Page 79 of Halloween Town

“Can I drive you somewhere?” Thom asked, nodding at her suitcase.

Poppy lifted her head, and Ruby knew how much courage it took to meet his eyes. “Hayes is on his way.”

Thom nodded.

“I’ll be back to pick up my stuff sometime.”

“I’m leaving tomorrow, I need to see my client in Washington.”

Ruby caught Naomi’s eye and they both winced at the stilted conversation. In less than twelve hours, Thom and Poppy had gone from making love, laughing, and talking, to her leaving his life. Poppy nodded and walked over to the closed front door and yanked it open. This was it: she was walking out of his life for good.

As she was about to step outside, Thom shifted on his feet. “Don’t stop now,” Ruby whispered, shooing Poppy with her hands. “He’s great, but you need to do this, Poppy.”

“Are you the same person who tried to set them on fire?” Lila asked her.

“I nudged the lantern!” Ruby protested, knowing she’d never live her impetuosity down.

“Shh,” Naomi said, rushing down the staircase into the hall. “I want to hear this.”

Ruby and Lila followed her down, hovering in the space between Poppy and Thom, their eyes switching from one to the other. What was Poppy going to say? Was she going to beg Thom to take her back? It was embarrassing to admit that the Ruby she’d been would most likely be lying on the hallway floor right now, begging her lover for forgiveness, telling him she’d made a mistake, that he was all that mattered, would ever matter.

No, that wasn’t accurate. The thought of leaving a man, being without him, and considering she was worth more that the crap she routinely received would never have occurred to her.

Poppy pulled her tote bag over her shoulder and pushed her hand into her hair, pulling the heavy mass back from her face. “When you are alone tonight, when you are replaying today, I want you to remember that none of this was my choice.”

“You’re the one leaving,” Thom pointed out.

Poppy closed her eyes as if looking for patience. “I am leaving Solstice Deep. I never once said I was leaving you. You’ve just chosen to believe that.

“I’m trying to work out who I was trying to be, and who I actually am. How you and this place, my parents and Solstice Deep have shaped me. My running from my wedding was never about Benji cheating—and by the way, I’m very sorry I never spoke to you, or Wren, about that.”

She sighed. “Anyway, my coming here was, initially, because I needed to feel safe. But then I stopped wanting to feel safe and protected, and started to realize that I didn’t need to twist myself into a pretzel to be who my parents expected me to be. That I don’t need to be anyone but myself to be worthy of love.” She lifted her chin and met Thom’s eyes. “I’m not going to apologize for choosing myself, Thom. It’s about time I did.”

Thom started to speak, shook his head, and closed his mouth. He had a stubborn look in his eyes, and Ruby winced. Poppy wasn’t making great strides here. Or any at all.

“And I can’t help thinking,” Poppy said, “that a part of you is, if not happy that this happened, then a little relieved. Because now you can stop looking for it, stop wondering when I am going to disappoint you. Because everybody does, right? That’s what you’ve come to expect.”

Ruby looked at Thom’s hardened expression and caught the flash of emotion in his eyes, something that suggested Poppy was onto something. She waited for him to reply, to say something, anything, but Thom just kept his eyes on Poppy’s face, either unable to respond or refusing to do so.

Poppy stepped back to him and drilled a finger into his chest, her tiny frame vibrating with fury. “You’re the one who always says that choices have consequences, well, me leaving like this, you refusing to talk to me or engage, to work it out, is your choice.”

Ruby and her friends, watched as Poppy turned and walked out of the front door. She expected Thom to run after her, to say something, anything—how could he not after that impassioned speech?—but Thom just stayed where he was, leaning into the doorframe, his arms crossed, a deep frown pulling his eyebrows together.

And he stayed there long after Poppy had driven away with Hayes.

Thom

Alone in his house that night, Thom paced his empty kitchen, feeling, for the first time, that he had eyes on him. Poppy was convinced his house was haunted, and Thom had always dismissed the idea, but tonight he felt that she could be right.

He definitely wasn’t alone. He wasn’t scared, but he did feel judged. Or maybe that was because he was second-guessing everything he’d done and said today.

He was, dammit and fuck, a mess.

Thom picked up the whiskey bottle and dumped two fingers into a plastic tumbler, mentally wincing at the amount he’d already thrown down his throat. He had an early morning flight from Boston, a lunch meeting in DC with his new client, and he was going to have to perform with a splitting headache.

Oh, well.

After throwing back the shot, he gripped the back of a dining chair and stared at the slate floor beneath his boots. As Poppy had predicted, he was replaying the day in his head. He’d trained as a lawyer, and because thinking strategically was what he did, he started pulling facts in, rearranging them, trying to make the data make sense. He was a little drunk, but he could still think…