Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Frankie
“Lou, pick up your phone. You can’t just cryptic text me like this, you’re worrying me,” I scolded into my sister’s voicemail, locking the door to my shop with shaking hands and then opening up her text message again.
You need to come to the inn right away. It’s an emergency. Don’t tell anyone else.
I tried not to think of how many times I’d made my sister or my brothers or my cousins feel the exact same way I did now with my many dramatic requests over the years. But this was different. Lou always tried to solve problems on her own, and if she couldn’t, she was very discerning when she decided to ask me for help because she knew, well, she knew me.
My pace picked up as I got closer to the inn, reaching to a jog when it came into sight.
From a distance, I saw the gate was ajar, and my stomach turned. And then I saw it—the flickering in the front windows like there was a fire inside. And not a good kind. It was too dark to look for smoke, and all I could think was that Lou was inside—in danger. I started to run. The front door was left open, too, requiring no effort to push through it.
“Lou?” I called into the space, panicked. “Lou, where are you? What’s going on? Lou?—”
The swivel of my head stopped at the living room. I hadn’t been inside since the day Chandler left, but it wasn’t the beautiful remodeling and careful restoration of the space that caught my breath. Nor was the inn on fire like I’d feared.
It was Chandler standing in the center of the room where the air mattress had been, surrounded by dozens and dozens of candles. His and mine. Sweet cinnamon and spiced masculine. A combination I hadn’t considered. Ours.
“Chandler.” I found my voice, and even though my heart hurt to see him, especially in this place, I managed to step just through the threshold of the room. “What…what are you doing here?”
“I’m here for you, Frankie. I love you.”
I bit into my tongue to stop the cry my heart wanted me to make. “Chandler, I told you, this isn’t going to work.” I scrambled onto the excuses I’d given before like a life raft in the middle of a storm. “I’m not saying you can’t be here or be a part of our baby’s life, but I can’t…I won’t let us come in second.”
He took a step toward me, and I tensed like a deer in headlights, prepared to bolt the second he got too close. I’d walked away from him once, and in the last five days, being alone with all the reminders and memories and messages from him, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to walk away a second time if he touched me.
I thought I was strong. Determined. Resolute. But so help me, I missed his embrace. I missed waking up next to his warmth and spice. I missed working all day in the comfort of his presence and spending all night exposed to the heat of his touch. I loved him, and I hated that I had to break my own heart because I loved him too much.
“I won’t either, Frankie.”
I shook my head like my emotions were dust I could shiver off. “No. You can’t say that. You left again. For your business—because of your father?—”
“I walked away from it, Frankie.I gave…I restructured the arrangement with my half-brother; I’m giving them back the properties I acquired so they can stay in business.”
“What…” My head was swimming. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Taking over it wouldn’t make me better, Frankie, it would make me the same as him. A man who destroyed things,” he rasped. “And I don’t want that to be my legacy.”
“But your business…” I was rapidly losing my foothold in resistance.
“I’m walking away from all of it. I should’ve walked away a long time ago when Mom got sick. I don’t need the money. Haven’t for a long time.”
My heart pounded like a jackhammer on cocaine, blood humming in my ears. “What?” I shook my head. “No. You can’t. It’s your business, you can’t walk away from it. I would never ask you to. I have my own business, I know how important?—”
“No, Frankie. Your business is your passion. My business was a weapon. A tool to gain wealth and power to prove I was better than my father. You started your business to remind people of the pieces of the world they love; I started mine to prove why the world should love me,” he insisted, and even though I was shaking from the sincerity in his words, I was frozen in place as he moved toward me. “But I don’t need the world to love me, Frankie. I just need you to. ”
My finger buttoned over my lips as soon as a cry escaped them. I didn’t even feel the tears in my eyes until blinking sent them racing down my cheeks.
“Chandler…”
He unfolded something in his hand; it took longer than it should’ve to recognize his label from Gigi because my eyes swam with tears.
“You’re my freedom, Frankie. The reason I have a future. A life. The reason I have to smile,” he said low, and I couldn’t stop myself from sobbing. “You’re the reason I have to love.”
“Chandler, please.” I begged for mercy as he came to stand in front of me, his big hands framing my face.
“I love you, Frankie. And if you’ll at least hear me out, I have a new deal I’d like to offer you.”
I only had to breathe him in to know I would say yes to whatever it was.
“A new deal?” I managed to rasp.My mind was so scrambled by his presence—his proximity, his scent.
“The last time we were here, we agreed to one week to prove the inn was haunted.”His hand cupped the side of my face. “This time, I’d like to propose something a little more permanent.”
I should’ve seen it in the bright embers in his eyes or heard it in the husk of his voice when he said the word propose , but Chandler Collins had always been an expert in surprising me.
My jaw lowered along with him until he was on one knee in front of me.
“Francesca Kinkade, I’d like to propose a new deal,” he said and materialized a ring box from his pocket, drawing the lid open. “Forever with me so I can prove how much I love you.”
The sight of him swam in front of me, tears obscuring everything except the unimaginable swell of happiness in my heart .
“And if I say no?” Even my tone betrayed that impossibility.
A small smile tugged at his lips. “Then I have a lot of candles here to help convince you to say yes.”
I shivered and laughed. “Resorting to threats to get me to marry you?”
“It could be worse. I could be resorting to ghosts.” His grin softened and then disappeared. “Will you marry me, Frankie?”
I bent forward and brought my face to his, the flicker of the candles turning into a glowing haze around us. “Yes, Chandler. I will marry you.”
His mouth claimed mine, firm and demanding, and the instant explosion of electric heat made my knees tremble.
“I love you,” he drew back and repeated, sliding the delicate diamond flower ring onto my finger.
“I love you, too.”
And then he was standing, and I was in his arms, my toes barely scraping the ground as he held and kissed me.
“How did you do all of this? I can’t believe Lou…” My sister was fanatical about the inn and keeping everything under wraps and untouched until it was ready to open…but she’d let Chandler use it for this.
“I’m not the only one who thought you deserved some of the magic you give to everyone else.”
A fresh round of tears washed over my cheeks. “And you knew I’d say yes.”
He grinned and lowered his mouth to mine. “I only make deals I know I’ll win.”
I tipped back, evading his searching lips a moment longer. “You didn’t win our first deal. The inn is haunted.”
“I guess we’ll just have to stay the night for you to prove it.”
“Really? Lou said?—”
“Your sister said I had free rein of the inn for one night. ”
“What did you have to promise her?”
He brushed a strand of hair back from my face. “To make you happy.”
I cried and smiled at the same time as I said, “She let you off easy. I guess I’ll have to make you work for it.”
He growled and came for my mouth again, pulling me tight to where I could feel his thick length pressing against my stomach. “Oh, I plan on working for it all night, my little flame.”