Chapter 17
Gabe
“Nothing.” Reed spread his fingers wide, holding both hands in the air in a dramatic defensive gesture. “I swear.”
Through the beveled glass front door, Poppy’s distorted figure grew smaller. I suppressed the desire to throw a punch in Reed’s face. The fucker did something. I threw a pissed off glare his way then tore off after Poppy. The front door slammed behind me, and she ran faster.
I caught up to her as she slid onto her golf cart seat, and I gripped the side of the cart, prepared to hold it in place if she tried to speed away.
“What did he do?” She stared straight ahead. She sniffled. Tears soaked her cheeks. Christ. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Thank you for dinner.”
“Poppy…” I reached over and, with a soft touch, stroked her chin, prodding her to turn her head and let me see her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“Poppy, you’re crying. You can’t tell me nothing’s wrong.” When I raced outside, rage threatened to boil over. All I’d wanted was to know what he’d done so I’d know the why when I beat Reed to a pulp. But the sense of helplessness as tears fell down her reddening cheeks watered down the anger. I stifled the urge to drag her out of the cart and hold her until the tears dried up.
“I can’t let you leave here like this. Go for a walk with me on the beach,” I pleaded. I’d had girlfriends before. In my experience, if you gave them some time, they’d eventually speak and let you in.
She shook her head, stubborn. Her fingers gripped the steering wheel so hard the skin on the edges lost color.
“As friends. Let’s go for a walk.”
“I thought you said we couldn’t be friends.” She finally deigned to face me, and those tear-filled mammoth blue eyes sank me.
“I don’t want to be boxed into the friend zone, no. But I think right now you need a friend.” And it may have something to do with my friend inside, and once I find out what he did to you, I’m going to kill him.
“A walk. Nothing more?”
I nodded and offered my hand to help her out of the cart. I attempted to intertwine my fingers with hers, but she pulled back, denying me.
I followed her on the narrow, sandy path that trailed beside my house as her words echoed, nothing more. Reed must have propositioned her. He viewed her like one of the women from Cyr’s parties. My fault for not putting him in his place—for telling him about that blasted account in the first place.
We fell into line side by side along the water's edge. Moonlight lit our path, and a million stars twinkled overhead in the clear night sky. She had slipped off her flip flops and held the thongs between her fingers. I had on lace up tennis shoes and remained far enough from the incoming tide to keep them dry. I studied her as we walked. She sniffled, and her chest lifted and fell to an exaggerated degree as she breathed in and out, no doubt collecting her runaway emotions.
Questions circulated through my mind as our feet sank into the sand. She chose this life. Reed couldn’t be the first guy to expect whatever he’d expected. Surely, she didn’t break down into a tearful mess whenever a guy was out of line. My assumptions made me all the more curious as to what, exactly, he’d done. They hadn’t been alone for long.
We’d almost reached the point where East Beach and South Beach converged when she finally spoke. “When I was in high school, there was a guy—a friend. And, well, we were more than friends. For years. One day, one of his friends knocked on my door. Pushed his way in. Said Ben…he’s the guy, my friend…he said Ben said he should come over. Said…it doesn’t matter. I didn’t believe him. But he pushed himself on me and ripped my shirt and groped me. I screamed, and he left.”
Did Reed touch you?
“I was so angry, and I thought if Ben knew, he’d be angry, too. He was my neighbor. His parents weren’t home yet. I walked in without knocking, and I heard him swearing to the guys that I was easy. That he didn’t know why I didn’t put out…and one of his friends said something about that I saw him as a boyfriend. And he said… ‘You think I’d date a fat girl? She gives good blowjobs. Great boobs. If she’s not willing to give it up to you, well, what can I say. Maybe your dick doesn’t stack up.’”
The pieces of her story fell together like a Poppy puzzle. High school. Ben. “The guy calling you nonstop last night? That was Ben?”
“And his friends. They found out about my…account.”
“What does that have to do with Reed?”
“He propositioned me. And not in an inappropriate way.” She rushed her defense of Reed.
“But it reminded you of what happened before. In high school.”
“I pretty much hid out for the rest of the year. Rumors seemed to be everywhere. Those boys lied. My mom was never home. My senior year, she’d started dating someone new, and I basically lived alone, and it seemed like once the boys knew that, they’d come over after school. Laughing, egging each other on. It got to the point I didn’t answer the door.”
“But you chose this…” I trailed off, searching for the least offensive word, “career.” I didn’t understand. I circled back to thinking Reed couldn’t be the first guy to proposition her. Sure, the high school guys were jerks, but it didn’t add up.
“Okay, first off.” Poppy stopped walking and threw her index finger into the air. “I sell my photos online. That’s it. I don’t do phone sex, I don’t masturbate on camera, I don’t have sex on camera. I am not a prostitute.
