Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,86

you,” Archie grumbled. “Why do you have to have a fucking point?”

“Because he’s an asshole,” Jake offered up with a wry smile. At least I wasn’t getting punched for kicking him now that he’d heard why I wanted him to wait. “But he’s our asshole. And he’s right.”

“It’s really annoying,” Bubba supplied helpfully.

“Thanks guys, I’m feeling the love.”

Archie was still grumpy, but his shitty mood lifted some. Especially when Frankie sent us pictures of her lunch which included the biggest damn cupcake we’d ever seen and the message, Sprinkles makes everything better.

I dropped Bubba at the music studio for the lessons he had to teach, and I’d swing by and get him later or Frankie would on her way back after the internship. Unlike the week before, she didn’t get done early. Jake and Archie were off to work on their project. Secretive bastards.

Parking at the apartments, I planned to go up and feed the cats and maybe do a little housekeeping. We were getting messier, and that mess had begun extending past the bedroom and the kitchen. Not that I hadn’t noticed Jeremy had come by and picked up all the dirty clothes. I was pretty sure Archie hadn’t clued Frankie in on that, but since I hadn’t pressed a shirt since choir in the fifth grade and Frankie would rather pull off her own fingernails than iron, it had to be the magical butler.

All my plans slid to the side, however, as I saw Dad waiting in the lot leaning against his car as I pulled in. Crap.

The last person I wanted to talk to today. Son of a bitch.

Sucking it up, I pasted on a pleasant expression and climbed out, backpack in hand. “Dad.”

“Coop,” he said, a smile on his face that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I was waiting on you.”

Fuck a duck, really?

“Yeah?” I swung the backpack up onto my shoulder and locked the car. “What’s up?”

“Think we can go in and talk?” It was freezing out here. I blew out a breath.

“Yeah, come on up to Frankie’s with me,” I told him. “Mom might be home, and I don’t want to bug her.”

Dad hesitated, and I glanced back at him.

“No one’s home right now and I gotta feed the cats.”

He frowned, but then followed me. He didn’t comment when I used a key to let us in, and I could tell immediately Jeremy had been there. Arch was gonna get so busted if Frankie figured out Jeremy was still coming by to clean up after all of us, and man, I was there for that particular conversation.

It would be worth some popcorn.

I dropped the backpack on the table and toed off my shoes since I didn’t want to track dirt anywhere.

“Have a seat,” I told him. The kitchen was far enough. “Let me feed the cats, and you can dive into whatever you needed.”

Tiddles trotted right out to see me, but the other pair made themselves scarce. They probably wouldn’t come out while Dad was here, so I only put down part of a can for Tiddles so that I could save the rest for the girls. When I turned back, Dad hadn’t taken a seat.

If anything, he looked more uncomfortable and his gaze focused on the fridge. There were pics of the five of us on there. Some old, and a couple of new ones from the trip to Colorado. “You good?”

Dad snapped his gaze to me and shifted “I’m fine, just…not all that comfortable being in Maddy’s place.”

“Well, Ms. Curtis doesn’t live here anymore, so you’re safe.” I opened the fridge and pulled out a soda. When I offered him one, he shook his head and his frown deepened.

“What do you mean she doesn’t live here anymore?”

“I mean, she moved out.”

“And Frankie’s living here by herself?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, Dad, but yeah, and she’s fine.”

He shifted his stance again and shot a glance past me to the other room.

“You want to tell me why you wanted to talk to me? Or maybe what’s got you so…”

I stopped, drink halfway to my lips.

“You’re fucking kidding me right now, aren’t you?”

Dad locked his gaze on me. “Don’t say it like that. You said you knew—”

“That you fucked around on Mom. Do not tell me you fucked around on Mom with Maddy fucking Curtis the cunta-fucking-saurus?”

Pretty sure that was the moment my brain exploded.

Chapter Seventeen

Hold Your Hand

On the drive home, I listened to Torched the whole way. I needed the upbeat music.