“Your brother is not living here. Truth is, I think he’ll have trouble keeping Grammie away from the Venture when she learns about it… Though, hell, they’re buddies, who knows what she knows. They’ve probably already got a plan to take over half the country. With her money and his skills, they could rule the world.”
Shifting onto her side, Zoey hugged her tight. “I’m happy you’re going to be my sister. I never knew Turner was so smart to find, like, the perfect woman.”
“I’m far from perfect, but yours might be.” Pulling Zoey higher, Poppy kissed her hair. “You should call her. Don’t let her think for even a second that you don’t care.” Turner had said something like that to her once. His little nuggets of wisdom were giving her all kinds of clarity. “Don’t hold back. You have to fight for love… like Turner did.”
If it had been on Poppy, she and Turner would be nowhere. That thought stuck for a minute.
“I can’t call. Mom has my phone. It’s probably still at home.” Zoey sat up, throwing her arms in the air. “Which is even worse because if Casey is trying to fight for us, she thinks I’m ignoring her!”
“Don’t worry, sweetie,” Poppy said, sitting at her side, catching a tendril of her hair. “You know her number?” Zoey nodded. “You can use my phone. I’ll grab it from Grammie’s room and you can talk as long as you need.”
Zoey winced. “What about dinner?”
“Don’t worry about that. If you’re hungry later, there’s always food.”
They’d been more than halfway through the entree. She could see from Zoey’s expression that food wasn’t the most important thing on her mind.
It only took Poppy a minute to grab her phone from Grammie’s suite. There was plenty of room in there for both of them. Neither were particular about privacy around each other. Since she was little, she’d bunked in with her grandmother dozens, probably hundreds of times. It was Grammie’s bed Poppy crawled into when she was scared of monsters or obsessing about a boy.
Zoey was already dialing before Poppy left the room. She closed the bedroom door to give the teens their privacy and went back downstairs.
The table was light her parents and sisters.
“Aunt Poppy!” Emmie declared as soon as she noticed Poppy entering.
Everyone looked to her. All she could see was Turner, who became more curious as she approached.
“The Hanovers appeared,” Grammie said. “They’re in the drawing room if you’re interested.”
Poppy ran a hand over Turner’s hair, her forearm gliding down his shoulder and chest until her fingertips could find his lips.
“Everything okay, baby?”
Hovering above her seat, Poppy replaced her fingertips with her lips, kissing him gently, lingering, letting herself feel him. So neither of them got ideas of what a kiss could lead to, Poppy sank down into her chair.
“Young love,” Val said.
“Indeed,” Grammie agreed on a laugh.
Her beau still clearly didn’t understand her public display of affection, his confusion was interrupted by Willow’s quiet laugh.
“What’s funny?” Autumn asked.
“Them together,” Willow said, leaning forward to look past her sisters and Preston to show her grin that seemed to be restraining another laugh. “Poppy’s so cool and Turner’s so… not.”
“Thanks, Small-Fry,” Turner said as the twins giggled.
Preston wasted no time joining in. “And the official word is in, Turner Maddox is no longer cool.”
“He never was,” Charley muttered.
The twins ignored that comment. “You’re not cool either, Pres,” Willow was quick to say.
That tickled the man at Poppy’s side. “Hey, how you like that?”
“You don’t even have a cool girlfriend,” Willow added. “Naught is cool because he owns a bar.”
“Ritchie is cool too,” Autumn followed up, ready to offer a reason, except she faltered.
“Ritchie is cool because he acts like Mr. Laid Back, but he cares so much about the people in his life,” Poppy said. Turner’s focus swung around to her, his brow arched in question. “You care too, honey. He’s just… smoother about it.”
Another laugh came from Willow. “Autumn’s only saying that because she has a crush on him.”
The twin swayed across to nudge her sister whose cheeks were beginning to bloom.
“It’s a rite of passage to have a crush on Ritchie,” Faye said. “You get over it.”
Turner’s brow came down.
“Mm hmm,” Charley agreed, which widened her brother’s eyes.
“Uh, what the—”
“You’re surprised your sisters swooned over Ritch?” Preston asked. “Better him than someone who’d take advantage.”
“I want to meet this Ritchie,” Grammie said.
“No, you don’t,” Poppy said, shaking her head. “He’s taking care of business for Turner right now anyway.”
“We can find someone to do that for you, we can get a team of people on it. Does Ritchie have rough hands?” Grammie leaned a little down the table to advise the twins. “Find yourself a man with rough hands, girls.”
“A man who works for a living,” Poppy said, as Turner’s hand opened on her thigh and tucked itself under the fabric of her skirt to rest on her bare skin. “Are we having dessert or waiting for everyone to come back? I’m sure the Hanovers would join us for dessert.”
They had dessert because Grammie decided she didn’t want to wait. As soon as the plates were cleared, Charley said she was going upstairs to make a phone call. Poppy didn’t want to think that she might be confiding in David, but even if she was, there was nothing anyone could do to stop her.
Noah reminded Turner that he’d promised to take him to the worksite. He didn’t try to wriggle out of it. Not her Turner. No, he’d made a deal, so he stuck to it. He even invited his mother and Faye to join him. Preston wasn’t too discreet about inviting himself along.
Emmie and Ashlee had already been dancing around Grammie telling her about some new animated movie they loved.
The twins opted to go with Grammie to help with the movie since there was no way Grammie would know how to work the TV, let alone be able to find the movie they were talking about on a streaming service.
Everyone disappeared in their various directions until Poppy found herself alone. She breathed out. Sneak down to the music room in the dark or risk being co-opted by her family and the Hanovers? The music room won hands down.
ELEVEN
By the time Poppy got back to the house, anyone who wasn’t already asleep was getting ready for bed. Moving fast to ensure no one could intercept her, Poppy went straight to her grandmother’s bedroom. Grammie was madly in love with Emmie and Ashlee, Willow and Autumn too. While Poppy got ready for bed, Grammie regaled her with tales of watching the movie with the youngsters. Marigold Granger might be in her late seventies, but no one could accuse her of being old.
Once they were tucked up in bed, it didn’t take long for Grammie to doze off. Eventually, the whole house was silent.
The distant waves were quiet too, she couldn’t hear any wildlife, just the occasional creak from the old house as it cooled down after a busy day. Switching off wasn’t so easy for Poppy. She didn’t really know what was on her mind, just that she couldn’t sleep. Sharing a bed with Grammie limited her ability to toss and turn too; she didn’t want to wake the elderly woman up.
So much was going on. She worried about Zoey, who she hadn’t seen since leaving her in her bedroom with the phone. The twins seemed to be coming around, if they ever hadn’t been around, which was something. Although Turner hadn’t been explicit, Poppy figured the reason he’d invited his eldest sister to the worksite with her son was to talk to her. Val would help that effort and Poppy doubted Preston would’ve hindered it. The Maddoxes were welcoming and Preston had been a part of their clan for a long time.
Turner would be working again the next day, he’d
be working every day. As Poppy became more accustomed to the idea that they might have a future, she found herself more and more tempted to be near him. Finding excuses to go to the worksite would be easy enough, Grammie would even help that along. But Poppy didn’t want to distract him from his work. Turner was serious about his commitments. Plus there was the chance he’d be ribbed for the spoiled heiress always coming to visit him. The guys wouldn’t know anything about their relationship or about her, so it would be easy for them to jump to conclusions.
Slipping out of bed, Poppy couldn’t stand lying still staring at the ceiling any longer. She crept through the closed curtains into her grandmother’s bay window. The moon and stars illuminated the view. It was beautiful. Until saying it to Zoey, Poppy hadn’t realized just how much she took all of it for granted. She was guilty of that on more than one front.
Grammie had tried to tell her that it was important not to be complacent about her feelings for Turner or his reciprocation of them. Being together wouldn’t be easy, but it had been her dream. Why was she flouting their chance? As proved by the deaths of her grandfather and Turner’s dad, people could be gone at any moment.
Maybe that was why she couldn’t sleep. Her lace-trimmed navy negligee wasn’t the type of thing she’d usually go scampering around the house in without a robe, but she didn’t pause to retrieve one after leaving the window to cross Grammie’s suite.
Poppy couldn’t sleep because there was something on her mind: Turner.
Tiptoeing to his bedroom, she held her breath while opening the door as quietly as possible. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of wanting to see him or that her parents would object if they caught her sneaking into his room, Poppy just didn’t want fanfare. She went into his room, closed the door, and paused to admire him sleeping on his side in the middle of the bed.
Just like in her bedroom, in the times she’d come home from work to find him asleep in her bed. The first time she’d snuck into bed with him, she’d told herself it wasn’t sexual. Poppy wasn’t so naïve or deluded anymore. Getting into bed with him could lead to anything. She was attracted to him and didn’t doubt his attraction to her.
Still, she went around to the far side of the bed and slipped under the covers at his back. Sex in her grandmother’s house wouldn’t be a good idea. Although it was an old house, there were cracks for sound to escape all around the doors and the hallway was an echo chamber. Poppy was careful in sliding closer and settling on her side, she didn’t want to wake him, that wouldn’t be fair when he had to work the next day. But draping her arm over his waist, she already felt more relaxed. Sleep would find her there, with him, where she was safe, happy, content. Turner’s arrival might have been a surprise, but it was no surprise that he was her security. Loving him was easy, making it work would be a whole other ballgame.
The intrusive chime of an alarm jammed itself into her consciousness. Groaning, Poppy squeezed her eyes closed, wishing the new day away. An alarm, she hated alarms, they meant work. Except…
Her head hadn’t got to the present when his mouth touched hers. Warmth became heat became need; it happened fast, though there wasn’t any urgency. The gentle brush of lips, the teasing as they parted, the calm sweep of his tongue across hers, it was all slow, deliberate, not hasty or rushed.
“Mmm, baby,” she whispered when he kissed the curve of her jaw. “I’ve changed my mind.”
“You have?” he breathed against her neck, kissing his way south.
“I like alarms,” Poppy purred, pushing up to welcome his kiss in her cleavage.
His mouth trailed across her breast. Peeling the delicate fabric away, his tongue sought her nipple, circling and suckling, reminding her of every second they’d missed when they should’ve been together.
No underwear. Her man didn’t wear underwear, which meant… Coiling one leg up over his hip, she did her best to tempt him closer. Coercing him didn’t take a lot of effort, he rose to settle himself between her thighs like it was his home.
That was what she wanted to be, his home. “Turner,” she whispered, opening her fingers in his hair, pushing his mouth deeper into her breast.
He resisted her duress with little effort. “You should’ve woken me up when you came to bed,” he said, his strong hands tightening on her waist. “Damn, I fucking need this body.”
“Then take it,” she said, smiling when he rose to gaze down at her.
“Sex? In your parents’ house?”
“It’s Grammie’s house,” she said, squeezing his shoulders, testing the resistance of his muscles.
Throwing caution to the wind had never been encouraged in the Granger house. Not by her parents anyway.
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’ll go easy,” he said.
Before he could swoop down, she caught his jaw in both hands to hold him there above her. If he made love to her like he wanted to, like she wished he would, Poppy wouldn’t be able to maintain any level of discretion.
“You’re right. We shouldn’t. The kids are just through the wall and Charley’s across the hall.”
“Thought you were across the hall,” he said, joining their lips again.
“I gave my room to Charley so she could have more space. I bunked in with Grammie.”
“You won’t have to do that again,” he said. “There’s always space for you right here.”
Poppy loosened as all her stress receded. “I missed you,” she said, coiling her arms around his neck. “I couldn’t sleep… until I got here.”
“I live to serve you.”
“But not service me,” she said on a sigh. “Why does this feel like history repeating?”
“It’s a big estate, baby. You telling me we can’t carve out a corner to get it on? Just tell me when and where…”
“Hmm, maybe,” she teased.
“You better, baby, or I’ll drag you back to the Venture. I said I’d live wherever you want, I shoulda said I’ll live wherever you want so long as sex is allowed.”
“We have a lot to talk about,” she said, stroking his face with her forefingers. “A lot of stuff to work out.”
“We’ll get there, baby.”
“Tiller says they’re thinking of inviting Holden here for dinner.”
Shifting off her, he lay on his side next to her. “Pres mentioned something about that.”
“How do you feel about it?” she asked, righting the fabric over her chest. “About him being here with your family?”
“I think he should have to look the people he’s messing with in the eye.”
“But the kids…”
“Yeah, they shouldn’t be there.”
“And the twins,” she said, licking her lips. “Charley’s upset too… Zoey’s been super understanding, but I don’t want to put her through that… I want Holden to face what he’s done just like you do. And I want to give him a piece of my mind, but if we give him any reason to be smug… I want what’s best for our families.”
“Family,” he said, combing his fingers into her hair to spread it on the pillow. “You heard Grammie, it’s all one and the same. I haven’t seen you and Violet talk much.”
“Pfft,” Poppy said, at the end of her tether. “I don’t know what to do. I never spent any quality time with Holden, yet somehow he thinks there’s a potential future for us. Violet I saw almost every day of my life, but that hasn’t earned me the benefit of the doubt. Should I chase her down? Should I leave her be? I don’t know what’s best. I’ve been trying to give her space, hoping she’d notice how much I’m desperate to get rid of Holden… So far, it hasn’t worked out.”
His rough fingers grazed her forehead, soothing her. “You know you’re not dealing with any of it alone anymore.”
Poppy needed to be adamant. “I am not piling my burdens onto you. I know there’s something here, with us, but we have to deal with Holden before we can start to figure it out.”
“Good,” he said, showing her a rare smile. “I have a goal. I�
�m great at fixing things, Popkat.”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she was ready to surrender to the present. “Don’t I know it,” she said as he lowered to kiss her again. When he tried to pull back, she tightened her arms. “We can’t have sex, but we can make out.” His mouth was the most fascinating thing in her whole world. “Do you want to make out with me?”
“Would be a dream,” he said, glancing past her. “I’ve gotta be at work soon.”
“Work,” she said, blowing out a puff of frustration. “I knew there was a reason I hated alarms.”
When her consciousness had begun to wake, Poppy had thought for a few seconds that she was due at work. That part of her life was history; it was still present for Turner.
Though the twist of his lips suggested he enjoyed her sulk, he didn’t tease her. “Do you want to come and look at apartments with me this weekend?”
If they did have Holden over for dinner that week and he got the message, they might be able to pack up and leave soon. “How much notice do you have to give Aitken?”
“Couple of weeks, I think,” he said. “But Grammie’s our in, I’m sure she could sweet talk him. That a no on the apartments?”
“We’re wasting make out time,” she said, pulling him closer.
“Come get in the shower with me,” he said, touching his lips to hers for a second. “I’ll make you moan in there.”
With the cover of the water. That might work or it could be a disaster. Somehow, Poppy couldn’t bring herself to care. “Turner Maddox.”
“Mmm?”
His tongue dipped into the groove of her throat. “You fought for us.”
“Always will, Candy-Cane,” he said, rising to taste her mouth again. They lost themselves, staring into each other. “I love you, Poppy Granger.”
She wanted to say it back, intended to until the bedroom door opened, interrupting their moment. Turner was quick to sit up and flip around to face whoever had intruded.
“I have to get out of here! All of us, we need to leave now!”
Found (Lost & Found Book 2) Page 10
