And this was Poppy’s cue to leave. Only Decker moved slightly to his left, making her visible. Not wanting to be caught listening in on such an intimate and what must be an emotional moment, she crouched down behind a shrub to hide.
Shit. What had she stepped in?
“I know I’m not a parent, but I do love him.” Decker’s voice lowered a tiny bit at those last few words as if he knew they weren’t being heard. And something about that reached out to Poppy and yanked at her heart.
“He doesn’t want the same thing you want for him,” Decker said slowly and calmly. “Just like even though you took over Dad’s company it wasn’t your first choice. You don’t want him to feel stuck like you were, do you?”
There was a long beat where Poppy held her breath. She knew she shouldn’t eavesdrop but she didn’t want to go back in the woodshop and be therapized. And the only way back inside the house was straight past Decker. Plus, if she moved now, he’d spot her and the jig was up.
“You come out here and that kid is going to run so far and so fast you’ll never catch him. What’s so wrong with letting him stay for the next month? It’s not like they’re going to exploit him or expose him to Hollywood’s darker side. It’s a family show for fuck’s sake.”
There was a long pause, but when Decker spoke his voiceboomed like a barrel drum. “That’s it? That’s your fucking reason? You don’t want him around me? Glad to know how you really feel. Well, guess what? It’s not up to you or me. The kid’s no longer a kid. If he wants to stay he can. You come and force him to go, he’ll resent you. You support him and, hell, maybe it will bring you closer. But what do I know? I don’t have kids.”
Decker gently pounded a fist against chest, as if trying to loosen some tightening.
The was a pause so long and thick Poppy felt the weight press down on her chest. It was like watching an old Hitchcock movie where there were two men sitting at a table with a bomb under it. The audience sees it ticking down, ready to explode, but the men have no idea what was to come.
She was pretty sure that if someone didn’t speak in the next few seconds there would be an explosion of epic proportions and there would be no coming back for these brothers. She was about to intervene when Brian’s muffled voice said something.
Then Decker sighed and said, “He can’t call you every night to check in. In fact, he can’t call you after tonight. There are no phones allowed. But I can give you the number of the producer in case there’s an emergency… No, I don’t want to talk about Holly. Seriously, dude, no means no.”
Poppy watched as Decker thunked his head against the column. “What part of shut the fuck up did you miss? … She said that? But why would she do that? That tape hurt her way more than it did me.”
Poppy’s heart ached for Decker. Because if she was reading this correctly, he’d just found out that the woman he’d defended so adamantly had, in fact, leaked the video. And the tone in Decker’s voice told her that he was the more injured of the two parties.
“See you in five weeks.”
He disconnected the call and put his phone in his pocket. Poppy hoped that he’d walk off the back of the porch so shecould slide in the house unnoticed. Only he just stood there staring off into the distance. He stood there so long her legs began to ache from being in the squatting position, so she quietly sat down and crossed them beneath her.
Once she got over the fear he was going to catch her, it was kind of nice. The stillness, the smell of damp grass, the distant hum of cicadas that had restarted their symphony. It reminded her of summer nights long ago when she and her aunt would lie out on the loungers and watch the lights of the city below.
Poppy didn’t know how long they stayed like that, with her sitting in the grass, Decker standing on the porch, both staring out onto the city below, but it felt intimate and?—
“I hope you saved me one of those emergency ice cream bars,” he said, and Poppy yelped.
Chest thumping with adrenaline, she said, “How long have you known I was here?”
“The whole time. I watched you sneak across the grass. Any hopes of a career in the CIA are dashed.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?” she demanded because WTF! Who lets someone eavesdrop and allows them to sit there uncomfortable for fifteen minutes in the wet grass?
“It was nice to have someone here while I was processing what I was going to say to Miles.”
Poppy walked up the sidestep over to Decker and leaned against the other side of the column. “So he’s staying?”
He gave her a sidelong glance. “How much could you hear?”
“Enough to know you’ve had a rough night.” Sensing that he needed physical touch, she reached out and laid a hand on his arm. She was taken aback by how damp and clammy it was.
He flinched and went to pull away when she tightened her hold.
“Are you okay?” she asked gently.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shaking.” She walked around the column and took his hand in her own and tugged him to face her. When he met her gaze, she could see the perspiration beaded on his forehead. He wasn’t standing stoic and calm, he was standing ramrod straight, as if holding it together with pure muscle tension.
Before she could ask what was going on, Taters came running out the back door and immediately went to Decker and pressed into his leg and whined. Decker reached down and ran a hand along the dog’s jaw. “It’s okay, boy.”
