Chapter 14 #2
“You wanted a family affair or you would have told me about Steve. So how is this any different?”
“Your dad—”
“Steve.”
“Steve is the executive producer. I do what he tells me to do.”
“Including hoodwinking me into a binding contract, then springing my long-lost father on me? Not cool, Jack. Not cool.”
“Take it up with dear old Dad. As far as the kid is concerned, it’s a hard no.”
Poppy held her hand out with authority. “Give me your phone.”
“It’s against all rules.”
“So is you showing up at ten the other night unannounced to tape us in a private moment.” Jack had the decency to look embarrassed. She snapped her fingers. “The phone, Jack.”
He handed it over and she held it up to his face to unlock the screen. Then she fumbled through his contacts until she found Steve’s number. How sad was it that she had to use another man’s phone to call her dad since she didn’t know his number.
She put it on speaker and dialed. It rang exactly one time and then a sleep-roughened voice answered. “It’s six in the morning. This had better be good.”
“Sorry to call so early,” Poppy said, and she could feel the shock and tension on the other side of the phone.
“Don’t apologize. I’d take your call any time of the day,” Steve said.
“Funny, because you never took my calls when I was a kid.” And once again, Poppy felt like that confused and lost little girl, desperate for his love and approval.
“I was a selfish, insecure prick who most nights found himself in the bottom of a bottle of Johnny Walker,” Steve said.
“So you were a shit dad because you were a drunk?”
“No,” he said, his tone filled with sincerity. “I was a selfish prick because I let my ego run my life. When your mom and I—”
“Nope,” Poppy said sternly. “You mention one thing about my mom and ‘Go to hell’ will be the last thing you ever hear from me.”
She could hear him release a pent-up breath. “You’re right. That ship sailed long ago. I didn’t think I’d hear from you,” Steve said, a sliver of cautious hope in his voice.
“I didn’t think I’d ever call,” Poppy admitted, and suddenly she was regretting the call. But she was on a mission to help a family heal, so she squashed the instinct to tell him to fuck off. “I need a favor.”
“Anything,” Steve said.
“Decker’s nephew broke onto the set last night, and he wants to stay and work alongside his uncle. And before you say no, think of it as a way to add those warm fuzzy family dynamics to the show.”
“Did he reveal anything about the show so far?”
“No,” she lied. “And even if he did, I’d still be asking. He’s promised to hand over his phone and disconnect for the remaining weeks.”
“This goes against the contract we have with the streamer.”
“That’s what I told her,” Jack said, and Poppy shot him a death glare.
“All he needs to do is sign the same NDA as we did, with a stipulation that anything he knows of the show from the already aired episodes he can’t share, and there shouldn’t be a problem. Right?”
Steve hemmed and hawed, and Poppy used the only weapon she had.
“I’ve only asked you for one thing in my life and you couldn’t give me that.” It had been a DNA test to prove she was his, but he’d never responded to her request. “This is the only thing I’ll ever ask of you again.”
“I’ll make it happen. Now, if you could hand Jack the phone so we can figure this out?”
And before she could think of what to say, the words, “Thanks, Steve,” came tumbling out. Two words she’d never thought she’d ever say together, but there they were.
“You have to be kidding,” Jack said as he climbed in his car and disappeared around the corner, likely heading for his office, where he was going to spend the rest of the morning forcing a legal team to come up with an ironclad NDA.
Unsure how to handle the complicated and contrasting emotions knotted in her stomach, she turned to head back to the pool house when she nearly ran into a warm, wall of muscle and yummy man parts.
“You didn’t have to do that,” he said so quietly his voice nearly got lost in the early morning breeze.
“I know. I wanted to.”
“Why?”
“Because Miles looked so happy when we told him he could stay, and I didn’t want to take that away from him. Especially after the lashing you took from Brian.”
He took a step closer, eating up all the space between them. “Is that the only reason?”
Poppy wanted to say no, but that would be a lie. And if there was one thing she hated more than cowards, it was liars. And she refused to be either. No matter how embarrassing her answer would be.
“No.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and the simple contact loosened the emotional ball in her belly. “You want to tell me why you’d ask a man who you clearly have a complicated history with for a favor?”
“Because asking him for a favor would hurt less than watching you miss out on spending time with your nephew.” And here came the difficult part. “People tend to repeat what they can’t repair. I might not be able to fix my own family, but maybe I can be a small part of fixing yours.”
This time when he reached out, he cupped her cheek and held her as if she were the most precious thing in the world. In his world. “What happened to your family, Angel?”
“Too much to talk about so early in the morning. Especially when the emotions are right at the surface, too raw to deconstruct.”
“I know the feeling,” he said, and for some reason she didn’t think he was talking about their families anymore.