here you are telling me,” Poppy said. “Did it occur to you to keep her confidence?”
“We talked about the situation, about everything,” Preston said. “We were up all night.” Rather than look worse for wear, there was a glint in his eye. “Prim knows the truth is the best way to get Abernathy to knock his shit off. She wants her life back, just like you do.”
“I have to talk to Violet,” Poppy said, thinking that wouldn’t be easy. “I’ll talk to Primrose first.” She went over to Turner, stopping when her body met his. “My sisters are not a buffet for your friends.”
“I’ll talk to him,” he said, rubbing her arm.
“Primrose took me to her room,” Preston said in his own defense. “I’m no sleaze.”
“You know I’m gonna marry Pop,” Turner said. “Both you and your one night stand will be at the wedding. If we have kids, you’ll spend holidays together. Are you sure it was a smart move to fool around with a woman who you can’t just forget to call?”
Preston blinked and faltered. “I don’t know that it was a one night stand.”
“Oh my God,” Poppy whispered, grabbing Turner’s hand in both of hers. “You’d be brothers. For real brothers.”
After Turner took a moment to absorb the speed of her turnaround, he smiled. “You want me to kick his ass or not?”
“If he’s a sexual user, yes. If he has feelings for her, he needs you.”
“Need him?” Preston asked. “I’ve dated women before.”
Poppy wound Turner’s arm around her neck to nestle against his side. “Not a Granger. We’re a special brand of woman. We need a special kind of nurturing.”
“Don’t scare him, baby,” Turner said, kissing her head. “I’ll ease him in.”
“Ha-ha, you’re both hilarious.” The lawyer wasn’t amused. “I don’t know what it is yet; we’ve only known each other a few days.”
“Turner knew I was special inside of four days,” she said, slipping her flat hand into her lover’s back pocket. “Didn’t you, First?”
“Sure did.”
Just because he knew it didn’t mean he’d admitted it, to her or anyone else. Playing with Preston was too much fun to be bogged down by specifics.
“We live a thousand miles apart,” Preston said.
“So do Turner and I.”
He laid an unimpressed glare on her. “You moved into his building.”
“So buy a building and we’ll see if Primrose wants to move in.”
“She can stay in the Venture,” Turner said. “In Grammie’s apartment.”
“Perfect,” Poppy agreed. “Grammie won’t care about sex noises.”
“I might,” Preston said, but was quick to hold up both hands to stall them before they could come up with anything else. “On the sex noises score, Tiller said Casey is due in today.”
“Tiller wants to know where to put her,” Preston said to her.
Not everyone knew about the teens’ relationship. As far as Poppy knew anyway. She had no intention of confirming anyone’s suspicions. “Why did sex noises make you think of Casey?”
“Zoey told Val and Faye about her last night,” Preston said. “When Zo found out Casey was coming, she got all hyped up.”
“Put her in Turner’s room,” Poppy said.
Preston frowned. “Where is he going to sleep? You put Charley in your room.”
“We’ll stay down here,” Poppy said. “The closet’s big enough for everything.”
“What if it rains? You don’t want to run down here in the rain.”
“We get laid down here,” Turner said. “We’ll deal with a little rain.”
Pushing onto her tiptoes, her body resting on his, Poppy addressed her love, “Will the lock you bought fit the deck doors? I’ll get the spare key from Tiller, so we’re the only ones with access… If you put a lock on the deck doors, we might have a lot more fun.”
“For that I’ll make it work.”
“You two planning to stick around the estate for a while?”
“Depends how it plays out with Abernathy,” Turner said. “He coming here tonight?”
“He wants to speak to Poppy alone.”
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Will you talk to Violet today, Candy?”
“Yes. We can’t ambush him with what we know without her permission. If it gets out there, it could be just as embarrassing for her.”
“She didn’t manipulate the media and the general population into believing his fake love story to cover his ass in a business deal and humiliate his ex. Trust me, he doesn’t want the truth getting out.”
Wearing his lawyer hat, Preston laid it out. Poppy was wearing her sister hat and things weren’t so clear cut in that accessory. Primrose would be a good ally