“Agreed,” Frankie said. She found glasses and filled them each about halfway. “Here you go.” She lifted the glass. “Here’s to some much-needed sister time.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Harper took a sip, then set her glass down. She was eager to find out what was happening in her sister’s life. Since the divorce a few years ago, Frankie had struggled a bit with life on her own.
Or at least that had been Harper’s impression. “So. Tell me what’s going on with you. What’s new in your life? And how are the kids doing?”
ChapterEleven
Frankie took a second sip of her wine before retreating to one of the counter stools. She thought about how best to answer those questions. “The kids are good. Jason’s marriage has been a little up and down, but they’re working on it. Willa’s still focused on her doctorate in education, so she’s busy with that. My life is all right. I’m glad for the summer break. I’m illustrating a children’s book right now. Or about to start, I should say.”
“That sounds pretty exciting.”
“It is,” Frankie said. “I’m glad to have the work. I can’t really do too much illustrating during the school year because I’m just so busy, but summer break is the perfect opportunity to take on extra work. I could use the money, too.”
“Don’t assistant principals get paid pretty decently?”
Frankie nodded. “Yes, but the divorce kind of left me in a bad spot. You know that.”
Harper nodded. “I do. I guess I wasn’t sure where you were with all of that.” She took the lid off the pot of water and dumped in a bag of what looked like high-end penne pasta.
“Fancy pasta,” Frankie said. Any pasta that came in a fancy bag instead of a box was high-end to her.
“I like the good stuff,” Harper said. “So? How are things post-divorce?”
“I’m still recovering financially, is how things are,” Frankie answered. “I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I might be recovering for years to come.”
“That bad?”
Frankie sighed. “I had to borrow money from my parents to pay for the attorney and even though they’ve said I don’t have to pay it back, I want to. It’s not fair to them not to. They aren’t rich.”
Harper nodded, sympathy on her face.
Frankie sat back and asked a tough question. “How’s your mom?”
Harper’s face immediately changed into an expression that said there was no great answer. “She’s not well. The dementia is winning. She no longer knows who I am and, frankly, I’ve stopped visiting. She gets so angry at me and there’s nothing I can do about it. The staff said it would be better for her not to get riled up, so…” Harper shrugged. The pain in her eyes was clear.
“I’m really sorry.”
“Thanks.” Harper gave her a quick, sad smile, then stirred the pasta. Once that was done, she opened the bag of frozen peas, then moved on to juicing the lemon into a small bowl. “I’m glad your parents are doing well. They are, aren’t they?”
Frankie swirled the wine in her glass. “They are. Mom still walks a mile every morning. Dad has coffee once a week with his buddies from the FOP. They both volunteer at the church a bit, too. They stay busy.”
“The FOP?”
“Fraternal Order of Police.”
“Oh, right.”
This felt like the opening Frankie had been looking for. The way to tell Harper what she’d really been up to for most of the year.
Harper stirred the pasta again. “Well, this might sound callous, but I’m glad my dad went so quickly. The suddenness of his heart attack was hard on me and my mom, but he didn’t have to watch her decline. And he didn’t have to suffer through a long illness, either. Strange to think of a heart attack as a blessing, but when compared to what my mother’s going through, it definitely seems better.”
“No, I get it,” Frankie said. This wasn’t the moment. Harper needed to be in a good place mentally. Frankie changed the subject. “This house was quite a gift from Arlington.”
“Tell me about it. He used to talk about his beach cottage in Florida all the time. I never had any idea it looked like this.”
“You must have been floored when you showed up here if you thought it was going to be a cottage.”
“I didn’t think I was at the right place. I checked the address three times, but then again, they had me down as the owner at the guard hut, so obviously I was.” Harper gave the bacon a stir.
