Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,118
any real hits.
“Stop it,” I ordered, and this time, I shoved her backward. I didn’t want to hurt her, but she was too damn angry and not listening. “I mean it, Trina.”
She bounced forward and shoved me into the side mirror on the car.
“I hate you,” Trina cried. “I hate you. I hate you, and I hate your mother. You’re nothing but a…”
“Trina!” I dodged another flail, and this time, I grabbed both of her forearms and shoved her against the car. “Stop. It.”
I had to raise my voice over hers, and even then, all it did was leave her shaking and crying.
“C’mon, Sis, stop. Listen to me…please?”
“Why?” She choked and coughed as snot ran from her nose and tears soaked her face. “Why would you do that to him?”
“I’m not,” I told her.
“Yes you are. There are pictures of you kissing Jake and Archie. I didn’t believe them. I defended you, and they showed me pictures.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t with Jake or Archie or even Ian.”
The admission shut her up.
She gawked at me.
“Then you’re telling me you’re a slut?” For someone who had been so furious just seconds earlier, disbelief populated her tone.
I swallowed. “No,” I said, and chose my next words carefully, but I also leaned my weight into her to keep her pinned, because I really didn’t want to get hit in the face. This was already a nightmare. “I’m telling you I’m not cheating on Coop. I love Coop, I would never hurt him that way.”
Trina stared at me, fat tears rolling down her reddened face. “How can you make out with other guys and it not be cheating?”
“Because I know about it,” Coop said from somewhere behind me. Trina jerked to look past, and I let go of her, even as I released a breath and backed up. “Frankie’s not Dad, Sis. She didn’t lie or cheat or stab anyone in the back. She didn’t walk away from her family. She’s not cheating on me.”
There was an inflexible note in his usually patient voice, one that seemed to strike a chord with Trina, and she flinched. “But there are…”
“Trina,” I said before she could bring up the pictures. When Coop closed his hand over mine, I threaded my fingers with his. The class ring I’d worn all day seemed heavier somehow, like the anchor I hadn’t realized I needed until just now. “I promise. I know what you were told, and I know what you’re thinking. You’ve made that clear. Yes, I’m dating all four of them, and they all know.”
“We’re doing more than dating,” Coop said, tugging me closer. “We’re together. All of us and Frankie.”
The earlier disbelief dissolved into incredulity as she stared at her brother. “Wait…you’re gay?” Before either of us could say anything, she shook her head. “No, you’d have to be bi.” She scrubbed a hand over her face, then glanced back and forth between us. “I don’t understand. I thought… He said Frankie was a whore.”
“Who said?” Coop asked in a deceptively mild tone, and I shook my head.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I disagree,” he countered. “It matters very much, because if it’s who I think it is…”
Fuck.
There was going to be blood.
“That’s not important right now,” I said, elbowing Coop and then holding out my free hand to Trina. “Come inside? Please? It’s freezing out here, and we can talk.”
Her face had gone from splotchy red with tears to beet red, and she darted her gaze away from me. “How can you be nice to me?”
“’Cause she’s Frankie, Sis. Now come on before I focus too hard on the fact that you called my girlfriend a slut and go burn all those Barbies you have hidden in the back of your closet.”
Outrage blossomed on Trina’s face. “Don’t. You. Dare.” But she moved, and when I grasped her hand in my free one, she clung to me.
Well, whatever worked.
The conversation with Trina left me drained. Coop took her back to his apartment after he made sure their mother was there. I offered to go with him, but he told me he would handle it. Ian had kept his distance while Trina was in the apartment, but there was no way he hadn’t gleaned a good chunk of the story.
Trina had been yelling again. She and Coop both looked like hell when they left. Well, more Trina looked miserable and Coop grim. He’d given me a very thorough kiss before he took his sister home.