Page 107 of The Honest Affair

Chapter Twenty-Six

May 2019

Matthew

Three…two…one…home.

I came to a stop outside my house after finishing my run home from the gym. Breathing heavily, I checked my watch.

“Shit,” I muttered. Time to get my ass in gear. I could not be late. Not tonight.

“Mattie? Is that you?” Frankie called from the kitchen as I entered the house.

“Shower!” I called back as I made for the stairs.

A minute later, I was in my room stretching when there was a knock on the door.

“You decent?” Frankie asked.

“Yeah, come in.” I stood up and pulled off my sweat-soaked shirt, then lay on the floor and started my sit-up regimen.

Frankie crept in, carrying a large bouquet of Easter lilies.

“Aw, that’s sweet, Fran, but I’m more of a red rose kind of guy, you know.”

“Oh, shut up,” she said. “I’m having a personal issue and I need your advice.”

I raised a brow. “If you don’t like him, send them back. And if you really don’t like him, send me.” I started a round of Russian twists. “So who’s the new guy?”

“Not new. Old. More than four years old, if you know what I mean.”

I paused, twisted toward her. “Xavier?”

Frankie hadn’t said much more about her baby daddy since the minor explosion at Nonna’s, only because I wasn’t one to push. Our sisters, on the other hand, definitely were, so I was pretty sure they knew every damn detail there was.

“Lea told me to call him. So I sent an email to his office.”

At that, I paused and sat up. “Whatever happened at the Christmas party?”

Frankie shook her head. “We, um, talked.”

“Not about Sofia, I take it?”

She shook her head. “More the, um, ‘alone’ kind of talking. And then I left. I’ll spare you the details.”

I made a face. “I appreciate that. And you haven’t talked to him since?”

She shrugged. “He doesn’t have my number. He sent a few emails to my work address, but I didn’t answer. I didn’t know what to say. Until now, apparently.”

“Are you thinking you’re going to tell him about Sof?”

Frankie shook her head. “I don’t know. I barely know him, Mattie. We had a fling almost five years ago now, and he was with someone else at the time, and then…” She shook her head. “Anyway, I just said it was nice to see him again. That was it. That was this morning. These arrived while you were out. Plus this.”

She handed me a card, which I opened and read out loud.

Like a ripple that chases

The slightest caress of a breeze,

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