Poppy seemed shocked by this. “Why would you think that? We were like any family. We argued. We had secrets. We could hardly shut the junk drawer.”

Michael nodded. “No. You always took for granted how special you were.”

“It doesn’t feel like we’re a family anymore, like we never were again after you left.” She was really crying now, a deep, heavy cry that wasn’t at all self-conscious; it was raw and real, and the truth of her emotions touched him in a place he usually kept protected, shielded. “Why didn’t you say goodbye, Michael?”

He told her the truth: “I couldn’t.”

“But we loved you! Even if you really had gotten Ann pregnant we would have worked it out.”

“I thought I was protecting her.”

He could tell by the way she rolled her eyes that things were not good between the two sisters. “Oh, please. Ann can take care of herself.”

There was too much to say, too much to explain. “Everything was so fucked up.”

“It still is. But I don’t know, seeing you again, I can’t help but feel like it’s starting to feel a little better.” Poppy stared at him in a way that made him feel vulnerable and transparent. She knew him, she did.

“Let’s walk to the station,” Michael said, needing to move, or at least escape that look.

Poppy grabbed him by the sleeve. “What went on with you two?”

Michael threw his hands up in the air. “Nothing.”

“Ann always had a thing for you.”

“No way.”

“Everyone knew, Michael. Everyone saw. I even heard her say it!”

“You heard nothing.”

“It was when we were in the process of adopting you. I overheard her talking to Claire Caldwell when she slept over one night. I always eavesdropped on Ann. She said she was worried her feelings for you weren’t exactly, you know, the kind you might feel for a brother.”

“She did not.” He could feel his face get hot.

“She did! She said she wondered if what she’d really wanted was for you to be her boyfriend.”

“That sure would have been a lot easier.”

“I’m not so sure about that. And then when that lady she babysat for called and told my parents you kissed her? Like her kids saw it or something? That’s part of the reason I believed the story about you getting her pregnant.”

Mo told Connie about that?

“Look at me. You loved her that way too, Michael. You did, didn’t you? Just say it.”