that he’d loosened it, so she reached around to hook it again.
“Something happened,” he said, sitting up. “You knocked on the door and a woman answered.” She nodded. Confusion crinkled his eyes. “And she told you the baby was mine?”
“No! God, no! She told me you were asleep with the baby. That was it. That was all.”
“Why didn’t she wake me?” he said, then another question hit him. “Why didn’t she tell me you were there?” He seemed really at a loss to figure that out, but kept on trying. “Did you tell her your name?”
As she tried to remember, Poppy’s eyes moved around the room, like maybe the answer would be written on the walls. “I don’t recall.”
His brows went up. “You don’t recall?” He was still confused. “You’re not that hard to describe: short, stacked, hot.”
A brief laugh left her lips. “That’s not how she put it.”
“How she put it?” he asked. “Popkat, what happened?”
“Nothing,” she said and tried to change the subject. “Should you tell Charley I’m not dead?”
“I’ll text her,” he said, quick to return to what was putting the intent scowl on his face. “Candy-Cane?”
Desperate not to get him into a fight with anyone, Poppy realized she’d made a mistake telling him. In her defense, she’d thought he already knew. Licking her lips, she sidelined her anxiety and shifted to her knees to push toward him and press a kiss to his lips.
“Poppy, I’m not gonna let this go.”
“Okay,” she said, tipping her head the other way to kiss him again. “I’m not breaking any rules, I’m not inside you.”
“Oh, you are,” he said, annoyance thick in his tone as he shot off the bed and turned his back to fasten his jeans. “You’re in every goddamn cell of my body, Princess.”
Alarm drove her to her feet when he started to stomp away. “Where are you going?”
“I’m gonna find out what happened,” he said without slowing down.
Jumping up off the bed, Poppy went after him, trying in vain to keep up. “Turner!”
“Go back to bed,” he called up the stairs, descending much faster than she could.
His long legs would beat hers every time. The fuel of his intrigue and foul mood wasn’t doing her any favors either. Nor was the fact he was wearing heavy work boots and she was barefoot. He always told her not to traipse around with nothing on her feet, but it wasn’t like he’d given her much chance to grab footwear.
On the way down from the second floor, she heard Turner’s front door swing open and his heavy footsteps come to a quick stop. “Kiddo, come out here a minute.”
His tone stopped her in her tracks. It was amazing how fast it changed. He’d been fired up in her bed, but his voice then, it was… calm. Almost. There was an edge in the pace of the words. Was he worried about… oh, the kids had to be there.
On the middle of the staircase that would be above the hallway his apartment led from, Poppy stayed still.
“What is it?” came a female voice.
“Close the door.”
“The kids are eating, Turner. What is it?”
“Emmie, watch the baby, darlin’,” Turner said. “Don’t take her out of her chair.”
“We’re right out here,” the woman said and then the door closed. “What is going on? What’s wrong with you? You’re all—”
“Someone came to see me yesterday,” he said, the thin thread of his control tightening.
“Yesterday, what—yeah, I guess.”
“You guess? What the hell—”
“She was one of those little tramps. A renter-roller. It’s not a big deal, you—”
“Oh my God,” Turner said. Poppy peeked down into the staircase’s narrow central void just as he backed into her view, his hand rising to his forehead. “Did you say that to her?”
“I don’t see why it matters what I—”
“Pop?” Startled, she jerked, quickly withdrawing from her spying, unaware that he’d known she was there. “You don’t have to hide.”
“Oh my God,” the woman said. “Don’t tell me you actually fell for it? Shit, Turn, we make fun of the guys who do that! The guys who hit a certain age and lose all their brain cells when a pretty young thing flashes her tits at him. You are hilarious.”
The woman actually started to laugh, which just made Poppy feel about two inches tall.
“We had a damn conversation about you answering the door,” he said, ignoring the laughter. “I told you not to go near it and what do you do? Why the hell can’t you do what’s best for