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“Isthat why you’ve been missing in action?” Cole went on to ask. “Do you think he’s taking your place? Or is it that he makes you nervous?”
“No,” I said at the same time his father told him to not be ridiculous.
Franky’s eyes remained glued to me, and Cole’s stare thinned further, bouncing between his father’s rapt attention of me and the blush I could feel warming my cheeks.
Franky used to have the best poker face in town, but he seemed incapable of closing himself off now, and whereas he didn’t seem to care, I was terrified it would get us caught.
I cut between them, skirting around the coffee table to take a seat on the couch next to where Cole stood. “I’ll be around more often,” I promised. “Now, can we discuss the ball and chain Jasper’s about to lasso around your ankle? I’ve gotta be out of here soon if I plan on opening tonight.”
An hour later, I had my list of wedding responsibilities, and Cole walked me to the elevator while Franky stayed behind. “Hey, this friendship works both ways,” he whispered. “Let me be there for you.”
Not for the first time, I wanted to tell him what haunted me, but what haunted me would break us apart. It would also screw up whatever progress he and Jasper had made with Franky. “I know, and I will. I could actually use help with the bar tonight,” I said, extending an olive branch.
“Sure,” he said, shrugging, as if a recently minted billionaire taking drink orders and working for tips was no big deal. “And if you need more help, I’m sure my father can—”
“No,” I said in unison with Franky as he crossed into the foyer.
“I have a few furniture pieces I need to finish up at home,” he said. He must have been in the middle of that before coming here. His tight, worn jeans and even tighter white t-shirt were both smeared with varnish and paint. One wrong move and his whole ensemble would’ve ripped away from his hard body, and it pissed me off that I wanted to see that happen.
“He’s doing physical labor now,” Cole said, snorting his disbelief. Franky affectionately rolled his sexy midnight eyes at him. How many nights under the stars had my own eyes rolled to the back of my head as he took his time with me? I had to get the fuck out of there. “Says he’s finally living his truth,” Cole continued, oblivious to my momentary lapse into ancient history. There was confusion in his tone but obvious approval too. After all they’d been through, Cole was happy for his father.
I turned my back to them, pounding at the elevator call button and rushing on before the doors had fully opened.
Cole shot his arm out, preventing them from closing me in.
“You two might as well ride down together,” he said.
Fuck it to hell,I groaned inwardly.
“I’ll catch it when it comes back,” Franky said. Was he determined to get a rise out of Cole’s brows?
“Get on,” I said meaningfully, willing to do anything to avoid Cole’s probing.
Franky considered me a moment, then clapped Cole on the back before slipping in next to me.
We rode a few floors down in silence, his scent choking me, his size practically forcing me into the side wall of the cabin. The phrase “better with age” was invented for him. He was too potent, too distinguished, too fucking handsome for his own damned good, and when he swiveled his head my way as if he’d read my thoughts, the last of my resolve snapped like a twig.
“You’ve got to stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” he asked in that new infuriatingly innocent, yet challenging way of his. He was daring me without even knowing it.
I didn’t know where the hell he’d dumped his baggage since that night I left him standing in the living room of our summer home with an ultimatum, but he needed to go back and collect it because new-Franky did not work well with the current-Leland. Current-Leland was braced for a fight, but this new and improved version of him left me with nothing to fight against.
“Like you want to fucking eat me alive,” I gritted out.
“Leland,” he said, like a plea for me to give him an opportunity to explain, an opportunity that I’d been denying him since he’d touched down in my new city.
“Don’t,” I hissed into the confined space. “Too much time has passed. You don’t get to be different. You don’t get to go off on some spiritual journey, or whatever the fuck you did, and then expect me to suddenly fall into your arms because you’ve now changed. I have the right to not want you. Idon’twant you, Franky.” The lie tasted bitter on my tongue. “Respect that.”
“I’ve been trying to make amends,” he said softly, the ongoing plea in his tone getting to me. “But you’ve rejected all my calls and ignored my text messages.” He’d been wise enough not to show up to my place uninvited, though. Proving he’d learned the meaning of boundaries since I’d last had the privilege of experiencing him.
“I apologize for the strain my presence has caused on your friendship with Cole. I never wanted that,” he said.
“I know you didn’t,” I whispered, staring straight ahead at our twin expressions of sadness reflected in the mirrored doors. “But it happened anyway, and now Cole is going to figure out the truth if you can’t control your emotions.”
“Would that be so bad?” he asked.
“For fuck’s sake, Franky,” I said exasperated. “Nowyou’re ready to risk it all? Do you know how long I waited to hear those words? It’s too late. I’m different now too, and not in a good way. And you’re his father. He’ll forgive you. I won’t be so lucky.” I was too jaded, too hardened in too many ways to even entertain him. He didn’t get to lay waste to me, to forfeit so much of our time, then have a sudden awakening and expect me to jump on board.
