Just Chance Page 18

  Luca appraised the flowers for a few moments and shrugged. “Looks pretty good to me, honestly.”

  “Pretty good isn’t good enough, though,” Frankie said, sighing. “Not for someone’s wedding or funeral or first high school dance. Those aren’t things that you want to be just ‘pretty good’ for.”

  It was a good reminder to himself, actually, because if Frankie was honest, he knew that half the problem was that it had been really hard to keep his mind on flowers—off Hawk—ever since he’d come into work that morning.

  Well, actually, ever since he’d left Hawk in Atlanta.

  Luca ducked his head behind his own coffee cup, looking contrite, and Frankie shook off his mood. He knew his friend hadn’t meant anything bad by the “pretty good” comment—and when Frankie wasn’t distracted by thoughts of his not-really-real-no-matter-how-real-it-had-felt boyfriend, he knew that he had made progress with his flower arranging skills over the few months under Ethan’s guidance—but it was still frustrating to hold his own work up next to Ethan’s and still be able to see so many flaws. And on top of missing Hawk, which he was going to have to hurry up and get over, fast, it was especially difficult this week, since he knew Ethan was counting on him.

  Being tasked with holding everything at Chance to Bloom together—well, along with Ethan’s cousin, Maya, of course—was a pretty big deal. The last thing Frankie wanted to do was have to tell Ethan that he’d messed something up while Ethan had been away on his honeymoon.

  That was a problem for another time, though.

  Luca plus a free latte made it the perfect time to take a little break.

  “Did I miss anything this weekend?” Frankie asked before gingerly taking another sip. It was fantastic. But… a little hot. “It feels like I’ve been gone forever, but I guess it’s only really been a couple of days.”

  Luca shrugged. “You didn’t miss anything as far as I can tell. I mean, hello, it’s Bridgewater. It seemed pretty quiet around here every time I stopped in to check on Maya. She’s really a sweet girl, you know.”

  Frankie smiled, grateful all over again for Maya’s help while Ethan and Jack were gone. “I do know. She’s awesome. I’m hoping we can talk her into coming back more often. Maybe even full-time, if she’d move a little closer.”

  “Well, one thing she isn’t very good at is gossiping,” Luca said with an exaggerated pout that made Frankie laugh. “After you were so mysterious about this sudden Atlanta trip you just had to go on, I tried to pry information out of her all weekend, but she wouldn’t give anything away. So… what’s up? You and your man elope? I don’t see a ring…”

  Frankie laughed and rolled his eyes. He’d known that had been the reason for Luca’s impromptu visit, but it had been more fun to wait for Luca to bring the subject up. Luca considered it his sacred duty to know the goings-on of everyone who worked in the little strip mall, and when Frankie had started “dating” Hawk, Luca had almost bounced out of his skin with excitement. He’d been almost as inquisitive as the paparazzi—though not nearly as annoying, of course—and since Hawk was one of Frankie’s very favorite subjects, he’d been more than happy to gush about him.

  Well, about some things. He hadn’t violated their agreement, of course.

  And sure, Luca might be a bit of a busybody, but he was also one of Frankie’s closest friends. No matter how much enjoyment Luca got from gossip, at the end of the day, Frankie trusted that all his curiosity really was fueled by the genuine wish for Frankie’s happiness.

  Frankie smiled, ignoring the fluttering sensation that Luca’s over-the-top suggestion had given him… also ignoring the sad part that wanted to remind him not to set his hopes too high by even imagining wearing Hawk’s ring.

  “Nothing as scandalous or exciting as all that, I’m afraid,” Frankie told Luca, doing a super impressive job with all his ignoring—actually managing to laugh a little at the suggestion that he and Hawk had eloped, of all things. His smile widened, the flutters drowning out the sad parts. “Could you imagine, though? The blogs would have a field day with that.”

  “I would have a field day with that,” Luca said, looking positively gleeful at the thought. “Seeing Ethan and Jack get married has given me wedding fever—for other people, I mean.”

  Frankie laughed at how quickly Luca had tossed in the disclaimer. “No wedding bells in your future?” he teased, turning the tables a little on his friend.

  For all his nosiness about other people, Luca didn’t often open up about his own personal life. Frankie respected his friend’s privacy, despite occasionally being super curious about how someone as awesome as Luca was still single—although it was Bridgewater, not exactly a hotbed of attractive, eligible gay men—but still, as far as Frankie knew, Luca didn’t date much.

  As in… at all.

  Maybe Luca couldn’t find time to date, since it seemed like he was running the coffee shop from sunrise until sunset, but still, it was a shame. Frankie flushed, realizing he’d never speculated all that hard about Luca’s lack of a love life before. So maybe his own… feelings… were giving him relationship-fever, too.

  “Nope,” Luca said decisively, shaking his head as he confirmed his non-dating status. “Zip. Nada. That’s the last thing I have time for. However,” he wiggled his eyebrows before continuing, not looking all that put-out by his perpetually single status, “I am more than happy to live vicariously through you and your gorgeous hunk of a man for now. So… give me details! Why were you in Atlanta? What did you do there? Did you have fun?”

  Frankie took another sip of his chai, as much to keep his friend in suspense as to enjoy that sweet, sweet caffeine that was better than—well, no. It really wasn’t better than sex. Frankie bit his lip, willing himself not to think too hard about that.

  At least, not right now.

  “Your smile looks naughty,” Luca said, grinning from behind his coffee cup and looking like he might actually burst from anticipation. “Spill.”

  Frankie grinned, not above torturing his friend. But no way was he going to “spill.” He tried to sound casual and calm as he thought back on the whirlwind of a weekend that he spent with Hawk. “It was just a thing for Hawk’s team,” he said, shrugging nonchalantly. “He had to do some, um, press conference stuff… and then we just sort of…” He swallowed hard and felt his cheeks go suddenly hot, remembering exactly what they did after the press conference even though he’d just decided he Wasn’t. Going. To. Let. Himself. Go. There.

  “You just sort of…?”

  “We just sort of chilled for the rest of the time,” Frankie rushed to add, knowing for sure by the look in Luca’s eyes that he didn’t totally believe it had been that innocent.

  Which, of course, it hadn’t.

  And… oh God. There was a reason Frankie wasn’t going to let himself think about this stuff at work. He’d thought Hawk was unbelievably hot even before he’d—

  “So, you—”

  “I had to fly back before we could really get out and do much of anything,” Frankie interrupted Luca quickly, schooling his face to look super innocent while he shifted his stance, thankful for the maybe-not-that-terrible flower arrangement between the two of them on the workbench.

  Don’t get hard. Don’t get hard. Don’tgethard.

  “You make it sound like just a regular, boring weekend, but I know that look…” Luca winked. “Your face is telling a different story. Did you have fun, at least? Is Hawk still there?”

  “Yeah,” Frankie said, grateful his friend hadn’t pushed it. Frankie was no prude, but some things were just… private. He cleared his throat, adding, “Hawk is there for a couple more days, and yeah, I really did have a good time.” A really, really good time. “It’s kind of nice to get back to the slower pace in Bridgewater, though. I don’t know if I’m cut out for life in the fast lane.”

  And as much as he wished he could’ve stayed with Hawk for the duration of Hawk's time in Atlanta, Frankie had been happy to get back home.
The only benefit of doing so much in such a small amount of time was that he’d been too tired to even freak out over the plane ride home.

  Well, he’d been too tired to freak out much. Planes were still not really his thing… especially planes that didn’t include Hawk sitting next to him and holding his hand.

  Luca raised his eyebrows. “You’d better get used to that fast lane, Frankie, or you’re gonna have a problem.”

  Frankie cocked his head to the side, surprised at his friend’s suddenly-somber tone. “Why? I don’t think Bridgewater is gonna grow too big anytime soon.”

  “Maybe not, but what if you and Hawk become more serious? It’s not like he can stay here during the football season…” Luca paused and gave Frankie a funny look. “Hasn’t that come up at all between the two of you before now?”

  Frankie looked down at his cup of chai, tracing the outline of the Magic Beans logo while he tried to figure out how to evade Luca’s question. The subject of their living arrangements o how to navigate a long-distance relationship hadn’t actually come up between him and Hawk, but that was mostly because it wasn’t a real relationship. Now that Frankie thought about it, of course a normal couple would’ve probably at least had a conversation about the topic by now.

  “We’ve tried to just kind of keep things, um… moving slowly,” Frankie said, having a harder time ignoring the sad-voice this time.

  It wasn’t real.

  It felt real.

  But… it wasn’t. And what he’d said to Luca wasn’t a lie—things had moved slowly between him and Hawk—but again, that was more a case of having a contract than anything else.

  If they had been a real couple, Frankie would’ve tried to make that hotel scene happen a long time ago—and probably tried to repeat it every day after. If they’d been a real couple, Frankie would’ve done a lot of things.

  He swallowed hard, gulping down another too-big drink of his chai to hide it. After all, it wasn’t like he could explain any of that to Luca. In fact, it was probably best if he didn’t try to explain anything else. The less he had to stretch the truth, the better. Lying really wasn’t his strong suit—especially not to his friends—but he definitely wasn’t going to violate that contract he’d had to sign. Not because of the dickhead agent, either… but because it mattered to Hawk.

  And, real boyfriend or not, Hawk mattered to Frankie.

  “Nothing wrong with moving slowly,” Luca said, not seeming to have picked up on Frankie’s distress. “Just… make sure you take care of yourself, okay? I don’t want to see you get hurt, Frankie.”

  Okay, so maybe he had.

  “I appreciate it.” Frankie gave a big smile, hoping it looked convincing. “It’ll be okay, though. I’m sure Hawk and I will figure something out.”

  He wasn’t at all sure of that… but it sounded good.

  Luca picked up his cup and lifted it in the air. “I’ll drink to that. I’m sure you guys will be fine. You seem happier than you have since I’ve known you—and we have to give Hawk at least some of the credit for that.” He winked. “And a guy who makes you that happy isn’t likely to break your heart.”

  Frankie nodded, but turned his attention back to the cup in front of him to avoid giving away how he felt about that idea. How much he wondered if it was too late to stop that from happening now.

  “Anyway,” Luca said, reaching out to give Frankie’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I just wanted to stop in and catch up with you. I’ve gotta get back. I’ll talk to you later.”

  Frankie smiled. “Thanks for the chai,” he said, noting that Luca’s eyes had far too much empathy in them for Luca not to have picked up on the fact that something was up with Frankie and his “perfect” boyfriend. “You’re a good friend, Luca.”

  “Take care,” Luca said, sounding like he really meant it. And remember what I said. Make sure you’re putting yourself first sometimes, okay?”

  He was out the door before Frankie could answer. Which was good, since Frankie didn’t even know how to answer that. He did know that Luca was right, though. Frankie did need to watch out for himself. Hawk was great—better than great, actually—but wasn’t that exactly the problem? Frankie’s relationship with Hawk might look too good to be true from the outside looking in, but… that’s because it was too good to be true.

  And Frankie would need to do a much better job of remembering that no matter how amazing Hawk was, no matter what they shared, none of it was supposed to be real.

  Frankie knew that… he really did. But how did he explain the weekend? The intimacy, the closeness, the feelings…

  Had it all been an act?

  He swallowed hard, rejecting the thought. It didn’t seem like that was even possible. And if it was, Hawk had a promising career not just in football, but in Hollywood, too. Still, it would come to an end sometime soon, and Frankie wouldn’t be eloping… or getting a ring… or moving to Atlanta with Hawk.

  He picked at one of the flowers in the sorry-looking arrangement in front of him. A peony. How had he ever thought this bouquet was going to work? It wasn’t even “pretty good.”

  Maybe, after the contract ended, he and Hawk could still be friends. Maybe they’d even see each other from time to time to reminisce about their fun summer together. Maybe they’d even watch fireworks again sometime.

  And really, the thought of having Hawk as a friend was still a lot better than the thought of not having him around at all.

  It was certainly more than Frankie had ever hoped for when the whole thing had started.

  Chapter 19

  Hawk

  “Hawk, you’re the only single one at the table,” Olivia said, making an exaggerated pouting face. “I mean, not single, of course… but where’s little Frankie?”

  Everyone at the large round table turned and looked at him, and it took a lot of willpower not to make an ugly face back at Olivia. He already missed the hell out of Frankie, and he didn’t appreciate the reminder.

  Besides, he’d made a point of telling everyone at the beginning of the meal that Frankie had to fly back, but apparently she hadn’t received the memo.

  No doubt too busy interfering in someone else’s business…

  But no matter how he felt about Olivia, or how annoyed he was by her poorly worded question, he couldn’t help but smile when he thought about Frankie.

  “He’s back in Bridgewater, like I said earlier,” Hawk said, doing his best to take any possible bite out of his tone. He didn’t want to be rude to Olivia—she wasn’t necessarily a bad person, and Hawk did legitimately like her husband, Darrell. “But I’ll be sure to let him know you were thinking about him.”

  “Please do,” she said, smiling sweetly. “I think he’s probably good for you.”

  “Dude,” Darrell cut in, shaking his head. “She’s been talking about your boyfriend all weekend. I swear to God I’m starting to get jealous.”

  Hawk laughed. “Pretty sure you don’t have anything to worry about there… but yeah, he is pretty great.”

  Pretty… amazing.

  And sexy.

  And beautiful.

  “You are so sprung,” Juan muttered, elbowing him in the side as Hawk thought about all the things Frankie was. “Admit it, man. I called it weeks ago.”

  Hawk looked to his left and rolled his eyes at his best friend. “You know you’re still full of shit like, ninety-nine percent of the time, right? But yeah… you did call it this time. I have to admit that I’m pretty sprung on this guy. He really is the best.”

  Juan grinned—in fact, everyone around the table was smiling dreamily in Hawk’s direction. Shit, was he really that sappy and obnoxious about Frankie? Hawk never imagined himself to be That Guy—the one who walked around always looking like that heart-eyes emoji.

  But… that was a pretty accurate depiction of how he felt lately—how he felt all the time when Frankie was around.

  “And I have to admit that you guys make a pretty good-looking couple,” Juan said
. “Seriously, I’m happy for you, man. You deserve to have a guy who makes you look like…” Juan nodded in Hawk’s direction, giving him an up-down look. “Like this. Sprung.”

  Hawk thought back to what Frankie had said the night before—about the two of them together, and how being with Hawk had made Frankie feel special. It had made Hawk’s heart melt a little at the time, but if Hawk was being honest, he had also been a little too horny at the time to really soak in everything that Frankie had said.

  He’d heard the words, but he hadn’t really thought much about the feelings behind them.

  Had Frankie been dropping hints? Did he want to take things with Hawk to the next level?

  It felt like a revelation to Hawk, even though he also felt like an idiot for not picking up on it sooner. Was that what Frankie wanted?

  Was it what Hawk wanted?

  Sure, there was the contract, and the long-distance aspect, and Hawk’s worry that life in the spotlight might be a little overwhelming for Frankie—a concern that Frankie apparently also shared, judging by his stress levels over the weekend.

  But… if they could find a way to get past all of that… did they have a chance together? A real chance?

  “You got quiet all of a sudden,” Juan said, raising an eyebrow as he nudged Hawk’s arm. “You know I was just giving you shit about the sprung thing, right. Not that you aren’t, but—”

  “No, it’s not that,” Hawk said. “I mean, it’s nothing. I was just thinking of… something I should’ve done yesterday.”

  “Oh, really?” Olivia called out across the table. “Like letting Darrell and me take you and Frankie out for dinner last night? When you were busy?”

  Hawk smirked. The woman was relentless. But again, thinking about being busy with Frankie had Hawk smiling more than he probably should’ve been.