“You said it was my home too… Didn’t you mean that?”
“You know I did.”
“So I go home to our bed and you finish here with Aitken. You don’t have to go near the main house if you don’t want to. You have everything you need here. I can have Mrs. Caswell bring your meals if you don’t want to deal with your in-laws.”
“You taking my sisters with you?”
“Charley will come, yes. I doubt Zoey will because she can be with Casey here. They can stay as long as they like. Grammie loves having life around the house.”
“You don’t think that will cause problems with Casey’s parents?” Turner asked.
Her shoulders went back. “I’m not going to be the one to tell a couple in love that they can’t be together. How would you feel if someone wanted to keep us apart? If we were only safe here, wouldn’t you stay here with me?”
“Baby, I was ready to move in and start a new life here,” he said, stabbing at some more of his food. “But we’re getting married.”
“So we’re really in love and they’re not?”
“Do you remember the guy you were with when you were seventeen?”
High school seemed like a lifetime ago. Poppy squinted as she did her best to conjure the memory. “Sort of.”
“There. See. At seventeen, you think it’s forever, but it rarely is. Faye tried sticking with the one she loved at that age, look how that worked out.”
Faye had said the same thing. She sighed. “I still don’t think it’s right that Casey’s family want to change who she is.”
“You’re right and I won’t do the same. If they want to stay here, I don’t have a problem with it. My mom might and your folks might, especially if Casey’s parents have to storm the place like I did to get their kid back.”
“We’re not holding her prisoner.”
“No, but if Zoey was locked up behind stone walls with strangers, I’d be knocking them down to get to her. I’d want to see with my own eyes that she really was safe.”
Poppy rested her elbows on the table as her fists caught her cheeks. He was there, stabbing at his salad and gobbling it down, unaware of how he was turning her insides to soup.
“You were right,” she murmured. “Having our bed ten feet away was a good idea.”
His slow blink revealed that he knew exactly what was on her mind. “If you wanted sex, you’d have been in bed when I got here.”
“I might have draped myself seductively against something,” she teased, bouncing to her feet. “I’ve never had sex on the piano.”
“We can try that later,” he said, sinking back to check out her legs as she gathered their plates. “What you wearing under that?”
Playing with him, she slunk a little closer. “I thought you were admiring my dress.”
“It’s beautiful,” he said, lunging over to grab her hip to haul her to him. “You’re beautiful.”
His interest narrowed on one specific zone. His hands insinuated their way beneath her skirt. While Poppy might have expected him to seek something more central, he instead hooked a finger into the elastic of her panties to draw them down her legs. He took them all the way to the floor and waited for her to step out of them, then he tossed them aside and sat up.
“Feel better?” she asked.
Renewed satisfaction lit his gaze as it wandered across her. “Much.”
Poppy just laughed as she took their appetizer plates out of the room and retrieved their entree. She curtsied as she served his then took her own seat to start eating.
“Mom will stay if Zoey stays,” he said. “Unless Faye needs her help with the kids.”
“I can help with the kids.”
The lopsided smile he wore was grateful but realistic. “You can’t drive, sweetheart,” he said. “Faye is staying at my mom’s.”
Something like that wouldn’t beat her. “I know. There are buses that go that way and cabs.”
“Ashlee needs her car seat. Transporting three kids takes skill.”
“It’s one I’ll have to acquire, isn’t it? Unless you want us to have only one.”
“You’ll build up to it, one at a time,” he said. “Or if you want to learn to drive, I’ll teach you.” Poppy couldn’t tell if he was insulting her or being considerate. Though with Turner, it didn’t take long to figure out which it was. “I don’t doubt you’re capable, Candy. There’s nothing you can’t do, and I know you’d keep the kids safe.”