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!"

"Dinner's almost ready, why don't you two sit down to eat?"

Frankie followed Corey's instructions and headed for the table already set for dinner. Looking around for the kids, Frankie guessed that they were being put to bed early for the occasion and was proved right when Lacey came hurrying down the stairs, two separate baby monitors in hand. Lacey greeted her guests with warm cheek kisses for both and sat just as Corey set dinner in the center of the table. Johnny hesitated before sitting and Frankie noticed the bottle of wine he had been holding in his hand.

"I brought this," he said, offering it to Corey.

"Thanks, man! This is perfect."

Corey disappeared into the kitchen and returned with wine glasses for everyone.

"You just have to be the perfect guest, don't you?" Lacey teased, squeezing Johnny's hand as he sat to her right, across the table from Frankie.

"It's called manners, Lace. Ever heard of them?"

And so began an hour of Frankie's life where she sat as an observer to a decades-old friendship, a conversation filled with stories and inside jokes that would take too long to explain to her. Frankie didn't mind. She was Johnny's ride, therefore forced to stay, and so, for the first time all week, Frankie could enjoy her food in leisure, instead of scarfing it down in under ten minutes.

The conversation was nice. Frankie enjoyed watching Lacey laugh with Johnny as they shared stories back and forth. Corey knew more than Frankie did as he had gone to school with Lacey and Johnny and so knew the people they were referencing. Frankie was content to eat her food in peace, smiling when Lacey turned her beaming face to her second dinner guest.

Once the food was finished and everyone was picking at their dessert, (a package of fudge bought from the farm store for this very occasion) the conversation started to wind down. Lacey, Johnny, and Corey were running out of stories to tell. When silence fell for the first time since they had all sat down together, Corey brought Frankie into the conversation.

"So, Johnny, how's life on the farm now that Frankie's got the run of the place?"

Frankie focused on the food still on her plate in order to avoid Johnny's gaze.

"Corey," Lacey admonished.

"Lace, it's cool," Johnny said.

Frankie glanced up to catch sight of Johnny's expression, to gauge his reaction to her sudden dominance in his family's life.

"It's good. Really," he started. "She works hard. My parents like her. She's not around a ton so things in the house don't feel like they've changed much."

Frankie could feel Lacey shooting her a glance but she kept her gaze on her fork as she rolled it one way and then the other.

"It's kind of nice, actually," Johnny continued. "She takes care of all the chores I would have had to be doing being back, which means I just get to sleep in."

Frankie's hands clenched tight around the fork at Johnny's laugh.

"It's a good practice run for when she's in charge," Corey said.

At his words, Frankie's heartbeat faltered, her frustration with Johnny forgotten.

"Corey, honey."

Frankie looked up just in time to catch Lacey shaking her head at her husband over her glass of wine and Johnny's confused expression flipping between the two of them.

"What? What is he-"

"Don't worry about it," Lacey said too quickly.

Frankie could feel Lacey's gaze on her, sure that her eyes were wide with an apology. But Frankie was busy trying to remember how to breathe.

Johnny was unaware of just how bad it had gotten in the spring after his dad's accident. He wasn't there to see the changes that happened in Dan, day after day, the slowness that settled in, the serious mood that never seemed to dissipate. He wasn't there when Dan called a family meeting, insisting Frankie join them as well. It was there that he told them what he had done.

Dan had written a will, finally getting to it after all these years. Hannah could finally stop bothering him about it. What was in the will was what needed to be discussed.

He was leaving gifts to Johnny and Natalie, his daughter. He was making sure Hannah was taken care of and he was leaving stock options to his head foreman, Joe, who had been with him from the beginning.

But the farm he was leaving to Aaron. And to Frankie. The two of them, together.

Frankie had been just as shocked as everyone else but incredibly touched. She cried herself to sleep that night, tears of relief, knowing that she never had to leave this place, that she never had to look for another job, that she had finally found someplace permanent.

Johnny's questions and confusion were quickly brushed aside as Lacey stood from the table and started to clear. Dinner was over, the topic of the future of Hummel farms avoided. For now.

Lacey and Corey stood at the door waving goodbye as Frankie and Johnny climbed into the truck and headed home. The silence in the car was tense as they rode through the sleeping town. Neither of them spoke. Johnny finally did as they turned off of the main street onto the road that led them to the house.

"What did Corey mean back there?" he asked.

Frankie readjusted her grip on the stirring wheel.

"You'll have to be more specific," she replied.

"Don't play dumb, Frankie. What did he mean, you'll be running things someday?"

Frankie pulled into the driveway, noting that all the lights in the main house were off. She answered Johnny without looking at him, pulling the keys from the ignition, climbing out of the car.

"You'll have to ask your dad about that. It's not my place to say."

"BS."

Johnny's harsh tone echoed through the empty yard along with the slamming of his door. He seemed to have little concern for his sleeping parents in the house right next to him. Frankie headed for the barn to hang the keys up in the spot she stored them Wednesday nights, when Dan and Hannah were usually asleep by the time she got home and she didn't want to wake them by entering the house. She wasn't surprised Johnny followed her.

"Tell me what he meant."

Frankie moved further into the barn so Johnny's harsh tone wouldn't make it across the yard and into the house.

"You'll have to ask your dad, Johnny. It's not my place to tell."

"He's leaving you the farm, isn't he?"

His correct guess stalled Frankie's answer and gave him all the confirmation he needed.

"I knew it. I knew it! Aaron said something but I didn't want it to be true. I mean, you! Of all people, he's leaving the farm to you!"

"Hey!"

Frankie's exclamation stopped the pacing Johnny's frantic energy had sent him in.

"I have earned my place here. You, of all people, do not get to judge my relationship with your father!"

"This farm belongs to my family. Keyword there being family!"

Frankie stepped back, the look of disdain on Johnny's face sending her there. When she spoke, her words came out low and serious.

"I have worked, every single day, for the last three years. I wake up every single morning and work until it's dark outside to make sure that this place stays running. I have given up everything to keep this place afloat. And I am not even getting paid for my efforts. So don't you dare tell me that I don't deserve my place in his will."

Johnny's breath came out in steaming clouds before his face, the heat of his frustration mixing with the cold night air.

"You're not getting paid," he finally said after a long moment of silence. "Why aren't you getting paid?"

He had fixated on the wrong thing and Frankie could feel her blood start to boil. Her voice was barely more than a whisper but the anger and frustration came out loud and clear.

"You have no idea what it was like this last year. What we went through, what this farm went through."

"When my dad fell from the ladder?" Johnny tried to clarify.

His tone was so naive, so innocent that Frankie wanted to scream.

"Yeah. That's all that happened. He just fell. That's it. End of story."

"That is what happened, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that and then surgery and then bed rest for a month, a back brace for two months after that. Not to mention the physical therapy three times a week that he hated, that I drove him to by the way! But of course, none of this costs anything. It's all free! We didn't start getting hospital bills that sat on the kitchen table because we didn't have the money to pay them!"

Frankie's volume grew as her tone turned sarcastic.

"Why didn't anyone tell me? Why aren't you getting paid?"

"I took a pay cut so Aaron didn't have to fire anyone. This place is all these farmhands have. This is their home and they'd have nowhere else to go. I wasn't going to let that happen!"

Frankie's mind screamed at her that she'd have nowhere else to go either. That if Hummel Farms closed, she'd be out on her own again just like the rest of them.

"But why didn't anyone tell me?!" Johnny's cry echoed through the barn and one of the sleeping cows raised his head at the noise but then did nothing about it.

"So you could do what? Not call when you said you would? Cancel last minute?"

"I could have sent money! I could've helped out!"

"By sending money? That was how you would've helped out? Do you really think your father, the fourth generation to run this farm, was really going to take handouts from his son?"

"If things were as bad as you say, then yes! He should have!"

"Then you clearly know nothing about your father."

That shut Johnny up. He glared at her. Both of them were huffing steam clouds into the air. Johnny took a deep breath and tried to control himself. When he spoke, it was in a low quiet voice, with sadness edging every word.

"Why... why do you hate me so much?"

Frankie felt like she had been slapped. She took a step back and had to pause to catch her breath before answering. Her tone was softer than she expected. The sympathy she had found for Johnny in the wake of his band breaking up came out in full force.

"I don't hate you, Johnny."

She waited to continue, letting her words land on him completely.

"But I do hate how you treat your parents."

Frankie held up a hand just as Johnny opened his mouth to speak.

"Please, just, let me talk, okay?"

Johnny nodded.

"I don't know you. I know I don't. We only just met. But I do know the way you treat your mom and dad, like the back of my hand. I have seen too many times the tears Hannah tries to hide because you have to cut a phone call short. I've seen Dan swallow his disappointment, over and over again, every time something comes up and you can't talk. They miss you when you're gone. And they would never, in a million years, say this to your face because why spoil the precious time they have with you?"

Johnny looked at the ground while she spoke. Her words hung in the air between them for a long minute before he responded.

"I ..." he started then paused, trying again after taking a deep breath. "The life I live, it's crazy and chaotic and I have absolutely no control over my schedule. I try to reach out, I do! I try to keep in contact, it's just... it's just..."

Johnny stopped and put his hands to his eyes, covering his face.

"Everything, ever since we started this stupid band, has been so crazy. I don't even know how I got through these last ten years. And now, to find out my parents..."

He stopped again. Frankie gave him time to finish his thought.

"To find out that my parents are disappointed in me, that I've screwed up my relationship with them, I can't..."

When he stopped speaking, Frankie waited one more minute. He was looking up at the rafters overhead, looking everywhere but at her.

"Your parents are so proud of you. Your dad? He talks about you to everyone he meets! Your mom has listened to every single song you've ever released and plays your music constantly. We have a playlist on repeat in the store. They are proud of you. They just... they miss you."

Johnny nodded as if that was all he could do to acknowledge that he had heard her. The cold was starting to seep into Frankie's bones and her adrenaline was giving away to exhaustion. But she still had one last thing to say.

"Look, you have a chance, to make things right with your parents. I wish I were that lucky, you have no idea. This dream you've been chasing, this job..." Frankie hesitated before finishing her thought but then realized that after everything they had yelled at each other, this was the only thing she would say this evening that was worthwhile. Once she said this, she could head to bed.

"What kind of dream forces you to sacrifice your relationship with your family? It doesn't sound like a dream worth having to me."

A/N:

Geez!! 😬 What a chapter!!

How are we doing? Everyone okay?

Sound off. Emotionally distraught person #1 here! 🙋‍♀️

Anyone else alive out there?

Hold on to your butts, kids. We've got two more chapters to get through today.