Page 37 of Room One Hundred and Eleven

“Gone. Dead.” Her face goes stony and cold as she drones the response. “Dad had a grade-four glioblastoma with FGFR mutations. Cancer. An aggressive one. Less than one percent survival rate. He found out in May of the year I turned seventeen and was gone by September.”

“I’m so sorry.” I hold her tight. Sometimes I wonder if it’s better or worse that I never had folks to lose.

“That’s why you want to be a nurse so badly?” Carter rubs her thigh. He’s never the one to soothe. She’s getting to him too.

Poppy nods. “I thought about going to med school, but let’s be honest, I probably won’t make it that long under the crushing debt. Besides, I remember what a difference the nurses made. How they cared for my dad. Gave him as much dignity and comfort as possible. I might specialize in hospice.”

She’s practically a fucking saint.

“Damn.” Knox kisses her forehead. “That makes me feel like we should be doing something better with our time.”

Maybe we should be.

Maybe that’s why I want a family so badly. To do somethingmorewith what we’ve got—wealth, security, and so much love to share.

Could we also ramp up our charitable efforts?

I glance at Carter, who’s tapping away on his phone, probably already structuring a hospital in Poppy’s name.

Or her father’s.

I don’t dare pry, but Knox has no boundaries. “And your mom?”

“She had only ever been a kept woman.” Poppy shrugs. “She didn’t know anything other than being doted on, including having a nanny for me when I was young. She was engaged to some rich dude before Christmas the year my dad died. No surprise, he didn’t relish the thought of carrying my mom’s baggage. She moved on. Moved out. Told me I was practically an adult anyway. Left me the bills and no forwarding address or even a phone number.”

“We can find her,” Knox offers. “With enough time and money, no one can hide.”

Carter pinches the bridge of his nose.

He hates drama and entanglements.

“Please don’t.” Poppy winces. “That would be super awkward. I don’t need to beg for love from someone who only wants me when it’s convenient.”

I squeeze her tight and she hugs me back.

“You’d be a great mother, Poppy. I can already tell.” I sigh. “The fact that you’re not willing to rush into it tells me all I need to know.”

“If I hadn’t worked my whole life to be a nurse, to be independent and reliant on no one, I might be tempted...” She trails off. “Someday.”

For a moment, I imagine her cradling a tiny version of Knox or Carter.

She crosses then recrosses her legs before a pained expression clouds her face.

Regret? Or a more direct discomfort?

We did use her senseless last night.

It’s the last thing I want but the only thing I’m willing to consider. Giving her an early out if she needs it. “We can call it here if you’ve had enough. Do you want to relax—and be left alone—for the rest of the day?”

Poppy surprises us all when she glares. “Don’t you dare bail now. After this weekend I’m going to be ruined for other men so you might as well give me all I can take. I can recover—andsleep—when we’re done.”

I hate it because I know she won’t. She’ll go back to the grind.

Unless we can give her a reason not to. The baby that will bind us forever, even more certainly than that necklace we welded around her neck, or the orgasms we introduced her to, or Carter’s ridiculous contract.

“You heard the beauty.” Knox isn’t about to argue with her.

Even Carter groans, his hand lowering to the bulge growing in his gray sweats.

---