her gaze hunt through the crowd.
Searching for him.
Already knowing he was gone before her eyes could confirm it.
She did her best to just wait. To enjoy her party.
She waited until the last person left, and she hugged each guest tight, telling them how grateful she was that they came.
She stayed and helped clean up the mess. Her daddy and her brothers took all the folding chairs and tables out to the shed, and she and her mama swept up the floors and loaded the dishwasher.
When they finished, her daddy looked at her from across the kitchen, his smile soft. “I can’t believe my baby girl is eighteen. Blows my mind . . . seein’ you all grown up. Wild Child.”
Tenderness filled his words.
Wistfulness overflowed, and Frankie wondered how much more affection she could take before she completely burst with it. Her voice quivered with sincerity, “I am so thankful that I got to have my childhood with you as my daddy. You were the best one I ever could have asked for.”
Emotion crested in his eyes. “You will always be my little girl.”
Crossing the room, Frankie hugged him tight. “And you will always be my daddy. Age doesn’t change that. Things just look a little different now.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he said with a rough chuckle. Nostalgia rimming his features, he touched her chin. “Good night, Sweet Pea.”
Frankie Leigh turned to her mama and hugged her just as tight. “Thank you, Mama, for being the woman I needed. The woman my daddy needed. Our lives were made complete in you.”
Only Frankie knew she was still missing one person.
Her mama touched her face, her smile full of wonder. “It has been my absolute honor to get to be your mama, Frankie Leigh, and I am so excited to see what you do with this new stage of your life.”
“I love you.”
“I love you more than you’ll ever know,” her mama said before she released her and retreated upstairs as well.
Frankie climbed the stairs behind her, only she had no intention of turning in.
She rushed into her room and changed her clothes and slipped right back out the door. She hopped in her car and drove to the small apartment complex by the college where he now lived.
She parked and got out, nerves coiling her stomach in a gazillion intricate knots. Excitement declaring anarchy on any bit of self-control that she had.
Above, the heavens were strewn with a cascade of stars, the air crisp and cool and brushing her overheated skin.
Frankie moved for his door, and she rang the doorbell that she knew would trigger the light inside.
It felt so much like she was flashing her SOS at Evan’s window, the way she’d done all their years growing up.
I need you.
I need you.
I need you.
Only tonight, it was meant in an entirely different way.
A second later, the door cracked open and he peered out.
“Frankie Leigh.” He mumbled it like he hadn’t expected her to come which was ridiculous in itself.
“Hi.”
“Hey.”
Wary, he widened the door and stepped back, and she slipped all the way into his tiny apartment. Standing just inside, she gazed at the boy who had somehow become a man.
So beautiful in every way.
His hair mussed like he’d been tugging his fingers through it.
He was wearing no shirt, only a pair of dark jeans.
His feet bare.
God. Why did she think that was sexy, too?
FRANKIE LEIGH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?
She took a single step his direction. He took one back. YOU ACT LIKE YOU DIDN’T KNOW I WOULD COME.
He sighed, and moved over to the chair he’d been sitting on, took a sip of his beer before he set it aside. He seemed to hesitate before he lifted his hands to speak. YOU SHOULD BE OUT WITH YOUR FRIENDS.
She was certain he didn’t believe that statement any more than she did. Her head slowly shook, that energy gaining momentum, her heart going thug, thug, thug as she confessed her truth.
YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON I WANT TO BE WITH.
He leaned over, and he roughed a hand over the top of his head.
Sadness gushed out.
She edged forward, wearing the outfit she knew he would like, wanting to catch his attention. But more than that she wanted him to know how special that he was. What he meant to her. The way he made her feel.
She inched all the way forward until her fingers were taking the place of his, and she urged him to look up at her in the shadows