“That’s not true,” Poppy insisted.
“Name the last time you went out with someone other than me.”
“Decker,” she said, and the disdain she’d felt for him was nowhere in sight. “Look how that went.”
“I think it went great. You just don’t want to admit that therecould be something there, but you’re too laser focused on your show to give it a chance. Until tonight.”
“What does that mean?”
Kiki rolled her eyes. “Um. You kissed.”
“It was a mistake.”
“Was it though? The Poppy I know doesn’t make mistakes. In fact, you are so determined to be in control that you’re missing out on the fun part of life.”
“The last time I put my trust in someone they left me to fend for myself. I was eight and left with an unfit mother, all because of a misunderstanding that had nothing to do with me. A dad is the person who raises you. It doesn’t matter if you share DNA or not.”
Poppy swallowed hard, which made her mad. She didn’t get emotional over Steve. It was a long time ago. But after seeing him, it was like he’d ripped the bandage off her heart, exposing the raw underbelly that she’d repressed all these years.
Poppy shook her head. “I had to defend myself to survive. No kid should go through that. Plus, I’ve worked too hard to put myself in that position again.”
“Not everyone is like Steve,” Kiki said quietly, and even hearing his name brought back so many painful memories and emotions it was hard to swallow past the betrayal and heart-wrenching disappointment. “Not everyone is an asshole and bails when things get messy,” Kiki assured her, but Poppy had been left holding the bag too many times to feel any kind of reassurance.
“Something better came along.” Story of her life.
“That doesn’t mean Decker will bail. He can’t because he is contractually bound. Not to mention he needs this job as much as you do.”
That was what she’d gathered by the phone call with his brother. Not that she was about to share something so personal. It was his story to tell. And his alone.
“Don’t worry about that asshole. Steve isn’t worth thinking about,” Kiki told her.
She couldn’t even count the number of times she’d wondered if she should have tried harder to convince him to stay. But what would have been the point? Her mom pled with her dad to listen to the truth about Poppy being his biological daughter, and he didn’t even want to take a DNA test. He just bailed and started over with a new family. He claimed her mom’s infidelity was too hard to overcome.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Kiki scolded. “One more thought in that direction, and I will make you Sheetrock the ceiling today.”
Poppy gasped and felt perspiration bead behind her knees. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“I have and I will.”
Poppy closed her eyes and imagined being on drywall stilts and went slightly dizzy from her fear. She forced her eyes to shoot back open and shivered.
“Maybe that’s why I have it out for Cupid. I saw what love and the loss of it did to my mom. The little bastard has wings and flies. You know I get sympathetic height fear.”
“I’m talking about banging a sex god. It’s interesting though that you brought up those words because I never said anything about relationships or Cupid?”
Poppy was in more trouble than she thought because Kiki was the second person that evening to point it out. Talk about Freudian slip.
“Enough with the therapy talk. What I need is solid advice on what to do next.”
“My suggestion? Sleep with him and find out. It’s okay to be selfish sometimes.”
Her belly flipped over the thought of tangling the sheets with Decker. Her head reminded her that it was not the time for an illicit affair. “How about option two?”
“Go for the unaffected attitude, like the kiss was just a kiss and always wonder what if.”
“Under no circumstancesis he allowed to stay,” Jack said early the next morning. He was dressed in wrinkled jeans, yesterday’s stubble, and bed head. “It’s bad enough that the kid spoke to you at all. It could ruin the trajectory of the show.”
“It’s a home improvement show. What kind of deep dark secrets could he expose?” Poppy said, but Jack remained silent. Suspicion weighed heavy in her gut, her little warning bells blasting. “Unless there’s something else you’re not telling me.”
