question. “No! Of course I couldn’t—I mean, I never would… Why would I…”
Charley breathed out. Giving up the fight, she pushed out her lower lip in an exaggerated pout and then flopped her forearms onto the table to drop her forehead against them.
Their teammates were belting out the last few lines. Because it was too loud to reassure her with words, Poppy just stroked Charley’s hair. She understood the woman’s pain. Even though she couldn’t say it out loud, it was nice to know someone could identify with her inner torment.
Just like she’d thought, Faye had seemed somewhat confused four days ago when Turner took Poppy into his apartment to meet the kids. But once Faye realized it gave her a chance to ask for her secrecy, she seemed to relax some. Poppy didn’t like lying, even by omission, to Charley, but as long as she was following Turner’s lead, she’d do whatever he needed.
The kids were great. Noah, the boy, was quiet at first, but once he got his uncle to help him with his little toy tool belt and they started putting plastic screws in little toy boards, he really brightened up. Emmie had been obsessed with Poppy’s dress, even in its dishevelment. Little Ashlee actually ended up falling asleep in her skirts while Emmie was quizzing Poppy about princesses.
Faye seemed happiest, or at least most at ease, when she was doing chores or in her mom role. Poppy wasn’t close enough to offer her a shoulder to cry on. She wished that she could though, the woman didn’t deserve to be cast aside. At least her attitude in the hallway when they first met made more sense. Faye was hurting and didn’t seem to be the weeping type. She got mad… and maybe got even too.
On the evening of that first meeting, Turner had given Poppy leftovers to eat while Faye started with the kids’ baths. Then he got a call to one of the buildings he managed and had to go out. Apparently complaints were always more common around about rent time and Turner didn’t give anyone a chance to withhold… which was sort of ironic. He’d told her she could hang out in his place if she wanted, but Faye was trying to settle the kids and it just seemed rude to encroach on that personal time.
The day after that meeting, while she’d been at work, Turner finished her bathroom and put in the second bathroom too. In the smaller bathroom, there was only a shower over the tub. Still, she’d smiled upon finding his note taped to the door. It stated “no painting allowed.”
He was run ragged. With his sister and three kids in his place, twelve buildings to manage, four other sisters, and his mom, Turner definitely had enough on his plate. Poppy wished she could be a pressure valve for him, but all she did was cause more complication in his life. Renovating her apartment wasn’t exactly the cherry on his sundae. By the time he got back from doing repairs, taking complaints, and collecting or chasing rent, he probably wanted to relax in his apartment.
There were twenty-four units in the whole Venture building. Only twelve, and the common areas, had been converted. Poppy lived in unit thirteen. She didn’t know how much of the work Turner had done alone and how much had been done when Maddox Senior and Maddox Senior, Senior were alive. In the fifteen years since losing his father and grandfather, Poppy doubted Turner had ever refurbed an apartment as quickly as he was turning hers around. Poppy wasn’t making his life easier, she was putting pressure on him, making it more difficult.
That didn’t mean she planned to abandon him. No. Her vanishing would only cause him more aggravation.
When the song ended, Charley sat up and slumped against her. Poppy put an arm around her and smiled when their colleagues came back to their tables. They had a grouping of four small tables pushed together with chairs all around.
Not long after everyone was settled, Charley swooped out of her arms to engage in a debate about some other woman who worked in their company, apparently forgetting about David. He was at the table with them; Poppy couldn’t bring herself to look at him. For some reason, she was worried that she might just burst out laughing. No, she wouldn’t be sleeping with David any time soon, definitely not with a straight face. She hoped he wouldn’t get his