Page 64 of This Time I'm Keeping You
“Then let’s give them a show.”He kissed her softly.Her body was tense, which also wasn’t a surprise considering the hell going on in her life.Finding the bottom of her thick sweater, he tugged it and the layer underneath out of her jeans and slid his hand beneath.She yelped.
“Sorry, they’re cold.You want to warm them up for me?”He whispered the words against her lips as he stroked the soft, warm skin of her back.
“I don’t think we should do this, Nick.”
“By this, you mean necking on my cousin’s deck?”
“That and the fact that your family all know what is going on with me but don’t seem worried about the danger Malcolm Davy presents to you and everyone.”
“It would be a brave person to take them on, and you can’t keep anything a secret in this family, so just roll with it, Poppy.”
She slumped against him, all the stiffness easing out of her body as he kissed her.
“Nick!”His father poked his head outside the door.“Billy is here, and he’s going to give us all an update.”And just like that, she was tense again.
Chapter25
“Maybe we could go into another room and talk about this in private?”Poppy said to Nick as they reentered the house.His family were all seated now.Some held drinks, others babies, and the love and support focused on them was like a large blanket.
In his teens, Nick had thought it felt like a restrictive straitjacket.But he’d wised up and realized how lucky he was to have these people in his life.
“They’ll find out anyway, Poppy.”
“This is not their fight, Nick, and after all the stories they shared with me of loss and other things that have happened to you all, I won’t bring any more bad down on them.”
“You’re not going anywhere, and neither are they,” Nick said, nudging Poppy to sit beside his dad.He then wedged in on her other side.Next to Dad sat Mom.They weren’t small people, and it may be a four-seater, but it was still a squeeze, even considering his girl’s small size.
“We’ve covered this.I’m sticking, and so are they.”Nick then kissed her softly in front of his family, which was like a declaration of marriage, but he didn’t care.Poppy’s lips were his kryptonite.In fact, all of her was.
“This is police business,” Billy started talking.
“We’ll find out anyway, so just talk already,” Nick’s mom said.Billy sighed.
“Just don’t give out names, maybe, or stuff that’s personal, so if we’re tortured, we can’t say those,” Sam said, making everyone but Poppy laugh.
A scream came from down the hallway where the kids were playing some kind of game that had kept them quiet for about five minutes.
“Here.”Another cousin handed Nick the baby boy she held.“Hold him.I’ll go play peacemaker, but I want a full report.”
“You’ll get it,” several people answered.
“Hey, buddy.How you doing?”Nick asked Liam, who was now staring at him hard.
“He looks like he can see every thought inside your head,” Poppy said.
“I hope not everything,” he said, giving her a look that had her blushing.
“You want to hold him?”
“Oh no, I’m not good with babies.”She sat upright, trying to put distance between them, which was impossible.
“Sure you are.They’re awesome, especially this one.He’s the most relaxed baby we’ve ever had in the family.”She sat rigid as he placed Liam in her lap.
“Put your hands on his sides and hold him there so he can see your pretty face.If he gets fidgety, make funny faces.He loves those.”
Her hands held the boy gently, and he watched as Poppy leaned in and spoke to him.
“I’m not that good with little people, so you let me know if you need to go back to Uncle Nick, Liam.”
