Page 76 of Halloween Town

“Of course they did.”

Thom

Ghosts helped her leave.

Actually, he couldn’t go there now. He couldn’t consider ghost crap on top of everything else. Right now, he needed to make complete sense of what she was telling him.

He looked at Poppy, taking in the misery in her eyes, embarrassment, and pride fighting for dominance. Look, he knew that her family dynamic was dysfunctional, and that she’d been emotionally neglected and dismissed, treated like a dim lightbulb in a string of brightly-colored LED lights.

But he never thought she’d put up with his cheating shit of a brother, just to have her family invite her to fucking dinner and trips away, go for coffee dates. Where did this come from? How had this happened?

He hadn’t been around to keep it from happening. The thought smacked him sideways. Guilt, like an acid-tipped spear, shot through him. “I know you never had an easy time with them, but I never realized they made you feel so worthless.”

Her small shoulders lifted, and she looked so damn young. “I guess things started to change and get worse, when my grandma died. She was my rock, my sounding board, the person I told everything first. Her death flattened me. I felt adrift in the weeks and months after she died, like I’d lost a piece of myself. Wren was busy, and I felt so alone.

“But I still had Grandpa M. When he died my world dropped out from under me. A couple of weeks before his death, I’d just started to, casually, see Benji. Then my mom, seeing our relationship, started inviting us around for dinner, to cocktail parties. I didn’t correlate my sudden popularity with dating Benji, I just thought it was nice to reconnect with my family, to do things with them. Being with them helped dampen my grief.

“It snowballed from there,” she admitted. “I think a part of me always knew I was only accepted because I’d finally done something right to enhance the family name.”

“Do they have any idea what a shit he is?” Thom demanded, frustrated beyond belief. Not with her, but because he couldn’t go back in time and kick ass. How could they treat Poppy so badly?

She shrugged. “He’s ambitious, wants to go into politics, and he will be successful. He’s handsome, smooth, verbally adept, and has absolutely no morals; he’s perfect for the job. Glenda McMaster is—was—very keen to have a politician son-in-law.” Poppy lifted her hands. “Anyway, that’s why I didn’t tell you. Are we good now?”

No, they most definitely were not good. Nowhere near it. Because at the end of the day, Poppy hadn’t trusted him with her worst moment, with her insecurities, and with her humiliation.

“What did you think I would do if you told me, Poppy?” he asked, keeping his voice low. “Did you think I would’ve laughed at you? Mocked you?”

She shrugged, and he fought the urge to scream. “What’s the point of rehashing this? It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”

Every muscle in his body contracted, and he felt a little dizzy, unable to believe that the woman he adored—probably loved—thought that bad behavior was excusable, and that it could be swept away and forgiven. Why was he the only one who didn’t find that easy to do?

Was his stomach swooping in a non-fun way because of her or because this conversation reminded him of everything that happened before? These emotions felt so familiar, like an old, bad friend who rocked up out of the blue, intent on fucking with him again.

Poppy moved closer to him and placed a hand on his arm. “I can see that you are upset, Thom,” she said. “But when I heard Benji was cheating, it barely registered. It wasn’t a big thing and I’m not even angry about it.”

Well, he was. Benji had cheated on her, disrespected her, and never made her feel loved. Instead of building her up, he made her feel worthless. Thom was so damn proud of her for running, for finding the courage to defy her family and their expectations. To bail from the shitshow that was her society wedding. That had taken guts. But he couldn’t understand how she could frame their despicable actions as something unimportant and inconsequential.

It was a monstrously big fucking deal. She deserved more… She deserved everything.

He couldn’t talk, couldn’t make his tongue work, and he definitely couldn’t remember when he was last this angry. But he had to hold it together; he would not lose his temper, would not make her feel threatened or frightened. He was a guy who knew how to regulate his emotions, he rarely lost control but, thanks to their earlier argument, his conversation with Mark, and Benji rocking up like an unwelcome dose of the clap, it was bubbling just under the surface. He knew he should walk away before Poppy caught the extent of his fury.

“I think we should talk about this later,” he muttered.

When he was calm, he would sit her down and explain, in great detail, why her parents and family were morons, why Benji was a maggoty shit. And they would have a very serious discussion about her self-confidence going forward. She had to start seeing herself as he saw her, as Wren and Luna did. As Hayes, Dane and Hadley did. Smart and creative. Loving. Courageous and sentimental. Chaotic in the best way possible. So, so easy to love…

Poppy blew air into her cheeks and lifted her hand, palm forward. “Before you go, maybe this is a good time to tell you that I’m moving out.”

Her words were the verbal equivalent of a meteor strike. His muscles contracted and he pushed his feet into the ground, trying to anchor himself. Had he heard her correctly? A combination of emotions—fear, disbelief, shock—roared through him and froze him solid, as if she’d dipped him into a vat of liquid nitrogen.

Maybe this is a good time to tell you that I’m moving out…

Newsflash: there was never a good time to hear those words.

“Why?” The single word dragged itself up from the bottom of his soul.

She nodded toward the house and tried—and failed—to smile. “I can’t grow here, Thom. And I think I need to stand on my own feet, be independent. It’s too easy to let you take over. It’s not about leaving you—I’m still going to be around—but I won’t be living with you.”

He didn’t understand a single word she was saying, all he heard was a distorted roar in his head. Wait, he recognized this, knew what was happening … he’d been here before.