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Which was why he owed Frankie better than the lust-fueled thoughts that had been creeping up on him lately.
It was why he owed her more than he’d given her back at the house too.
He was going to make sure she was taken care of.
“Hey,” said Walker when Steve picked up the phone.
“Hey there. How’s all going back in Mapleton?”
“It’s going. Has Frankie called you?”
“No,” said Steve, his voice tinged with concern.
“That boyfriend of hers just broke up with her. Kicked her out of the house and everything.”
“Hell,” said Steve. “No. She didnotcall us about that. She needs a place to stay?”
“Yeah. Carter just moved out for school. So she asked if she could move into the extra bedroom and do some more housekeeper-type work. I said she could. I just wanted you to know that was going on with her, and also that she’s taken care of.”
Maybe he was also looping her dad in to ground himself. Remind himself of exactly who she was to him.
“I’ll have to give her a call,” said Steve. “She knows she’s welcome to come here if she needs anything.”
“Yeah,” said Walker. He thought of how devastated Frankie had looked when he’d said he didn’t need her. It had been cold. He understood that. She had taken care of the kids for half their childhood. Actually, it wasn’t going to work for the kids to just have her be gone either. They might not be home as much, they might not need her in the same way that they had once, but she had been the stabilizing factor in their life when she had become their caregiver after Anna died.
“I put my foot in my mouth earlier,” said Walker. “The truth is, Frankie is like family. The kids are crazy about her. They’re older, though, and I was thinking we didn’t need her in the same way that we did, and I think I hurt her feelings. The truth is, Sky didn’t even want to leave without saying goodbye to Frankie. And I know someday she might want to move to Montana to be with you all. But I think right now, her absolutely leaving the kids would be... I think maybe they both need to get used to the idea.”
“Definitely,” said Steve. “She loves those boys. She sends us pictures of them all the time. She was like a proud mother at their graduation.” Steve paused for a moment. “Sorry, Walker. They had a wonderful mother.”
“No offense taken, Steve. She has been their mother figure.” Not that he’d ever said it to Frankie. But the dark days around Anna’s death were...they were something he didn’t like to think about or revisit. And what Frankie had done for him in those days—those blurry days he couldn’t remember—had saved him. She’d been his lifeline. She’d been a teenager and yet she’d been the rock. He’d never really thanked her for it because it would mean confronting how bad it was. “I didn’t fully consider that when I told her I didn’t need her anymore. So I’ll keep her here for now. I’ll take care of her. Don’t worry about it.”
“Appreciate it. Thanks.”
Walker sighed. The truth was, it was hard to imagine his house without her in it. But she worked for him. In a position where her job was to take care of the kids. So what good would it do to keep the arrangement up when they were gone?
Hell, it would bedangerousis what it would be.
Frankie was the only woman who’d been in proximity with him for years, and she’d become a problem. But she was...Frankie. He couldn’t do anything about the attraction. She mattered too much to him, to the boys, to ever risk it.
Hell, she’d probably laugh if anything. He was a stereotype. A father of two, closer to forty than thirty, lusting after the nanny in her twenties?
Hell.
Or maybe trying to justify what he’d said to her. After he hung up with her dad, he finished up the chores and headed toward the house, sweaty and aching like a man ought to be after a good day’s worth of work.
And when he opened up the door, the smell that greeted him was heavenly. It wasn’t that Frankie didn’t bake for him often. But when she was running around picking the kids up from school, she didn’t have the time for fresh-baked bread.
Right now, he could smell fresh-baked bread. And stew.
And when he rounded the corner into the kitchen, two things hit him square in the chest. The first was that Frankie was somethingmorethan beautiful. Right then, she was leaning against the oven, facing away from him, holding onto the door as if she was impatiently waiting to open it. Her brown hair was caught up in a messy bun, with tendrils hanging down the back. Her trim waist was highlighted by an apron she was wearing, and the jeans she had on cupped her ass like a strong pair of hands, highlighting the shape of her. He had never once looked at Frankie’sass, and there was a reason for that.
Because it was hot, and he hadn’t been with a woman in a very, very long time.
He’d tried to tell himself Frankie wasn’t a woman. At least not likethat.
But she was.
And the second realization, right on the heels of that, was that they were alone in the house together for the first time. Completely alone. No kids napping in the next room, and no one walking through the door imminently.
