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“What brings you by?” he asked, rather than issuing threats.
Frankie scrubbed her arm under her nose. “I... It’s a long story. I didn’t think that Sky would still be here.”
“You didn’t want to say goodbye to me, Frankie?” Sky asked.
Sky was now much taller than Frankie, who was one of the smallest women Walker had ever known. She was five foot one and petite. Large blue eyes and dark brown hair.
She was pretty as hell. In a way that was harder and harder to ignore.
She was also the linchpin that kept his life turning, and fourteen years younger than him.
He liked to remind himself of those things whenever possible. Because his issue was celibacy, not Frankie. His issue was that he hadn’t ever bothered to sort out his sex life. The boys would both be gone all summer, and he had a chance to do just that.
And Frankie wouldn’t be at his house all day five days a week.
Self. Solving. Problem.
“I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of your friends,” she said to Sky.
“I’m not embarrassed,” said Sky.
An unspoken truth that both Walker and Sky knew all too well. Embarrassment over love was for people who didn’t understand how quickly you could lose somebody. They didn’t live in fear. Not in his house. But damned if they didn’t live every day with intention.
Sky bent down and gave Frankie a hug. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
“I expect pictures,” said Frankie. “I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too, Frankie. I love you.”
Frankie blinked, and he saw a sheen of tears in her eyes for just a second, before she managed to banish them. “Goodbye, Sky. I love you too.”
Then the kid got in the car, and that piece of Walker’s heart went with him.
For a minute, he couldn’t worry about Frankie, her unexpected appearance, or how pretty she was at all.
“Are you okay?” Frankie touched his elbow, gentle and featherlight, but it felt weighty all the same.
He looked down at her. “I’m fine,” he said.
He really ought to ask her the same question since upon even closer inspection she looked like she’d been soaked, wrung out, and hung up pitifully to dry.
“Really? Because you lost Carter and now...”
“I didn’t lose anybody,” he said. “The boys are growing up, just like they’re supposed to.”
“I’m sorry. A bad choice of words.” He felt like a dick, because he’d made her feel bad when she clearly already felt bad.
He looked at her and he felt his heart hollow a little bit.
He needed to talk to her.
Sky was going to be gone all summer, and now he had his driver’s license. He had never wanted Carter to be responsible for driving both of them to school, because the idea of both of his boys being in an accident at the same time had made everything in him run cold. So even after Carter had his license, Frankie had still driven Sky. But now Carter had moved out, Sky was older, he could cook for himself...
Carter was in college and that meant Walker was paying tuition. They did all right on the ranch, but it was a cost increase, that was for sure.
The truth was, Walker didn’t need a nanny anymore. And if he was honest, hadn’t for a long while.
He certainly didn’t need Frankie this summer. And in fact, not having her around would go a long way in him getting his head on straight as far as her, women, and sex in general was concerned.
