you can drive on your own?” Just like that. No arguments or pushing.
The other three glared at him, and I blew out a breath. “I will. And I won’t be long, I promise. I just…I just need to talk to Marsha and figure out how the schedule is going to work. The holidays are coming, and you know it gets busier there.”
With the premature end of football season, the Friday crowds would thin out. So would the post-practice crowds during the week. Still, there had to be something I could do.
Coop compressed his lips. It had to be killing him to not say whatever he was thinking, but he just gave me a nod. Though he scowled, Archie set his keys down before he dropped back onto the sofa and picked up the game controller.
“Suck up,” he muttered to Ian, who just shrugged and gave me a small smile.
“Thank you.” I mouthed more than spoke the words to Ian, and he winked. Warmth eased through some of the anxiety tying a daisy chain of knots in my gut. “I’ll text when I get there.” I could make that concession. “And when I head back.”
The overprotective I got. Of course, it was also stalking me to the door and all the way out to my car in the form of Jake. He didn’t say a word until I unlocked the car and opened the door. It was a gloomy freaking day out here. I hadn’t paid much attention to the weather. There was just enough bite in the air that my nipples went peaked to hardened tips, even under a bra and sweatshirt. I should probably have grabbed a jacket. Even my jeans felt kind of thin against the damp breeze.
I’d be damned if I admitted it though, especially when I turned to face Jake’s tense expression. The earlier worry was still very much present in his pale blue eyes. “I get it,” he said in a low voice. “You need to do things on your own.”
“But?” Because there was definitely a but.
“I need to know you’re okay,” he said, tracing a finger down my cheek. His and Ian’s bruises were all ugly yellow and green as they faded, the swelling having long since gone down. Personally, I couldn’t wait until they were all gone. His knuckles were still split in a couple of places, like they would try to heal and then the scabs would crack on them.
Archie and Coop both had similar marks on their hands, but they seemed to be healing faster. Maybe Jake was doing something with his? I made a mental note to follow-up on that. “Jake, I know you do. I adore that you guys are doing everything to make me feel safer. I know…” I sighed and leaned back against my car. “I know I’ve been kind of a mess. But I need to do this for me. I need to breathe.”
His frown deepened. “Are we smothering you, Baby Girl?”
“A little,” I admitted, but gripped his shirt when he would have backed off. “But I don’t think it’s just you guys. I think it’s me.”
“Not sure I get that totally.”
“That makes two of us.” Then I glanced toward the apartment. None of the others had followed us out. “On Friday, when I was talking to Erin, one of the things we discussed was my need to please Maddy.” I couldn’t quite look him in the eyes. “Even when she did shitty things, I made excuses for her and I did what I could to make up for her. And the worst part is…”
Pushing these words out were hard. It had been almost impossible on Friday, this last part. It was why I’d been in such a bad mood when I left that appointment. Erin insisted that my feelings were valid, no matter what my opinion of them was. But…
“A part of me still misses her, and I keep trying to figure out what I could have done differently.”
“Frankie.” He exhaled my name, and there was so much caring in the way he said it that I had to blink back tears.
“I hate her,” I told him, finally dragging my gaze up so I could look him in the eye. “I love her. I don’t know why I was never good enough.”
“Baby Girl, the problem is one thousand percent hers,” he told me, the growl in his voice sending a shiver up my spine.
“I want to believe that,” I told him. “My head kind of