“She really likes to help.”
“Yeah, I got that, and seriously, she’s welcome any time.”
“I appreciate that. She used to just go to my mom’s for a little bit after school, but with you coming in earlier so I can be there to drop her off, I'm staying later. I didn’t want my mom to have to rearrange her schedule to have her longer each day. I’m not sure how this is going to work out.”
“Didn’t you say the girl next door sometimes watches her?” he asked.
“I did, but she’s in high school and they get out later than the younger ones, so she can’t do after school. Plus, she has theater practice a lot. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.”
I pulled the truck up in front of the little house Frankie had rented. It was adorable. I could picture Frankie in the swing on the front porch with a book. “Well, here we are, home sweet home,” he said.
“This house will be really cute in the spring and summer. You could put some hanging baskets with colorful, flowering plants and it will really suit you.”
“Which part, the colorful part or the cute part?” he teased.
“Both,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You know you’re adorable. Now quit fishing for compliments, and let’s get this truck unloaded so I can go pick up my girl.”
A truck pulled up and Cruz and Landon hopped out. They worked on the Bluebird Ranch, and they had become good friends in the time that I’d been here. Ripley had promised to send help, so we were expecting them. I was surprised, however, when Miller showed up. I figured he was working today, but here he was. With all of us working together, we had the truck unloaded in no time. Frankie was inside telling Cruz and Landon where to put things, but with all the furniture and the three men it was a bit much inside, so I went out on the porch to wait for Frankie so we could return the rental truck.
A few minutes later, Miller came out as well. “It’s a bit too crowded in there. I felt like I was more in the way than helping,” he said.
“Me too, figured I would sit out here for a minute and let them make sense of things in the house.”
“So you went all the way to Dallas to drive his stuff back, huh?”
“Just to help out. Having him working out of the coffee shop is going to be a huge boon for my business.”
“And that’s all? He’s pretty cute.”
“And that's all. Annie needs all my attention right now, and he has a business to start. Neither of us has time for a relationship.”
“First of all, Annie is fine. That little girl is healthy and happy and lucky as hell to have you. I don’t think you have any idea how resilient kids are. And second of all, Frankie has tons of help and is going to be working out of an already established business. When he told me what he was doing, I thought it was a brilliant fit.”
I felt a slight irritation that Frankie had talked to Miller about his business plans, but I decided to ignore that feeling. “I didn’t realize you spent that much time talking to Frankie,” I said, doing a crappy job of ignoring it.
He chuckled. “We are friends. Ripley started bringing him around as soon as he got to town and we hit it off. He reminds me of a good friend I had in college, and he was really good to Ripley when he was in the city. I’m thinking we need to take him to the club in town. He needs to meet people around here or he’ll be bored, being from the city and all. We need to make sure he has something to stay for.” Then his face paled as he realized what he said. “I didn't mean to imply that you didn’t give Jefferson anything to stay for. He was a world class ass, and I was glad to see him go. You deserve better than that, Cap.”
“I knew what you meant, Miller. Jefferson and I were over before we even moved to River Gorge. Him coming was a last ditch effort at saving something we should’ve let die when I left the city. Frankie isn’t like him in hardly any way, but you have a point. He does love the city and living here is going to be different for him.”
“He loves being close to Ripley, though, and if his bakery ideas go well, I think he’ll be fine.”
“We thought we would start with him working for me, and he can grow into running his bakery, but he already has so many inquiries for cakes I’m going to talk to him about jumping straight in. I had no idea, but apparently he’s won cake decorating contests and is a bit of a big deal in Dallas for wedding cakes and such.”
“Really, well then Dallas’ loss is our gain.”
“Agreed, just so he doesn’t get so busy he can’t make pastries for the coffee shop,” I said with a laugh.
The front door opened and Frankie stuck his head out. “What are you two slackers doing out here?”
“Just grabbing some air, it’s a bit crowded in there,” I said motioning toward the house.
“I wanted to tell you, we’re going to be a little bit longer, and Cruz said he would drive the truck back to the rental place if you want to go get Annie. I know you’re eager to pick her up.”
“I am, Frankie. Thanks.”
“No, thank you. What a boring time it would’ve been to be stuck in the snow with no one to keep me company,” he said with a wink. “Just don’t forget to grab Annie’s gift out of the truck.”
“Miller, can you run me to my mom’s? I left my truck there.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“Okay, see you tomorrow, Frankie.”
Miller dropped me off at my mom’s and I hurried up to the door. I started to open it when the curtain pulled back and an adorable little head of blonde hair popped up, with blue eyes looking at me. When she saw that it was me, a smile lit up her face and the curtain dropped. I prepared myself as I opened the door because I knew what was coming. Sure enough, a tiny ball of girl hurled herself at me. She caught onto my leg and I lifted it up, boosting her into my arms. She planted kisses on both my cheeks, and then grabbed them with her tiny little hands. Looking straight into my eyes, she said, “You came back.”
“Oh, munchkin, I’ll always come back to you, you hear me. Always,” I said. She nodded her head and wrapped her arms around my neck tightly. I hugged her back, both thankful and terrified that I got to be the one to raise this precious little girl. I looked and saw my mom in the living room door watching us. From the time that we were small, any time she wanted to let us know her heart, but couldn’t talk to us, she would show us the sign for I love you. She hadn’t done it in years, but she smiled at me and held up her hand and signed it.
“I brought you something from my trip, want to see?” I asked.
“I do,” Annie squealed excitedly as she squirmed to get down. I lowered her to the floor and handed her the bag. She dropped to the floor right there and tore into it, pulling out the stuffed unicorn and hugging it tightly. “He’s awesome. I’m gonna name him Frank. After Frankie in the shop,” she said shop with an adorable little pop on the end like she always did, and it made me smile.
“That’s a great name, and I’m sure Frankie will be honored. He helped me pick him out at the store, you know.”
“Really? He makes great cupcakes.”
“He does,” I agreed.
“She’s been talking about Frankie ever since you dropped her off. He’s made quite an impression on her,” my mom said.