not be having a prom king this year.”
I glared at the boys. They did not get to get out of that.
“But instead, we’re crowning two queens.”
Two…
Rachel threw her head back and laughed. Archie whistled, and so did Jake. Then everyone was stomping their feet and standing as they applauded. I stood up and curtseyed to Rachel with a smirk. Fine, the boys could get out of it. Rachel’s reaction was worth it. We went up and got our crowns together, posed for pictures, and then the rest of the court joined us.
Jake slipped his arms around my waist and murmured, “We did good, yeah?”
I laughed. “You did great.”
We danced for another hour, and I had to keep a hand on the tiara they stuck on my head until Rachel did something with pins. Archie kept eyeing it, and I had a feeling I was gonna get another one of these but not quite so plastic or cheap.
Not today though. Today, this one was perfect, and I even got in a few slow dances, one with each of them. Kind of perfect, and even though we didn’t stay until the party was over, we left when we were ready, and instead of heading to a hotel right away, we invited Rachel to dinner with us and raided a diner in all our finery.
It was the best breakfast at eleven at night meal I’d had in forever.
And I wasn’t wrong about the hotel, Archie had the car drop us off first, and I kissed the guys goodnight and Jake winked. He’d come get us the next day. Then it was me and Archie heading up to a room in the same hotel we’d stayed at for his birthday.
A perfect end for a perfect evening and an imperfect year.
When he wanted to dance again, I leaned into his arms and let him take the lead. It wasn’t long before we were naked, but we still took our time, and by request, I kept the sparkly heels on.
Archie’s grin was adorable.
And I got my first NSFW pic of him to keep on my phone.
He got several.
Win. Win.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Archie
AP exam week was always brutal. We had different assigned times for different tests. Frankie went into blinders mode. Nothing would break her concentration. The fact she could shut us all out so efficiently probably shouldn’t have impressed me so much, but it did. The only time she emerged was to eat—usually because one of us made her—and to participate in quizzing.
By silent agreement and with no complaints from Frankie, I asked Jeremy to give us a hand this week. That meant the fridge was stocked with study snacks, hot dinners waiting each evening, and the apartment cleaned and straightened. He’d even hung out with us one evening, quizzing Frankie in French. Sometimes, I forgot he spoke a couple of languages.
Of the five of us, she and Jake had the most AP exams. Five each. They had a specialized time for the AP European history exam because they were the only two students. Frankie and I had AP economics and government back-to-back.
I didn’t think a test could hurt my brain. I was wrong.
Still, we made it work. All of us.
What I wasn’t expecting was the call from Edward or the request to see me. Rather than worry Frankie when she had so many tests, I went to see him on my own. He was at the house, shocker. Since moving in with Maddy, he hadn’t been back that I knew of, other than to pick up some of his suits. Jeremy had sent the rest of his things to him upon request.
“He’s out back on the deck,” Jeremy told me when I got there. “I’ve got supper ready, and I’ll be taking it over within the hour. Do you want me to stay?”
“I’m good, Jere. Go look after our girl. You know she loves your roast.”
“I’ll be here for at least another half hour,” he informed me with a firm nod. Jeremy always had my back. But I wasn’t that worried about Edward.
Grandpa said he’d been out for blood, but so far, the only thing he’d done was hand Frankie ten percent of Standish. Something she still hadn’t decided what she wanted to do with. I took the stairs up to the next level and then out to the deck. It was already dipping toward summer. It wasn’t quite hitting the nineties yet, but it was warm enough out here that Edward had