Page 34 of Sipping Seduction
“Good to hear.” He turned his attention toward my older brother instead. “How are the wedding plans coming along, Cole?”
“Everything’s taken care of. All we need to do is show up next weekend.” He turned and gave Danica such a syrupy, sappy look that I expected tiny cherubs to start dancing around their heads.
I almost nudged Frannie under the table, but didn’t want to startle her.
“Frannie, I hear you’ve got a hot date for the wedding.” Danica scooped some carrots onto her plate.
“Oh, um…” Frannie looked to me for help.
“I wouldn’t exactly call myself a hot date,” I joked.
“Neither would my fiancé,” Cole said. “Frannie’s coming with Andrew Stewart.”
“Wait, what?” I turned toward her, willing her to deny it. “I thought you were going as my plus-one.”
Frannie held her fork halfway to her mouth. “You never asked me to go with you, Evan.”
“Of course he didn’t.” Miller pushed back from the table.
“Miller, sit down.” Amalie tugged on his shirt. Thankfully, he settled back into his seat before he said something that might ruin my chance at ever having anything more with Frannie.
“She’s bringing a Stewart to the wedding?” Dad asked.
“All the Stewarts are invited, Dad.” Cole blew out a breath and shook his head. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re trying to actually work together at the distillery now instead of tearing the company and the town apart.”
My family continued to argue, but I tuned them out and focused on Frannie. She pulled her napkin out of her lap and dabbed it to her lips. Then she pushed back from the table and made a beeline for the kitchen.
I needed to know what she was thinking because her face didn’t give anything away.
Miller met me at the door. “What the fuck are you waiting for? You’ve got to tell her how you feel about her before it’s too late.”
He was right. If Frannie was serious enough about Andrew to attend my brother’s wedding as his date, it was time for me to man up and take my shot. But something made me hold back. I wasn’t ready.
I patted him on the shoulder and moved past him into the kitchen. Frannie stood at the counter with her back to me.
“Hey, Frannigan.” My voice came out soft, but a little rougher than I expected. I guess that’s what happened when a guy finally realized he needed to come clean with the girl he’d been in love with for years. “Are you okay?”
“Okay?” She turned around, her gaze finding its target and locking onto the center of my chest. “I’m pretty sure your whole family hates me now.”
“Nobody hates you. What I feel for you… it’s pretty much the opposite of hate.” My throat started to close off. Desperate to force the words out before I rendered myself incapable of speech, I blurted out a confession. “I love you, Frannie.”
“Aw, Evan. I love you, too.” The way she said it told me everything I needed to know. She didn’t feel the same kind of love for me and would never be able to think of me as anything more than a friend. The soft sigh, the undercurrent of understanding… it all added up to tell me what I’d known all along… that telling her the truth would ruin more than twenty years of friendship in a single evening.
Desperate to salvage the situation, I downplayed my admission. “My whole family loves you. They’re upset right now, but nothing has to change. Even if you and Andrew go to the wedding together, things between us will stay the same.” She had to believe me. I could keep my feelings to myself.
“Everything’s changed. Your family’s so disappointed in me. I’m sorry I made them mad. I hope they don’t hold it against you.” She held out her arms and pulled me into her embrace. That was Frannie being Frannie again. She was more concerned about making sure I was okay than she was about her own feelings.
I took the coward’s way out and went along. “They won’t.”
“It’s going to be okay.” Frannie tilted her head back and looked up at me. As much as I wanted to see the same love I felt in my heart burning in her eyes, it wasn’t there. “I don’t think I can go back in there and face your family tonight. I’m going to call Charice and see if she can come get me.”
“Take the truck. I’ll catch a ride home with one of my brothers.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my key. The keyring had been a gift from Frannie. She’d bought it for me when she studied abroad in college. I’d been carrying it around with me for the past eight years.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Will you be home when I get back?”
“I still need to go visit my dad. He’d never let me live it down if I promised him pot roast and didn’t come through.” She put her hands on my chest and widened the distance between us. “What are the odds of you going back in there and fixing him a plate so I can take it with me?”
