fight without having all the facts. She wants to blame Mom for everything, and Mom’s not correcting her assumptions. It pisses me off, because she gives Dad a fucking pass and he’s the one who fucked up.”
I made a face. “I’m sorry.” Did I admit it? “I talked to Trina the other day. Not for long, just catching up at the mailboxes and she was…she was upset about being grounded.”
Coop let out a growl. “Because she spent the night away from the house without cluing Mom in that there would be boys at the sleepover.”
Yeah, okay, so not touching that one.
“Anything could have happened.”
True. Except… “Nothing did though, right?”
“So she says,” he grumbled. But we were at the restaurant and I had to run inside.
I pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “I’ll be right back.”
It didn’t take me long at all to pick up both orders and put them in the insulated sacks. Back at the car, I stowed them in the backseat and tapped the phone to get the directions for where I was dropping them off.
“Coop, she’s curious and she likes boys. She wants to date. To have the chance to figure out what she likes.”
“She’s fourteen.”
“When we were fourteen, we crashed at each other’s houses, and yes, it was different,” I hurried on before he could jump on that. “Because we’ve known each other forever. And I was oblivious to you guys wanting to actually date me. That said, Trina doesn’t see the differences, ’cause all she sees is that we were together all the time and now we’re dating.”
“Don’t hit me with your logic, Frankie,” he grumbled, and banged his head against the seat. “Just be on my side.”
I grinned. “I am on your side. I told her to cut your mom a break because I’d trade Maddy for your mom in a heartbeat. She thinks it’s cool that Maddy never seemed to care what I did or where I went, but she doesn’t get it, and in a way, I’m glad she doesn’t.”
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “I wish you didn’t have your mom, too. You deserve so much better.”
The pall kind of hung over us until I dropped off the second order. Back in the car, I glanced over to find him staring at me. Running my hand over his cheek, I said, “How much of this is you being mad at Trina for not knowing what’s happening, and how much of it is resenting that you are aware of it all and feel like you have to choose?”
“A little bit of both,” he said quietly, and my heart squeezed for him. “Dad keeps calling me, too. He wants us to go have dinner with him.”
“I’ll go if you want,” I told him. “Whatever you want.”
He sighed. “I don’t know if I want to see him that much or have you have to deal with our drama.”
It was my turn to scoff. “You deal with my drama every damn day, turnabout is fair play.”
He grinned, then pressed a kiss to my palm before releasing my hand so I could drive. “I like being there for you,” he said into the dark of the car.
“Then you understand why I want to be there for you, too.”
“Because you love me best,” he teased, easing some of the darker tension in his voice, and I laughed.
“Totally.”
“Holy shit,” he said and fumbled for his phone. “Hang on, we gotta do that again. I want that on tape.”
I laughed.
Even if I couldn’t fix everything, I could brighten his day a little. By the time we were done with deliveries for the night, he was still trying to get me to repeat that little gem, but I held it hostage.
Sometimes, it was fun to make them work for it, and his sparkling eyes promised he agreed.
Coop walked me up the steps to the backdoor while kissing me. The fact that he actually picked me up when we got to the steps themselves made me, honestly, want to swoon a little. Yeah, I said swoon, but I loved how easily he just cradled me to him while I had my arms around his neck and his mouth devoured mine.
The heat of his arms chased away the chill, and he pressed me right into the door as he continued to suck on my tongue and alternately nibble at my lips. The sound of shouting behind the door made me pull back a little, and Coop lifted his head.
“Ugh, who told