Chapter 15 In Her Hands #2
Poppy made a tiny sound that landed somewhere between a sob and a laugh, surprised enough to be both.
Luna glanced down. Poppy was staring at her instead of the phones, the lists, or any of the women waiting to respond. Her hand had flattened over Luna's ribs. Her thumb moved once beneath the edge of Luna's tank but stopped at the warm strip of waist the fabric exposed.
Camille followed the movement. Her expression softened.
"All right," she said. "Kappa follows the plan."
Luna nodded once. Camille had asked the question she was supposed to ask, and Luna had answered without treating her like an enemy.
Kit was already holding out her phone to Poppy. "Same file."
Poppy sent it.
Kit shared it into the Delta channel without changing a word. "Delta gets the same rules and the same opening time. Anybody with a complaint can bring it to me after they finish reading the whole thing."
Mackenzie's phone buzzed. Then Harper's.
Mackenzie scanned the post and tucked her phone into her back pocket. "We'll help make the waitlist work."
"I'll build the confirmation tracker," Harper said.
Poppy looked from Kit to Luna. She'd spent the last hour finding careful ways to disappoint people. Both women had stepped forward and made sure she wouldn't stand alone inside the answer.
She opened her mouth.
Kit lifted one finger. "If that's a thank-you, save it. I got to terrify the entire Delta channel with one post. That's its own reward."
Poppy laughed, but the sound wobbled. Kit reached across the counter and squeezed her hand once before letting go.
Luna didn't let go.
Poppy turned within the circle of Luna's arm. "You really didn't read it."
"No."
"What if I'd accidentally included a mandatory wet T-shirt contest?"
"Then Kappa would've registered faster."
Poppy smiled. Her thumb found the pulse inside Luna's wrist and rested there. "You put your name under mine without checking a word."
"You made the call. I decided who could yell at me about it."
Poppy stared at her. The room kept moving around them, phones buzzing and plans changing hands, but she didn't chase any of it. She stayed inside Luna's arm and let the support reach her.
Her hand remained over Luna's pulse, as if she needed proof that the choice had shaken Luna too.
Her smile returned slowly.
This one didn't belong to the room.
Luna felt the change in her before I saw it. Her fingers flexed at Poppy's waist. Poppy turned farther into her. Her gaze dropped to Luna's mouth and stayed there while phones buzzed around them.
Kit caught it too.
"Harper, Mackenzie, you're with me," she said, gathering the tablet and capacity list. "We need the confirmation flow finished before the rules go live."
Bristol lifted the clipboard from the counter. "Camille, Elena, Jessa, I need three people capable of explaining a waitlist without starting a riot."
"You've come to the wrong women," Elena said.
Jessa put an arm around her shoulders. "Speak for yourself. I'm delightful in a riot."
"That's what concerns me."
Bristol looked at Camille. "You can translate them into adults."
Camille took the clipboard. "Probably."
They moved together toward the lodge, Kit and Bristol setting a pace that gave everyone else something practical to follow. Mackenzie and Harper went with Kit. Camille fell in beside Bristol. Elena and Jessa trailed them, arguing about which one would make a worse customer-service representative.
Kit looked back once.
Her glance went to Poppy instead of me.
She gave her best friend a small, happy smile, then followed the others through the lodge doors.
None of them came back.
The last daylight had drained off Sapphire Lake while we argued.
Pool blue mixed with the warmer work lights above the unfinished bar.
A drill sat where I'd left it. Poppy's phone rested beside Luna's on the counter.
Beyond the rail, boat lights moved across the dark water and disappeared behind the point.
Poppy still had one hand on Luna's bare waist.
Luna still had an arm around her.
I stood close enough to touch both of them and smart enough not to put myself between them.
Poppy drew a breath. "Well."
The word came out thin.
She reached for the capacity sheet Kit had left behind.
Luna covered Poppy's hand before she touched it.
"No."
Poppy looked at their stacked hands. "There's still work."
"There will be work tomorrow."
"The tracker needs the final fields, and Harper will have questions, and I should probably draft something friendly for the waitlist because if the rejection message sounds cold people will think we're being rude when we're really being legally responsible, which is less fun but important, and—"
Luna slid the sheet out of reach.
The interruption shut Poppy up more effectively than words could have.
"You made the plan," Luna said. "Kit and Bristol took the next part. Let them."
Poppy's mouth curved automatically. "You say that like surrendering control is relaxing."
"For you? Probably not."
"See? You understand me."
"I do. That's why I'm asking."
Poppy's smile remained, but the joke behind it faded. Luna turned toward her fully, placing one hand on each of Poppy's hips. She didn't crowd her yet. She just made it impossible for Poppy to redirect the conversation toward a phone or a list.
"Why do you do that?" Luna asked.
"Steal office supplies? It's a compulsion."
Luna didn't smile.
Poppy's fingers tightened at her waist.
"You give people bad news and then work twice as hard to make sure they still feel good about you," Luna said. "You let both houses pull at you until you're shaking, and when they finally stop, you reach for another job. Why?"
Poppy glanced at me.
I wanted to touch her. I wanted to tell her she never had to earn a place with any of us. I also knew the question hadn't come from me, and any answer I supplied would let Poppy hide inside the love she already understood.
I rested one hand on the counter and kept my mouth shut.
"I like taking care of people," Poppy said.
"I know."
"It isn't fake."
"I know that too."
"Then what's the problem?"
Luna's thumbs moved along the front of Poppy's hips. Slow. Deliberate. Poppy tracked the motion with her breath.
"You never stop long enough to ask whether taking care of everyone is keeping you from asking for something yourself."
Poppy tried to laugh. "I asked for an iced coffee this morning. Very assertively."
Luna waited.
The laugh died without becoming a second joke.
Poppy looked down at Luna's hands. Her own slid up Luna's sides until her palms rested over the muscle beneath the black tank. She tested the shape of Luna there, fingertips pressing in. Luna's breathing changed.
"What do you want from me?" Luna asked. "When there isn't a house to keep happy. When you don't need to fix me, help Nash, protect Kit, or make this place run. What do you want from me then?"
Poppy's fingers stopped.
Her thumb pressed harder into Luna's side before she answered.
The question stripped away every safe answer. Poppy couldn't hide inside the group, the task, or a reason that made her wanting useful to somebody else.
Her eyes lifted to Luna's.
"You."
Luna's hands tightened.
Poppy stepped closer. Their shirts touched. Then their breasts. Then the bare line of Poppy's stomach pressed to Luna's knuckles where the hem of her tank had lifted.
"I want you," Poppy said. Her voice shook, but she didn't brighten it or soften the truth for anyone.
"I want your hands on me when I'm not falling apart.
I want you looking at my mouth because you want to kiss it, not because you're checking whether I'm about to say something brave.
I want to touch you without pretending it's only because I touch everybody. "
Luna's composure went still in the way glass did just before it cracked.
Poppy raised one hand to her face. Her fingertips traced Luna's jaw. Her thumb paused at the corner of Luna's mouth.
"I don't watch everybody the way I watch you," Poppy whispered. "I don't notice every time they touch me back."
Luna closed her eyes.
Only for a second. Long enough for Poppy's thumb to brush her lower lip. Long enough for Luna to admit with her body how hard the words had landed.
When she opened them, Sundance was there: the woman who knew what she wanted and finally trusted the people beside her enough to reach.
Her hand moved beneath the back of Poppy's tank and spread across bare skin. Poppy arched into her palm.
"I want you too," Luna said.
Poppy's breath left her in a soft rush.
"Not because you make things easier. Not because you're good for him or good for the girls or good at making a room feel like home.
" Luna drew her closer. "I want you when you're loud.
I want you when you're tired. I wanted you five minutes ago when you told half the lake no and looked like it hurt you more than them. "
Poppy's chin trembled.
Luna caught the back of her neck before she could look away.
"Stay here," Luna said.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"You always go somewhere. Usually toward whoever needs you next."
Poppy's other hand rose into Luna's hair. She wound the blonde strands around her fingers and pulled gently until Luna's face angled down toward hers.
"Nobody needs me more than I need this right now."
My cock hardened against my work shorts.
Poppy and Luna stood close enough to kiss, breathing the same warm air. Luna's grip at Poppy's neck remained steady. Poppy's fingers held Luna's hair. Neither looked at me.
That made it hotter. Poppy had asked for Luna because she wanted Luna, and Luna's entire body had answered. I was close enough to feel it without becoming the reason for it.
Poppy rose onto her toes.
The last inch disappeared because she took it.
Her mouth met Luna's softly once, a first touch that lasted just long enough for both women to feel the fact of it.
Then Poppy opened her lips and kissed her for real.