“Let me help you, love,” he murmured, holding them up forher to slide her feet into them. Patting his shoulders before he stood up, sheran her hands through his shoulder-length hair. Giving the strands a tug so hewould tip his head back, she stared into his eyes.
“I love you, Wheaton.”
She held her breath, unsure if he would respond to herdeclaration.
“I feel love for you too, Poppy.”
Hearing the words come from him made her eyes well up withhappy tears. Hoping he truly understood what he was saying, she leaned down fora quick kiss. He ran his fingers under her eyes to wipe away the tears that hadspouted. “These are not sad tears, correct?”
“No, these are very happy tears. Very happy tears.” Smilingwidely, she puckered her lips for another kiss.
“No more kisses, woman! I want to see our baby and thoselips will lead to us being late.” Pulling her to her feet, he swatted her buttbefore ushering her quickly out the door.
Poppy played through different scenarios in her mind. Hernerves were amped up with the thought that she would be able to finally speakto Hannah. This could go either of two ways. She could be calm and collected.Letting Hannah calmly know she was on to her tricks and it wouldn’t behappening again was the first option. Option two consisted of her jumping onthe tramp like a spider monkey, taking out her aggression on her perfectlycoifed hairstyle. Hoping she could act like the sensible person she was, shewould take route one over a brawl in their old apartment.
Once at Wheaton’s apartment door, Poppy tugged on his handfor him to wait for a moment. Taking a few breaths to calm herself, she pastedon a fake smile and then nodded at Wheaton to go ahead and open sesame.
The apartment was pretty much like it had been the nightshe’d left. There were papers on top of the coffee table, most likely Hannah’ssince Wheaton used his tablet for everything. Other than that, no personaltouches had been made to what she still considered her home.
“Hannah?” Wheaton said, clearing his throat.
“Yes, dear?” came from the direction of the bedroom.
Oh fuck no. Was that the way Hannah was going to start hermorning? Gripping Wheaton’s hand tightly, Poppy smiled up at him as he squeezedback. She prayed for the patience not to strangle the bitch and knew Wheatonwas silently urging to keep calm too.
Hannah appeared in the doorway in what Poppy could onlydescribe as a silk gown she had seen in movies, accompanied by little kittenheels with puffs on the toes. Her hair was tousled as if she’d just had asatisfactory night in bed. Rolling her eyes, Poppy was grateful that Wheatonhad been with her all night. If she had walked in to see him stumbling out ofthe bedroom behind Hannah dressed like this, she would have lost her shit. Asit was, she was having a very hard time not marching forward and grabbing ahank of that blonde hair.
Another squeeze of her hand made her glance away from Hannahback up to Wheaton.
“I did not require that she be naked in our bed…unlike withyou,” he pointed out quietly.
“Well, at least that’s something,” she murmured backsarcastically with another eye roll, this time in his direction.
“Oh! Good morning, Poppy,” Hannah said with a fake smile,acting surprised to see her nemesis.
“Good morning, Hannah,” Poppy said back with just as fake asmile. “We need to talk.”
“Oh, of course. Let’s make some coffee and we can chat whileWheaton gets ready for our day.” Her face was frozen in a plastic-lookingsmile.
“I’ll have tea with sugar instead of coffee but yes, let’sget comfortable,” Poppy agreed, moving to the counter.
Wheaton stared at both the women as if unsure it was safe toleave them alone.
“Wheaton, why don’t you go get ready before I take you tothe med center to show you what I’ve been doing? Hurry back though so we canmake sure we’re all on the same page.” Poppy gave his back a push toward thebedroom.
“Of course, let me change. I will be right back.” Wheatongave Poppy a pleading glance that she interpreted as Please don’t hit thebitch. Poppy wasn’t going to make any promises though until she figured outwhere Hannah was coming from.
“Yep, you should probably hurry.” After he walked away, sheturned to Hannah and dropped the fake face. It was starting to hurt her cheeksto pretend to like this woman.
Taking the mug Hannah passed her, she took a few seconds tostudy the woman. When the silence was too much for her to take any longer,Poppy spoke, unable to contain herself.
“Soooo…Wheaton told me you’ve been sleeping in the samebed.”
Hannah’s mouth popped open. Poppy figured she didn’t expectWheaton to have been honest with her.
“And he explained you two have kissed.”
Hannah cast a glance at the bedroom door. Was she hopingWheaton was a speed dresser and would suddenly appear to save her? Hannahcleared her throat delicately, her discomfort apparent, but she still remainedsilent.
“Which was your idea,” Poppy finished.
“Ummmm…well…” Hannah stammered, obviously unsure what to door say.
Liking the fact that she had the normally well-spoken womanstuttering, Poppy decided to lay all her cards on the table and let her haveit.
Setting down her cup, Poppy kept her voice as calm aspossible. “Listen, Hannah, I get it. You came here expecting to have a husbandand saw Wheaton. I know how I felt when I first saw him,” Poppyadmitted. “However, the crap that you pulled was not okay. Wheaton toldme about it and he now knows it’s not okay. I expect you to respect ourrelationship and back the fuck off. Comprende?” Poppy’s voice had risenwith each word out of her mouth, and she sat glaring at a stunned and slightlyscared Hannah.
“Well…” Hannah again cleared her throat, as if trying tocome up with something to say.
“Well what?” Poppy asked curtly.
Hannah pushed her silky strands behind one ear and tappedher fingers against her mug of coffee.
“Isn’t that Wheaton’s decision?” she countered with a liftof her chin. Poppy was surprised at the question. Apparently Hannah had justgrown
