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“No, she’s with Sara.” Sam sat back in his seat.
Cyrus slapped Charlie’s shoulder. “We’re just taking care of her.”
“Sure.” Poppy’s older brother rolled his eyes and turned onto the interstate. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Let us know what you figure out when you do.” Sam stared at Bogie and grunted. “You should’ve sacrificed your seat for me, dog. I’ve done so much for you and this is how you repay me?”
“This is going to be too good.” Laughing happily, Charlie’s smile stretched far too wide to be safe for us. “I can’t wait to watch how this plays out. Poppy is going to murder all three of you.”
“She’s not going to see us. We’re spying, Charlie. The point is not to be seen.” I smacked Cyrus’s leg that was pressing into mine. “If you don’t close your legs a little bit, I’m going to lose my fucking mind.”
“I thought you weren’t spying?”
“We’re not spying.” I groaned. “Look. We’re spying a little bit, but not enough for it to count. Got it?”
Charlie laughed even louder. “Oh, this is just too good. I can’t wait. The brothers are going to love this.”
The idea of Charlie and the rest of Poppy’s brothers sitting around, gossiping about the state of idiocracy the three of us had hit wasn’t exactly appealing. Yet, I still didn’t want to go back home. I wanted to see Poppy. It’d been a long day at work and not seeing her didn’t feel like an option anymore.
Cyrus calmly leaned forward and spoke quietly right behind Charlie’s head and I watched Charlie shudder as he let Cyrus creep him out. “Charlie, you know we know where your skeletons are buried, buddy.”
I covered my mouth to keep from laughing and Sam slyly fist-bumped our best friend who sometimes looked and seemed like a criminal. Cyrus patted Charlie’s arm and leaned back like nothing had ever happened, while Charlie shook his head and took the next exit.
“I swear to god, Cyrus, if you weren’t my sister’s best friend, I’d shoot you. It just proves to me that Poppy really is insane because I’ve seen her try to rile you up and love it. Meanwhile, the rest of us, the ones with any sense, want to cross the street when we see you coming.” Charlie shuddered again. “I’m going to put you on a watch list, you scary motherfucker.”
Cyrus grinned at me and Sam. His biggest dream in life was to make sure too many people didn’t approach him, so Charlie was just telling him things he wanted to hear. “Your sister watches me plenty. You can relax.”
“What’s that mean?” Charlie turned onto a smaller highway and looked over at Bogie. “You’re supposed to be keeping these idiots away. Have you been sleeping on the job?”
When none of us answered, Charlie growled and turned the radio up. He was as easy to tease as his sister. The craziest thing was that even though Charlie had a gun, Poppy was still scarier when riled. There was no telling what she was going to do or say. As much as her other feelings may have been stunted, her anger was not.
“One of you is touching my sister, aren’t you?” Instead of being angry, he actually sounded excited. “I need to know who it was and when it started. I’ve got money riding on this. I could win big.”
“What? Who are you betting with about this?” Sam took one look at Charlie’s face and whistled. “Whoaren’tyou betting with about this?”
Charlie tapped his fingers along to the beat. “I guess we all have our secrets. Also, to whoever is touching my baby sister, the only sister I’ve got, I’m not opposed to body disposal. Fuck with mybabysister’s heart and I’ll fuck with yours.”
42
***Poppy***
“Thenwhatdidhesay?” I held Sara’s hand and leaned in closer.
“He said that he was looking for someone who made him work a little harder. He basically called me easy.” She stared down at her drink, doing her best to fight the tears that filled her eyes.
I was seething. “Did he not sleep with you too? Or did you do it all by yourself?”
She sank further into our booth. “It was so embarrassing, Poppy. It’s not like we’ve been dating for long or anything, but I thought Nick was really nice and that he liked me.”
“There’s karma for men like him and her name is Poppy Jo Summers today. Let’s go.” I stood up and motioned to our waitress. “We need the check, honey, because we’ve got mayhem to release.”
Sara looked up at me with hope in her big blue eyes. “Really?”
The waitress stopped next to me and ripped me off a ticket. “Normally I protest being called honey, but I liked that one. Is this about a man?”
I handed her a bill that was much larger than the check and included too large of a tip for a teacher, but I was in a destructive mood and that included my bank account, apparently. “You know it. It’s always a man.”
“Let me guess. He cheated. He dumped you for some asinine reason. Or he’s leaving the state to follow his dreams of becoming a glassblower.” The woman nodded. “Yeah, I got that one. Twice.”
