Page 22 of Gravity of Love
Okay, so he’d admit he knew her art, but not her? Why? What was his endgame?
“Oh, cool!” Poppy was delighted as the puppy in her arms wiggled, cried, and covered her face in sloppy kisses. “When did you get a dog?”
“I didn’t. She showed up on my deck last night.”
Hearing Liam’s voice, watching the words come out of his mouth, and seeing him standing in front of her after all these years was so surreal. Even though she’d seen him at the hospital, it hadn’t been like this. This was intense. She couldn’t feel her legs, or her lips, or her hands.
“She’s perfect! Have you named her?”
“I’m not keeping her.”
“Youarekeeping her,” Poppy said, in the mother who just made a dinner no one wanted to eat.
The puppy bounced off her lap and ran around the waiting area, then started whimpering and pawing at the door.
“She has to pee,” Liam said, never taking his eyes off Frankie. “I was taking her out when?—”
“I’ll do it!” Poppy jumped up, scooping the squirming dog with her and carrying her down the hallway to the back door, the way Liam had come.
The door shut loudly, and just like that, they were alone. Frankie and Liam faced each other, the air thick and weird and heavy, like someone had just turned up the atmospheric pressure. She tried to think of something witty, or even boring, to say, but her brain was malfunctioning.
They both blurted, “How are you?” at the same time.
“Good,” Frankie said, then amended, “I mean, okay. You?”
“Okay,” he parroted.
The word hung between them, pointless and inadequate.
“It was…at the hospital…I thought…” He shook his head.
Had he seen her at the hospital? Her heart was thumping like the time she got caught in the science lab with Donnie McNally in seventh grade. They snuck out of the dance and were caught by the security guard.
“What are you doing in Hope Falls?” His question sounded like an accusation.
“What areyoudoing in Hope Falls?” She heard the defensiveness in her tone, but if anyone had a right to be there, it was her. He didn’t spend every summer and holiday there. His grandparents didn’t live there.
“I’m opening a family practice,” he stated the obvious.
“I’m staying with Yaya.”
They both stood there, the moment stretching out between them. She felt like they were in some kind of fucked-up staring contest or game of chicken, neither of them willing to move orsay what needed to be said. Frankie had so many questions, but none of them were safe to ask.
Why did he leave that night?
Did you ever think about me?
Was I a mistake, or just a regret?
Her phone buzzed so violently in her bag it startled her out of the trance she hadn’t realized she’d slipped into. Frankie yanked it out, thumb swiping at the cracked screen, half-expecting some cosmic alert telling her she’d just crossed into alternate reality. Instead, it was Yaya.
Yaya:If you’re not here in ten minutes, I’m driving myself to the hospital.
Frankie knew she wasn’t bluffing. If she wasn’t there, Yaya would absolutely get behind the wheel, and then she’d be seeing Liam for an entirely different reason. There was no way Yaya would make it the thirty miles to the hospital without a collision that ended with herself or someone else in the emergency room.
“I have to go. Tell Poppy I said…bye. Bye.” She lifted her hand awkwardly, turned, and walked out.
“Frankie.”
