Page 17 of The Lie

“We? Pop? There’s no we in this equation, and her name is Poppy.”

“She’s going to be my future sister-in-law one day, so I’m allowed to call her Pop.”

“No, she’s not. She’s nothing to you.” I open my mouth to add, ‘She’s nothing to me either’, but the words won’t come. Shit. Since when is that not true? I scrub a hand down my face. How the fuck did I get here?

“I have no problem with you calling Amanda, Mandy or Man,” Nolan says.

I grind my back teeth together. “I already have a problem calling her Amanda,” I deadpan.

“Stop hating on my fiancée.”

“I will when she stops hating you.”

“Leave her to me.”

“Gladly.”

“So how can we help Pop?”

“Poppy doesn’t do the whole damsel in distress thing. She’s the kind of woman who’ll ask for help if she needs it. Try to force it on her, and she’ll lose her shit.”

“You sound like a man speaking from experience.”

“Because I am. She was pissed when I took it upon myself to step in as her fake boyfriend.”

My brother arches an eyebrow. “And you bitch about Amanda.”

“That woman and Poppy aren’t even in the same league. Poppy got pissed because I crossed a line, and rightly so. Amanda’s just nasty. For her, being a bitch is a personality trait.”

“She loves me.”

“Ha,” I scoff. “She loves the lifestyle you provide her, while making everyone else miserable.”

“I’m getting sick of you and mum constantly putting her down. Yes, she’s not perfect, and maybe she busts my balls … often, but in a few weeks, she’ll be family. It’s time you accept this is who I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

“Are you so blinded by a pretty face and big tits that you can’t see what’s underneath? You’ve had healthy relationships in the past. Can’t you see how toxic this one is? That woman is a walking red flag.”

“Enough,” he snaps, clearly on the verge of losing his patience.

I hold up my hands in surrender. Everything I’ve said is the truth, but it feels like I’m talking to a fucking brick wall. Maybe he needs to learn his lesson the hard way.

“Fine, but when this blows up in your face, don’t say I didn’t warn you. As for Poppy, I left my business card on her dining room table while she was getting my shirt out of the dryer. If she needs anything, she knows how to reach me. If she doesn’t, I’m not going to force it.”

“You can deny it all you want, but I know you like her.”

“As a person, yes.”

“No, big brother, you like her more than that. I got a front row seat to the two of you when we were at her house, and it gave me all the feels.”

“The feels? You sound like a chick.”

He drums his fingers on the tabletop and gives me a knowing look. “She likes you too, by the way. I saw the way her eyes nearly popped out of her head when you took your shirt off and showed her all the goods.”

“The goods?”

“I also saw the way you checked out her arse when she left the room to go to the laundry. I even noticed how hard she tried not to look at your bare chest when we were sitting at the dining table. She failed, by the way. Every so often, her eyes would flick down, and her cheeks would turn pink. I also noticed how you kept staring at her, like you were practically begging her to look at you⁠—”

“You’re so full of shit,” I say, cutting him off.