Trials and Tiaras (Untouchable #7) - Heather Long Page 0,110

tears and hugged me so tight, I couldn’t breathe.

Chapter Twenty-Three

It’s My Birthday

Frankie

My birthday fell on a school day. That was fine, it was also…bizarre. All week, awareness of the approaching day had been like a buzz under my skin. The guys surprised me with concert tickets. The fact we’d seen Torched in Colorado in no way diminished the fact we’d get to see them here. Archie had gotten us backstage passes and scored an extra couple so we could take Rachel and her SO.

Her tears when I told her had stunned me, and I’d never seen the guys move so fast. I swore they left cartoon like vapor trails as they scattered. Thank God they’d been happy tears. When Rachel realized she’d scared the guys off, her laughter had been epic. By unspoken accord, the guys never mentioned her tears, only asking me if she was okay and whether or not they needed to beat the shit out of someone.

I really loved them.

The plan, because of course they had a plan, was school—because blowing it off wasn’t an option after my rather spectacular head cold—followed by grabbing food and then hitting the concert. Archie and the guys wanted to do a big splashy dinner the next day, and apparently, something else fun. The weekend, apparently, was going to be my birthday weekend.

No complaints from me. I just loved that I got to spend it with all of them and that they’d included Rachel. I’d missed her the last few weeks.

I woke up so early, it was still dark outside. Coop and Jake were both sound asleep on either side of me. Ian and Archie had crashed in the other room the night before. The best part of my day was having them all here. Maybe I was turning into a total sap, because I loved the fact they all stayed here. Every once in a while, I got an evening to myself. But even if I went to bed alone, I was never alone when I woke up.

Jake’s arm was wrapped around my middle, and I had my back flush against his chest. We were even sharing the same pillow, and the tickle of his breath on the back of my neck made me smile. Though his face was hidden in the shadows, Coop faced me, one hand over mine where it rested on him.

The cats—two of them at least, I’d bet Tory had gone to sleep with Ian—were crashed out on the bed with us. Tiddles and Tabby were sleeping in the dip between my legs and Coop’s. It was just warm, familiar, and safe.

And I’m eighteen.

Just like that.

I went to bed seventeen and woke up eighteen.

It was just another day, and at the same time it was… How long had I been waiting for this?

Emancipation had freed me from Maddy. Since that day at Standish, I hadn’t seen or heard from her. As glad as I was for that, I couldn’t help the twinge in my gut. When I was little, she would come in here on my birthday morning and tell me the story of the day I arrived in her life.

She’d always made it sound like a huge event. How she’d paced uncomfortably the day before. How she’d gone to bed aching, woke up an hour later with cramps. How she finally decided at midnight that she should call the doctor. They told her to go straight to the hospital, and she’d called a taxi to pick her up because she didn’t think driving would be a great idea.

Then once she got to the hospital, her water had broken and what should have been a swift labor took all day. The staff had been attentive, holding her hand, sharing stories with her. They’d made her feel special, especially when she said she’d been there alone. Then I arrived, perfect. I looked like her even then, and from the moment they put me in her arms, it was her and I against the world.

Recounting the story, even in my own head, seemed anticlimactic. Maddy had stopped bursting into my room to tell me that story after I turned fourteen.

Made sense.

That next autumn, Archie arrived.

I thought it had more to do with high school, and I was being silly for missing it. She could be distant and volatile, but that one moment… I could still treasure those, even if they had probably been more about her than me. And enough about Maddy. Today was not about her. We