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“Just come back to me, Franky,” I said, wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes. “Just come back to me.”
Chapter 18
Leland
It’d officially been twenty-four hours since Franky went home to his family, and to say I wasn’t handling it well was a fucking understatement. Especially since he hadn’t called, texted, or sent a freaking carrier pigeon with a message letting me know he was okay. Letting me knowwewere okay.
Did they hug for the sake of their kids? Did they hold hands at the dinner table while laughing at some random Christmas memory? Did she ask him for help getting the zipper down on her dress before bed? The oldest fucking trick in the book. And did he fall for it?Willingly?
My phone vibrated on my thigh, and I nearly sent my whole body up in flames, fumbling my lit Marlboro to answer it. It was only Noon. “I’m out front,” I said. “Just walk around the side of the house.” I hung up and went back to staring into the fire pit.
He’d called earlier saying he wanted to see me before leaving for New York. I’d invited him over instead of risking Franky showing up and me not being here. There was also a petty part of me that wanted to upset Franky by having Noon in his home, even if he ended up never knowing about it.
“Cigarettes,” Noon said, stepping onto the patio. “Must be serious.”
I had quit the habit five years ago after having been lectured to death by him. “You could say that.” I took a drag.
“Smoking and self-loathing,” he mused, picking up on my tone. “A dangerous mix.” Noon leaned in to kiss the top of my head, then rearranged the chair next to me so it faced me, then took a seat. “So this is where you’ve been spending your time,” he said, checking out the interior of the house, then surfing his gaze over the ocean. “Nice view.”
“Yeah,” I agreed absently, checking my phone again.
“You look terrible, Leland. What’s going on?” Leave it to Noon to poke the elephant. I was in rough shape. I didn’t have the energy needed to lie, plus I needed an outside perspective, even if his point of view would be too honest for me to digest without a fight.
I dragged in another lungful of nicotine. “He’s going to leave his wife for me—and before you accuse me of breaking up their marriage,” I rushed in to add defensively, “she cheated on him first, and they both agreed they could use some time apart to figure shit out. He wasn’t happy in the first place, but I make him happy now.”
“Okay,” Noon said, cool as a fucking cucumber. “Go on.”
“We agreed we would give us a shot. He wants to be with me,” I emphasized.
“Uh-huh,” Noon said.
I snuffed out the cigarette on the small dish I’d been using as an ashtray. “His sons are in town from college. They don’t know their parents’ marriage is on the rocks, and Franky doesn’t plan on telling them. At least not yet. But he will soon.”
“Because he’s going to leave her for you,” Noon said helpfully.
“That’s what I said,” I snapped, then breathed deeply. “Sorry. Anyway, he went back home.” I swallowed down the bile rising at the use of the wordhome.“It’s just for a few days. Then he’ll be back, and we’ll come up with a plan to break the news to everyone.”
Noon kept quiet, and I gestured annoyingly at him to say something.
“Oh, I can speak now?”
“Yes, you asshole,” I gritted out. Noon smiled a sad smile, like he didn’t take pleasure in what he was about to say to me.
“You two are living in a vacuum right now. Have you ever considered what being attached to Franklin Kincaid will mean? Yeah, I know who he is,” he said when I gaped at him. “He bumped into Stacey that day at the hospital. Demanded a rush be put on your discharge papers. He dropped his name. I’m pretty sure he gave his attorney’s name as well.”
“That last part’s a lie,” I said. Franky would have given his name—if asked. But he wasn’t some pretentious asshole waving his power around and threatening hospital staff with lawsuits if he didn’t get his way.
“Point is,” Noon went on. “You’ll be the man who broke up a powerful family. His wife is revered. They’ll dig into your past, they’ll say you’re with him for his money—”
“I’m not,” I said indignantly.
“The truth won’t matter, Leland. Not to the vultures. They’ll say he’s going through a midlife crisis, that he’s old enough to be your father. They’ll say you’re young enough to have played in the sandbox with his kids…”
“That last one’s a stretch,” I huffed. Cole and I were a few years apart in age, and Jasper was even younger than Cole.
“His kids will be embarrassed by it all. They’ll be pissed, and they likely won’t accept you. It’ll affect his business, the thing he’s worked half his life to build—”
“He doesn’t care about Nexcom. He wants to make furniture,” I said weakly, and for the first time it sounded stupid to my own ears.
