In the past when she was struggling with a problem she could bury herself in work but even that didn’t hold the same appeal. As a matter of fact, she’d been thinking about it for a while, what it would be like to just leave everything behind and start over somewhere fresh. Maybe even Atlanta.
Problems follow you everywhere if you don’t deal with them. She needed to figure out why she kept choosing the same type of guys; men who weren’t emotionally available. First, there was Joshua and then Franklin.
Even though Jason and Vicky were going through a rough patch she wanted what they had. They genuinely loved each other. Sandy thought that person might have been Franklin but obviously her instincts were more than just a little off.
She didn’t understand what even happened between them? At one point, he really seemed to care about her. It was always in the back of her mind that she was just a rebound but Franklin always made her feel like she was so much more.
She took a deep breath and thought to herself, “Did he? Or, did I want the relationship so bad that I convinced myself that I wasn’t?”
As much as it hurt, she was going to have to close that chapter in her life and move on. Sandy turned the corner at a full on sprint back to Jason and Vicky’s street she ran into what felt like a brick wall. She went crashing to the ground.
She yelped, “Ow!”
Unfazed, the Mack truck that ran into her bent down to help her up “Are you okay?”
Stars were swirling around her head.
“I’m fine, I just need a minute.”
“I didn’t see you coming around the corner. I’m pretty familiar with everyone in this neighborhood and nobody is usually out this early.”
Sandy rubbed her forehead to clear her addled brain, “So, you’re saying this is my fault?”
“Not at all…I didn’t see you. That was all I was saying.”
Sandy let him help her up but she was a little unsteady, “I can’t tell if that was an apology or not.”
“It wasn’t but I definitely owe you one. I’m very sorry. Your legs are a little wobbly. Let me walk you home. Where is home?”
“No thank you. I’m fine. I’m just around the corner.”
It took an extra moment for Sandy to catch her balance but once she did she walked the rest of the way to Jason’s house.
Little did she know that the man who literally knocked the wind out of her waited and watched until he saw her turn onto Jason’s property before finishing his morning run.
Chapter 27
It was only late afternoon and Franklin was exhausted. He’d left work early telling his personal assistant to only forward pressing issues to his attention. Trying to fill in the gaps for Jason and dealing with everything life had thrown his way over the last year proved harder to deal with than he’d let on.
As he sat in front of his big screen television watching the news, he absentmindedly picked up his cell to call Sandy. The call went straight to her voice-mail. What was he doing? Why was he calling her anyway? Franklin knew she wasn’t going to answer. She hadn’t answered any of his other messages and texts.
What if she did answer? What was he going to say to her? Was he going to tell her that he missed her like crazy? That wasn’t a lie. He did miss her. But, he couldn’t give her what she deserved.
Franklin thought he had loved April for a long time. He was even prepared to spend the rest of his life with her.
After she’d mysteriously broken off their engagement and moved out of his home, he’d done everything to win her back. Yet, she wouldn’t even talk to him. He’d spent months suffering in silence. He didn’t understand why all the women in his life at some point seemed to leave him.
Franklin wasn’t a man who wore his feelings on his sleeve. He still carried the scars of his childhood even though they were no longer visible. Having to hide all the bruises, beatings, and abuse his father handed out to both him and his mother taught him well how to mask his pain. He was so good at hiding it that Jason hadn’t even known.
The abuse only got worse after his mother left. Wondering what ever happened to her used to be a heavy burden. Not so much anymore. However, every so often Franklin still felt the loss of not having his mother in his life.
Maybe that was why it hurt so much when April left. He’d been abandoned…again. Then, out of nowhere, she called saying she was back in town asking to meet for dinner. Of course, he jumped at the chance to see her again. Hoping she would explain what he did wrong? Why she left him?
They’d met at what was once their favorite restaurant. She was just as beautiful as he remembered. Yet, when he saw her, the feelings that had always accompanied being around her was missing. Franklin told himself that it was because she’d hurt him and it would just take some time to get
