Chapter 11 #3
She wasn’t ready and, this time, she really wanted to put herself back together.
It was her mess to clean up. She felt Thom’s arms around her waist, his hand in her hair as she brought her cheek to his chest. This wasn’t, she realized, about possession; he was simply trying to protect her, to shield her.
She didn’t deserve it, but neither could she pull away.
He bent his head to speak in her ear. “Are you okay?”
Unable to speak, she nodded.
“He’s my brother, but he’s such a fuckwit, Pops. I’m so sorry he did that to you,” Thom said, voice low and wholly sincere.
Oh, Thom, you’re killing me now.
She knew his words were meant to comfort her, but they simply made her feel worse.
Because she hadn’t left because Benji had betrayed her.
After all, she’d betrayed him first by agreeing to marry him.
She never loved him, not the way you should when you were committing to spending your life with a person.
If Thom knew the real reason, would he still hold her like she was something infinitely precious?
Thom
“He what?”
For just an instant—before his body went rigid and his heart clenched—Thom hoped Wren would say she was joking. That Benji wasn’t the douchebag who’d cheated on his fiancée.
But apparently, he was.
So, yeah. It turned out Thom wasn’t special.
No matter who you were, if you loved Benji Sheffield, even a little, betrayal was inevitable.
And it only reinforced what Thom had always believed: the people you loved most, the ones you adored, were the ones best placed—and most likely—to cut the ground out from under your feet.
That had happened to him. And now it had happened to Poppy.
He rubbed the back of his neck, hating the fact that this felt like a double betrayal. Benji hadn’t only torpedoed his career and snatched Sheffield Security away from him—he’d also almost destroyed the woman Thom—
The woman he adored. His oldest friend. The person he was most protective of.
How dare he?
He’d messed with someone who might not have been in Thom’s orbit then, but who was under his protection now.
The urge to howl, to punch something—someone—rose hard and fast, but he shut it down.
He wouldn’t allow his so-called brother to get that kind of reaction from him.
No. For Poppy’s sake, and for his own, he needed to stay calm.
In control. He needed to figure out how this affected her and how much damage control he’d have to do.
He needed to know how much she knew about the affair.
Whether she blamed herself—Poppy was far too good at taking on blame that wasn’t hers—and how much pain she was in.
How embarrassed she felt. He had a raft of questions for her, but she looked shell-shocked, so he held them back for when they were alone.
Right now, she didn’t need an interrogation. She needed solidity. So he pulled her to him—letting her know he’d be the wall at her back, a steady presence at her side.
She needed to know that he was here. And that he wasn’t going anywhere.
Ruby
Ruby stood on the edge of the group crowded around Poppy and darted a look across the green to Lila and Naomi. They were in the bandstand, sharing the microphone with the lead singer, belting out the words and swaying to the beat.
She thought about calling them over, opened her mouth, then shut it again. Maybe this was something she should keep to herself. Or at the very least, give the news a little more time to sink in.
So, huh, the rat bastard had cheated on Poppy. Not, on any vibrational plane, a surprise. That’s what men did.
But Ruby knew the truth: Poppy had bolted from the wedding because she and Naomi had told her to, because Poppy didn’t love Benji. Ruby wondered if she ever had.
But did the news of his affair actually matter? Did it change anything? Ruby was still convinced Poppy needed protection. But not from Benji, and not from Thom—but from herself.
From the impossible dream of a happily-ever-after.
Ruby knew how this played out, she’d goddamn lived it.
Pretty words and great sex and a supportive hand on your back …
they made a girl’s mind mushy. She’d bet her bike that Poppy was already halfway there, thinking Thom was the guy.
Her guy. Imagining he could give her more than he could, and that Solstice Deep was her forever place.
That warmth and affection and belonging, all wrapped up in memories, equaled forever, equaled love. Ruby knew it didn’t, that it couldn’t.
Friendship, childhood, Thom’s protectiveness and their family dynamics were all complications, and they made it impossible for Poppy to see the situation clearly.
If they had been two people without all this extra baggage, their lives would be so much simpler.
But they weren’t. They had sticky strands of connection, topped by a hectic attraction.
His childhood attention to her, him owning Solstice Deep, the place she loved most, the fun they had together, mistaking friendship for love …
it was a lovely mess that would trick Poppy into thinking she’d found her place, that this was where she could find acceptance and love and where she could feel safe.
Poppy didn’t need outside affirmation; she needed to get it from deep within herself. Ruby couldn’t allow her to let her guard down, to be fooled, to not see things clearly…
Ruby knew this because she’d lived it.
For her, not realizing her own worth had, literally, cost her life. That could not happen to Poppy…