Found

TWELVE

TWELVE

Breakfast got busy in no time at all. Her father would already be on his way to the office, so she didn’t expect to see him. Ashlee hadn’t wasted any time in waking her siblings up, which then led to the three of them waking their aunts and grandmother.

The other females in Poppy’s family wouldn’t surface for a while and would probably end up having their breakfast in bed. She’d let the Maddox family know they didn’t have to worry about her family joining them.

Val’s seat was Preston’s former place. At dinner the previous night, she’d had Emmie at her side. For breakfast, the kids switched it up, so Val had Ashlee next to her and Emmie was in Noah’s place beside their mom.

Noah stuck close to Poppy, electing to sit in what had been his uncle’s seat the previous night. On his knees, bobbing and weaving to keep his attention trained on the door, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who the little guy was waiting for.

“So we can’t go anywhere?” Autumn complained. “What’s the point of having zillionaires in the family if we can’t go shopping?”

“We could go to the beach,” Poppy said, spreading cream cheese on a bagel. “It’s part of the estate. Private.”

“We don’t have bathing suits,” Val said.

“With the depth of the closets in this house, I’m sure we’d find something to suit everyone,” Poppy said. “If you really want to shop, some of the stores in the city will bring their inventory to us.”

“All of it?” Willow asked.

Poppy shrugged. “If you tell them what you like, your style, they’ll bring a hand-picked selection of outfits. The great thing is they liaise with other stores and bring all kinds of complementary accessories and shoes too. You’ll never need to go to the mall again.”

“We can’t afford that,” Val said.

“My trust isn’t infinite, but there’s enough to keep your girls in shoes. If Violet and Primrose’s can stand up to the beating they get every time there’s a drama in the family, your daughters can’t do too much damage to mine.”

“We couldn’t do that,” Val said.

“It would be my pleasure,” Poppy said, folding some smoked salmon onto the bagel. “It’s just sitting there.”

“Won’t you need it for your life with Turner?” Willow asked. “You won’t have to work or anything.”

“Your brother isn’t the type of man to have staff,” she said, pouring fresh coffee into her cup. “If he didn’t need to work, he wouldn’t know what to do with himself.”

“So he’s going to keep working?” Autumn asked.

Poppy sipped the hot liquid. “You’d have to ask him. Though the fact that he’s upstairs getting ready to go to a worksite right now sort of answers that question.”

Noah began to bounce on his knees. His excitement betrayed exactly who he’d spied. She was a little jealous that he could be so open about his enthusiasm.

“Where are you going to work when the house here is built?” Willow asked as soon as her brother entered the room.

Turner crossed to stand behind Poppy’s chair. “What?”

Raising her coffee, she gave him the mug. “Your sisters want permission to dip into my trust.”

“That’s Poppy’s call,” he said, gulping down the java. “What’s it got to do with my job?”

“They thought you might have aspirations to sit around and be waited upon,” she said, taking the cup from him when it was practically empty. “I said it was unlikely.”

“Very unlikely,” he said. “Whatever happens, I’ll be working. I can’t give you guys a trust, but I’ll provide for you best I can.”

“I thought you were moving here,” Charley said.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t make money to support all of you,” Turner said. “Like it or not, I’m what you’ve got.”

“Poppy has like a zillion dollars though,” Autumn said.

She laughed. “I haven’t checked recently, but I don’t think there’s that much.”

“You don’t know how much is in there?”

“It gathers interest,” Poppy said. “But I don’t want to live off the trust, I never did. We can give it to charity for all I care.”

The girls gasped.

“I’m charity,” Autumn exclaimed.

Willow pushed her. “You are not.”

“We haven’t had time to talk about it,” Poppy said, twisting to rest her side against the back of her chair. Although she addressed the table, her hand found its way beneath Turner’s tee-shirt. “But your brother might want to invest.”

Both twins wrinkled their noses. “In what?”

Val’s smile grew. “Property.”

Poppy shrugged. “Maybe. I’d say he could build his own empire, but there will be rules about how we raise our children.”

His hand landed on her head, as he stroked her hair, he curled his fingers into it to ease her head back. “I’ve gotta go to work, no excuse for being late,” he murmured, bowing to kiss her.

“Okay,” she said, grabbing a handful of his shirt before he could stand up straight. “Don’t be late tonight.”

“You could come visit me, any time.”

She smiled, pulling him down for another short kiss. “Bet the guys already give you s**t for the missus coming to check on you all the time.”

“When the missus looks like you, there’s no s**t to give. If you need me, come find me.”

“Okay,” she said, accepting another kiss.

“I love you,” he said before straightening up.

Poppy grabbed the bagel from her plate to hold it up for him. “Oh, take this.”

“What is it?” he asked, examining it.

“Food, just eat it.”

“Okay,” he said, drawing in a breath. “The rest of you behave, don’t give the Maddoxes a bad name.”

“Uncle Turner! Uncle Turner,” Noah said, clambering onto his feet on his seat to lean over the back.

Turner steadied him. “Be careful there, Sport.”

“Can I come build the house with you?” The youngster raised up a straight leg. “I got my big boots on.”

“Later, Sport, okay? I’ll talk to Aitken, we’ll find something for you to do. Your mom or one of your aunts can bring you down later.” Grinning, Noah nodded his head so fast he’d have lost his balance if it wasn’t for his uncle. “Sit back down.”

Noah did as told. Turner bowed to kiss Noah’s head and then hers.

Emmie gasped. “Uncle Turner! We need kisses too.”

“Geez,” he muttered under his breath, but went around the table, bagel still in hand to kiss each of his nieces. “Can I leave now?” The rest of those at the table were just amused by the demands. “I live on the damn site and I’ll be the last one there.”

He didn’t get a direct response, which was enough to tell him what he wanted to know, so he started for the door.

“Turner,” Poppy said.

“Yes!” he said, spinning around, though when he registered she was the one who’d said his name, he softened. “Yes, baby?”

“I love you,” she said, letting her simple smile turn sly.

Showing his teeth, the sound in his throat was both a growl and a groan. Although she didn’t ask him to, he came back over and hunkered down next to her seat. “Right here in front of everyone?”

Though the conversation hadn’t been much affected by her declaration, Poppy had made the conscious choice to say it there and then. She’d put it off for too long.

She cupped his face. “Here in front of everyone.”

“You just keep doing it to me,” he said, rising enough to kiss her.

Rather than the chaste lip kisses they’d exchanged in farewell already that morning, his kiss was much more demanding and far more intimate.

If Poppy hadn’t separated them, he’d probably have kept going all morning. “Go to work.”

“You find us that corner, Candy,” he murmured, bobbing up to kiss her forehead before standing up straight. “Okay, I’m going. Bye, all.”

Various farewells went around the table, though no one really took their attention away from what they were doing. He was her focus until he disappeared from view. Even after he was gone, Poppy’s focus stayed there.

Together. They were together. Was there any denying it anymore?

Preston coming through the door was the only thing that distracted Poppy from her daze. She just caught a glimpse of the smile Val was laying on her when someone suddenly swooped into the seat Noah had been in. The little one had somehow gone around to his mother and sisters without her noticing.

“Here,” Zoey said, slipping something onto her lap under her napkin.

As Poppy’s fingers curled around the object, she realized what it was: her phone.

Zoey, she was the one in the seat beside her, huddled in close.

Recalling their conversation the previous day, Poppy twisted around to huddle with her. “How did it go?”

“She was trying to call,” Zoey whispered, the noise of the kids and other conversations giving them cover to talk quietly. “It’s all a mess. She misses me.”

“That’s something.”

“But what does it matter? Her mom says she’s going to send her to a different school for senior year. It will be awful. Horrible. She doesn’t want to be the new girl in the last year.”

“And she won’t want to be away from you either,” Poppy said, taking her hands under the table. “There’s still time for her parents to come around before you have to worry about that. Did you talk to her about coming here?”

“She wants to, but there’s no way her parents will let it happen.”

“You said her parents didn’t know who her girlfriend was.”

Zoey nodded. “You think we should lie to them? To reassure them we’re just friends?”

“I don’t think you should lie,” Poppy said. “Though you did say you’d broken up. Did you get back together on the phone?”

The teen sighed. “I don’t know. She said she still loves me, but… I don’t know. I haven’t told my family.”

“We can deal with that.”

“Here?” Zoey asked, looking around. “With your family and everything that’s going on? Charley’s still pissed off.”

“She’s pissed off at me. And your situation is no less important than anything else that’s going on. If anything, it’s more important. Your thing could impact your forever.” Poppy shook her head. “No, we can’t just give up.”

“I don’t know what to do, how we can convince her parents it’s a good idea.”

“I can talk to them,” Poppy said, hitting on an idea that pushed her shoulders back. “I’ll have Tiller talk to them.”

“Tiller?”

“There’s nothing Tiller can’t do,” she said, giving Zoey a hug. “Trust me.”

A standing Preston appearing next to them broke their hug. “You got a minute, Poppy?”

A minute? She was a woman in high demand. After checking Zoey was okay, Poppy left the table and followed Preston out of the room, tucking her phone into her robe pocket. To take her away from the family suggested he wanted to discuss something serious.

“What is it?” she asked, fearing what Holden might have done.

“How does tomorrow night sound?”

“For what?” she asked, suspecting the answer may be related to her previous fear.

“Dinner with Abernathy.”

“Just me?”

“No,” he said, smiling as he shook his head. “I don’t think Turner would ever speak to me again.”

“I have to talk to him about it,” she said, wandering closer to the stairs. “We started to talk about it this morning but didn’t get anywhere. We don’t want the kids there, but he’d probably appreciate Faye’s support. How do you think Faye would feel about Stephanie sitting with the kids upstairs?”

He shrugged. “We can talk about it. The truth is, your father’s lawyers wanted to push it to next week. But the longer this goes on, the more there’s a chance he can do damage.”

It was so frustrating. “I don’t understand why he doesn’t get the message.”

“If Abernathy loves you, he thinks he’s showing his sincerity,” Preston said. “He’ll know that being with your sister first puts you in a difficult position. I’d guess he wants to persist to show you that he’ll support you through it, that he wants to be with you no matter what.” It really sounded like he’d thought about it. He conceded a laugh. “Turner and I might have talked about it last night… He wouldn’t have let anything get in his way.”

“He’s not that kind of man. They’re not even remotely the same. I was with Turner, I pushed to be with him, before he had to come here and fight for us. I wanted to be with him, we had experience with each other. Holden and I have no history, there’s never been any shared anything between us.”

“Maybe he doesn’t see it that way,” Preston said. “There’s a chance he’s just flat nuts or this is a power play we’re not seeing yet. We won’t know until we get him here and talk to him.”

Which put Grammie on her list of people to talk to as well. She wouldn’t be happy to welcome Holden into her home or to her dining table. For her to agree to behave, she’d have to understand the logic behind the invitation.

“I have to talk to Turner before I agree to anything,” Poppy said. “He may not want any of his sisters there or his mom.”

“There’s a chance that Abernathy will offer to host or that the meal should take place in neutral territory.”

“We can’t go out in public,” she said, shaking her head. “No way. The chance of the press catching a whiff of it… No. I don’t want to be a spectacle like that.”

“Abernathy’s likely to have demands of his own. He may not want your sister there.”

“He can’t make demands like that, it’s her house. If Violet wants to be there then she gets to be there. You and I know that Holden and I have no future, but I think, if anything, we should expect him to make an apology to Violet for his abominable behavior.”

“It pisses Turner off too.”

“Of course it does, he has sisters.”

“I can find out what time his lunch is, we could go down there and talk it out with him.”

“In the middle of a workday?” she asked. “Is that fair?”

“We can’t leave it too late to extend the invitation. If Abernathy thinks we’re playing games, he’s likely to play them back. We’ll approach his side this morning, put in a call, see if he’s open to the invitation. Get a read on him.”

She nodded. “Okay. I have to go and get ready, and I have things to do. Find out when Turner gets a break.” He nodded once and took a step back to allow her to ascend one stair. Poppy paused to look back at Preston. “Only when he has a break and for the allotted time he’s supposed to have. You know it will drive him nuts to be given special treatment.”

His half-smile almost became a laugh. “I sure do. I’ll figure it out.”

Laying a hand on his shoulder, she pushed up to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”

Poppy continued up the stairs and Preston called out after her. “Just remember all this when it comes time for him to pick a best man.”

Laughing, she cast an amused look back at him, but kept on going. Turner was lucky to have such a reliable network of loyal people around him. It was still taking time for her to adjust to being a part of that group.

She’d get ready for the day and then had a lot to do before she could think about discussing the Holden meal with her love. There was Casey, possibly her parents, Tiller, Grammie would have to be told about the plan to invite Holden to the house. And Charley. Yes, she’d have to do something to make amends with Charley. Everything else on her list would be easier than that. Charley was hurt and wanted to hold onto the man she cared for. Making her see that David was hurting her would be difficult at any time, but while she was mad and felt so betrayed… it was going to be an arduous uphill climb.