talk and get ready to go out. I thought she wanted to go to Naughtie’s later.”
Val’s inhale was unsteady. “I know she’s all grown up and I shouldn’t worry so much…”
“You’re her mom, you’re always going to worry,” Poppy said, giving her a quick hug. “Have you called her?”
“I tried to call. She texted yesterday to say she was staying in the city… I told myself she was with you… It was the only way I got through the night.”
“It’s okay, we’ll track her down,” Poppy said, retrieving her phone from her purse. She dialed Charley’s number expecting a quick response. Instead it went straight to voicemail. “The battery probably died.”
It wasn’t much of a consolation, but it was something.
“It’s not like her to stay out,” Val said. “Not without calling.”
Poppy dialed another number and waited for an answer.
“Babe?”
“Will you come back here and hug your mom please?” she asked, noticing Val’s worried smile.
“What’s going on?” Turner asked.
Worrying him wasn’t high on her list of desires, but she couldn’t help Val without him. “Charley hasn’t been home and she isn’t picking up.”
“Damnit,” he said. “Mom’s worried?”
“Yes.”
“Are you?” he asked. Hesitating, Poppy didn’t know what to say while Val was standing so close. “You know I can read you, baby. Whether you talk or not.”
There were things Poppy knew that the family probably didn’t. “Just come back here.”
“I’m in the driveway. Are the other girls home?”
“I don’t know,” Poppy said and lowered the mouthpiece to talk to Val. “Are the other girls home?”
“All except Faye.”
“Yes, they’re home,” Poppy said into the phone at the same time the front door closed. “I can go back to the city and check in at work, if you want?”
He came through the kitchen door and straight to them on the back porch, hanging up the phone.
“You didn’t call me,” Turner said to his mom. He handed his phone off to Poppy as he ducked to pull his mom into his arms. “She’ll be fine. But you shouldn’t sit here and worry without calling me.”
Poppy put both phones in her purse.
Turner let go of Val and straightened up, curving his hand around the back of Poppy’s neck, though his attention stayed on his mom.
“She’s not a baby,” Val said, maybe trying to convince herself. “I don’t like not knowing where any of you are. It’s my job as a mom to worry.”
“I’ll track her down,” Turner said. “Give us a minute, Mom.”
Val glanced at her before going inside to join Ashlee at the table. With his hand still on her neck, Turner steered her to the other side of the deck and switched his focus to her.
All it took was a crook of his brow and Poppy exhaled in surrender. “I don’t know, okay? There’s a guy at work, she’s really into him.”
“Into him enough to be out of contact for twenty-four hours?”
“Maybe.” Poppy shrugged and edged a little closer, lowering her volume. “You know what it’s like… how easy it is for us to miss a whole day.”
“Don’t compare us to some cheap one-night stand. Who is he?”
“She’s been into him for a while. I don’t know for sure that they’re together.”
“But you think if he asked her out, she’d go,” he said without a question mark. “Is he into her? Is it real?” Poppy squirmed because there were things she hadn’t even said to Charley about her opinion of David. Turned out she didn’t need to say a word for Turner to pick up on her view. “So he’s a player. He’ll use her and dump her.”
Poppy grabbed for the edges of his jacket when his head went back on a growl of frustration. “We don’t know that. My opinion could be wrong, I don’t know him that well. I just know he… from what I’ve heard, he’s slept with every woman from work at least once.”
This time there was an element of intrigue in his brow arch. “Every woman?”
She just flattened her lips and tugged his jacket. “Not this woman, obviously… I’ve been busy with other things… much, much better things.” Like getting horizontal with Turner. “If they are together, it has to be a good sign they’re still together. If he was just using her, he’d have kicked her to the curb first thing.”
“Charley isn’t easy to get rid of,” he said, slipping his hand into her purse to retrieve his phone. “This guy got a rep for anything kinky?”
“Not that I know of,” she said, wondering why Turner would want to