppy, she and Turner would be nowhere. That thought stuck for a minute.
“I can’t call. Mom has my phone. It’s probably still at home.” Zoey sat up, throwing her arms in the air. “Which is even worse because if Casey is trying to fight for us, she thinks I’m ignoring her!”
“Don’t worry, sweetie,” Poppy said, sitting at her side, catching a tendril of her hair. “You know her number?” Zoey nodded. “You can use my phone. I’ll grab it from Grammie’s room and you can talk as long as you need.”
Zoey winced. “What about dinner?”
“Don’t worry about that. If you’re hungry later, there’s always food.”
They’d been more than halfway through the entree. She could see from Zoey’s expression that food wasn’t the most important thing on her mind.
It only took Poppy a minute to grab her phone from Grammie’s suite. There was plenty of room in there for both of them. Neither were particular about privacy around each other. Since she was little, she’d bunked in with her grandmother dozens, probably hundreds of times. It was Grammie’s bed Poppy crawled into when she was scared of monsters or obsessing about a boy.
Zoey was already dialing before Poppy left the room. She closed the bedroom door to give the teens their privacy and went back downstairs.
The table was light her parents and sisters.
“Aunt Poppy!” Emmie declared as soon as she noticed Poppy entering.
Everyone looked to her. All she could see was Turner, who became more curious as she approached.
“The Hanovers appeared,” Grammie said. “They’re in the drawing room if you’re interested.”
Poppy ran a hand over Turner’s hair, her forearm gliding down his shoulder and chest until her fingertips could find his lips.
“Everything okay, baby?”
Hovering above her seat, Poppy replaced her fingertips with her lips, kissing him gently, lingering, letting herself feel him. So neither of them got ideas of what a kiss could lead to, Poppy sank down into her chair.
“Young love,” Val said.
“Indeed,” Grammie agreed on a laugh.
Her beau still clearly didn’t understand her public display of affection, his confusion was interrupted by Willow’s quiet laugh.
“What’s funny?” Autumn asked.
“Them together,” Willow said, leaning forward to look past her sisters and Preston to show her grin that seemed to be restraining another laugh. “Poppy’s so cool and Turner’s so… not.”
“Thanks, Small-Fry,” Turner said as the twins giggled.
Preston wasted no time joining in. “And the official word is in, Turner Maddox is no longer cool.”
“He never was,” Charley muttered.
The twins ignored that comment. “You’re not cool either, Pres,” Willow was quick to say.
That tickled the man at Poppy’s side. “Hey, how you like that?”
“You don’t even have a cool girlfriend,” Willow added. “Naught is cool because he owns a bar.”
“Ritchie is cool too,” Autumn followed up, ready to offer a reason, except she faltered.
“Ritchie is cool because he acts like Mr. Laid Back, but he cares so much about the people in his life,” Poppy said. Turner’s focus swung around to her, his brow arched in question. “You care too, honey. He’s just… smoother about it.”