“Do you have your dress picked out? The dress is important. I was thinking of going next week to get mine. Mitch asked me this morning when he picked me up for school. He drew a huge chalk diagram with paths for me to choose and, of course, they all lead to me going with him to homecoming.”
Even as I finished in the stall and headed to wash my hands, she was still talking.
“But it’s exciting. I didn’t even know Mitch could be romantic. Then Bubba sang! Did you want to die? Oh, did you know he was going to do that?” I caught Cheryl’s cheerful grin in the mirror as she headed over to join me at the sinks. “Do you want to go with me to get a dress?”
Before I could answer, another stall opened at the end, letting Sharon out. Her expression was…hard to define.
“You should call me,” Cheryl continued, wiping her hands on a paper towel. “Do you have my number? I think you have it. We had that project last year, but here let me give it to you again.”
I pulled my phone out. A couple of messages had lit up the screen.
Coop: I want bbq for lunch.
Jake: You buying?
Archie: Depends. Not going to the porker place.
Ian: It’s not called porkers.
Archie: Don’t care, it’s disgusting. Also, Frankie hates it.
Jake: True, she didn’t get anything other than a soda the last time we went.
Coop: So again, I restate. BBQ. Frankie likes Ricky’s. Best pulled pork.
I cleared the screen and opened my contacts, then verified I had Cheryl’s number. “I’ll text you,” I told her.
“Great. Can’t wait. It’s going to be amazing. You and Bubba will make such a cute couple. Blonde and beautiful.”
My gaze collided with Sharon’s in the mirror as I swung to leave. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth flattened, but there was a hint of tears in her eyes, and I hesitated.
“Gotta run,” Cheryl said then did an air kiss at my cheek. Oka-a-ay. That was a little strange, but at the same time, I didn’t move away.
When the door closed behind her, Sharon turned to face me. “I didn’t know you were dating.”
“It’s new.” I didn’t owe her an explanation, yet guilt gnawed at me.
“Apparently. Really new.” She smirked, and then threw a paper towel in the trash. “You know, if you’d come to the end of summer bash, you’d realize just how new. Enjoy Homecoming.”
With that, she sailed out the door. I slid into lit class with only seconds to spare. Coop frowned at me, but I shook my head. We couldn’t talk with class gearing up. Our journaling books officially needed to be started and I had one, I just hadn’t written a damn thing in it. Course, after this week, I had a lot I could put into consideration.
Class dragged in some ways, but my focus kept wandering. It wasn’t the material. I genuinely loved this class. What Sharon said lingered in the back of my brain, a vague, nagging little whisper. I’d skipped all the parties that summer, all except for Ian’s birthday, and he and Sharon had been very hot and very heavy at that party.
Coop had his tongue down Laura’s throat, Archie had Patty glued to him at the hip, and Jake and Maria? No doubt existed within me at all. But they weren’t hiding it, either.
It was all kind of deflating my day. Outside, the skies kept getting darker. The heavy wet slap of the air from the morning was worse when we went to lunch. Everyone crammed into Jake’s SUV. I was sandwiched between Archie and Coop this time. Ian made a face and took shotgun though Jake glanced at me in the rearview and said, “You can sit up front on the way back.”
“That’s not really fair to the guys.” They didn’t fit back here as easily as I did—not in the middle.
“I’m thinking fair to me.”
That got a laugh. Ricky’s wasn’t crowded, so we got our food fast. Even as the guys talked around me, the morning replayed in my head a little. Maria hadn’t looked as disappointed as Sharon. Sharon had been hurt. Maria had been…irritated? Maybe upset. Patty had been pissed, and I hadn’t seen Laura.
I hadn’t seen Laura in days, not since Coop told me he broke up with her, officially.
Had she just not been around, or had I been too wrapped up in myself to notice?
“Earth to Frankie,” Jake said, eyeing me. They were all staring at me.
“What?” I’d only eaten about half my food, but my appetite had fled in the middle of all that.
“You were checked out,” Coop said with a faint, almost hopeful smile. “Daydreaming?”
“Something like that.” I needed to get out of my head and stop brooding. “Making a homework list. Lots to get done and my weekend is pretty booked.”
That earned me more than one groan. Better that than bringing up the girls. They hadn’t mentioned them again beyond Archie’s comment in the hallway about being over the drama. Back at school, Jake cornered me during Study Hall.
“Something’s bothering you,” he said as soon as we scored our table in the corner of the library. “It’s because of the scene with Maria and the others this morning.”
“A little,” I sighed. “Not so much that they came over, but… you guys were kind of mean.”
“First,” Jake said, curling a lock of my hair around his finger. “They started it. Patty shouldn’t have been shitty to you.”
“She was disappointed.”
“I don’t care.” The indifference in his tone on those three words was bracing. “No one gets to be shitty to you. No one invited them over, and no one led them on.”
“Coop was dating Laura less than a week ago.”
“Again, don’t care, and Laura wasn’t there. Patty and Arch haven’t been together since the summer. Maria and I broke up before school started. Bubba and Sharon? Eh…that was always more her than him.”
Before school started was only a couple of weeks ago.
“Don’t let them get to you,” he said, tugging my hair gently. “Bubba asked you to homecoming, pretty slick on his part. You enjoyed that right?”
I had. “It…was awesome and embarrassing and wonderful.”
“There you go.” Jake looked smug. “That’s what it should be. Focus on that—and on our date Sunday.”
I groaned. Sunday seemed so far away with everything I already had planned to do and, at the same time, so close, and I was worried I’d miss something.
“I know,” Jake said, his voice low and his eyes hot. “I wish it were tonight, too.”
I gave him a little shove. “I’m going out with Archie tonight.”
“Sadly,” Jake told me, grinning. “Doesn’t mean I don’t wish it was me or that I’d get you after the game. We could have another sleepover.”
Instantly, my system caught fire and heat flooded my cheeks.
Leaning close, Jake whispered, “I love that you went commando at work for me.”
The tension in my belly went tight, and I squeezed my thighs together.
“Think I can convince you to do that on Sunday?”
“I’m surprised you don’t want me to do it at the party.” It slipped out before I could think better of it.
“No, I want it when it’s only for me,” he said. The corner of his mouth kicked a little higher. “I really wish we weren’t at school right now.”
There was no reason to ask why. Need already had me at the edge. “Then we better focus on homework so we don’t have to think about it this weekend.”
His slow grin had my tummy flip-flopping. All these years around them, laughing with them, playing and hanging out—I’d always known they were attractive, but this was something else altogether. His nostrils flared like he’d heard what I was thinking. I dragged my gaze away him and turned to face the table. The storm outside didn’t help. It had grown darker over the last few minutes and thunder had begun to rumble.
“Hmm, maybe the storm will call the game tonight,” he mused. “Then I could meet you after your date back at your place if you want. Is your mom still out of town?”
Yes, she was, a
nd we really needed to think about something that didn’t involve far fewer clothes and much less distance.
“Homework,” I told him and nudged him to his stuff. It really didn’t take my mind off it. I really didn’t remember much about the last couple of periods of the day, even with the discussion questions we had to tackle for Mr. G. He wanted to see how far into the reading we’d actually made it. Fortunately, Jake and I were both fast readers. Writing the essay still took most of our last hour.
Finally, the last bell rang, and my system was in knots. I couldn’t wait to see what Archie had planned and, at the same time, I was nervous of screwing anything up. There was so much going on. Too much.
Jake glanced down at me as we walked. He had his arm around my shoulders, and I was holding his hand, his fingers curled with mine. His eyes narrowed a little and he eased his arm away to brush my hair back.
Crap.
I didn’t have to ask. He stared at the hickey that Coop had left, a lot higher than the one he had.
“He came over last night, didn’t he?” Something a little darker threaded the low-voiced question.
Jake didn’t specify which he. “For a little while,” I admitted. Should I apologize? I didn’t want to apologize; I wasn’t keeping them a secret from each other. Jake had said he was fine with it even if I was dating the others.
His mouth tightened for a moment, then he tucked my hair back to cover it before settling his arm on my shoulders and we continued moving. Movement from the corner of my eye jerked my attention. I glanced over in time to see Maria shaking her head and turning away. Sharon, on the other hand, glared at me with no evidence of tears in her eyes this time.
I met her gaze and refused to look away even though at our current pace I’d have to turn to hold the eye contact. But Maria stalked off and Sharon hurried after her.
Great.
It was raining when we reached the doors. Not heavy, but definitely steady. Bubba and Coop were by the doors staring outside. It wasn’t until we were next to them that I figured out what held their attention. Archie crouched next to my car, a little tented area covering five gorgeous blue roses waiting for me on the sidewalk.
Archie had been leaving the roses? Hope ballooned in me.
I’d kind of hoped, but he hadn’t acted like he had. Slipping away from Jake, I pushed the door open and headed down to where I’d parked. Ian, Coop, and Jake were right behind me. Archie turned at our approach with an irritated expression. Standing, he held out the note.
“Who the hell is this, Frankie?”
Oh. If he was asking that, then he definitely hadn’t been leaving the roses.
Irritation scraped through my disappointment. “You opened it?” Who did that?
He gave me a bland look. “Yes, I opened it. Who the hell is sending these?”
The rain splashed against my face, then Archie shifted to cover me with his umbrella as I took the note from him. “Why would you do that? They’re for me, not you.”
“From someone we don’t know and someone who is getting a little creepier each time.”
“They aren’t creepy.” Yet, even as I argued, Ian, Coop, and Jake exchanged looks. “They’re not,” I told them before rounding on Archie. The skepticism in his eyes defied me.
“Read that and tell me it’s not creepy.”
One lavender rose for how you enchanted me. Two white roses because I’m thinking of you. Three orange roses to dare you to do something different. Four white roses because I want to see you smile. The blue rose is elusive, a white rose dyed blue. They aren’t achieved naturally, but they represent the unattainable and the mysterious. They say, “I can’t have you, but I can’t stop thinking about you.” I’ll find you at the party tomorrow. Promise.
“What the fuck?” Jake said slowly. “He’ll find you at the party. That means it’s not Frenchy. He’s going to the party with you.”
Ian frowned. “Yeah, they might be nice roses, Frankie, but Arch is right. That’s starting to sound like a stalker, and they obviously know your car.”
“Look,” I said, shifting to face them but Archie kept the umbrella over me. The other three were getting wet the longer we stood here. “I think it’s sweet and fine. If he introduces himself at the party tomorrow, it means he’s doing it where a lot of people are. That’s not creepy, that’s giving me a public place to meet them.”
“You want to meet ‘em?” Coop studied me.
“Kind of, because the roses took a lot of thought and so did these notes.” I glanced at the most recent. The roses were all so pretty. “I really thought it would be one of you guys. After Saturday and the craziness… I thought it was one of you.”
One by one, they shook their heads. That was only a little disappointing. So whomever it was had begun without any idea of the fallout between me and the guys or that I suddenly wanted to date.
“Well, I guess we’ll all find out together then.” I squatted to pick up the roses. They smelled great. The little tent over them was a propped stand. I unlocked my car and got the roses inside, then shrugged out of my backpack. “Good luck at the game tonight,” I said to Jake and Ian.
“If we play,” Jake said. “I’ll text you.” About coming over. But he didn’t add that. Leaning close, he dropped a kiss a me before he said, “Come on, Bubba. You two have fun tonight.”
“Yeah,” Ian said, pausing to brush a kiss to my lips, too. “But not too much fun.” He said the last to Archie who gave him a dry look.
“I’m not kissing you,” Archie said, and Ian laughed. “And we’ll text if we want to meet up.”
Jake narrowed his eyes, but they cut across the lot, through the rain to head to the locker rooms.
“Did you want to change?” Archie asked, focusing on me.
I glanced at the sky. Our walk around the lake was probably not going to happen, so why not get dressed up a little? “Sure, why not?”
“Awesome, I’ll be at your place in twenty? Twenty-five?”
I grinned. “I’ll be ready.”
With one last look at the roses and then Coop, he strolled away to where he’d parked. The rain got a little heavier as we navigated out of the parking lot with the occasional lightning flash. It was looking more and more like the game wouldn’t happen tonight.
I felt bad for the guys. Canceled games could screw up the schedule, especially if they had to set a make-up later in the year or just ended up throwing the game out entirely.
The skies opened up at the apartments and, once more, my mom wasn’t there in her nice spot in the carport and just once, once, I’d like to be able to use when she wasn’t there. I settled for my usual spot.
Coop eyed the world then handed me the roses. “Stay put.” He reached in the back and snagged the umbrella I kept back there—I’d been caught one to many times in the rain—then opened his door and snapped it open. After jogging around, he got my backpack out and held it in one hand before bumping the back door closed. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”
He covered us both as much as possible, but my already damp shirt got soaked before we made it to the steps. It was impossible to share the umbrella there, so I hurried up them, still balancing the roses. Once inside, we were both laughing and drenched.
The cats yowled. I slid off my drenched sneakers and set the roses on the table in the kitchen. I’d move them later. Coop raked the damp hair out of his eyes, then grinned at me. “Hang on,” I told him. “I’ll grab you a towel.”
My hair was dripping along with my clothes. I was going to have frizzies any second now. What I needed to do was shower, blow it out and flatiron it. Then, hopefully, the humidity wouldn’t ruin it too badly.
I hurried up to my bathroom and grabbed a towel. Back in the kitchen, I handed it over to Coop but instead of taking the towel, he caught my arm and pulled me to him. Then his mouth crashed into mine and all the worry about my hair fled as he rolled his tongue against mine and dug his fingers into my hips.
Cold and wet, thi
s shouldn’t be a turn on, but I tugged at his shirt as he pushed me back against the fridge. He slid his thigh between my legs and pressed the kiss deeper. With warm hands, he squeezed the chilled skin of my breast and then he tweaked the nipple. My hips bucked and I was torn between sucking on his tongue or grinding on his thigh.
His mouth was hot as he broke the kiss and trailed kisses to my throat. When he began to suck on my pulse point, I groaned. I already had three hickeys to hide. “Don’t…”
Coop lifted his head and stared down at me through half-lidded eyes. “I really want to get you out of these wet clothes.” He traced his thumb around my nipple. At some point, he’d rucked up my wet shirt and tugged the bra aside. “I want to taste every part of you and come in you instead of on you.” With each word, he flexed his thigh and I couldn’t breathe.
“Coop…”
“I know,” he whispered, then leaned in to suck on my earlobe. What few good intentions I had left abandoned me. I rolled my hips trying to increase the friction. “You have a date with Archie…” He traced the shell of my ear. “Want me to get you off before? Take care of that tension.”
Hell yes, I did. “Can’t…” I shuddered as he matched my grinding with his thigh, the pressure delicious. “Have to get ready.”
“Trust me, when I’m jerking off in about fifteen minutes, it’s these gorgeous tits and that fabulous pussy of yours I’m going to be thinking about.”
Heat swept through me at the idea of him stroking himself to thought of me and all I wanted to do was see that. “You’re mean,” I whispered. “And you haven’t seen me without pants on yet.”
“No,” he whispered. “But I know just how pretty a little pussy it has to be, and I can’t wait to play.”
Fuck.
With care, he leaned away and eased his thigh free of me. After releasing my bra and tugging my shirt down, he smoothed his hands over my very erect nipples proudly displaying themselves to the world. “If you get yourself off later, think about this, okay?”
“God,” I groaned. “Coop…”
“Yeah, just like that.” Then he dropped a kiss on my mouth before cutting across the apartment to the front door. “Oh, and Frankie?”
Rules and Roses: Untouchable Book One Page 29