AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hi, Bill? Yeah, this is Frankie Valenti… Yes… Yes, I’ll tell him you said hi. I’m calling about the sea glass tiles we ordered for the vineyard project. We had an accident here on site, and I need to rush pick up three more boxes. No, no, everyone is fine. Do you have that in stock?… Great, I’ll send Rico by this afternoon. I also need you to add a note to this file. No one makes changes to the orders except me. No one… Yeah, it’s a long story, but thanks. You’re a lifesaver.”
She hung up the phone and scrolled to their next supplier.
Jake thought he could outmaneuver her?Think again, asshole.
* * *
Frankie was sittingin her truck, thumbing through the paperwork she had tucked on the dash to see if she'd missed any suppliers in her flood of phone calls, when Jo pulled into the drive.
"Hi, Mom! What brings you out here?"
"My senior group went to a garden walk hosted by the local winemakers association down here. I thought I'd stop by on my way back and see how everything is going. Got a minute to show me around?"
"Of course I do. You won't believe what happened this morning…"
Frankie took Jo for a walk through the least finished areas, pointing out what things would be and describing details that hadn't been installed yet. She didn't want to spoil the surprise of the reveal. When they got to a back bedroom that had been drywalled and was waiting for paint and therefore not rigged for filming today, Frankie spilled her guts.
"I found out that Jake has been lying to me. For months!"
"About what?"
"The show and all the things that have been going wrong around here. He's been manipulating all of it to create tension for the show."
"It seems like that is pretty standard for reality shows, isn't it?" Jo pointed out in the reasonable tone that had driven Frankie nuts as a teenager.
Frankie pushed back. "It seems dishonest when you are doing things to trip up the person you're sleeping with, especially when the shit he pulled could have cost me a hundred grand." His behavior was not okay.
"That is a valid point. Men." Jo sighed. "Always putting payment before people. If I had a nickel for every time someone else's kitchen remodel took precedence over my needs, I'd be a wealthy enough woman to pay off the debt he's driving you into."
Frankie knew her mom was talking about her dad. She tried to understand how that must have felt. A kitchen wasn't worth missed birthdays, and yet she knew her father had done exactly that. Was that a legacy she would have to take on if she was running the company? She didn't like the answer she saw before her.
"Jake put his job first every time. He continually set me up to fail. It's a miracle I didn't veer off budget long before now."
"That's not a miracle. That's your own hard work. You've done wonders with this place on a shoestring. It's going to be beautiful." Jo took a deep breath and stopped to face Frankie. "You know I don't like to interfere in your love life, but I have to say this. Be very careful about falling for a man who will put his job before you. It's painful to always play second fiddle to his ambition."
Too late.
"I thought I did love him, Ma. I thought what we had mattered. But now it all feels false. If he lied to me about this, what other lies did I fall for? How can I trust anything he says?"
"Broken trust is the hardest thing to repair, even for someone as skilled at fixing things as you. Do you still want him?"
Frankie hated her heart that sped up at that question. "I don't know, Ma," she forced herself to say. "I want the him that only I get to see when we're alone. I want the him he is away from here."
"Darling, you don't get to have just one part of him. You have to take him as a whole. The good, the bad, the ugly. Is dealing with his ugly worth it for a shot at his very best?"
Frankie mulled over that as they walked out the side door onto a partially finished patio that overlooked what would become the parking lot for the commercial space once construction was done. Jo turned around and gasped as she took in the views of the rolling vineyards and the mountains that came right down to the edge of the property. The drought-dry brown grass and shrubs that covered them met with the green of the grapevines and created a beautiful contrast. It would show even better in the spring when everything was lush and green from the snow runoff.
"This is beautiful, Frankie. I'd like to come back and see this place once it's up and running. This land is like a little slice of heaven, and the work you've done is turning it into a masterpiece."
Frankie grinned, proud that her mother was loving the space that would one day be hers. "I think that can be arranged."
They walked back around the exterior of the house toward Jo's car, Frankie's thoughts shifting once again to Jake.
"Ma, how will I know?"
"Know what, darling?"
"How will I know if I can trust him again?"
