Frankie snorted. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks. I’m going to shower. I’ll be back down in time for breakfast. In fact, I can set the table if you wait.”
“Are you going to be all right here by yourself while we’re gone?”
Willa stopped midway to the stairs. “Mom, have you seen this place? I’ll be fine. I figure Archie and I can hang by the pool until you guys get back.”
“That sounds like a nice day.”
“I think so, too.” Willa went up the steps.
Frankie let out a sigh, got up and found a notepad and pen in one of the drawers. She started making up a grocery list with all of Willa’s requests. Then she did a quick inventory of the fridge and cabinets and added more things.
Harper came out, now in yoga pants and a tank top. “Grocery list?”
“Yep. Anything you want to add?”
“Definitely.”
Frankie slid the notepad and pen toward her sister. “I’m starting to wonder if you were right.”
Harper’s brow furrowed. “About what?”
“About Shar. Maybe we shouldn’t be meeting her.”
“Too late to have second thoughts now,” Harper said as she jotted some things down. Then she looked up. “It’s going to be fine. No matter how it goes. If it goes well, great. If not, things haven’t really changed, have they? We still have each other, and we’ve been doing pretty good with just us as family. Haven’t we?”
“We have.” Frankie snagged her coffee and took a sip. It was lukewarm. She stuck the cup in the microwave to reheat. “How are you doing? I mean with what happened yesterday. Any updates?”
Harper’s chest rose and fell with a deep breath. “Other than quick checks to see if any clients have reached out, I’ve been ignoring my phone and laptop on purpose. Kind of nice to pretend nothing happened, but that’s not reality, is it?”
“No, but is there anything you’re particularly worried about? Yesterday might have started out rough but it finished up pretty well. Don’t you think?”
“I do. But there are still some clients I haven’t heard from, and I don’t know what to expect from social media.”
Frankie pushed the sausage links around in the pan. “You can’t let other people’s opinions get to you. The internet is a vicious wasteland of people who like to spout off all kinds of hate and nonsense. Most of them, if faced with you in person, wouldn’t say a thing, but the internet gives people a skewed sense of self-importance and, worse, a kind of bravery that has no grounds. I see it all the time with the students.”
“I know you do. And I don’t know how you deal with it.”
“I tell them the same thing I’m about to tell you. Those people don’t matter. They’ll drop a disgusting comment and go back to guzzling their soda and stuffing their faces with Cheetos and they won’t think about you ever again. Which is exactly how you should treat them.”
Harper smiled. “I’ll take a hard pass on the soda and Cheetos, but you’re right. I need to ignore the stuff that doesn’t matter and focus on what does. Like the clients I still have.” She hooked her thumb toward the bedroom. “Guess I’ll get my phone and laptop. Unless you need help with breakfast?”
Frankie shook her head. “I’ve got this.”
She did, too. Whether it was breakfast, a family crisis, a vicious divorce, or meeting her birth mother, she would handle it. That’s just what she did, no matter the circumstance.
ChapterFifty-Two
Steam drifted up from Mitch’s coffee as he sat on the back deck.
For the first time in a long time, I feel better.
He crossed out “better” with three even strokes and wrote “different.”
I feel different. Also better, but better feels like too much of a leap. No. It feels like too much of a betrayal.
I shouldn’t feel better. Jeanie is still gone. Kyle still isn’t talking to me. So I shouldn’t feel better. I have no logical reason to.
