12
Frankie
Harrison’squick thinking had truly saved the day. Within minutes, Collette’s tears were forgotten as we selected our pizza and ice cream toppings. I skipped the work I had planned to do after dessert for an intense few rounds of cards instead.
“Uno,” I said quietly, hoping nobody would hear me, but Harrison’s focus was on me, as it often seemed to be, as he raised a fierce eyebrow. At least, I thought he was going for fierce. The goofy contented grin on his face all night, canceled it out.
I bit back a smile, impossibly charmed even as he tossed down a plus two.
After victory was cruelly snatched from my hands, Collette and I powered through a thirty-minute bath, hair drying, and bedtime routine. I settled in, opening her current favorite book when she insisted Harrison read the story since he does the voices better now. How the tables had turned. What chance did I have against a professional actor? But then, after three stories and much giggling, she still insisted on just one song from me. So, back in, I went, making Harrison go to the other side of the house. I was not a singer and was not prepared to hear any notes about my rendition of “You Are My Sunshine.” It was a mystery as to how she could possibly like my singing voice, but I would do it as long as it put her to sleep before the short chorus ended every time. And if I was being honest, it melted my heart to watch as she stilled into that state of fighting sleep, unable to do anything but blink slowly at me, her small hand gripping my pinky. A simple sense of security I could provide her gave me more purpose than anything I’d done.
I should have been bone tired by the time I snuck out of her room, but instead was filled with restless energy. Maybe my lack of progress that evening weighed on me. Then why was there a smile on my lips as I replayed some of the sillier moments from the evening? Harrison could work Collette into a fit of giggles that was music to my ears, especially after such a frustrating call from Joey.
I sighed and leaned my head back against the wall in the hallway outside her room. Routines could be developed so quickly. Collette was already getting used to him even though it’d been hardly a week. George was better than ever. This seemed to be working. We were working.
There was only some slight tension in my rotations around Harrison. I found myself avoiding being alone with him. Hesitant to share too much. Was it the same prickly nature that had me keeping everybody at bay? Or was it that I still wasn’t entirely convinced that this was all going to work? Or was it a third option I wasn’t as willing to consider, a reason behind the unexplainable draw to him?
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
Just yesterday, I’d been headed back to the office to work, and he’d been headed in the opposite direction. We met at this exact spot in the hallway. He smiled as we drew closer.
“Fancy meeting you here,” he’d said, stepping to his right, at the same time, I’d stepped to my left.
“Small world,” I said. We shared a smile as we mirrored each other.
“Excuse me, Francesca.”
My full name was like a feather tickling the back of my neck. He grinned wider as we both, of course, moved in tandem in the opposite direction. Chest to chest, bodies moving in sync, we did that awkward little shuffle step that always happened in situations like these. Absurdly, heat flushed my cheeks.
He stood closer than he’d been since we’d started this arrangement, and that was for good reason. I’d been avoiding this magnetic pull to him. It was that not discussed third option I didn’t want to dwell on.
This heat. This draw. Close enough that his blazing gaze seared me up close and personal. His perpetual wounded yet slightly amused quirk of his brow. He was gorgeous. Of course.
“I blame this on American’s driving on the wrong side of the road,” he said in a low voice as his gaze moved over my face.
“We literally drive on therightside of the road. The truth is in the description,” I said, a little too breathy for my own liking.
“Such cheek.” He grabbed my shoulders, so comfortable in touching, and moved me gently to my right, his left, and completely out of each other’s way. His thumbs kneaded my shoulders, just briefly, as though he’d not realized what he was doing. He tucked his hands behind his back. “Right. We should do this again sometime.”
I sighed as a fresh wave of heat passed over me at the memory.
“Are you sleeping?” Harrison asked quietly, just inches from my ear now. I jumped, pressing a hand to my chest as he flinched back. I pushed off the wall, guilty at having been caught replaying that innocent exchange.
“Not quite.” I fussed with my hair. “Just deciding what to go work on.”
“Work? No. It’s too late for that. This is the relaxing portion of the evening,” he said.
“I wish. I wasted enough time tonight.”
A flash of hurt moved over his amicable expression in a quick beat I almost missed it. “Right.”
I shook my head. “No. That’s not what I meant. The night wasn’t a waste. I really appreciate what you did. Distracting Collette like that.”
He perked up. “I thought we could all use a bit of fun.”
“Well, thank you.” Even though I had just been thinking about how much I’d avoided being alone with him, I felt myself longing to draw out this brief exchange.
“You’re welcome. You can repay me by coming to watchTerraformativewith me.”
