“You left your purse on the back of the chair at the restaurant. Your sister didn’t want you to worry. She has it.” Mitch paces in front of the television rubbing the back of his neck.
All I can manage is a nod, not really caring if he sees my response or not. What am I doing here? Spinning romantic fantasies around a man who is way out of my league and has me firmly planted in the friend zone despite the hot and heavy kissing of a moment ago? How could he be so unaffected? A man who is getting involved with my sister.
“Hang tight while I go grab my truck and give you a lift home.”
He disappears out the door and jogs down the steps. I gaze at the door and briefly consider making a run for it, but that smacks of cowardice and goes against the new leaf I’m supposed to be turning over.
I will not be able to avoid Mitch or Lucinda, so I better get used to it. That doesn’t mean I wish to watch them fall in love, but I don’t want to lose his friendship either.
Standing on wobbly knees, I grab my dress from the table and clutch it to my chest. My lips tremble as I battle back the tears threatening to fall.
By the time Mitch arrives in front of the bakery, I am waiting in the alleyway between The Sweet Spot and Ski’s and Things, the sporting goods store next door.
The ride home to my parents’ house is done in silence. I sense his gaze on me several times, but I keep my head pointed away and look out the passenger window not really seeing a thing.
I don’t know what to say.
The ride is blessedly short, and he enters the driveway and parks.
“We need to talk.”
My hand freezes on the door handle and a ball of acid churns in my stomach. I can guess the topic of the conversation will be something along the lines of tonight went too far and he doesn’t want me to get the wrong idea. Operation fake girlfriend is over.
I wholeheartedly agree, but I’m not ready for that discussion. I need a little distance first.
“Sure, mind if we postpone it until tomorrow? I’ve got a pounding headache.” Opening the door, I jump to the ground before the automatic running board even has a chance to lower and shut the door.
A lie, but it sounds better than saying my insides feel like they’re turning inside out.
The headlights are blinding as I trudge in front of his truck. There’s a whirring sound as he lowers his window.
“Franny?”
Swallowing the persistent lump in my throat, I angle my head slightly in his direction as I pause at the beginning of the walk.
Please, please don’t say you’re sorry. Don’t say it was a mistake. Don’t say you don’t want to hurt me, and you value our friendship. Don’t say all the things I know you want to say.
“We’ll talk tomorrow. Good night.”
“Goodnight,” I whisper.
I clutch my dress against my chest while I shove open the front door and peek around the entryway. The last thing I need right now is to run into one of my family members.
Thankfully, the house is quiet with no one in sight. I tiptoe up the stairs and along the hall to my room, breathing a sigh of relief as I slip into my room.
It gets stuck in my throat.
Lucinda is sitting on my bed.
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
Judgment time. “Why would you think that?” Evade until I can come up with a reasonable explanation.
My purse is sitting on the bed next to her. I pick it up and find my phone tucked inside. “Thanks for bringing this home for me.”
She nods and continues to watch me. “What’s going on Franny? Every time I try to talk to you, you make an excuse and disappear.”
I sit next to her on the bed and grip the edge of the mattress. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your apology. I want to know why?”
“Because I’m a coward.” My emotions are raw and my control dances on a razor’s edge. Tears fill my eyes and I clamp down on my bottom lip.
“Bullshit.”
Frowning, I glance at her. That wasn’t exactly easy to admit, and I didn’t expect her to dismiss it, or swear. My mother frowns on swearing and Lucinda being the perfect daughter, never swears. At least not to my knowledge.
“You’re one of the bravest people I know.”
My mouth drops open and I’m gaping at her like a fish, but what the hell is she talking about? No one has ever described me as brave.
“Don’t look at me like that. You take chances. You rebel.” She throws her hands up in the air. “You make your own choices despite what others think you should do. You didn’t follow someone else’s plan. You made your own.”
Lucinda falls back on the bed and stares up at the ceiling blinking rapidly. I lay down next to her and stare up too. Never would I have imagined someone describing me that way, especially not my sister.
I suppose, where my bakery is concerned, I did do those things. It’s in the rest of my life I’m a coward.
Resting my hands on my stomach, I gaze at her profile. “Did you follow someone else’s plan?”
“That’s all I ever do. Mom and Dad’s plan. Mark’s plan.”
The perfection I viewed my sister’s life as is crumbling faster than the cinnamon muffins I make. “What happened with Mark?”
“He’s been cheating. He’s done it before and sworn he’d never do it again, but now he wants it in the open. Stay married and have his affairs too.”
Holy Crap! “What a dirtbag!”
A snort of laughter escapes her, and she rolls to her side facing me. The bed squeaks and the mattress dips. “Yeah, he is that.”
“I’m sorry.” I turn on my side and prop my head in my hand resting on my elbow. “What are you going to do?”
“With my life? Not a clue. With him? I filed for divorce before I left.”
“Do Mom and Dad know?”
“Not all the details, just that he cheated, and the marriage is over.” She rubs one of the decorative buttons on my comforter. “They don’t know I quit my job either.”
She peeks up at my face and I quickly try to pop my eyes back into their sockets and smooth my expression.
“Why did you quit? Didn’t Mom say you were on the fast track to partner?”
She covers her face with her hands and drops onto her back. “I know. Mom and Dad will say I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have.”
“Listen Luce, stop worrying what they think, and perhaps if you explain to your boss you were in a bad place when you quit, they’ll take you back.”
She peeks at me through her fingers.
“What?” I ask.
“You’ve never called me Luce before.”
“Oh sorry.”
“No, I like it. No one has ever called me by a nickname before. I always envied you being called Franny instead of Francine all the time.”
It’s a day of discovery.
“Well Luce, if I had known, I would have called you that a long time ago.”
Smiling, she looks back up at the ceiling after dropping her arms to her sides.
“Any other revelations you’d care to share? We seem to be on a roll.”
“Just one. I don’t want my job back. I hated every minute of it.”
“Well, okay then, what do you want to do?”
“Not a clue.”
I roll onto to my back and drum my fingers on my abdomen. “So, you don’t want to be a lawyer anymore?”
“Mom and Dad are going to completely freak, aren’t they?”
“Mom, yes. Dad, probably not. He’ll go play a round of golf and wait for Mom to finish her tirade.”
“Will you be there when I tell them?”
“Of course.”
She takes one of my hands in hers and rests them between us on the bed. I give her hand a squeeze.
The comforter rustles when she twists her head toward mine. “So, what’s going on between you and Mitch?”