— FRANKIE —
21. KEEP IT SAFE
Some people have a death wish, and I was convinced that was Jared Bennett’s problem. Otherwise, he would have taken one look at me and turned the other way. I could understand why he was upset with me. A jockstrap full of Icy Hot and a knee to the groin was enough to make any man want revenge. But at some point, he needed to make a choice—he either needed to let this conflict between us go, or live the life of a eunuch. Because if he tried to hurt my daughter or me, his family jewels would suffer the consequences. And I was not going to be gentle.
He took a menacing step toward me with the confidence of a predator who knew his prey had no escape. “Tell her to run along,” he said again, nodding at Moxie who was sitting on the swing, kicking her feet merrily, oblivious to the jackass in our presence.
I stuck my phone in my back pocket and crossed my arms. “You’re the one that needs to run along, Jared. Your daddy will be very upset with you if he knows you’ve gotten out of the yard,” I said in a mocking voice. “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to stay a hundred feet away from me.”
He laughed. “Says who?”
“Says the restraining order I filed against you.” I tilted my head, wondering how he’d ever managed to pass high school. I knew he wasn’t bright, but this was a whole new level of idiocy.
His jaw clenched. “You attacked me!” he spat.
I lifted my finger and shook my head like a disappointed teacher. “I didn’t attack you. I kneed you in the balls,” I corrected. “Which is a perfectly acceptable reaction when someone is choking you. The police seemed to agree. So unless you want them hauling your ass to jail in the back of a cruiser, I suggest you head on home.”
He took another step toward me, and I felt my adrenaline spike through me like a bolt of lightning.
“Ain’t no one going home until I get what I came for.” His eyes raked down my body.
While he was busy visually undressing me, I cast a quick glance at Moxie to make sure she was okay. As if sensing my attention, she lifted her head, finally noticing that we had company. “Mama?” she asked. “Who’s that?”
“No one, baby,” I called back. “Just play. He’s leaving soon.” I turned back to Jared, putting my hands on my hips. “I hate to break it to you, but there are no drunk co-eds here. So take your molesting, pervert ass home and I’ll pretend this never happened.”
“You can pretend all you want, but this is happening,” he said, grinning and stepping closer. “I got what I wanted from that bitch in Penn State, and I’m going to take what I want from you.” He bared his teeth.
A strange sense of calm washed over me when he finally lunged at me. I had three older brothers, and no matter how much Nana tried to instill in them the importance of never manhandling girls, we still got in scuffles. Mainly because I was a pain in the ass. Jared might be used to being able to throw his weight around and blunder about like a caveman, but he seriously underestimated my survival instincts.
His big hand grabbed my arm, but I twisted out of his grip. He managed to snatch a clump of my hair and pulled it until my head yanked back. “Where do you want me to fuck you first, DiGorgio? Your mouth or that sweet ass of yours?” He tugged my face closer.
I clenched my teeth. “Nose or nuts?” I asked, my voice deathly calm.
“What?” He jerked his fist, tearing out a little of my hair.
Fine. Both it would be then.
I buried my knee between his legs with as much force as I could. Jared’s body instinctively doubled over, and I pulled my arm across my chest and then whipped it around catching him in the nose with my elbow. His head snapped back, and he fell to the ground making a noise that sounded very much like a dying moose.
“Timber!” a tiny voice yelled.
I lifted my eyes to see Moxie climbing the pole that held up the swing set.
“He went down just like a tree!” she cried gleefully. “Was he pretending to be a tree?”
Relief poured through me at the innocence of her comment. I wanted to go over and kick Jared again for trying to take that from her. For taking that from who knows how many girls.
Just as I reached Moxie, the sound of running footsteps drew my attention, and I turned to see Austin come around the corner in a full sprint. He looked like an avenging angel. He made a quick scan of the area, saw Jared rolling around on the ground clutching his crotch and bleeding from the nose, and then made his way toward Moxie and me.
“Are you okay?” he reached out tentatively and then touched my hair, smoothing it down where Jared had grabbed it.
I nodded. “I should probably call the police, though,” I said, reaching for my back pocket.
“I already did.” Austin looked at where Moxie had slid down a pole. She was gazing up at him like all her prayers were answered at once.
“Hey, Daddy,” she said. “Want to swing? It’s really fun. Mama taught me how.”
She said Daddy as if it was Austin’s name, and I loved him for not flinching or denying it.
“Sure.” He gave me an unsure look and I motioned at Jared, who was still on the ground, but was attempting to sit up. “I’ll wait for the police over here,” I said quietly so only Austin could hear me.
I stood close enough to Jared to keep an eye on him, but far enough from Austin and Moxie to give them privacy. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned off the voice recording I’d started the moment I hung up on Austin.
I didn’t know much about law aside from my father being on the wrong side of it, but I was pretty sure that Jared had just dug himself into a pretty deep fucking hole. And with any luck, the cops would toss him in it, and he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else again. That girl at Penn State would never get her innocence back, but she just might see a little justice.
***
Austin stood in the doorway of my old bedroom watching Moxie, her long lashes curling over the tops of her cheeks as she slept. I stood in the hallway, watching Austin from the shadows, trying to give him privacy but wanting to witness this moment between him and Moxie. I was selfish. I always knew I was, but I didn’t know what would happen once he left that doorway, and I was greedy enough to steal as much of his presence as I could.
“We should talk,” he said, without turning to face me.
I led him downstairs and out the back door so we could sit on the porch. The only furniture left in the house was what was in my bedroom, but even if the house had been furnished, it only seemed right that we should have this difficult discussion out on the porch, just like we always did growing up.
We sat down, and I waited for him to talk. I’d apologized so many times in phone messages that I wasn’t sure if another apology would even be anything more than white noise at this point.
“I went to see my mother,” he said, breaking the silence. “That’s where I went when I left here.”
“Oh?” That possibility hadn’t even crossed my mind.
Austin cleared his throat. “Four years ago, she told me that you never came to Vegas. But then you told me in the police station that you had.” He bent his head to inspect the small stuffed animal he held…a gift from Moxie. “I wasn’t sure who was lying, you or my mother. I knew out of the two of you, she was the most likely to lie, but in my mind, you’d told the biggest lie of all by breaking your promise.”
I bit the inside of my lip, not even attempting to defend myself.
“But when I saw Moxie…” He lifted his gaze to meet mine. “It all fell into place. My mom had picked you up that day. She’d never liked you. When she realized you were pregnant, she would have seen you as a problem she needed to get rid of.” His fingers worried at the small ears on the toy he was holding. “I had to see her face-to-face. I had to know for sure that she at least had a hand in it. I mean, it doesn’t change anything. I’m still hurt that you couldn’t trust me. I feel betrayed and cheated.”
Austin glanced in the direction of my room.
“I know.” I twisted my fingers together to stop them from trembling. “I know you will never forgive me. And I can accept that.” I took a deep breath to keep from losing my composure. “I just hope that you can give Moxie back the father that I stole from her.”
“I want that, too.”
I closed my eyes and my throat burned with gratefulness. No matter how hard I squeezed my eyes shut, I could feel trails of wetness snaking down my face. Something soft brushed against my cheek, and I opened my eyes to find that Austin had moved closer and was wiping away my tears with his thumb.
“Tell me why, Frankie,” he pleaded. “Just explain it to me so I can understand what you were thinking. I know your heart. I know you loved me. I need to understand why you thought it was the choice you had to make.”
And so I did. I explained my conversation with his mother, what I’d thought about while I stood outside the Venetian, and why I’d gone to Texas and never returned home. He didn’t seem surprised, only shook his head.
“You were always willing to sacrifice for others,” he said sadly. “What you need to know is that the show was never my dream. You were. You still are.”
I thought my heart just might explode. And when I started to sob uncontrollably, I didn’t even try to stop. Austin put his arm around my shoulder, pulled me close, and asked me to keep talking. He wanted to know all about Moxie—my pregnancy, her birth, her first word, her first steps. I told him everything. I had journals to give him that I’d written in every night, telling him what Moxie had done that day. I had boxes of photos and videos and drawings and souvenirs that I’d saved for him. It wasn’t the same as being there, I knew that, but I wanted him to know that I’d always wanted him to be part of Moxie’s life.
When I was finished, he said, “You were only eighteen, Frankie. You made the wrong decision, but you were only eighteen.” He grabbed my hand and threaded his fingers through mine. “We get a second chance. We can’t change what happened, but we can start fresh.”
He looked at me, his eyes full of hope.
“My heart hurts,” he said, licking his lips and shaking his head. “I’m not going to lie and say that it doesn’t, but my love for you is stronger than the pain. I want you. I want Moxie. I want to be a family,” he said adamantly. “I’ve always wanted you to be my family.” He raised our hands and turned mine over so he could place a kiss in my palm. “I lost my heart to you the first time I met you, Francesca Alessandra DiGorgio, and even though you broke it, I forgive you. And I’m giving it to you again.” He met my eyes, and behind his glasses, his eyes were glistening, but bright with hope. “Keep it safe.”