“Zane.” She licks her lips and my stomach sours. Sloane deserves to have a mother who doesn’t come on to her boyfriend. “I have fabulous news.”
Sloane groans. “I’m not sponsoring your journey into space.”
Poppy scowls. “It was deep sea, not space.”
Crap. Poppy is an adventurer? No wonder Sloane kept her distance from me. It was bad enough, I was a player, but I must have reminded her of her mother. She probably thinks I’m the same as her mother. I’m not. I don’t shirk my responsibilities.
“What do you want?” Sloane asks.
“It’s not what I want. It’s what I have.”
Sloane’s nose wrinkles and retreats a step. “If you came here with a communicable disease, I’m kicking you out.”
“Must you always cause drama. I don’t have any disease.”
“Okay. Fine. I’ll bite. What do you have?”
Poppy reaches into her bag and flourishes an envelope. “Tickets to Japan! I know you’ve always wanted to visit.”
If Sloane wants to visit Japan, I’ll take her. But maybe she wants to go with her mom. My chest tightens, and breathing becomes impossible. Is this the moment Sloane abandons me? Will she disappear with her mom?
I study her. She’s not jumping for joy or rushing off to pack her bags. She’s irate. Her nostrils flare while her hands fist at her waist. I blow out a breath in relief.
“You think,” she says between clenched teeth, “you can waltz in here with tickets and I’ll run away with you?”
“It’s what you’ve always wanted.”
“Always wanted?” Sloane rears back. “What I wanted was a mother who paid attention to me. Who cared for me. Who protected me when her boyfriends leered at me.”
I growl. Her mother’s boyfriends leered at her? If they touched her, I won’t give a shit how Poppy is Sloane’s mother. She’s done.
Poppy flicks her hair over her shoulder. “No one ever touched you.”
Sloane pounds a fist on her chest. “I didn’t feel comfortable in my home.”
“You always were such a sensitive little thing.”
“I’m sensitive because I wanted to feel safe in my home? Because I didn’t want my mother’s boyfriends to chase after me? Because I didn’t want to lock my bedroom door at night?”
Poppy sighs. “The past is the past. There’s nothing we can do to change it now.”
Sloane starts for her mom but I shackle her wrist to stop her. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
“Trust me. I won’t regret it.”
“Yes, you will. You have a kind heart, sweetness. Hurting your mother will destroy you.”
She sags. “Fine.”
I release her wrist and wrap my arm around her shoulders. I’m presenting a united front to her mother. Her mother didn’t protect her. But I will.
“I don’t know why I bothered coming here,” Poppy mutters.
“Why don’t you visit Japan with your boyfriend?” Sloane asks.
Poppy’s lips purse. “I’m currently in between boyfriends.”
Sloane lifts a brow. “By choice?”
