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“Personally, I’m going with the theory that we were all hatched or brought by the stork. Piper said the other day that she hopes our real father is the mailman or maybe the tennis pro at the club. Either way, you know she thinks Dad had something to do with Mom’s disappearance.”
Piper had never kept that thought to herself. Everyone knew it, including their father.
“What do you think?”
“I think our dad is a total asshole,” Frankie declared. “And I bet the family firm isn’t all that law-abiding. I think our dad bends the rules, and that he thinks he’s entitled to because he’s rich.”
“Did you ever bend the rules?”
Zack already knew the answer. Frankie had been a rule-follower since the day she was born. She’d never cut in line, cheated at Monopoly, or probably even told a white lie. She was a straight shooter that had never had a parking ticket.
“No,” Frankie shot back, slapping her coffee cup down on the table so that some of the liquid sloshed out. “Because you can’t do that in competitive tennis. The rules are the same whether you’re ranked number one or one thousand. It’s a meritocracy. If you’re good, you get rewarded. If you suck, you suck. It’s that simple.”
Zack held up his hands in surrender.
“I get it. I do. It was just an idle question to fill the time.”
Using a napkin to wipe up the spill, Frankie gave him a narrow-eyed look.
“So what are you doing here?”
That was a weird question.
“I’m here for Dad’s wedding.”
“Cut the shit,” she replied with an eye roll. “I know you, big brother. You don’t like being here anymore than I do. What’s going on? Is that big fancy life in the Big Apple not bringing you joy anymore? Are you getting older and the supermodels younger? That’s not a good look, by the way. It makes you seem creepy at some point.”
“When is that point?”
“I’m not sure the exact age, but Leo DiCaprio has passed it.”
“You make me sound like a total jerk.”
“You’re not a jerk, but you’ve been lost for a long time. I noticed it last time I saw you.”
That was a few years ago when Frankie had been playing in the US Open.
“You think you know me so well, but we haven’t spent that much time together. You might be wrong.”
She wasn’t, but she didn’t know that. Frankie liked to be right. When she said something, she truly believed it in her heart.
“I’m not wrong. And you know why? Because it takes one lost soul to recognize another one.”
Before Zack could reply, Frankie stood and walked over to the sink, tossing out what was left of her coffee.
“Cooper should be home any minute, and I need to get back to Piper’s. I’ll see you later.”
“At the wedding?”
Frankie leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
“Not an ice cube’s chance in hell. You can have the rest of the donuts, but save one for Cooper. He gets testy if you eat them all.”
Zack heard the front door close softly behind his sister as he still sat at the table, thinking about what she’d said.
He was lost, and that was a fact. That she could see it so easily was disturbing. He hadn’t planned to dump his issues on his family while he was home. He’d always been the type to keep his own counsel.
Okay, I’ve been close-mouthed about my life.
