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She took a breath and turned. Franklin stood there, looking so much different than he had the last time she’d seen him. He wore a tux, very formal, with a bow tie, and he filled it out very nicely. His white shirt contrasted with the tan of his skin and the rugged stubble that lined his cheeks and chin.
His lips turned up in a ghost of a smile, but his eyes seemed worried. “I wasn’t expecting to see you.”
“This is an important day for you. I told you I was a friend, but I wouldn’t have been acting like a friend if I hadn’t been here to support you, would I?” She wanted her words to be cheerful and happy and upbeat and like she didn’t have a care in the world, and like it hadn’t been an agonizing decision to come here when her heart hurt so much.
She didn’t quite succeed. Her words weren’t sad, but they were soft and thoughtful rather than upbeat and happy.
“That’s very big of you. But after what I saw the other night, it’s exactly something I would expect from you.”
His words made her happy, but they also made her feel guilty. He didn’t understand the struggle that she had with herself to get to this spot. He made it sound like this was her choice all along.
She shook her head. “I don’t deserve that.”
“You do. Especially...” He put his hands behind his back and took a breath, like he was trying to find the right words or maybe get up the nerve to say whatever it was he was going to say. “I was able to see clearly that I handled everything all wrong. I... I thought I was being loyal to someone who has been loyal to me, but in doing that, I... I didn’t treat you the way you should have been treated. I wish I could go back and do it differently. It’s obvious to me now that once you said yes, I should have stuck with you. I should never have put that pressure on you. I shouldn’t have even asked you if it was okay. It’s obvious to me now that doing that left you no choice but to say yes. And that was nice for me, because then I didn’t have to say no to Maisie. I’m sorry.”
She blinked. Trying to comprehend what he was saying. He had apologized? He had said he was wrong? “No. You wanted to do this with Maisie, and she knew exactly how to do everything you needed. It’s the way it needed to be.”
“No. You misunderstand. I wanted to go with you. I didn’t want to hurt Maisie, and I knew she could jump in and do the gala easily, but I took the coward’s way out by asking you if it was okay. You couldn’t have said anything except yes without feeling like you were not being kind to me. It was wrong of me to expect you to do that.”
She swallowed. His words had clogged up her throat. Still, a part of her wanted to be standoffish. Didn’t want to put it behind her so easily, to give him a free pass to...hurt her again? She didn’t think he was that kind of man, but other people had done the same thing to her.
It felt like when a person forgave too easily, they were giving the person a pass to do the exact same thing over again because there were no consequences. She wanted to be the one to inflict the consequences, but just as soon as she thought that, she remembered.Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Right away, she prayed a quick, silent prayer,God, no, please, I don’t want any vengeance for him. Please don’t. I forgive. Please forget.
“I forgive you. Although, I don’t know that there was anything to forgive.” Sure, he’d hurt her feelings, but that was her, not him.
She wanted to talk more, wanted to work things out in her mind. After all, she was still his second choice. He had his mouth open to say something else when Noah and Sunday came over, holding hands.
“You’ve outdone yourself this year,” Noah said, clapping his hand down on Franklin’s shoulder.
Franklin’s eyes held hers for just another short moment before he smiled and turned to his friend. “I just have the right PR company. They did an awesome job.”
“You can say that if you want to, but I know there’s work behind the scenes that you do. Sure, they put these things together, but someone has to spearhead everything, organize it, and fund it. I know it’s not cheap.”
Franklin didn’t say much to that, just nodded. Which made Eleanor wonder exactly how much something like this cost. She hadn’t considered the money that it took to put this on. But not only was he earning money for a good cause, but people were having a fantastic time. If the happy looks on people’s faces were any indication. She supposed some people really did enjoy this type of thing, and Franklin not only set aside the time and the effort to make it happen, but he bankrolled it as well. Maybe other people, like her, never stopped to consider the financial contributions he made.
Noah and Franklin talked for just a bit more before someone caught Noah’s attention, and they moved away with them.
“I really appreciate you coming tonight,” Franklin said once Noah and Sunday had moved away.
“I’m glad I did. It’s definitely fun to see you not in a shack, not tending a fire, not delivering kittens. But in your element. You look comfortable and like you belong here.” Those words were sincere.
His hand reached up and touched the skin of her arm just below where the sleeve of her jacket stopped. “I... I really would like to spend more time with you. I know that you already turned me down, and I don’t want to be annoying, but...maybe sometime?”
She smiled. She appreciated the fact that he hadn’t been put off by being turned down once. That he saw her being here as what it was, her realizing that she’d been wrong. And that he wanted to be with her so much that he was willing to try again, risk rejection again.
Was she?
Maybe it was her heart that spoke. “I’d like that.”
He opened his mouth, but someone else called his name, and while Franklin didn’t look to begin with, they called it again, more insistently.
“I have to go.” He didn’t look like he wanted to.
She nodded. “This is your night. Enjoy. And congratulations, from where I stand, it’s a resounding success.”
“Somehow, where you stand is really important to me.”
