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And she wouldn’t crumble now.
“Frankie, let’s talk and...”
“We already did. It’s okay. You and Sky have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Stay for dinner. Please. Sky’s going to want to see you.”
It hurt. But he was right.
“Okay.”
“Don’t cook though. I’ll order a pizza.”
“Okay. Sounds good.”
And while Sky was showering, she packed up all of her things, and took them out to her car so that Carter wouldn’t know that she’d stayed there ever. Maybe it was a little bit mean, but she made sure to leave a pair of underwear in Walker’s room. Just for him.
Because she wasn’t going tosayanything, due to her mature and mountainous love. But she didn’t want him to forget her either.
She smiled all through dinner while Sky told them about the adventure they’d had—apart from the accident.
And at the end of dinner, they were able to FaceTime with Armie in his hospital bed.
“I’ll see you around,” said Frankie.
Sky stood up and gave her a hug. It was long and fierce, and Frankie was afraid that it would dissolve her.
“Bye, Frankie,” he said. “Are you going to be here tomorrow?”
“No,” she said, patting his shoulder. “It’s summer. You don’t need me.”
“I guess not,” said Sky. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want you.”
And that was it. She felt like she’d been stabbed clean through the chest.
“I want you too, kid. I’ll see you around.”
She stepped outside onto the porch. Where she and Walker should have been having their wine for the evening. Where they should have been holding hands.
But they weren’t.
And they wouldn’t be.
She tried to force a smile as she walked down the steps and got in her car. When she got halfway to town, she called Carly. “Can I come stay with you?”
“Sure,” she said. “I thought... I didn’t think Sky was coming back yet.”
“It’s a long story. I’ll explain. And then I just probably need to... I think I might be moving to Montana.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
HEDIDN’THEARfrom Frankie for two days. And when she did text him, it was to let him know that she was halfway to Montana.
He stared at the phone, feeling dumbfounded. But of course she was leaving. She would come back to visit, she said. And she apologized for not saying a real goodbye, especially to Sky. She just felt like it would be too difficult.
And for the second time in the space of a week, he felt like he’d been beaten with the trauma of gut-wrenching loss.
Frankie was alive. He had hurt her. She wasn’t gone.
