Her Old-Fashioned Husband (7 page)

Frankie
was full of fun and fire and he never wanted to smother her or put a damper on her spirit. He just wanted to make sure that she had fun while being as safe as possible.

Tom h
adn’t had much of a home life. His father had left before he’d turned five. When h
is mother had remarried
, he’d been ten. She’d focused all her attention on her new husband. Rod was
n’t been a bad man, but he’d had his own family from a previous marriage and hadn’t been interested in Tom.

So he’d spent a lot of time at the Jamieson house growing up. They’d been his second family.
At college he’d met Austin. They’d quickly become best friends and Tom ended up spending most of his holidays with Austin and his family. They were an amazing family.
Austin’s mother was the center of the family. His father doted on her and her children adored her.

Austin’s father was a strict but loving man. Tom had been surprised to realize that like Frankie’s parents, Austin’s dad disciplined his wife. And he’d also been a little relieved to find it was more common that he’d realized.

Because it was the
sort of relationship he wanted.

Although he didn’t enjoy punishing Frankie, it was something he believed to truly be necessary. And he never shied from giving one when it was needed. One thing he strived to always be was consiste
nt.
H
e was sure Frankie considered him strict, but she thrived under rules and structure. It was how she’d been brought up and he knew she’d never respect a man she could walk over.

Rubbing his eyes, he looked at his watch and realized he had five minutes before the conference started again. What they needed was a holiday. Some time away just the two of them
, where he could work on getting Frankie to fully open up with him
.
T
he only time she truly
let go was
when he disciplined her.

Then often her emotions
were so raw and real that she w
ould shy away from them
and retreat
.
He now
realized that she was just as insecure as she had been when they’d first got together. His fault, he needed to spend more time reassuring her of his love.

It was time to fully take charge.

Except how was it fair for him to expect her to fully open up when he wasn’t doing the same. He’d never told her about Austin, not because he didn’t trust her or love her. But because he still found it so painful.

But it was time to tell her.

Tom
scrolled through the contact
s
on his phone until he reached Heath’s name. His brother-in-law picked up on the fourth ring.

“Hey, Tom, what can I do for you?” Heath’s voice was calm, unhurried. Tom admired the man a lot. He was the rock in his family, had been since h
is parents death. He’d held his
family together and kept them the strong unit they still were. Tom knew no matter what else was going on, any of them—Tom included—could go to him and he’d give them his full attention.

“Hey, Heath. How’s it going? How are Ava and Jaron?”

“Jaron’s good. Growing fast,” Heath said with very real affection for his stepson in his voice. “Running around and getti
ng into mischief. Ava isn’t very
happy. She wants to be running around after him. I’m not her favorite person at the moment.”

“You want me to check up on
her?” Tom asked with concern. Ava was nearly five months pregnant
and it wasn’t going easy on her
. Her blood pressure was high, she was excessively tired and having a toddler to chase around wasn’t helping matters much.

“That would probably be a good idea. When you have time. Not that she’s any worse, but if you could just reiterat
e the need to rest and not stress
. She’s pushing me hard. I’m not sure how much stricter I can get with her.”

Tom heard the tightness
in his voice, knew worry over Ava’s health was starting to wear on the stoic man.

“I’ll
come out some time this week
,” Tom promised. “I hate to ask, but can you do me a favor?”

“Of course.”

“Go and check on Frankie for me tonight. She’s a bit upset. I’ll be home tomorrow, but...”

“But you’re worried about her and you’d feel better if someone checked on her,” Heath finished understanding exactly how he felt.

“Yeah,” Tom said with relief.

“Course I will. She’s still my little sister. If I think she needs it, I’ll bring her home with me.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey, no thanks needed. We’re family, remember?”

Tom hung up, feeling much happier.

*****

Later that night, Tom tiredly climbed the stairs to his hotel room.
He was glad that the conference was finally over and he could get home to Frankie.

His cell buzzed just as he entered his room. He looked down, hoping to see Frankie’s name. Instead it was Heath’s.

“Hi Heath,” he answered as he sat on a chair and toed off his shoes.

“Tom.”

Tom immediately sat up at the displeasure in Heath’s voice.

“What is it? What’s happened?” Tom asked urgently.

“I’m at your place. Frankie’s not here.”

Tom looked over at his clock. Seven forty-five. She should be home by now, even if she’d stopped on the way home to get groceries or takeaways.

“Your house is all locked up and her car isn’t in the garage.”

“Damn,” Tom sighed. “I’m sorry to get you all the way there for nothing. I’ll ring her
cell;
she must have go
ne out to dinner with friends.
She mi
ght be home soon.
She knew I was going to call her.” And he always called at eight.

“I’ll wait,” Heath said.

“No, you need
to get home to Ava. I’m sure Frankie
’s fine. You know how easily she loses track of time.”

Heath was quiet. “Sure you don’t want me to go looking for her?”

“No. Honestly, go home. Thanks Heath.”

“You ring me if you need to. Promise.”

Tom smiled. Heath sounded like a concerned parent, and he guessed in a way he was. He’d raised
Frankie from a teenager
.

“I promise.”

He closed his phone then rubbed his forehead. A headache was forming in his temples. He’d give her until eight then he’d ring. After all, she didn’t know he’d asked Heath to come around. Tom hadn’t wanted it to look like he was checking up on her when that was exactly what he was doing.

Tom hated the fact that he was miles away from her right now. Not when she was hurting, confused. The fact that she wasn’t safely tucked up inside their house ate at his guts.

He paced. Never had fifteen minutes seemed so long.

Seven fifty-eight. Close enough.

Tom called the house phone. It rang until the answer phone picked up.

Letting out a deep breath in an attempt to cage his fear, he called her cell.
No answer.

“Goddamnit, Frankie,” he swore. “I’m going to whip your butt good for scaring me like this.”

He called the house phone then her cell again, leaving messages on both.

Sitting back on the bed, he prepared himself for a long night.

Where the hell was she?

*****

What the hell was she doing here?

Frankie stared around her with blurry eyes as she sat in the crowded nightclub. She’d only intended to go out to dinner with her workmates. They’d begged her to join them and she’d given
in. She hated eating alone. I
nstead of driving home to Hamilton to change, she’d showered at Libby’s house, borrowing some of her clothes.

Unfortunately, Libby was a bit smaller than Frankie, so a top that looked fairly
good on Libby was basically
obscene on Frankie. At the restaurant she’d kept her jacket on to
cover herself up, but it was too hot inside the club to keep it on
.

God, what was she doing here?

After a few drinks with dinner
it hadn’t taken much for the others to persuade her to come here, but she really wished she hadn’t. Tom was going to kill her. Not only was she supposed to be at home, but she wasn’t supposed to be drinking
without him
. When they’d first gotten together she’d been drinking too much and partying. He’d eased off on
the complete
alcohol ban he’d given her
back then. But i
f he wasn’t with her, she
was supposed to limit her intake to
two
drinks. When Tom was with her
, he always stopped her before she got too roasted. The trouble
was
that after three or four drinks she sort of lost track of how much she’d dru
nk
.

Damn, she should check her cell. She’d turned it off when they went for dinner, ignoring the masses of guilt that had formed in
her stomach
.

S
he was allowed to have dinner with her friends
, she defended to herself. But that didn’t excuse the fact that she hadn’t text him. She knew he was going to call her and she hadn’t even given him the courtesy of a text to say she was out.

And she didn’t even know why she was acting this way.

To top things off, she wasn’t even enjoying herself.
She felt nauseous from a combination of guilt and alcohol. She was exhausted. Her feet hurt from being stuffed into Libby’s too-small high heels and she’d been hit on so many times, she’d
lost count. She’d
actually had to stomp her heel down on one guy’s foot just to get him to back off.

He was none too pleas
ed either. Even now, he stood gl
aring at her
from
across the room.

It was
time to leave. She had to call Tom. She had no idea what time it was, but she could only imagine how mad he was. And worried.

Frankie was in big trouble.

Heaving herself up, she swayed as she attempted to search out her friends. Dragging out her cell, she nearly heaved as she tried to read the screen.

God, this wasn’t good. How was she going to get home?

She could taxi but it would cost a fortune. There was no way she could drive. Not in this condition. Pulling off her shoes, she held them in one hand, her cell clu
tched tightly in her other hand
as she pushed and shoved her way to the door.

Stumbling out the door, she took in deep gulps of cold air.

Shivering, she glanced down at herself in confusion.

“Damn, where is my jacket?” she muttered. She ran her hand over her ha
ir. Where had she put her it
? Did she leave it in the club? She must have.

“I need to go back inside,
”
she muttered.

“Are you all right?”
a deep voice asked.

Frankie glanced up at the voice, her gaze narrow
ing as she stared at the smart
ly-
dressed man in front of her. He had dark hair and bright b
lue eyes, his tanned skin a nice
contrast to the white shirt he wore tucked into black pants.

“Yep. I’m just going home.”

The man frow
ned, looking even more handsome
if that was possible.

“How are you getting
home?” he asked
. “Do you need me to call you a taxi?”

She shook her head, groan
ing as that made her feel ill.
“No thanks,” she slurred. “No ta
xi. Too expensive. I live in Hamilton.”

He frowned. “Can I give you a ride home then? You’re
very
drunk, young lady,” he said sternly. Damn, now she was being scolded by strangers, it was too much!

Frankie matched his frown.
“I’m fine. I’m going to call my brother. One of the
m. Brax probably, he’ll
be less likely to spank me.”

O
ops, had she said that out loud?
She smacked her hand across her mouth.

The man’s eyes gleamed and she
squirmed a little
. There was so
mething about him. He kind of reminded her
of Tom. Not in looks, he was far larger and had dark hair where Tom was blond.
But that tone of voice, the firm look in his eyes that brooked no argument, the overwhelming self-confidence.
Yes, those
were all traits her husband had.

“You’re shivering. I wish I had a jacket to give you.”