Page 36 of Gravity of Love
“You think Papousentyou Arthur?” Frankie asked her grandma.
That was the first she was hearing about it.
“Of course.” Her hands flew in the air. “Of course he did, or why would I entertain him?”
Frankie looked at Liam and then back at Yaya. “How do you know he sent him?”
Yaya’s lips curled at the edges in a secret smile, and she shook her head. “No, no, no, some things keep only for yourself. Okay, dinner done.” She slapped her hands on the table.
Why did she think Papou sent Arthur to her? Frankie thought as she stood and cleared the table. It was going to drive her crazy, and she had a feeling Yaya knew that.
Liam and Frankie made quick work of cleaning the kitchen, despite Frankie repeatedly saying she could handle it on herown, every movement orchestrated by Yaya’s brisk commands. She tried to give Liam an out, explaining to Yaya that he had to go to work, but he refused to take it. He just kept saying he had time.
When the kitchen was to Yaya’s standards, spotless, they all transitioned seamlessly into the living room, where the TV hummed softly with the opening credits of a B-list dating show. Yaya declared it “educational” and insisted he and Frankie watch from the couch. Frankie sank into her usual corner, knees tucked beneath her. Liam sat beside her, hands resting casually on his thighs. Lucy hopped up, did three circles, and plopped down between them. Garfield, feeling braver than he had during dinner, walked along the back of the couch, sniffing the air that had scents from the alien being named Lucy.
Frankie reached down to pet Lucy as Liam reached up and petted Garfield. It was strange, but having Liam at her Yaya’s house felt so…natural. In all the time she’d been engaged to Tristan, he’d never visited Hope Falls. She’d talked about wanting to come out, and he’d always made it clear he would stay at his dad’s in San Francisco when they were in California. When her grandparents were in New York, he never spent time with them. Yes, he was building a law firm, but still. Liam had talked to Yaya more over dinner than Tristan had over all the times they’d come out to visit.
Not that she should be comparing, but…
Frankie tuned back in to the show, where an absurd—overdressed woman was squabbling over a man who looked like a discount department store mannequin. Yaya watched with rapt attention.
“This one, she’s trouble,” Yaya declared, wagging a finger at the screen. “See the shoes. Only bad girls wear shoes like that.”
Frankie spun towards her. “Yaya, you bought me those shoes to wear for cousin Angelo’s wedding.”
Yaya shrugged. “Yes, I know this, I wanted you to be more of a bad girl. You’re too, what is they say goody two…”
“Goody two-shoes,” Frankie and Liam chorused.
“Yes! See the shoes! Goody two-shoes! I get you bad girl shoes.”
“That’s not…never mind.” Frankie shook her head as Liam’s phone alarm went off.
She knew what it meant. He had to go. Even though she’d been giving him outs all night, now that the time had come, her stomach dropped. She didn’t want him to leave. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw a flash of disappointment across his face before he masked it once again.
“I have to go.” Liam stood. “Thank you again for dinner.”
He bent down and kissed Yaya on each cheek. She patted him on the face and made him promise to stop by and see her.
He picked Lucy up, and Frankie walked him out onto the porch. He made it one step before he stopped and turned back around. She stared up at him, neither saying a word. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. For a brief, glorious, potentially delusional second, Frankie thought he was going to kiss her.
“Are you busy tomorrow?” he asked, popping her delusion bubble.
“No, why?”
“Theres are some people I want you to meet. Pick you up at ten?”
She nodded. “Okay.”
He leaned down, kissed her on the top of the head, turned around, climbed in his SUV, and drove away. As she watched his taillights disappear, she knew she was in trouble. Big trouble. She used to have a crush on Liam Sterling. She feared that after hiking to a waterfall, coming home to discover he’dMission ImpossibledYaya’s house, and watching him with Yayaat dinner, she was head over heels, swept off her feet, hopelessly, crazily, madly in love with Dr. Liam Davies.
And he was kissing her on the head like she was his little sister, because that’s what she was to him. Forget the friend zone, this was worse. She was in the little sister zone.
11
“Isit a special place like a building, or is it a town we’re going to?” Frankie asked her twentieth question, trying to gather clues to Sherlock Holmes her way into figuring out their destination before arriving. This time adding the twist of using Lucy, who was curled up sound asleep on her lap, as the front to her fact-finding mission. “Lu Lu asked, not me?”
Liam ignored her sad attempt, keeping his eyes trained on the road ahead of him. The closer they got, the more he wondered if this was actually a good idea. He wasn’t an impulsive person. If anything, he was overly cautious, deliberate, and premeditated to a fault. This behavior was out of character, but yesterday, as he left Yaya’s, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to bring Frankie today.
