damage is already done.” Coop called while I was still finishing the text to him. “Hang on, I’m going to conference Coop in, just get in your car and head this way.”
“I’m already on my way downstairs.”
I switched lines. “Hang on, Coop, looping you in with Arch.” Then I connected the two. “I don’t have much time before she’s finished changing. She got the Harvard letter today, she was waitlisted.”
“Fuck,” Coop’s response echoed Archie’s perfectly. I felt it all the way to my bones. I kind of wanted to go kick the shit out of whatever admissions flunky looked at her transcript and mine, then decided I was in and she wasn’t.
Fuck them.
Fuck them sideways with a rusty chainsaw.
Blowing out a breath, I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Yeah, so, here’s what we’re doing. I ordered more pizza. You two are getting your asses here and we’re working out a plan.” The only way she’d let some of this go was to make a plan. That was why I told her I’d call them in the first place.
Frankie liked knowing what was coming. It was what made her crazy about our relationships. I got that. We all got that. She needed order in chaos. Waitlisted by her dream school was definitely chaos.
“I’ll drop off this last order and be there in twenty,” Coop said. “Need me to bring anything?”
“I’ve got alcohol already in the car,” Archie answered. “We got ice cream?”
I opened the fridge. It had been fully stocked when we got back. And… “Yep, two half gallons.”
“Good deal, be there soon.” He hung up, his tone as tense and terse as I felt. But Coop was still on the line.
“How is she?”
“She doesn’t want us making sacrifices in our choices just because she didn’t get in.”
He groaned.
“Exactly.”
“I’m coming,” he said. “We’ll figure this out.”
Yeah we would. After I ordered the pizzas, I walked back to find Frankie and Bubba locked together. As distractions went, that definitely worked. And fuck if it wasn’t hot.
“The guys are coming, and as much as I’d like to say let’s continue wherever this is going, you’re not into sharing that far yet,” I teased, meeting Bubba’s gaze. “And I’m not interested in watching television while you make Frankie scream back here.”
I got it, he wasn’t up for sharing her in bed. Fine. I liked my one on one time with her too, and I’d gotten a hell of a lot more of it than he had. Frankie shot me a smile. Some of the tension had left her face, but there was still a hint of stress around her eyes. The smile didn’t quite reach in and chase the shadows out of her green eyes.
We’d make a plan. That would at least go a long way toward helping, even if we couldn’t fix all of it. Frankie slipped out to the bathroom, and Bubba shot me a look. “You know it’s not…”
I waved him off. “Dude, we’re good. Not a discussion we need to have until when, and if, you’re ready.”
He raked a hand through his hair and then nodded. “Can you answer one question?”
“Depends on the question.” Some things were private. Even among us. I knew he got that.
“It doesn’t bother you at all when you’re right there and Coop’s all over her?”
A slow grin curved my lips. “Nope. Doesn’t bother me watching you with her, either. Not as long as she’s happy. Besides…watching her come? It’s pretty fucking sweet. Then getting to fuck her while she’s coming apart and can’t see straight? Oh yeah.” And now I was hard as a stone.
Fucking wonderful way to spend the evening.
Bubba shook his head. “I’m not saying never…”
“I know, man.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “And considering what Coop’s packing, I get the intimidation.”
He jabbed me in the kidneys as I walked away and I laughed, even as the air whooshed out of me.
Twenty minutes later, Coop walked in on the heels of the pizza, and Archie had beers passed around and a bottle of wine for Frankie. She’d gone right to Archie when he’d come in and wrapped him up in a hug as tightly as he gripped her. I snagged the bag from him so she could murmur her apologies.
Yeah, we’d make up for the missed date.
But once we had pizza and drinks, she curled into the spot between Coop and Arch where they sat on the floor with their backs to the sofa, while Bubba and I sat opposite them.