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She lifted her head and returned the kiss on the tip of reat dad, Wheeler"

"Honey" She locked her eyes on reata baby"

She blinked long and slow, her breath escaping on a harsh breath "Yeah?" She didn’t sound like she fully believed me

I chuckled a little and touched my lips to hers "Yeah"

She climbed off my lap and scooted to the other side of the car Her hand was on the door handle as she asked like she hadn’t just ripped my heart out and handed it back to o back to work, but I’ll see you later tonight, right?"

Like anything could keep me away from her after she trusted me with some of the monsters that chased her in her sleep "Absolutely"

She smiled at me and rubbed her cheeks to clear away the evidence of her tears and I couldn’t help but iold eyes and honey-colored hair standing right next to a little boy that looked just like me

Poppy

My sister was beautiful, inside and out, but right now her perfectly painted ruby-red lips were pulled into a scowl so fierce she looked a little bit scary The winged edges of her lare extra sharpness and the bright pink on her high cheekbones had nothing to do with the subtle blush that irled there and everything to do with the anger that was evident in every line of her curvy body The manicured hand that was on the table in front of mine curled into a fist while her other one protectively covered the gentle swell that was visible behind her flowy off-the-shoulder top and high-waisted skirt She still had a ways to go in her pregnancy and it was obvious she wasn’t going to sacrifice style for coh heels on her feet, the toe of one tapping in aggravation as she stared at otten after I told her that our et near this baby over my dead body" The words were fierce and final "If she calls again, hang up Do not let her get inside your head She picked him over us our entire lives; now that she had to live with that choice without a buffer, it’s her cross to bear"

Her aze was intense and hard for me to meet, but I didn’t look ahen I told her, "I know that, but I also knohat it’s like to end up in a situation that you want out of but can’t find the door No one was there to show me the ay from Oliver and I don’t know that I can live with myself if I let someone else stay stuck in that kind of environlass of water "She should have helped you get away fro awhen he told his entire congregation that what happened was a tragedy, then had them pray for the man that abused you for years and not for you" She was unbending, but then again, she was the one that had been strong enough to walk away frolance She saw the black and white of it all, but I’d lived in the gray of wanting out but staying out of fear, so I understood it

"I don’t know that she understood whata man just like Dad really meant, Salem" I stuck a cold french fry in my mouth and cocked my head to the side as she narrowed her eyes even more at me "Her parents were hardly any different Grandpa married Grandma so he could stay in the country just like DadGrandpa was never faithful, never kind, and his expectations of Grandeous and impossible He ruled with an iron fist just like our dad did and there was no love lost in that home She found a hter to do the sa It’s a vicious cycle, one that I’ve learned isn’t all that uncoroup sessions: abuse was a vicious cycle, one that was hard to break even when you recognized the fact you were repeating dangerous patterns "She’s as much of a victim as I am"

"Survivor, Poppy You are a survivor, not a victim" She was so adamant that I had to s, refusing to let ive up

I chomped on another fry and lifted an eyebrow at her "Mom could be a survivor too, if someone helped show her that there was a better way to live I refuse to believe that anyone is beyond saving You wouldn’t let me waste away in a bad place and I’hed and tapped her long nails on the side of her glass "Fine, you do what you think you have to, but you proht now that if she doesn’t want your help, if she digs her heels in and unwaveringly stands by Dad, you back off I won’t let the you back into their house of misery and there is no way in hell Roill let either of them mess up the lives we’ve built here in Denver He’s protective of the present and resents the hell out of the past I can’t say I blame him"

I nodded at the waitress who stopped by and asked to take my plate, ansd then I chuckled when Salem ordered two different desserts She rolled her eyes at me and told me she expected me to share both She’d always had a sweet tooth; I wasn’t surprised pregnancy had made her insatiable

I wasn’t fond of the past either but it held painful lessons that I had to learn in order to avoid ht reed to lunch with Salem when she called and toldhalf a day at the tattoo shop and wanted to get together It was easier to be around her now that, sitting on Wheeler’s lap, I’d unburdenedpregnant It was so freeing to share, like a giant weight had been lifted off s to so a baby had helped more than months of therapy He wasn’t ood fortune He was heartbreakingly understanding and unendingly considerate … like he alas

That understanding, and his words after I told hi, were the reason I was beyond ready to take our relationship to the next level I’d lost count of the nuiven le one, I wanted , lean body on top of mine I wanted to rub e that filled out the front of his underwear and pressed insistently against me inside of my body I wanted to ride hiht But ive hiiven me I was ready to be an active participant I just couldn’t figure out the right way to communicate to him that I was ready for the next step He was careful with me, so mindful, and while I appreciated it, I was ready for him to throw caution to the wind and treat nificant amount of time in his bed I wanted this relationship to be real in all ways