Page 40 of Gravity of Love
Delight sparkled in her eyes as a slow grin spread across her face. She placed her delicate fingers in his palms, sending all the wrong signals to other parts of his body. “Let’s do this.”
12
Liam clearedhis throat as Lucy led the way, trotting in front of them proudly, her pink leash swaying behind her, and he tried to shake off the moment they’d just shared. That was the thing with Frankie. One minute they could be arguing, or laughing, or silent, and with one look, one gesture, one question, it could flip on a dime, and the atmosphere would change, becoming supercharged with words and feelings unspoken.
They walked side by side, in perfect pace together through the gate under a balloon arch and down the winding stone path to the deck where the party was in full swing. Children’s laughter rang out, carrying across the sloping lawn. On the large deck, his brothers-in-law manned the grill in an assembly line, flipping burgers and hot dogs while having a lively debate on the merits of charcoal vs. gas and dry rub vs. marinade. There were rainbow streamers, a large banner that read “Happy 8th Birthday, Finley!”, about a hundred more balloons, and a large inflatable unicorn bouncy house.
Within seconds of stepping onto the grass, a tornado of small humans swarmed them, climbing Liam like a jungle gym. Finley was their leader, but Frankie chimed in with encouragement.
“Get Uncle Liam!” his niece chanted over and over as he pretended to fight them off, carefully removing each child by flipping them onto the grass.
“Get him!” Frankie cheered and laughed.
He was just starting to get out of breath when reinforcements arrived.
“Okay, girls, there’s a magic button in the bouncy house!” Phoebe shouted. “The first person who finds it gets a prize.”
The girls all dismounted and raced to the house in the blink of an eye.
He turned to his sister, who was balancing Bristol on her hip while covertly sizing Frankie up. On his periphery he spotted Lina, Teresa, Pippa, and Kerri all heading their way from different directions to converge on the new arrivals.
“Magic button?” he questioned.
She shrugged. “It’ll keep ‘em busy.”
“Thank you.” He straightened his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair.
“No worries.” She turned to Frankie. “Hi, I’m?—”
“Phoebe, and this is Bristol.” Frankie scrunched her nose and tickled Bristol’s belly. “I'm Frankie, nice to meet you.”
Phoebe tilted her head to the side. “Poppy’sFrankie?”
Frankie looked up at Liam, clearly not knowing how he wanted her to respond.
“No,” Liam corrected her. “She’snotPoppy’s Frankie.”
“Oh, good,” Phoebe sighed in obvious relief.
Frankie looked as confused by his sister’s reaction as he was.
“Where is Poppy?” Frankie asked as she scanned the party.
“She came down with something and didn’t want to get anyone sick,” Phoebe explained as she shifted Bristol up on her hip.
Before Liam could ask a follow-up question, they were surrounded by four more Davies ladies. He glanced down atFrankie to see if he noted even an ounce of nerves or stress, if he did, they were out of there. He didn’t. If anything, she looked happy.
When he looked up, he saw his dad’s widow and Poppy’s mom,, Teresa and Kerri, through new eyes. Maybe how she saw them. Teresa and Kerri were both attractive, petite brunettes with blue eyes, which was exactly how someone would have described his own mom. The three women could have been sisters themselves. In fact, Teresa and Kerri often got mistaken for sisters. His father definitely had a type.
Paulina and his youngest sister Phoebe’s hair was dark brunette and, in the sun, had red highlights. They both had almond-shaped blue eyes and square faces, like their father. Pippa, his middle sister, and Poppy both had brown hair, but it wasn’t as dark as his other sisters, they had large, round green eyes and diamond-shaped faces like their mom’s and his mom.
“Frankie, this is—” Phoebe began to make introductions, but Frankie took over again.
“Pippa, Kerri, Paulina, and Teresa, right?” Frankie smiled brightly as she addressed both his sisters, Teresa and Poppy’s mom.
“You can call me Lina, but yes, that’s correct.” Lina smiled, clearly impressed.
Liam nudged Frankie’s arm. “Now you’re just showing off.”
