Page 52 of Halloween Town

Because saying it out loud would make everything she did, and put up with, sound as bad as it was. And Wren, hurt and sad and mad, would send her a “let’s talk” look—and Poppy knew she’d be in the path of some truth bullets. Or missiles.

And then she’d say it. “What the hell were you thinking?”

Because Wren knew what love, real love, grown-up love, looked like. Dane was solid and steady; he didn’t make Wren question his love—it was just there, constant and consistent. He wore it openly, easily, like it cost him nothing. Wren never once had to convince herself of it.

But Poppy’d spent the past year and a bit justifying Benji.

With Dane, Wren never had to be anyone other than who she was. She never shrunk herself to be acceptable. And Poppy would have to tell her—say the words out loud—that she’d been prepared to compromise the very essence of who she was, to twist herself into something smaller, just to feel chosen.

Wren would drag the truth of her insecurities—painful and long held—into the light, make her face it, deal with it. Make her look at the ugliest parts of herself and then—because she loved her—force her to do something about it. Not later and not gently. Right damn now. And on Wren’s timeline, not hers.

She wasn’t ready and, this time, she really wanted to put herself back together. It was her mess to clean up. She felt Thom’s arms around her waist, his hand in her hair as she brought her cheek to his chest. This wasn’t, she realized, about possession; he was simply trying to protect her, to shield her. She didn’t deserve it, but neither could she pull away. He bent his head to speak in her ear. “Are you okay?”

Unable to speak, she nodded.

“He’s my brother, but he’s such a fuckwit, Pops. I’m so sorry he did that to you,” Thom said, voice low and wholly sincere.

Oh, Thom, you’re killing me now.

She knew his words were meant to comfort her, but they simply made her feel worse. Because she hadn’t left because Benji had betrayed her. After all, she’d betrayed him first by agreeing to marry him. She never loved him, not the way you should when you were committing to spending your life with a person.

If Thom knew the real reason, would he still hold her like she was something infinitely precious?

Thom

“He what?”

For just an instant—before his body went rigid and his heart clenched—Thom hoped Wren would say she was joking. That Benji wasn’t the douchebag who’d cheated on his fiancée.

But apparently, he was.

So, yeah. It turned out Thom wasn’t special. No matter who you were, if you loved Benji Sheffield, even a little, betrayal was inevitable. And it only reinforced what Thom had always believed: the people you loved most, the ones you adored, were the ones best placed—and most likely—to cut the ground out from under your feet.

That had happened to him. And now it had happened to Poppy.

He rubbed the back of his neck, hating the fact that this felt like a double betrayal. Benji hadn’t only torpedoed his career and snatched Sheffield Security away from him—he’d also almost destroyed the woman Thom⁠—

The woman he adored. His oldest friend. The person he was most protective of.

How dare he?

He’d messed with someone who might not have been in Thom’s orbit then, but who was under his protection now. The urge to howl, to punch something—someone—rose hard and fast, but he shut it down. He wouldn’t allow his so-called brother to get that kind of reaction from him. No. For Poppy’s sake, and for his own, he needed to stay calm. In control. He needed to figure out how this affected her and how much damage control he’d have to do.

He needed to know how much she knew about the affair. Whether she blamed herself—Poppy was far too good at taking on blame that wasn’t hers—and how much pain she was in. How embarrassed she felt. He had a raft of questions for her, but she looked shell-shocked, so he held them back for when they were alone.

Right now, she didn’t need an interrogation. She needed solidity. So he pulled her to him—letting her know he’d be the wall at her back, a steady presence at her side.

She needed to know that he was here. And that he wasn’t going anywhere.

Ruby

Ruby stood on the edge of the group crowded around Poppy and darted a look across the green to Lila and Naomi. They were in the bandstand, sharing the microphone with the lead singer, belting out the words and swaying to the beat.

She thought about calling them over, opened her mouth, then shut it again. Maybe this was something she should keep to herself. Or at the very least, give the news a little more time to sink in.

So, huh, the rat bastard had cheated on Poppy. Not, on any vibrational plane, a surprise. That’s what men did.

But Ruby knew the truth: Poppy had bolted from the wedding because she and Naomi had told her to, because Poppy didn’t love Benji. Ruby wondered if she ever had.