Chapter Six
Katrina
“MOM, LET’S GO!” Frankie shouted from outside. I rolled my eyes and laced up my boots. That one day at the diner had created a whirlwind of activity.
We’d exchanged numbers with Rhoda before we left, and for the past five days, Frankie had spoken with Rhoda’s sister, Cami, on the phone. Every night I listened to my daughter talk animatedly, giggling over secrets she shared with her new friend, a girl she hadn’t even laid eyes on yet.
She was starving for friendship, and I was the one who was killing her.
“Aren’t you coming?” I asked Slyce, who hadn’t moved from her spot on the couch.
“Nope.”
My feet stumbled at her answer. “What do you mean, nope? What the hell am I supposed to do while those two are eating?”
“Talk to someone else,” she answered without looking up from the television.
“MOOOOM!” Frankie screamed from outside.
I glanced at the door, then back to Slyce. “I can’t sit there alone.”
“Kat, you’re thirty-four years old; you can talk to strangers.”
“Talking to strangers is how my life goes to shit,” I muttered.
Slyce sighed and muted the television. “I can’t stay here forever. I have other assignments. But I can’t leave until I know you and Frankie are settled.”
“Is that what the person who hired you said?” She still hadn’t given me anything regarding who had been looking for us, or why.
“Kat,” Slyce warned.
I flipped my hand in the air. “Whatever.” I shoved the front door open harder than I meant to, and it slammed against the side of the house. Now there was a hole in the siding of a house that wasn’t mine.
“Mom, hurry up!” Frankie hollered again.
A heavy sigh slipped through the air as I shook my head at the damage.
It was a problem for another day. I jogged down the steps and climbed into the car Slyce had provided for us.
She wouldn’t tell me where it came from, only that this was what her MC did.
They helped abused women and children get back on their feet.
“We’re going to be late,” Frankie whined as she fidgeted in her seat. She was excited to meet her new friend, reminding me again how much I had failed her.
“We have ten minutes, and it only takes three to get there,” I said with a chuckle as I backed out of the driveway. The car wasn’t much to look at, but it was solid and reliable.
It was how I’d seen myself at one point. Solid and reliable, but not much to look at. Looking back, I could see the red flags I had missed with Richard. The way he wanted me to shave my pubic hair, wear plaids and polka dots as much as possible.
The only plaid I wore these days was the thick flannel shirt that was my jacket. And I stopped waxing. I mean I didn’t have a forest, ’cause no one wanted that, but I wasn’t hairless anymore.
Clay didn’t care about the hair between my legs, and in hindsight, I realized that was one of the reasons I’d moved so fast with him. Frankie had been safe with him. I had been safe with him.
At least I’d thought so, until he wouldn’t let us leave. Until he kept us locked up at the clubhouse. He called it safety. It was just another prison.
“Are you listening?”
“Sorry, sweetheart, I wasn’t.” I glanced her way with an apologetic smile.
“You can’t sit with us,” she started. “We want to eat alone. So we can talk.”
“I understand, but you know I won’t actually be leaving you alone, right?”
Frankie let out a deflated sound. “I know.”
“Frankie, you’re only twelve,” I reminded her.
“I know,” she griped.
I didn’t know anything about Cami. I’d spoken briefly to her older sister, Maggie, when we set up this meeting. They both seemed nice enough, and the interactions I’d had with Rhoda over the last few days were always friendly. But a mother worried about her daughter’s friends.
Would she be mean to Frankie?
Was she a young thirteen who had things in common with Frankie?
Or an old thirteen who would pressure her into makeup and boys?
Would she scoff at the lack of money and prestige we had?
Or would she be humble and kind, like that Tim McGraw song?
Pulling into the diner, I knew we were the first to arrive. The dinner rush hadn’t started yet, and few people occupied the restaurant. Frankie could have her choice of tables or booths.
The familiar jingle rang out across the room as we entered, and I had gotten accustomed to the brief attention. I even found myself doing the same when we ate here and the door opened. Not that I would recognize anyone entering the establishment.
Except him.
I would recognize him because he haunted my dreams. His face was seared into my memory. I’d told him to stay away from my daughter, to never come near her again. But the truth was, I needed him to stay away from me even more.
“Can you sit with me until she gets here?” Frankie asked with a hint of trepidation.
This was a big day for her. My girl was twelve years old, and she’d never had friends.
She was five years old when I had Richard arrested and then divorced him.
Barely in kindergarten. For years afterward, we moved around, afraid to settle in any one place.
Until Arizona.
Finally, I felt like we were far enough away that he wouldn’t come back, but by then it had been me and Frankie for so long, neither of us knew how to function without the other.
Then I met Clay and before I knew it, we were living at the clubhouse.
I knew I would never move her again if Cami turned out to be someone Frankie could be friends with. My girl needed peers her own age. Slyce thought I did too, but I’d had enough of that bullshit.
Friends meant you were opening yourself up to vulnerability. It was what Frankie was doing now, and I saw the fear in her eyes. She was afraid of being rejected, despite the hours the girls had spent talking on the phone.
“Of course. Pick a spot.” I smiled and ran a hand down her back, letting her know I had her. I always would.
She picked a booth near the window and stared through the glass as we waited quietly. Me, afraid of asking her questions that might heighten her anxiety. Her, afraid to give her anxiety a voice.
Last week, when he who shall not be named broke my daughter’s heart by rejecting her breakfast and dinner invitation, she went to her room as soon as we returned home.
She stayed there all evening. Tried to hide how much his rejection hurt, and while I didn’t understand it, it still broke my heart to see her so sad.
The bell over the door jingled, and a young woman with two children walked in.
She was beautiful with her red hair piled up high on her head and small tendrils framing her face in a way that looked natural.
Unlike me, whose hair was always one step away from the result of electrocution.
I reached up and patted my ponytail, suddenly feeling inadequate.
She looked a little taller than me, dressed in overalls and a green henley, the same as the girl beside her.
The other child, a boy, wore a stern expression, as if he wanted to be anywhere but here.
“I think that’s her, Frankie,” I whispered.
Frankie focused on the small family and smiled wide. She moved to stand, and the girl rushed over.
“Please tell me you’re Frankie,” she said, looking over my daughter’s outfit. Frankie had chosen to wear her signature leggings and oversized hoodie.
Frankie didn’t give a lick about fashion, which worked in my favor seeing as I didn’t have the kind of money to dress her in the latest trends.
“I am,” she said quietly.
“Oh, thank God!” The girl, Cami, slid into the booth on Frankie’s side, and my daughter sent me a look that said get out of here fast. She had slipped into the age of being embarrassed by her mother, and I hadn’t even noticed.
I slipped out of the booth and said, “I’ll be at the counter. Frankie.” I waited for her to look up and gave her a look that said, mind the bill. Reminding her silently that I still didn’t have a job.
“Let’s get a bunch of appetizers and split them,” Cami suggested.
“Um,” Frankie stuttered and looked up at me, humiliation in her eyes, and I smiled and nodded. If I had to, I would humble myself and call Slyce for help with the bill. This dinner was more important than I had realized.
“Cami,” her sister began. “We will not abuse Joellen’s kindness. If you order it, you eat it.”
“I know, Maggie.” Cami rolled her eyes, and I chuckled without thinking. It was a look Frankie gave me repeatedly.
Maggie huffed and turned to me. “Would you like to sit with us?”
“Um, sure.” I gave a last fleeting look at my daughter to make sure she was okay, and she didn’t even notice I was there. Her focus was solely on her new friend. Guilt assailed me again.
“Rhoda said I could sit at the counter,” the boy said.
“I did,” Rhoda confirmed as she walked up beside us. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
“Are you sure?” Maggie asked. When Rhoda nodded, Maggie focused on the boy. “Be good, Nox. I mean it.”
His hand rested over his heart. “It wounds me you think I would be anything but.”
Maggie snorted, and Rhoda laughed, putting an arm over Nox’s shoulders and leading him away. “Let’s go before she changes her mind.”
“Sorry, my siblings can be a lot,” Maggie apologized.
“That’s okay.”
I followed Maggie to a booth where we could keep one eye on the girls, and she could watch Nox with the other.
“How old is he?”
“Ten going on forty.”
I did a double take at the boy sitting at the counter talking to Joellen, the owner. “He’s ten?” I asked in awe. His shoulders were wide, and he was at least my height, if not an inch taller.
“Yeah, our dad was a big guy. Nox definitely takes after him. I think Cami will too. She definitely looks older than she is. I thank God every day that mentally she’s younger than the other girls her age.”
“Frankie is like that too,” I commented, not wanting to explain that I was the reason for her stunted social skills.
“I blame our lifestyle. Cami goes to school, but we live on an orchard, so when she’s home, she’s working.”
“Do you run the orchard?” I asked, thinking Maggie was young for running a business like that.
“Yeah, it’s been in our family for generations. Our mom passed away when Nox was four.”
“And your dad?” I asked and immediately wanted to kick myself when she looked away. “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.”
“It’s fine. Honestly, I don’t know where he is. After our mom died, he fell apart and started drinking. When Nox was five, he fell out of one of the trees and broke his leg. Dad was supposed to be watching him. I guess he felt so guilty he left.”
“I’m so sorry. You’ve been raising your siblings for five years? You can’t be more than twenty-five.”
“Twenty-two, actually. I was three months from turning eighteen when Dad took off.”
“That’s a lot of responsibility for someone so young.”
Maggie shrugged, and I knew what she was thinking. You did what you had to do for your family. I looked over at Frankie, watching as her face beamed with happiness and laughter as Cami told her a story.
My life became about her the day the social worker placed her in my arms. I didn’t want to think about what I would have endured if her father hadn’t decided to relinquish his rights.
She’d been living with us for months when Miss Fredricks told us they’d located her father, and already, I was in love. For weeks, I cried myself to sleep, convinced he would take her away.
It didn’t matter that I didn’t give birth to her. Frankie was my daughter, and I would do anything to keep her safe.