Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
F rankie went straight to the cabinet when they got home and took down a tall glass. She filled it with ice from the fridge dispenser, then water. She took a long drink, then set the glass on the counter by where she was standing.
Harper still had that weird, slightly spacey look on her face. Frankie couldn’t take it anymore. “Okay, out with it. What’s going on?”
Harper looked over with all the innocence of a sixth grader who was definitely up to something. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Willa laughed. “Yeah, right. Something’s going on. You’ve been all la-la ever since you came back from walking Archie.”
“With Mitch ,” Frankie added. Because undoubtedly, he was a key component in this equation. She just didn’t know how yet.
Harper sighed out a languid breath. “I don’t know what to tell you. It was a beautiful evening. We saw a great sunset. Archie did his business. Mitch definitely wants a dog. But you know that already.”
Frankie crossed her arms. “Yes, we know that. But you came back from that walk looking all…moony-eyed.”
Willa nodded. “La-la.”
Harper frowned. Sort of. “I did not come back moony-eyed.”
Willa came over to stand by her aunt, staring intently at her face. “You were definitely moony-eyed. Like you’d been kissing or something.”
Frankie sucked in so much air she almost coughed. She slapped her hand to her chest. “Did Mitch kiss you?”
Harper stared at the ceiling. “You two are so full of roast potatoes and sticky toffee pudding that you’ve lost your minds. I’m going to bed. I have Kyle’s book to finish. I’ll see you people in the morning. Come on, Archie.” She patted her leg and Archie hopped off the couch and followed her into the bedroom.
Frankie raised her brows and gave Willa a knowing look.
Willa nodded back. “Something definitely happened between them. Something good .”
“Agreed.” Frankie picked up her water and took another sip. “You want to watch a little TV?”
“No, thanks. I think I’m going to turn in, too. I have a few odds and ends I need to do.”
Frankie wasn’t sure what those could be, but truth was, she had work of her own. “Okay. See you in the morning. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” Willa headed up the steps.
Frankie took her glass into the office, turned on the desk light, and sat. She opened her laptop. Her plan was to refine and finalize the two illustrations she’d done today.
With the house quiet and the world outside the windows dark, it was easy to focus. There was no pull to be anywhere else. No sense of guilt that she was missing out on precious time with her family.
She whipped through both images in about an hour, polishing them to perfection. She’d look at them again tomorrow, just to be sure she hadn’t missed anything, but they were essentially done.
It wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. And she wasn’t tired. She decided to work some more. She turned on her concentration music, setting the volume low so it was just background.
That done, she grabbed her tablet and her drawing pen and moved to the small couch in the office. She’d already started the third illustration, making it easy to pick up where she’d left off.
Again, it seemed much easier to concentrate than it had earlier in the day. She didn’t typically work late at night, but maybe she was on to something.
By ten forty-five, the third illustration was done, ready to be polished in the morning. She was really pleased with how much she’d gotten done. It proved to her what she was capable of, if she applied herself.
She needed this kind of discipline all the time. Easier said than done, but knowing she could do it was a big deal. It proved to her that she had what it was going to take to run her own business.
She got up to stretch, then checked her phone. There was a text from Lucas. One single word and one emoji.
Night . Followed by a smiley face with hearts for eyes.
She grinned and typed back, Night . Then added the heart emoji.
She still wanted to do a portrait of Scout for him. She pulled up the photos of Scout that she’d taken and sat back down. With the pic on her phone as a guide, she did a quick sketch on her tablet.
The end result was good. She kept going, refining it, tweaking the image until it looked as much like Scout as she could manage. She worked hard on the fur. Fur and hair could be tricky, but she kept at it. Next, she added small dots of light to the eyes. That really made Scout come alive.
Finally, she had to make herself stop. It was twenty after eleven and she was getting tired. She wanted to finish, but maybe she’d save that as her reward for getting the last two illustrations done tomorrow.
It would be so much fun to surprise Lucas with this. She couldn’t wait.
She saved her work, shut off her tablet and laptop, grabbed her phone and her water and went up to bed.
She tiptoed to Willa’s door and listened to see if she was still up. Hard to tell, but she thought she heard the click-clack of fingers on a keyboard. Frankie went to her room and got ready for bed. The lateness was catching up with her, she could feel it. The big meal wasn’t helping, either. As if her body were trying to prove a point, the irrepressible urge to yawn came over her.
Tomorrow, she was going to finish those illustrations and finish that portrait of Scout, which she was then going to turn into a T-shirt design for Lucas.
It was a lot to do, but it would be a great test day of what working for herself would be like.
She also needed to bite the bullet and send her resignation letter. That meant she’d need to give a thirty-day notice to where she was renting, too. Moving out of there wasn’t going to be fun. Mostly likely, she’d have to rent a small truck, because she didn’t think she could fit everything in her car.
Maybe she could if she took two trips. She didn’t have a whole lot of furniture that she needed to bring. Not just because this house was furnished. When she and Tom had split up, she’d left a lot behind, relying on donations from friends and thrift shop items to furnish her tiny apartment.
None of that stuff was remotely valuable or sentimental. Maybe she could just leave it behind for whoever had the misfortune to rent that place after her.
That left her clothes, and not all of them would have to come, either. The section of her wardrobe reserved for her job as vice-principal would probably never get worn again. She couldn’t imagine when she’d need pantsuits. She sure wasn’t going to be wearing them working from home. Thankfully.
She rubbed moisturizer all over her face, neck, chest, and arms, then did her eye cream.
Some of the dresses, she’d keep. But in the short time she’d been here, she could already feel her style changing. What she wanted most these days was easy sundresses, sandals, and coverups that doubled as evening wear.
That made her chuckle. She turned the light off in the bathroom and climbed into bed. What she should probably do was a big clean-out. A couple of days dedicated to deciding which of her belongings really mattered and what could be given away or donated.
Moving to Hideway Bay was supposed to be her do-over. Her new start. The beginning of her second chapter.
She didn’t want to set out on this next part of her life bogged down with boxes of stuff she was never going to need or even look at. Her books would come with her. The few mementos she had. The photographs, her art supplies, some of the more special gifts she’d been given over the years.
She tipped her head back, thoughts swirling. Material things were nice, but they didn’t carry the same weight they had when she was younger. Those things just didn’t matter anymore. Family. Friends. Happiness. Peace. Companionship. A sense of purpose. That’s what counted to her now. That’s what mattered.
She needed to reach out to Prisha. She didn’t want to lose that connection, especially now that she was going to be living here. In fact, she’d love to meet more of her neighbors.
Frankie turned off the bedside lamp and scooted down under the covers.
What would Harper think about throwing a little party? One that their surrounding neighbors were invited to?
Not Suzanne, obviously. That wasn’t going to happen. But maybe Sugarlynn? As far as they knew, she hadn’t been involved in outing Harper to the press.
Frankie would talk to Harper about it tomorrow, and if she was amenable, then Frankie would see what Lucas thought. And then she’d talk to Prisha. Maybe they could get Mitch and his son to come.
Frankie smiled, thinking about Mitch and Harper’s mysterious smile.
If they hadn’t been up to something, she’d eat her sun hat.