Chapter 19 #2
Yaya used to do Sunday dinners whenever the twins and Frankie were in Hope Falls visiting.
She’d invite whatever neighbors wanted to come by.
Yaya could be very territorial about traditions, but if there was anyone who she’d feel comfortable passing the torch to, it would be Frankie, since Yaya made no secret she was her favorite grandchild.
AJ and Niko were runners-up, but they were a distant second.
“She can’t do them at the cottage, it’s too small. She can come over and cook with me. Would you come?”
“Of course!” Niko got excited just thinking about it. That was exactly what he needed in his life. “Are you and Liam coming to the fundraiser?”
Jessie was doing all the work for the fundraiser, all he had to do was show up on the night and chair it. There would be a silent auction.
“We bought a table.”
“Where is he? Liam.”
“At work.”
“So, how is married life?”
The smile on his little sister’s face gave him his answer before any words came out of her mouth. “Good. Really good.”
He’d never seen Frankie as happy as she was since she’d been with Liam.
He never had to worry about her now that she was with him, and vice versa.
He loved Liam, and now that he was with Frankie, he knew that he would always be taken care of because his baby sister was like a pit bull when it came to loyalty, protection, and love.
He’s not sure she would appreciate him describing her as a dog, but as her big brother, he felt that was a card he was allowed to play.
“I’m glad I got a chance to talk to you, alone.” Frankie dipped her paintbrush into the blue and ran it down the canvas. “Have you seen G or talked to her?”
“She and Brock were at yoga this morning and at the Quiz Night at JT’s.”
“I mean, have you talked to her when she wasn’t around Brock?”
“I overheard her on the phone with her sister at the tree lighting ceremony, it didn’t sound good. Then I tried to talk to her, but she wasn’t having it.”
Frankie sighed. “I was at The Beauty Spot today, and she came in to get a mani/pedi, and she seemed…off.”
She was off, but Niko wanted to hear why Frankie thought so without any input from him. “You two were never the best of friends.”
Frankie never particularly warmed to G. It wasn’t just that she was protective of her brothers and didn’t like any girls they dated, she got along with all the women she met that he’d been casually seeing.
“No, yeah, I know it’s just…she really didn’t seem like herself.
She seemed withdrawn and…I don’t know, sad maybe.
Two girls came in, they weren’t locals, they came to see Karina perform, and when they saw G, they recognized her from her social media and asked to take selfies, and she got all shy…
no not shy. I don’t know. She took the photos, but she was weird about it. I was worried about her.”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing when I heard her on the phone with her sister.” If he was still close to her family or had ever been close to her family, he would have reached out to them, but that wasn’t an option. “I need to figure something out.”
Lucy had finished her jerky by then, and she hopped up on his lap and curled up so he scratched behind her ears.
He loved dogs, probably more than people, and he loved people.
He’d always wanted a dog, but he’d never had one because he didn’t think it was fair since he was on the road so much.
Sure, he had the money to get a dog-sitter or board his dog while he was out of town, but again, he thought that was selfish of him.
“So, what’s up? To what do I owe this spontaneous visit from one of my favorite brothers?
” She dipped her brush into water, then pressed the brush into a cloth before dipping it into a different color, tapping the wood on the side, causing the excess to fall off before she pressed the brush to the canvas and pulled it down.
“I’m assuming it has something to do with the lovely Tiana. ”
Niko wasn’t sure how to explain what was going on. He usually had no qualms speaking about his personal life with his sister, but this was Tiana, she was different, special. Then again, he’d never needed any advice with women before, so this was uncharted territory.
“You know that Tiana and I aren’t really together.”
“Right,” she said as if he was trying to sell her oceanfront property in Arizona.
“We’re not,” he reiterated. “You know she only moved in because Brock broke into her cabin.”
“No, I didn’t.” She stopped painting and turned to Niko. “He did what? Did she report it to the police?”
He shook his head. “I think she wants to have as little to do with him as possible. Anyway, you know he put himself on the wait list and showed up at her class this morning so I offered to teach with her.”
She nodded, since she’d taken the hip hop class, she was aware.
“The classes were good. No issues. Then after the last one, she got a text, and she grabbed her bag and rushed out and said she was going to see Pops. I said I would take her, she said she wanted to walk. I told her I’d walk with her and…
” He wanted to ask if Frankie knew she didn’t have a car and that she was living in a glorified shack, but he didn’t.
It wasn’t his story to tell, so he kept it to himself.
“And she got… upset. She said that she didn’t need a babysitter or a bodyguard.
She said she needed space. So I backed off.
I didn’t message her or ask if she was okay, even though I really wanted to.
Then I went to teach my self-defense classes at Haven House, and she happened to be there.
I didn’t know she was going to be there, but she was.
She was teaching a yoga class, and she thought I followed her there. She got really upset.”
“Of course she did,” Frankie said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “But you told her why you were there, right?”
“I tried, but she kept interrupting me. She said that this arrangement was over and that my being there was inappropriate. And then Ramona came in, and I had to go teach. When I was done, she was gone. I just… I don’t know what I did.”
Niko was at a total loss. Women were typically excited to be with him and spend time with him and wanted to be associated with him. Not Tiana.
Frankie bit the inside of her lip and glanced down at the ground. Niko knew that look. She had something to say, but she didn’t want to say it. It was the look she got on her face whenever she was guilty. But why? What could she possibly be guilty about?
“What? What is it? Just say it,” he demanded.
“You’re my brother, and I love you, but Tiana’s my girl.”
“You’ve known her five minutes,” he argued.
“Yeah, but this is more than just girl-code, she’s been through…a lot.”
The look in his sister’s eyes was clearly protective. He’d only seen that look about her family, Liam, Zion, and basically people she loved like family.
“I’m not going to hurt her.” He didn’t feel like he should have to say it out loud.
“Not intentionally, no.” Frankie went back to painting. “You would never hurt anyone intentionally.”
“What does that mean?”
“She’s not like the other girls you date.”
“Yeah, I know.” Did Frankie honestly think he thought she was?
“She’s never had…” her words trailed off.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “It’s none of my business. You should talk to her.”
“I came here to ask my sister for advice.” Frankie always took the twins’ side.
She was fiercely loyal. Even when Niko fucked up, because let’s face it, AJ never did, she always had his back in public, and then she’d tell him what she really thought in private.
“Are you seriously not going to tell me what to do? How I fucked up.”
She put the paintbrush down and slowly turned back around on her stool. “How much do you know about her?”
“What? What do you mean?”
His sister’s brow wrinkled. “I feel like that’s a fairly self-explanatory question.”
Niko sat with it and the truth was, he didn’t know jack shit about her. He wanted to, but she just seemed very private, and he didn’t want her to clam up.
Frankie took a deep breath and then exhaled.
“We lost our dad suddenly when we were very young. You’re a twin.
Your twin has autism. Our mom had serious issues with depression and alcohol our entire childhood.
How much of that do you think affects the way you are as an adult?
The way you behave. The way you react to situations. Your relationships with people.”
He was quiet, wondering why he hadn’t thought of that. How far was his head up his own ass that he’d actually made her behavior about him?
“If you’re having trouble, I can pull up TMZ and remind you.”
“So funny.” Lucy hopped off his lap as he stood. He walked over and kissed Frankie on the top of the head. “Thanks, Sis.”
“No, thank you. I never thought you’d be asking me for advice on girls. This is actually a big day for me. Now I can officially say that I have successfully played Cupid to both my brothers.”
“Well, we don’t know if it’s successful yet.”
She gave him a look that said they both knew it would be. He was glad she had faith in him, because for the very first time in his life, he wasn’t so sure.
“I have now completed my best sister in the world Bingo card,” she declared victoriously.
“You don’t need a Bingo card to tell you that you are the best sister in the world.”
“See, there’s that charm.” Frankie pointed up at him. “This is why I never thought I’d have to help you with women.”
He never thought he’d need advice when it came to women, but with Tiana, he was starting to expect the unexpected.