Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,26

much.”

Oh boy. I knew that look. “You’ll sort it out, Baby Girl. But I think we’re all in agreement at the moment, it’s NYU?”

That was the question we’d been dancing around for the last three hours.

She chewed her lip again, her gaze going back to the whiteboard, and I split a look with the guys. Coop lifted his chin, but Bubba looked more thoughtful. Archie was plotting. There was no missing it, and I raised my brows at him. He mouthed “later,” and I nodded.

Sometimes, it was better for the four of us to settle something before we tackled it with her. She would always have the last word, unless we could persuade her to our way of thinking.

“New York City,” she said slowly.

“Manhattan,” Archie said. “Washington Square Park. Greenwich Village. We could go ice skating at Rockefeller Center at Christmas.”

“They get snow,” Coop threw in.

“Broadway,” Bubba added.

“Central Park,” I tossed up. “The point is, there’s options, Baby Girl. And it’s not here.”

There was the barest twinge in my gut over that. Mom didn’t like the idea of me going so far away, not that she’d tried to convince me to go to a local university. I knew she’d prefer it, but she wouldn’t ask me not to go. Which was good, I never wanted to have to choose between my mom and Frankie.

Ever.

But I would, if she made me.

Shoving that thought aside, I scratched at my jaw and waited.

Frankie let out a sigh. “Do we have any idea of what NYU’s colors are?” Laughter spilled over the room as she gave us a wry look. “And we should probably check out the colleges and the classes and make sure they really have what we want.”

“Done,” Archie said as he rose and caught her hand. When he pulled her to him, I could see what was coming next. “And on that note…”

He swept her up and moved swiftly down the hall with her laughter pealing out behind him. The door slammed, and it was just me, Coop, and Bubba.

“Saw that coming,” Coop said with a tip of his beer. Her shriek of laughter climbed a beat, and I cracked up all over again. Fist out, Coop added, “Since he’s gonna be a couple of hours, rock, paper, scissors for who sneaks in there later?”

“That would be me,” I informed him with a salute from my bottle. “Calling the family meeting was my idea.”

“Fair enough,” Coop said. “I’ll just steal her in the morning when your crazy asses go running.”

“I was thinking about that,” Bubba said, stretching back to snag the game controllers and flip on the television.

“No,” Coop said.

“You don’t even know what he’s thinking,” I teased, but I had an idea and I wasn’t opposed.

“I don’t care if it involves dragging her out at oh dark hundred to go running with all of you. I’m opposed.”

“That’s just because you want to keep her in bed.”

Coop flipped me off. “You like to run in the morning. I can think of more energetic and satisfying ways to kick off her day and mine.”

“That,” Bubba said, shifting so he could sit on the sofa as he scrolled through our game options. First person shooter was probably where we were going.

A moan filtered through from the hallway, and Tiddles came trotting out, followed by Tory. The black cat had the most disgusted look on his face, but the white one just moseyed over and plopped in Coop’s lap. Crazy little cat didn’t go out of her way for any one of us except Coop. He just ran his hand over her back as the volume from down the hall climbed. The sharp, piercing cry had Coop checking his watch.

“Not bad, five minutes. Someone’s feeling motivated.”

I snickered and settled on the sofa as Call of Duty hit the screen. That would work. My cock was not thrilled with the audio presentation going on. Then again, he was just a bit jealous it wasn’t us making her scream. We’d make up for that later.

“He just likes being ahead on the board,” Bubba said with a grin. “Anyway, what I was going to say was we should start taking Frankie to the gym with us. You wanted to work on her punching.”

That I did. Punches. Kicks. Scratching asshole’s eyes out.

“Agreed.” Not that I had any intention of letting some jerk get that close to her again.

“Tomorrow?” Coop asked.

“Maybe,” I said. “She has work tomorrow.”

Bubba grunted. Yeah, none of us were fans of her schedule filling up