Frankie raised her hand and waved. “Shar, over here.”
Harper’s throat constricted. She opened her mouth to get more air, staring as Shar turned and smiled. Frankie had that same smile, too. Frankie had the woman’s same build. Hourglass shape, but with an excess of forty or fifty pounds. Maybe sixty in Shar’s case. It was the same shape Harper had spent all of her adult life fighting.
Frankie grabbed Harper’s arm excitedly. “Scooch out. I want to get up.”
Harper did as her sister asked, but just stood there as Frankie went past her to greet Shar.
“Hi. I’m so glad you could make it.”
Shar gazed up at Frankie, her eyes filled with tears. “My beautiful Frances. I’d recognize you anywhere. Can I hug you?”
“Sure,” Frankie said as she enveloped the woman in her arms.
Harper wanted to leave. She wouldn’t. But she wanted to. Instead, she stood there, tamping down the urge to run and waiting for the inevitable moment that Shar turned to greet her.
Frankie let go and the moment happened.
Shar dabbed at her eyes and smiled at Harper. “There she is. Dear Harriet. What a beauty you turned out to be.”
Harper shook her head, not quite making eye contact. “I changed my name. I go by Harper now.”
Shar nodded. “Harper. Okay. That’s what I’ll call you. And you can both call me Shar. I don’t expect more than that.”
Good, Harper thought. Because she wasn’t getting called Mom. Ever. That ship had sailed. Decades ago.
“Why don’t we sit,” Frankie said. “You can get something to drink, and we’ll figure out what we want for lunch and then we can catch up.”
Catch up.Sure, that’s what they were doing. It had been forty-seven years since this woman had last seen them. Catching up didn’t seem to quite encapsulate what needed to happen, but Harper held her tongue.
If she said anything now, she wasn’t sure she could stop her true feelings from coming out. She really shouldn’t have come. She’d thought she’d be able to keep it together, for Frankie’s sake, but she was already struggling.
She watched as Frankie slipped back into the bench seat. She seemed to be doing just fine. Good for her.
Harper sat as soon as Frankie was settled. She immediately picked up her menu. Her appetite was gone, and she was too agitated to make any kind of decision about what to eat, but it made a good barrier between her and Shar.
The server returned. Shar ordered a sweet tea.
When the server left, Shar smiled at them. “I’m sure you girls have a lot of questions. I have a few of my own, but I’ll answer anything you ask. It’s so good to see you both after so long. I can’t believe we’re all here. Together. I never thought I’d see either of you again.”
Harper flattened her menu on the table and folded her hands on top of it. She had questions, all right. And she was done being quiet. She’d been quiet foryears. “Let’s start with this one. Why did you abandon us?”
Shar’s smile faltered and she swallowed. She straightened the napkin holding her silverware. “It wasn’t by choice, I can tell you that.”
“Then why?” Harper’s entire body felt like a coiled spring. “We deserve to know, don’t you think?”
“You do,” Shar said. She cleared her throat and lowered her voice. “You were taken from me because I was involved in an incident—”
“An incident?” Harper could hear the shrillness coming out of her, but she didn’t care. She was barely hanging on and this woman wanted to play games? “What kind ofincidentresults in you losing custody of your children?”
The server returned with Shar’s sweet tea. Frankie asked the server for a few more minutes, and they were left alone again.
Shar sat up straighter and looked Harper in the eyes. “I was arrested for driving the getaway car when your father and two of his friends robbed a bank.”
ChapterFifty-Four
Frankie choked on the sip of water she’d just taken, nearly spitting it out. “What?”
Harper was rolling the edge of her paper napkin into a tight line. She stopped and looked away, shaking her head. “That’s just perfect.”
