tell her yet?”
“Yes,” Poppy said, laughing again, gesturing for her to come over and join them.
Charley entered, but wasn’t alone. Zoey and Casey were hot on her heels, Faye wasn’t far behind.
The eldest Maddox sister closed the door. “A secret wedding?”
Faye’s brow arch reminded Poppy of her love. “Bad idea?”
“No,” Faye said, starting across the room as Poppy was hugged by Charley, Zoey and Casey. “I love it. Turn always wants to be in the loop and here we’re a mile ahead of him on his own wedding.”
When Poppy was liberated from the group hug, the others stepped aside, letting Faye get closer. She took Poppy’s hand and pulled her to her feet.
“If it doesn’t work, he’ll disown us,” Poppy said. “Dumping me might be easy, but you all will have to deal with the fallout too.”
“He won’t hate it,” Faye said then shrugged. “If he does, we have an army to put him in his place.” As Poppy laughed again, Faye hugged her. “He won’t hate it.”
There were tears in Poppy’s eyes when she was released from the new embrace. Looking around, she found she wasn’t the only one overwhelmed. All the eyes in the room were wet.
“Geez, you’re all trying to break me,” Poppy said, her emotions bubbling to the surface. “I thought Turner was the only one who knew how to devastate me with kindness. It must be in the Maddox blood.”
“Which means your kids will know how to do it too,” Charley said, sliding an arm around her to direct her over to sit on the edge of the bed. “Do you want to tell everyone the plan?”
“You didn’t tell them?”
“Only that you were planning the wedding without Turner.”
“I don’t have an exact plan yet,” Poppy said, glancing at each of the expectant women. “I want to do it at the Venture.”
“Where?” Faye asked. “There isn’t exactly a function room.”
“You could do it at Naughtie’s.”
“I thought we could have the reception there,” Poppy said. “The wedding will just be us. Grammie and my parents will be able to fly over in the jet. Even if they leave after Turner, they’ll still get there before him… He has the truck.”
“Right,” Zoey said, sitting next to her. “He’ll have to drive back!”
“Exactly,” Charley said. “This is so much fun!”
“Conspiring behind his back?” Faye asked with the same mischief as Charley. “It is.”
The sisters thought it was fun, Poppy hoped Turner would be likeminded. “Money is no object, I thought maybe we could do it on the roof,” Poppy said, bringing them back to the point. “I’ll talk to Ritchie when we’re back. See if we can maybe get some kind of gazebo or marquee or something that we can affix up there.”
“Something permanent?” Val asked with a hint of concern.
“I wouldn’t do anything to change the fabric of the building without Turner’s go ahead,” Poppy said to reassure her. “I’ll follow Ritchie’s lead… and talk to Naught about having the reception at the bar. I can cover the drinks, the food, decoration, whatever we need.”
“What about clothes?” Charley asked. “He won’t have anything to wear… neither will you.”
Her gown was already taken care of, though she didn’t say that. “I really don’t care what he wears,” Poppy said. “He’s more of a jeans and tee-shirt guy than a tux guy anyway, so I doubt he will either. He’ll be at the construction site all week. I already looped Grammie in, so she’ll make sure anyone who stays here can be fitted while Turner is at work, so he doesn’t see anything suspicious. Anyone who wants to stay on the estate can stay. All costs will be taken care of.”
“It’s so cool,” Charley squawked, looping an arm through hers. “Hand-tailored outfits!”
“Yes,” Poppy said, pleased that her friend was enthusiastic. “Anyone who wants to come back with Charley and me, they’ll have their clothes provided too, whatever you like. We won’t have to worry about hiding those fittings from Turner. Everyone just has to be careful about not saying anything in front of him… and diverting his suspicions if he has them. I won’t be here to help with that.”
“You will talk to him though, on the phone?” Val asked.
“Yes,” Poppy said. “He’s not thrilled about me going home without him. I’m working on getting Preston to stay and drive home with him. The closer to Monday he gets back, the better. It will reduce the chances of him getting suspicious.”
That was a slight lie. Poppy wasn’t working on getting