“Of course you do,” Franki says. “It’s just alarming when you do it.”
I glance her way.
“Not to me,” she says.
“Nothing hurts your feelings,” Spencer insists.
“How is that a selling point?” It’s not even true, but only Franki . . . and maybe my sister . . . are aware of that fact.
“Because you won’t take anything he says or does personally,” Spencer says.
“Behavior is data,” I say. “I respond accordingly.”
Muscles bunch under Dante’s jacket as he shifts his weight. “We need someone neutral who won’t escalate the situation. That’s you.”
“I could escalate a nun on vacation,” I remind them.
Franki strokes my forearm soothingly. “That was an accident.”
“That’s my point.” I raise my eyebrows. “I have no filter and very little patience.”
“Less than my mother?” Dante asks.
Touché.
I stow the fidget spinner back in my pocket and lift my glasses to pinch the bridge of my nose.
The silence yawns between us.
Franki nudges me with her shoulder.
“A little bluntness may be just what the doctor ordered,” Spencer coaxes.
Franki pats my arm. “Between the two of us, this will be easy.”
She says that because she has the patience of a saint. Franki watches the two grooms with empathy written all over her sweet face. My darling wife knows what it’s like to brace for family damage and what it costs to manage other people’s volatility so joy isn’t crushed beneath it.
It’s not in her nature to step back if she can help someone, and—dammit, everyone here knows it’s not in mine.
Iliketo meddle and arrange and make things work out the way they should. It’s my besetting sin. If I weren’t fixated on my pre-existing plans with Franki, I’d have known about every one of these issues and dealt with them without being asked.
But Franki is finally getting her energy back after a busy year and changing her meds for her rheumatoid arthritis. And I still don’t know what’s bothering her.
When she stretches up to speak in my ear, I bend closer to listen. “I’m fine, Henry. I’ll worry if we don’t.”
Well.That’s that, isn’t it?
I brush her hair behind her ear. “You are the kindest person I’ve ever known.”
I can’t admire her empathy when it benefits me personally and steamroll or disparage it when it doesn’t.
I straighten and address the men. “We’ll take care of everything. You concentrate on enjoying yourselves.”
Spencer exhales so hard his lungs probably ache.
I brush my thumb over the freckle on Franki’s pinkie. “Leave Elliot to me. I’ll keep him in line.”
“Within reason,” she says.
