do that before she could take the step she needed to take and say the things she needed to say.
Eva looked alarmed. “Are you sure? You and Matt were doing great until your mother showed up.”
“Exactly. Before I talk to Matt, I need to talk to her. I have to fix this. It’s time I was honest with her. It’s time I told her how I really feel.” She strode to the door. “And while we’re on that topic, there’s something I want to say to you, too.”
“You’re resigning from Urban Genie so that you can work with Matt?”
“Are you kidding? Resign from a job where I get to work with my two closest friends every day? No way.” She shook her head and forced the words through the barrier that always prevented her from expressing her feelings. “I just wanted to say that I’m lucky to have you.”
Eva’s gaze softened. “Oh, Frankie—”
“I’m not done yet. I—” She could feel the barrier weakening. “I love you both. Very much.”
There was silence.
Paige was the first to speak. “Well—” Her voice cracked. “Was that a practice run for the real thing?”
“No. This was the real thing, too. I meant every word. You’re the best friends any woman could have, or want in her life.”
Eva’s eyes filled. “Group hug?”
Frankie gave a wobbly smile and pulled open the door. “Don’t push your luck.”
* * *
HER MOTHER WAS already at the coffee shop. “I came as soon as I got your text. What’s wrong? You normally refuse to meet me in the middle of your working day.”
“I need to talk to you, Mom.”
“Of course. That’s why I’m here. I came right away. I ordered you a diet cola. That’s what you like, isn’t it?”
“I mean really talk.” Frankie slid into the booth opposite her mother. “About stuff we probably should have talked about a long time ago.”
“You mean about what happened with your father? I know it affected you. How could it not? Him walking out like that with no warning—”
“I knew, Mom.”
The silence that followed stretched on for so long she wondered if her mother had heard her.
“Knew?” Her mother looked shocked. “You mean about the affairs?”
“Affairs?” It was Frankie’s turn to be shocked. “He had more than one?”
“Oh—I—” Her mother looked thrown. Then she lifted her chin. “Yes. Yes, he did.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you worshipped the ground your father walked on, and I didn’t want to be the one to kill your feelings. But it seems that happened, anyway.” Her mother looked tired. “But if you knew about the last one, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because he made me promise not to. He told me it was the first time he’d done it, and that he was never going to do it again. I didn’t know he was still seeing her until the day he walked out. And I didn’t know how to handle it. I knew you loved him and I didn’t want to hurt you. I lived with it, stored it inside me like some toxic virus that isn’t allowed to meet with the air in case it combusts. And I always wondered whether if I’d told you the moment I’d found out, if I hadn’t kept my silence, you might have been able to fix it.”
There was a long, pulsing silence.
“Oh, Frankie. Oh, sweetheart.” Her mother reached across the table and took her hand. “Nothing you did or didn’t do would have made a difference. He was playing you, just as he played me. His first affair was when I was expecting you. I found out because I went into labor early and no one could find him. It turned out the reason they couldn’t find him was because he was having a very intimate meeting with a coworker. After that things went quiet for a couple of years, but then it started again.”
Her mother talked, outlining a catalog of infidelity that Frankie struggled to comprehend. She’d thought she was the one with secrets, but it turned out that her mother had plenty of her own. Deep, painful secrets that she’d never shared.
“Why did you stay?”
“Because I loved him. And because of you.” Her mother poked at the foam on her coffee. “I thought that staying together was best for you. I didn’t realize that what I was doing was damaging you.”
Frankie’s chest ached. “Because of what I saw as a child, I grew up believing there was no relationship that couldn’t be destroyed. And I saw what