as such, so there was a chance he thought they could just go back to sleep. But having been caught pressed up against him like that, just a day after admitting they couldn’t be together, Poppy was more than a little self-conscious. It didn’t help that her damn heart was racing behind her ribs.
“Zoey,” he muttered. “How much does one damn dress cost?”
She smiled, admiring the strength of his broad back. Her fingertips ached to touch almost as much as her mouth craved the taste of him. Whatever he thought about her getting into bed with him, Poppy should’ve known better. Her heart was battered, still desperate in each limping beat. She needed to get over him. It didn’t seem to matter how much she repeated that to herself, somehow she always ended up near him.
“Sorry,” he said, adjusting his position then raising his elbow from his side and opening his hand to her. “Gimme your hand.”
So he did think they were just going to fall back into sleep. Tempting as the notion was, Poppy’s heart wouldn’t take much more.
“I didn’t mean to touch you,” she said. “Shouldn’t you call Zoey?”
“I put more money in her account,” he said, shifting over to lay facing her, still on his side. “That’s all she wanted.”
He didn’t look as tired as he had the last few times she’d seen him. Her fingers actually loosened from the comforter they’d been clutching like maybe they wanted to reach out.
“You’re a good brother,” Poppy said to distract her body from its physical urges.
“She has some party coming up at school.”
That not only put a smile on her face, it wrung a laugh from her throat, one he obviously didn’t expect because he frowned.
“A party?”
“Yeah,” he said, propping his head on his fist. “What’s wrong with that?”
“She’s seventeen, Turner,” Poppy said, wriggling a little closer. The poor guy didn’t look any more the wiser. “And you say I’m gorgeous.”
“What?” he asked, picking up her hand to hold her loose fingers against his chest. “What am I missing?”
“Junior prom, baby. It’s her junior prom.”
“Geez,” he said, staring toward the door. “She’s not a junior already, is she?” Still smiling, she nodded. “I remember her first day of kindergarten.”
Licking her lips, Poppy tried not to think about the heat of his body behind her fingers. “So do I.” He looked down at her. “We watched a lot of home movies yesterday.”
“God,” he said, almost rolling his eyes. “Charley and those damn tapes.”
“I liked them… Seeing all of you grow up in front of the lens.”
“The Grangers don’t tape stuff like that?”
She shook her head that was still in the pillow. When he moved his elbow, she felt his upper arm in her hair. How did they always end up so close and why did she love their proximity so much?
“But we do try to avoid other people filming us.”
“You mean like the media?”
“It’s not a big deal,” she said, attempting a shrug. “We’re not that interesting. Violet was, I guess, when she was modelling, but she was never that big… Marrying Holden would’ve put her into another…” Trailing off, she caught his gaze and absorbed just how intent he was. “I should stop confiding in you.”
“You can trust me,” he said, letting go of her hand to rest his on her abdomen. “You know what I didn’t do yesterday?” Adjusting the angle of her head, Poppy asked for the answer. “I didn’t say I was sorry.”
Dejected, Poppy didn’t want to be reminded of their issues. “Turner,” she exhaled.
“Hear me out,” he said, pressing harder on her body so she couldn’t move away. “I don’t want to feed you excuses. You know I’ve been tired, stressed… It was crazy, I don’t even know why I thought…”
“Because if I was just some cheap hussy, you’d know you were right that I wasn’t worth your time.”
“You are worth it,” he said. “I can hear in your voice that you’re angry and you should be. You trusted me and I jumped to the wrong conclusions.”
Locked in the tractor beam of his stare, it wasn’t possible for her to shut off her emotions where he was concerned. Her anger was rooted in her hurt. She didn’t want to be angry, in fact, until he’d said that he heard it, Poppy thought she’d done a good job of hiding it.
“You underestimate my feelings,” Poppy said, figuring out the source of her hurt. “You did it on our walk home from Naughtie’s that first night we…”