I circled her wrist with my fingers and moved her hand so I could kiss the center of her palm. As heartfelt apologies went, it was a pretty good one and it went a long way toward smoothing some of those jagged edges she’d left when she ripped apart my heart.

“I … well … we … um … your father and I need some time to process all of this.” Deb reached out and put a hand on Russ’s leg. “I’m so sorry you thought you had to keep this to yourself, Kallie. We’re your family. We want to be there for you no matter what you’re going through.”

Kallie smiled and it was easy to remember why I’d loved her the way I had. “That’s what Dixie told me you would say.”

Deb huffed, “You told your sister before you told us?”

Kallie laughed and muttered, “Of course I did. I knew Dixie wouldn’t judge me. After the way you guys wrote Wheeler off without a second thought when you thought he wronged me, I wasn’t so sure you would understand how hard all of this was.”

Russ made a strangled sound in his throat and shifted his gaze to mine. I saw remorse and regret heavy between each blink but that didn’t undo what had already been done.

“You’re our baby, sweetheart. How else are we supposed to act when you come to us heartbroken, alone, and pregnant?” Deb sounded defiant but Russ had the good grace to look down at the ground.

“I appreciate the shelter you offered me, but putting Wheeler out in the cold wasn’t the right move, especially since he’s always going to be family. He’s this baby’s daddy, which means he’s always going to have a place in our lives.” She made it clear there was absolutely no room for argument.

“We thought we were doing right by our daughter, son. Surely, you have to understand that. You’ve always been welcome in this house, we considered you one of our own. It wasn’t an easy decision to put Kallie first when things fell apart between the two of you.” Now, that was an apology that could use some work. I knew deep down Russ was just a man that was trying to protect his child but it didn’t lessen the sting of being cast as the villain when all of this went down.

“It might not have been an easy decision but it’s one you made anyways, Russ. I spent most of my teenage years and a solid portion of my twenties making sure I never gave you a single reason to regret letting me date your daughter, and it took you no time at all to turn on me even knowing Kallie liked to stir the pot and burn bridges. Neither one of you gave me the benefit of the doubt.” I looked between the two of them and had to clear my throat before I could finish what I wanted to say. “You were the first people that showed me everything a family could be, you made me feel like I belonged, and then you shut the door in my face. I’ve had to stare at that closed door a lot in my lifetime, Russ. I never planned on you being on the other side of it.”

Deb made a whimpering sound and Kallie’s father cleared his throat. Before he could speak, I held up a hand and went on. “Kallie and I are both moving on but we’re also moving forward together. I want my kid to have as much love as possible, as many people to call family as we can find. I’m not holding a grudge but I’m also not letting myself fall back into thinking you’re going to be the people I can rely on when I need to. I don’t want to fall and end up on my ass. I’m happy you guys didn’t let Kallie twist in the wind, not that I thought you would, but she’s been terrified about how you’d react and all that stress is bad for the baby. Now, after I’ve had the chance to meet Roni and Kallie gets the opportunity to spend some time with the woman I’m seeing, we can work toward getting all of us together and figuring out how this is all going to work.” I gave Kallie a final squeeze and got to my feet. “Everyone in this room wants what’s best for the baby and for Kallie, so we’re gonna make sure that is our only priority.”

I gave Kallie a wink and started toward the front door only to be brought up short when Russ called my name. I looked at him over my shoulder and told myself not to be taken in by the stark distress that was caught in his gaze. “Believe it or not, we all want what’s best for you too, Hudson. We’ve just done a piss-poor job showing you that lately.”

They really had done a terrible job but that wasn’t my problem; tracking down Poppy’s mother so I could put Poppy’s mind at ease, that was my problem.

“I’ll see you around, Russ.”

As soon as I was back in the Caddy, I had my phone to my ear and was making the long-distance call to Texas. It rang for so long that I figured no one was going to answer, but just as I was about to hang up a slightly accented male voice barked a less than friendly hello into my ear. Knowing what I did about Poppy’s parents, I knew there was no way I could outright ask the man to put his wife on the phone. He would never allow her to speak to some strange man and would more than likely get mad and take it out on her if he thought she was interacting with someone without his permission.

“Hi, my name’s Hudson Wheeler and I’m looking for Paola Cruz. She has a ’64 Barracuda listed for sale and I’m interested in purchasing it.”

There was absolute silence on the other end of the phone until the man snapped, “You have the wrong number. My wife doesn’t own a car. If she needs to be somewhere I take her.”

“Are you sure this is the wrong number? I’m looking at the listing on the Internet right now. Can I speak with her just to verify I have the wrong information? The car is a real beauty and I’d do just about anything to get my hands on it.” I was laying it on thick but I couldn’t think of another way to get Poppy’s mother on the phone to find out if she was indeed all right.

“My wife does not converse with strange men; that is unseemly and inappropriate. I assure you she does not have a car for sale. Do not call here again.”

The line went dead and I swore loudly as I put the phone back in my pocket. It was easy to see why Poppy didn’t want that asshole anywhere near her and I wanted to give Salem a hug for doing whatever she did to keep him away from my girl. I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach as I pulled away from the Carmichaels’ home.

Poppy didn’t owe her mother a goddamn thing but something told me she wasn’t done trying to save her and that would mean she had to walk right back into the fire she worked so hard to put out. Good thing the only time I was going to let her burn was when she was in bed with me.