Make It Home For Christmas [COMPLETE]

Chapter Four

Frankie assumed, now that Johnny was back home, that the Johnny-sized hole in Dan and Hannah's life was filled. And so Frankie had no problem spending less time in the main house than she usually would have. She left that space for the family and only appeared at dinner time to eat quickly and then retreat to her room.

She spent most of the first half the next week at Aaron's house, sitting with him in his office as they went through applications for the two cashier positions at the store and the list of things they needed to prep for the visit from the Holly Inn after Christmas.

Once, as per Dan's request, they ran the numbers, again, to calculate the cost and benefits of building a stable on the stretch of land between the main house and Aaron's property. It had always been Dan's dream to run a stable, a place for their own two horses, and a place for others to house their own horses. It still wasn't worth it, they still didn't have the funds but they were closer than they had been in September. Frankie could at least tell Dan that.

On Wednesday, the day of Lacey's dinner, Frankie had the afternoon off. She had every Wednesday afternoon off as she had been spending nearly every Wednesday evening babysitting for Lacey since she had arrived in town. Her exit from Aaron's house perfectly coincided with Johnny's appearance to see his older brother and hang out with his family for the afternoon.

Frankie and Johnny exchanged polite nods of greeting but said nothing as Frankie made her way out the door. It was the most they had interacted since Sunday. Frankie had been spending her evenings in her apartment either reading or playing the guitar she had found in Dan's attic, instead of having a cup of tea with Dan and Hannah as she usually would have.

The time alone gave her space to figure out why the news of Johnny's band breaking up had affected her so much. It had felt like a brick had fallen to the bottom of her stomach and she couldn't shake the feeling of grief, loss, and sympathy for Johnny and what he was going through.

Frankie could blame her feelings on her own experience of finding her life suddenly falling to pieces around her. She would not have wished that experience on anyone and had an idea of what Johnny might be going through.

As Frankie and Johnny were not on friendly terms, Frankie kept her distance, mainly to keep Johnny from reading anything in her face that he might interpret as pity. She knew, first hand, that that would be the last thing he could possibly want.

And so the first time Frankie found herself within six feet of Johnny all week was when he climbed into the passenger seat of the truck next to her and they drove in silence to Lacey's house. The slamming of the car doors behind them reverberated through the quiet neighborhood as they headed for the front door. Every single house down the street was decorated for Christmas, Lacey included. Frankie had to avoid a string of white lights to ring the doorbell.

"You look nice," Johnny said, breaking their silence.

Frankie looked at him to gauge his expression, trying to find any possible hint of sarcasm or amusement on her behalf. There was none. Johnny's face remained flat and Frankie glanced down at her nicest pair of jeans and her sneakers to make sure she didn't have a stain or anything on her. Her long hair fell in front of her face and she pushed it to the side, regretting her decision to let it air dry and curl instead of throwing it up in a ponytail after she had showered it that afternoon.

"Hey, guys! Come on in."

Corey opened the door with a wide smile and stepped aside to let them in. The warm interior shed both Johnny and Frankie's coats and, like the perfect host that he was, Corey took them from his guests and hung them on the coat rack, yelling up the stairs to Lacey, "Hun, they're here!"