Fade Into You (Shaken Dirty #3)(80)

He wanted to call her on it, to force her to admit the truth. But hell, she might very well be telling the truth. After all, he’d never been good enough before. Never been worth the trouble of sticking around for. Had he actually expected Poppy to feel any differently about him than his own mother had?

“What are you asking? Why do you sound surprised?” For the first time, she sounded unsure. “Do you want me to stay?”

He shook his head. “Don’t act like you give a shit what I want. What the hell did I expect, anyway? This has been about you from the get-go.”

“Wyatt. I could stay—” She reached a tentative hand out to him, but he shook it off. If she touched him right now he was going to lose it, and that wouldn’t be good for anyone.

So instead, he stepped around her, reached for the door. “Why bother? It’s not going to change anything.” He held the door open for her. “Do you want me to get you an Uber? Or the bartender can call you a cab.”

“I’m fine, thanks. I’ve got the rental car for one more day.”

“Okay, then.” He nodded at her. “I guess this is good-bye. Have a safe trip home, Poppy.”

“Yeah, of course.” She smiled wanly. “Good luck with the tour.”

“Thanks.”

An awkward silence descended between them. She broke it first. “I really am sorry, Wyatt.”

“Yeah. Thanks for saying that. And for getting us Drew. I’m sorry about what happened with your dad.”

She looked like she was going to say something else, but he knew he couldn’t take it. Not on top of everything that had just happened. So he gave her a kind of half wave before diving straight into the chaos of the dressing room.

As he looked at the guys spread out over every available surface, all four of them still excited about Drew joining Shaken Dirty, he couldn’t help wondering how such a good night had gone to hell so quickly.





Chapter Twenty-Three


“Hey. You need some help with that?”

Several days later, Poppy glanced up from the box she was mindlessly packing, to find her brother standing at her office door, two cups of coffee in his hands. “No, I think I’ve got it, thanks.”

“You sure?” He walked in anyway, extended one of the coffees toward her.

“No, thanks. I’m trying to cut down on my caffeine intake.”

“Seriously?” He snorted. “That’s the best you’ve got?”

“At the moment? Yes.” She went back to clearing out her desk.

It only took her a few minutes—she didn’t have a lot of personal stuff at the office because her father had always frowned on it—but she was conscious of Caleb’s eyes on her the entire time. Normally, they’d be talking, laughing, telling each other some work story or another. But not today, when she was packing her office to leave the company forever. Not today, when her whole body felt like she’d gone ten rounds in a boxing ring. Even her brain felt fuzzy.

She figured it was because she’d left it in Austin along with her heart. God knew she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Wyatt—about that last night with him—since she’d left.

Every time she thought about him, she wanted to cry. Wanted to scream. Wanted to run back to Austin and either slap him silly or f*ck him until they were both exhausted. She wasn’t sure what that said about her—or their relationship—but it was the truth.

Not that they’d actually had a relationship, she reminded herself. One week did not true love make. It was becoming her mantra, the thing she repeated to herself over and over again in the middle of the night as she stared up at the ceiling and tried to figure out what the f*ck to do.

With her life.

With her heart.

With the fact that, ever since she’d walked out of that hallway at Antone’s, she’d felt like a part of her was missing.

And the worst part was it was her own damn fault. She was the one who had lied to him from the beginning. She was the one who hadn’t told him the truth once things started getting serious. And she was the one who had cut and run when things had gotten hard.

In her defense, she’d asked him if he wanted her to stay and he’d told her to go. He’d made it abundantly clear that he was furious with her and that he didn’t understand, at all, where she’d been coming from when she lied to him. The fact that he’d been so shocked that she was leaving didn’t matter. Not when things were so messed up between them. Nothing could have come from her staying in Austin. Or at least that was her story and she was sticking to it.

Too bad she hadn’t stuck to it earlier. Maybe then it wouldn’t hurt so badly now.

She knew she’d messed up, knew she’d broken his trust. But there had been a part of her that had thought he’d care enough about her to get over it. That he’d care enough to try to understand. Instead, his kneejerk reaction had been to think she was a whore. And though he’d apologized, she’d known at that moment that it was too late, known that he would always wonder, would always doubt her.

She’d f*cked up, badly. So why would he—why should he—forgive her? God knew her own father never would.

“So how long are you actually going to be mad at me?” Caleb demanded after the silence between them dragged on too long.