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This was what they had always known would happened. Of course, he figured she would stay in Mapleton. He figured that she would stay in Oregon. He hadn’t thought she would... He hadn’t thought she would actually go move in with her parents.
He heard a door slam, and he looked up. Sky was standing there, the bandage still on his forehead, reminding Walker just how close they’d come only a couple of days ago. His expression was furious.
“What the fuck did you do, Dad?”
“What?”
“Frankie is moving to Montana.”
“Did she text you?”
“Yeah. She texted me and said she was sorry. She said saying goodbye would be too hard. Why is she leaving?”
“Frankie was always going to leave,” said Walker. “She needs her own life. She was your nanny. Your brother is at college and you’re sixteen. You don’t need a nanny anymore.”
“Frankie is not just my nanny. She’s...”
Sky looked embarrassed. Because there were tears in his eyes. And maybe there was another reason too. But he seemed to not want to say it.
“What?”
“I feel guilty about it.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t really remember Mom that well, Dad. I remember some things. But it’s... Little things. Little clips of things. Sometimes not even with sound. Frankie is like a mom to me. I didn’t ever think she would just leave. And she seemedhappy. I saw her kiss you. At the hospital.”
Walker felt like he’d been punched in the stomach.
“Is that what happened?” Sky asked. “You started sleeping with her and now she has to leave?”
“Hold on,” said Walker. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I was pretending.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew you were going to bother me about getting rest. Whatever. The thing is, I saw her with you. So I know you were... Doing stuff while I was gone. She’s important to me. She’s too important to me for you to send her away because...”
“I didn’t send her away. And none of what happened between Frankie and I has anything to do with her leaving.”
Liar. It does.
He was just too old for this game, and he was playing it anyway. He sighed heavily and looked at his son. “It’s nothing I said. It’s something I didn’t say.”
Because if he’d said it, he knew it would have made a difference. Whatever was going on with her, if he’d put his cards on the table, it would have been different. They could have at least talked.
“And what’s that?” Sky asked, arms crossed, his obvious anger palpable.
“I didn’t tell her that I loved her. I got kinda tangled up in you, kid. Because obviously... You can believe me or not. I don’t want to give you more information than you want. But I’ve never... This whole time, nothing was going on with Frankie. Not until you both left. And then she needed a place to stay...”
“She’s always been in love with you.”
“No, she hasn’t.”
“Dad. Come on.”
And he felt like an idiot. His sixteen-year-old son was making him feel like an idiot. Because he’d seen something that Walker had not.
