by Heather Long
“You feeling okay, Angel?” Bubba asked, turning off the engine so we didn’t have to shout over it.
“Just tired,” she admitted. “Long day.”
“You want to go for a ride? It’s warm enough and might make you feel better.”
As much as she was leaning into me, I opened my mouth to object, but Frankie shook her head. “I forgot my jacket, and I’m not feeling up for it.”
That had Bubba’s eyebrows up, and Jake’s. He slid a palm under her hair to the back of her neck. “She’s been pretty tired since lunch.”
“Horny boys don’t let me get enough sleep,” she teased and poked me in the side. In all fairness, we really had kept her up last night.
Bubba frowned, and I found myself agreeing. I didn’t totally buy that it was lack of sleep either. Still, we’d play it by ear. “We’ll meet you at Archie’s,” I said. “Unless you want to drop the bike off and ride with us.”
He gave me a look, then her. “Let’s do that. Follow me back to my place. Supposed to rain tomorrow, so I want to put the bike in the garage.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Jake climbed in the back with Frankie, and I didn’t complain because I wanted to keep an eye on her. By the time we got to Bubba’s, she was sound asleep. When I looked back at him, I murmured, “What the hell?”
“She’s really warm,” he said.
“Think it’s a fever?” Frankie didn’t get sick that often. Not really. I swore germs were scared of her, because when she had the flu in ninth grade, she’d missed almost a week of classes and had been pissed about the sheer amount of make-up work she had to do after.
I sent a text to Archie about Frankie not feeling well. Bubba didn’t keep us waiting, and Frankie groused when we got to Archie’s ’cause Jake was all set to pick her up.
“I’m tired, not an invalid,” she complained and poked him.
“You don’t have to be an invalid for me to want to get my hands on you.”
Nice save.
Not that we had to really do any arguing to check on her, because Jeremy had a touchless thermometer waiting for us as soon as we got inside.
“Really, guys?” She made a face but didn’t argue with Jeremy. Archie shot me a small smile and folded his arms.
“You definitely have a touch of fever, Miss Frankie,” Jeremy told her. “Go make yourselves comfortable, and I’ll get you some cold medicine and some tea. Then you can eat. Any other symptoms?”
“Just tired.”
He nodded, then shooed us off to make ourselves comfortable.
“We can have this discussion later,” Archie offered.
“No,” she said. “I want to know what Wittaker found, and we really do need to lock down our decisions for the fall. We’ve been putting it off and putting it off, but I don’t think Harvard is changing their mind anytime soon. And it doesn’t matter where we go as long as we’re together.”
She raked a hand through her hair as we headed upstairs, and I hadn’t missed the note of stuffiness in her voice. In fact, she’d had a huskier quality to her voice all day, but again, thinking with my dick and not my brain. The smoky voice was a fucking turn on. Bad Coop.
We headed into the entertainment room and the big sofa. Archie snagged her a blanket, and when she would have curled up by herself, I slid in and pulled her into my lap.
“You’re gonna get sick,” she complained, and I chuckled as I stroked her hair back.
“Frankie, I ate you out last night for an hour, not to mention Jake and I were both fucking you. I’d say we were already as exposed as we’re gonna get.”
Her lower lip jutted out, and she sighed. “Crap. I don’t want to get you guys sick this close to AP exams. We have too much work to do.”
“We have plenty of time, Angel,” Bubba told her as he sat at the end of the sofa and pulled her feet to his lap. He stripped off her shoes so he could massage them. “Right now, we focus on getting you better and sorting all this out.”
“Blegh,” she said, and Jake laughed.
“I forgot how crabby she gets when she’s sick.”
“I do not get crabby,” she informed him, and I swore it was like watching a rapid decline. She’d been flushed on and off all day, but we’d been flirting like hell. So it was pretty normal.
“Tell you what, let’s just whiteboard it.” He motioned to the other side of the room, and sure as shit, there was a white board set up. “We’ll do all the pros and cons while you sit and rest. Then when we’re done, we’ll pull that final pin.”
Bubba worked his thumb against her instep, while I ran my fingers through her hair. “Okay,” she murmured. “Has anything changed about other schools? Aren’t you waiting on your auditions qualifying you?”
“Not anymore,” Bubba told her. He let go of her foot long enough to snag his bag and pulled out his phone. “I’ve gotten emails all day.”
“And?” Not even feeling crappy could diminish the excitement in her voice. To be honest, I was dying to know too. Also, I was going to start calling him Iceman, ’cause I used to think I was cool under pressure, but I hadn’t even realized he’d gotten any news. This after what he did with the contracts.
“All of them,” he said with a grin. “Well, except for Julliard, but I only did that because you insisted.”
“Fuck Julliard then,” she said with sniff. “Their loss.”
Laughter circled the room as Jake and Archie added Bubba’s data to the board. Jeremy came in with a huge tray of food and drinks. There was hot tea, soup, sandwiches, and more. He also offered her more cold medicine and a handful of other pills.
“Vitamins, minerals, and homeopathics to help nip that in the bud. We also want to get your fever down.” He gave her a firm look, and she took the meds without argument. Man, Jeremy and I needed to talk. Getting Frankie to slow down took an act of congress, and he managed it with a look and gentle word. “All of the tea, and there’s honey in case your throat gets scratchy. You can have a soda after you finish it. The hearty soup is for you, and the boys will leave it be until you’ve had your fill.”
Yeah, I knew an order when I heard one, and I wasn’t the only one saying “Yes, sir,” in response.
“There will be dessert if you fancy it in a little while. Who is looking after your cats this evening?”
“Trina is,” I told him. “She already texted that she went by and fed them.” She’d been working hard on communication, and one of the things the counselor suggested was building trust. So we’d given Trina access to a spare key but only to be used with our permission. I hated to say that Archie had set up a couple of surveillance cams at the apartment and we’d used them just to check in when she volunteered to feed them, but we’d tried to find a reason a couple of times a week for her to do it.
So far, so good.
Jeremy nodded. “Let me know if I need to go and fetch them. You, Miss Frankie, will be staying here. I’ll make up Mr. Archie’s room for you, and he can sleep in the guest room.”
“Hey,” Archie said. “What the hell, Jere?”
The look Jeremy gave him would peel paint. “Miss Frankie needs rest, not boisterous boys she needs to comfort or will feel bad if she ignores. In the meanwhile, Mr. Coop and Mr. Jake will look after the cats this evening, and you and Mr. Bubba may switch with them tomorrow if she isn’t feeling better.” Then he fixed a look on Frankie. “Of course, if you want Mr. Archie or Mr. Bubba to sleep with you, that’s fine, but I would imagine you want to sleep and not worry about getting them sick.”
She hid behind her tea and shot Archie a smile. “I don’t want to get you sick.”
“I don’t care,” he muttered. “I’d risk meningitis before I choose to sleep somewhere else. At least if one of us is there, we can get you what you need when you need it.”
Biting her lip, she did a terrible job of not laughing, so I just said, “Sounds like a plan to me. Though if you send them over to watch the cats tomorrow, Jake and I can sleep in Archie�
�s bed with her.”
Yeah, that got me a look from Jeremy and Archie’s middle finger salute from behind Jeremy’s back.
“Thank you, Jeremy,” Frankie interceded before we got further scolded. “I’m fine going back to the apartment. The boys will take care of me.”
“Hmm, I would prefer you stay here until that fever is taken care of. If you cooperate, I’ll let them stay in the room with you.” With that, he nodded to the tea. “All of it, and then the food.”
He didn’t wait for our answer before he headed out. Jake thumped Archie on the shoulder. “Damn, you got told.”
“Right?” He laughed, then looked over at Frankie and his expression softened.
“You did say you’d share him and Grandpa with me,” she pointed out all reasonably in a thick, almost stuffy voice that was equal parts adorable and miserable.
“I did,” Archie admitted with an almost sorrowful note. “Which means I have to behave.”
That did it. Jake cracked up, and so did Bubba. I buried my face in her hair, but that didn’t stop my laughter. Even Frankie laughed, though a cough cut her off, and I pressed a kiss to her hair.
“Better get on that tea before Drill Sergeant Jeremy gets back up here.”
“Be nice,” she chastised me, but she kept sipping her tea. She was most of the way through her soup when she noticed what the guys had on the board. “Harvard’s not even an option, guys. I mean, I’m down for you going, and I can look at community college there or even take a skip year and work on the album with Ian.”
“That sounds great, Angel. Except…”
“Harvard’s back on the table, babe.” Leaving the board, Archie moved to perch on the coffee table in front of us. She lowered the soup cup to stare at him.
“I know I’m sick, but that doesn’t make sense. Did they move me off the waitlist?”
“Not yet,” he said. “But we know people, including your grandparents and mine, who are connected. Harvard’s an option. For all of us. It won’t just be you we get in. Jake and I are in, and Bubba got in with the conservatory, so that’s gonna lend weight to getting him at Harvard. That just means you and Coop. It’s totally doable.”
“But that means someone else will get skipped that might have been ahead of us in line.”
And that right there was what I’d said she’d do. Archie blew out a breath.
“May get skipped, babe. May. They don’t have a precise number of applicants they accept or decline each year.”
“Their admissions are based on programs, and even if someone got in and didn’t take their spot and that spot opened up, then it would go to the next person on the list. You’re talking about skipping me and Coop over other people who may not have those connections. That’s not fair.”
She let out a little sigh, and when she tried to shift, I helped her slide over to sit on the sofa, and Bubba rescued the nearly empty soup cup before she took Archie’s hands.
“I know you are trying to fix this for me. But I want to get in because I earned the spot, not because Maddy is my mother. I don’t want anything from her. Not that name.” She swallowed hard. Over the past couple of weeks, she’d talked to her grandparents twice. Both times, it had been a stilted conversation, but she was trying. “I don’t know them. Some of what I know, I don’t like. You…you have been you your whole life. Your name opens doors, and you deserve to have them opened because you’re brilliant. You don’t coast—”
“And you do?” he challenged, and I caught Jake’s eye. We’d all argued this already, but Archie thought he could convince her, and if he did, fine, we were in. Harvard had been her dream. “’Cause you work twice as hard as anyone I know, and you’ve never had a door opened for you that I know of. If anything, they’ve been closed or you didn’t even know they were there. Babe, even if Grandpa and I open that door—just us, not your grandparents—you’re still the one who has to walk through it.”
She blew out a breath, and the flushed look to her cheeks had cooled some, but her eyes were still a little glassy as she gripped Archie’s hands. “I let go of this dream. We started talking about New York and, with Ian recording, I know the city is expensive.”
“Don’t think about cost right now,” he advised, and on this, I agreed. We’d figure it out.
Jake moved in closer. “Archie’s right, don’t think about cost, don’t think about who is opening the door. Think about the school and where you want to be in the fall.”
With a look to each of us, she said, “Did you guys fall that hard for Harvard while we were there?”
Bubba shrugged, and I rubbed the back of my neck. “It’s a good school,” I said.
“Kind of stuffy,” Jake pointed out. “But the history is on point.”
“It’s a school,” Archie admitted. “It’s not where, it’s who. Right now, you’re the who. You wanted it. Do you not anymore?”
“Don’t be mad,” she said softly.
“Hey,” I said, sliding an arm around her. “No one is mad. If you changed your mind, you’re entitled.”
“It’s not so much that I changed it, but…I let it go. When we were there, it was great. I loved getting to see it with all of you. But I like the idea of New York. If Ian and I start recording a lot, then we can do it there in the city, and it means less time away from all of you. There’s the park and the concerts and Broadway. There’s skiing not that far away in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Though, I’m really rather fond of Colorado too. I just…I just want to be where you guys are and where we can do this together.”
Archie dipped his chin and nodded. “Then New York. If it’s what you want, we all said it was leading before.”
“What about you?”
“New York works,” Jake said. “And one of the schools you got was NYU, right?” The last he directed to Bubba.
“Yep,” he said, and he wore a small, very proud smile on his face, and I knew why. Frankie said when they recorded, not just him.
“All right, Arch, I guess you need to look at New York real estate, because we’re going to need an apartment that will take the cats.”
He laughed. “I think we got that covered.” When he pressed a kiss to Frankie’s forehead though, he wore a worried look and then brushed her hair back. “You want to put off the call to Wittaker and take a nap, babe? You’re still hot.”
“Well, I’ve been hot for a long time, according to you guys, don’t sound so surprised.”
That earned another round of laughs.
“And I don’t want to put it off. Too much has been put off, and we have plans to make.”
Fair enough. Jeremy brought up more drinks, including tea for Frankie, and some acetaminophen. He also took her temperature again. It had actually gone down some, so we settled in, and Archie called him. It was late, but the attorney had been waiting for us apparently.
“Well, I have good news and interesting news,” he said. “What would you like first?”
We all looked to Frankie. “Good news,” she said before taking a sip of her fresh tea.
“The good news is with the information provided by Mr. Standish and the sources he identified, we reached out to all three of the other possibilities. All of them agreed to the test, and the results are in.”
Oh boy.
“I have the name of your biological father, and he would like to arrange a time to speak to you, if you’re willing…”
Chapter Twenty-Two
That’s What Mamas Do
Jake
“She’s been sick, Mom,” I told her as I set the table. I swore it had to be the flu, but Jeremy hustled her off to a doctor on day two of her fever, and the doctor said it was just a cold. So, she’d basically been convalescing at Archie’s for three days, and we’d all taken turns looking after the cats and spending time with her.
Missing four days of school was not making her happy. If anything, it had made her crabbier. Which was so fucking cute, but we’d stopped telling her that after she threatened to bean C
oop with a textbook. Still, we’d been bringing her homework, and I drilled her with G’s notes and teased her about getting out of essay practice. The fever finally broke the day before, and Archie said she slept like the dead. That gave her the rest of the weekend to convalesce.
Much to Jeremy’s chagrin, she insisted on going home. Coop had picked her up a few hours ago and promised to drop her off here for dinner with Mom. I’d offered to get her out of the dinner, but she’d said as long as she was feeling better, she wanted to come.
“Is she feeling better?” Mom paused in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. “We could have rescheduled this.”
“Yeah, she’s doing a lot better. Just a little cranky, and she wouldn’t let me reschedule.” Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, none of us had gotten sick too. Frankie waxed back and forth between being happy she hadn’t made us ill, and grumpy that we got out of having to suffer.
See? Adorable.
Mom chuckled. “That girl works too hard.”
“Yes, she does.” Mom would get no argument from me. In fact, Coop was pretty sure that cold probably hit her so hard because she was so stressed, and after Wittaker told us about her biological father, including his name, she hadn’t brought up the subject again. At least not when I was there.
The man had waited almost eighteen years, so it hurt nothing to let it sit a few more days or weeks. I wasn’t sure what she wanted to do yet. But I wasn’t going to push it.
“Where are the girls?” I’d done deliveries all morning and into the early afternoon to sock away some cash because I’d been lightening my load in the evenings this week to help look after Frankie. We’d all done our NYU acceptances and gotten that process started.
“Becca and Blake are doing a lock-in at the dance studio with their class and movies all night. Louisa is at April’s, and they’re having a sleepover. So it’s just the three of us tonight.”
She disappeared back into the kitchen, and I paused to stare after her. After putting the last fork into place, I circled the table and followed her. I waited a beat as she opened the oven and pulled out the pan of stuffed peppers. The smell had my stomach growling. There were huge planks of bread ready to go in the broiler, and she’d made ratatouille.