Page 16 of Frankie (Big Northwest #5)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JD
T he sense of rightness that washed over him when his lips met hers nearly buckled his knees. It was almost as affecting as the soft sound that came from Frankie’s throat as he pulled her closer, bringing the front of her body flush against his as her thighs bracketed his hips.
Like everything else between them, the moment quickly spiraled, his breath coming in sharp bursts as if his lungs wanted to inhale her. Consume her like air.
Frankie’s grip on him was as fierce as she was. Her fingers dug into his beard, fisting the thick strands as her legs locked behind his back. Years of pent-up hurt and frustration wove around them, tying them together as tightly as their limbs did.
That was why, when a familiar cracking sound cut through the quiet, he was able to pull Frankie off the tailgate without losing a second, turning them both away from the heavy weight of the tree crashing toward them. He wasn’t able to clear it completely, but the scratches and welts he suffered were preferable to the split skull he would have had.
Frankie could have had.
She still clung to him, arms laced at his neck, thighs gripping him tight. She stared over his shoulder, eyes widening at what remained of her company pickup truck. “Oh my God.”
He struggled to breathe, caught between the enormity of what happened between them and the gravity of what could have happened to them.
Frankie’s head jerked to one side, eyes narrowing in the direction the tree came from. “Someone’s out here.” Her legs dropped, boots hitting the dirt as she shoved out of his arms.
He grabbed for her, but wasn’t fast enough. Frankie took off at a speed few people could match, leaping over fallen logs and eating up the distance with long strides.
But then she faltered. One leg seemed to give out and she let out a surprised yelp as she went down. He was there in a heartbeat, scooping her up the way he’d done so many times before.
“No. Let me go. I can catch them.” She fought against his arms, desperation pitching her voice.
“You can’t, Frank. Not right now.” He pushed to his feet, scanning the canopy above them, listening for any indication there might be another tree coming down. His steps were quick and heavy as he hurried back to where they’d parked outside the worksite. After loading Frankie into the passenger seat, he got behind the wheel and peeled out, getting far enough away that nothing could hit his truck, before slowing and glancing in Frankie’s direction.
Her skin was pale, her lips parted as if she was trying to catch her breath. “Someone was out there.” She twisted in her seat to look out the back window. “What if they pushed that tree over on us?”
“We didn’t hear any chainsaws. The tree might have fallen on its own.” He gripped the steering wheel, trying to search for any explanation that meant they weren’t targeted. “And it could have been an animal you heard.”
Frankie slowly turned to look at him. “If you thought it was an animal, why’d you run?”
“Because I wanted to get you the fuck out of there.” It was an easy answer to give. “The last goddamn thing you need is a tree falling on you.”
Frankie stared at him a second before her mouth quirked up into a hint of a smile. “I would say the last thing most people need is a tree falling on them.” She took a breath, her shoulders lifting on the inhale. “So what in the hell do we do now?”
We . The word lodged in his chest, taking up a spot that sat empty and unfillable for years.
He studied her, drinking in the sight of her in his truck—in his life. Right where she should be. Maybe always should have been .
“Now, we go get the girls and bring them to my house.” JD turned to the gravel path in front of them and pressed his foot closer to the floor. “Until we know for sure that was nothing, you’re staying at my place.”
“No way.” Frankie shook her head, digging in her figurative heels. “We’re not telling anyone.”
“How in the hell do you see that going?” She was in denial. Completely and totally. “Your sisters will lose their shit when they find out you kept this from them.” Especially on top of everything else she was keeping from them.
“It’ll be fine.” She tossed her bag at him. “No one will even notice I’m gone.”
That was hard to believe. No. Not hard. Impossible. “You’re telling me, you think you can leave this town for the night and no one’s going to notice?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.” She collected a small bag of dog food, carrying it to the table where the rest of the girls’ things were gathered. “Maybe if Sam was still here she might notice, but no one else will.” Frankie’s eyes didn’t come his way. “They’re all doing their own things.”
He wanted to kick his own ass. The loneliness on Frankie’s face was plain as day. The sadness she felt at being left behind as her sisters moved forward. And he’d missed it for months .
Or maybe ignored it, because what in the hell could he have done about it? Come over here and kept her company? No fucking way. The only reason he had a place in her life now was because she had no other choice.
The realization stalled him out. Stopped the plans he was making right in their tracks.
“Frank.” He moved closer, but she still wouldn’t look at him. “If you don’t want to come to my place, I understand. I don’t care where you go, I just want you to be safe.” He stopped short of telling her he’d likely go wherever she did, because the thought of letting her out of his sight until he was able to inspect that fucking jobsite made his skin crawl.
Frankie’s blue eyes jumped to his face. “Is that your way of telling me you don’t want me at your house after all?” The bite was back in her tone, and for some fucking reason that made him feel better.
She’d been so quiet on the drive here. Almost silent as she packed her bags. It wasn’t until he suggested they should tell Kenneth and her sisters she was leaving that Frankie started coming back to herself.
And seeing that fire in her eyes, hearing that venom on her tongue, it pulled him closer. “That’s not what I’m saying at all.” Imagining Frankie in his home was something he knew not to do. That didn’t mean he didn’t do it. He just felt like a piece of shit for it.
And now that it was happening, he couldn’t get her there fast enough .
But he’d still hit the brakes if she wanted to be somewhere else. Expecting everything to change between them would be stupid. Thinking because Frankie let him kiss her once she’d be ready to jump right into his life like the last ten years never happened would be idiotic.
But…
“I want you to come home with me, but only if that’s what you want too.”
It’d been easy to get caught up in what he wanted because it had eaten at him for so long. But what she wanted mattered too. More than anything.
Frankie looked him over, eyes sliding down his frame before coming back to his face. “I’ll come with you, but only if you promise not to tell anyone.”
The woman was independent to a fault. Hated anyone worrying about her or knowing too much of her business. It was a defense mechanism. One that grew from a life of knowing what could happen if people got too close.
It’s likely the same reason no one had noticed how lonely she was. How isolated she felt over on her side of town. They were used to her doing her own thing and didn’t understand how important they were to her.
“Fine.” He gave in. “For now we won’t tell anyone what’s going on.”
He’d really hoped to take Kenneth with him out to the jobsite, but obviously that wasn’t going to fly. Looked like he’d be going alone. Because he wasn’t taking Frankie out there .
She gave him a wobbly smile, her shoulders relaxing. “Good.” Her eyes darted to the hall. “I need to go get my bathroom stuff.” She brushed past him, her gait still a little off from her earlier fall. “Give me two minutes.”
“I’ll start taking stuff out.” He gathered an armful of dog beds and bowls and went outside, cracking the door to make sure the coast was clear before skipping down the steps to where his truck was parked.
He had everything but the dogs loaded up by the time she came out of the bathroom carrying a smaller bag. JD tipped his head toward the door. “You go on out. I’ll get the girls.”
Frankie’s brows lifted. “Brave man.”
“In case you haven’t noticed”—he crouched down to scoop up Beezy, the deadliest of her horde—“they like me.”
“I’m not sure I’d sound so proud of that if I were you.” She paused to grab the plush blanket off her couch before going for the door. “They only like crazy people.”
He chuckled, shaking his head as he collected the other two tiny dogs. Cradling all three in one arm, he flipped on the kitchen light, along with the lamp next to the couch, doing his best to give Frankie what she wanted by creating the illusion she was home. Hopefully he could buy her a few more days before all hell broke loose. Because that’s what was going to happen when everyone found out how much she’d been keeping from them.
After making sure the door was locked, he slid into his truck, deposited Beezy, Devi, and Ori onto their mother’s lap, then drove out of Shadow Pine, hoping this was the right thing to do.
He was sure it was the best thing as far as Frankie’s safety was concerned, but it would be nice to have a little help with this mess she had going on. Unfortunately, the people who would be the most useful would also spill their guts to everyone else in town. Kenneth had kept plenty of secrets in his time working for the government, and he held Frankie and her sisters’ secrets close. But if he thought she was in danger, he would have every man in town lined up to keep her safe.
As it stood, every man in town was attached to one of her sisters, and those bastards would one hundred percent confess everything they knew.
But there was one man he knew of who might be able to help. He wasn’t a great option, but the asshole was the only one available.
By the time they were nearing his home, JD’d come to the conclusion that he had no choice but to reach out to Foster. See what the private investigator thought about the whole situation and if he could find anything out about Carl or anyone else on Frankie’s payroll who might have some bad fucking ideas up their sleeves.
Having a plan made him feel slightly better, lightening a little of the load on his shoulders so they weren’t nearly as heavy when he pulled into the driveway of his house.
“We’re home, ladies.” JD parked, sliding out to meet Frankie as she opened her door .
Taking the dogs so she could carry the smallest of her bags, he led her to the front door she’d passed through so many times. It had been years since Frankie had been inside this house. Since before he bought it from his parents when they moved closer to town after his dad retired. Would she still think of it the way she used to? As a safe haven? A home where she never had to worry about being used or controlled or abused?
Because the place might look a little different, but everything else was still the same, in spite of all that had changed.
Was changing.
Frankie stepped into his home—the place where he’d spent nearly every day of his life—her blue eyes taking it all in. “Holy shit, JD.” She turned to him, lips curved in a hint of a smile. “I bet your mom hates this.”
His worry over possibly damaging the few happy memories she had of her teenage years dissipated at her expression. “She thinks I’m an idiot.”
“Well…” Frankie lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “I won’t argue with her on that, but this place looks amazing.”
“Glad you like it.” He’d agonized over every change he’d made since buying the place. Not because of his mother or her thoughts about what he was doing, but because he didn’t want to take one more thing from a woman who’d lost so much in her life. “I wasn’t sure what you’d think.”
“I think I’m jealous.” She carried her bag over one shoulder as she took in the updated living room and open kitchen. “It looks like a totally different house.” She went straight for the large island that stood in place of the wall that used to separate the two rooms. After setting her bag on the counter, Frankie ran one hand over the butcher block surface. “Did you do all this yourself?”
“I did.” He lowered Frankie’s little dogs to the floor, straightening as they disbanded and started sniffing everything within their limited reach.
“How did you have time to get it all done?” She went to inspect the backsplash running behind the stove and under the window above the sink. “You’re always in Shadow Pine.”
He stepped toward her. “Not always.” The winter nights got lonely this far away from the city—especially as the dinners with the sisters got fewer and farther between—so he’d occupied his time turning his parents’ dated 1980’s ranch into the kind of home he’d want to raise a family in.
But when it was finished, he ran into a problem.
The woman he’d imagined helping with that endeavor was off limits to him. Refused to even look his direction, and generally hated his guts.
That was what drove him to try to find an alternative. He hated to admit it, but that’s what the women he dated always were. The alternative. And that included Lena, which made him feel like a world-class asshole.
And maybe he was. Because right now, watching Frankie move around his home—a home he accidentally crafted with her in mind—it was easy to see there’s no way anyone else could have taken her place. No matter how hard he tried to fit them into the empty space she left.
Frankie spun to face him, her eyes bright. “Can I see the rest?”
He shifted in his boots as it began to dawn on him how very specifically he’d redone this house. “Uhh.” He raked one hand through his hair. “I guess.”
Frankie angled a brow his way. “Are you hiding bodies in the basement or something?”
He didn’t know how to answer that. What was in the basement wouldn’t send him to jail. But it might just ruin his life.
Right when shit was finally starting to go right.