Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,91
could have lived without that mental image.
“Dude, you puked on her the first time you got shit-faced,” Coop said with a snicker, but he took the glass of water from Jake, and both of us steadied it for him as he took a deep drink. Gradually, Coop slumped back on the sofa. “You remember that, Frankie? Threw up all over your shirt and your shoes. First time I saw you with tits for real. I mean, we’d seen them before, kind of knew they were there, but you had on that pretty pink bra.”
Wow. He really was drunk if he was bringing that up.
Jake’s shoulders shook. “Do we tell him?”
I shook my head. “Leave him alone. I want to know what happened.”
“His dad, apparently.” Jake raked a hand through his hair.
“Course, then I threw up on you,” Coop said, his voice almost mournful. “And you said you threw that pretty pink bra away, and I felt bad.”
“It’s okay,” I murmured. “Really, there was no getting burrito and beer stains out of it.”
“Fuck, why do you even kiss us when we did shit like that?” Coop groaned.
“And there he goes,” Jake said, covering his mouth as if he needed to keep the laughter back. “Dude, don’t remind her, or she might not want to kiss us.”
“Shut up,” I told Jake and stuck my tongue out at him. He winked. Then I focused on Coop. “I kiss you because you brush your teeth. You also held my hair back when I got puking drunk. You guys were doing all kinds of things for me with my broken wrist, including helping me in the bathroom.” Trust me, there were things about that I never wanted to think about, and they hadn’t hesitated.
Not once.
“Why do you kiss me when you’ve had to do that?”
“’Cause you’re fucking beautiful,” Coop said. “Inside and out.”
“Well, right back at you. Do you think if we put you in a shower, got some more water and food into you, you could tell us what happened?”
He stared at me for a long moment. “I don’t want to tell you,” he whispered, his frown tearing at my heart. “You’ll just get upset, and I’m tired of the whole fucking world trying to hurt you.”
“We’re not letting anyone hurt her,” Jake told him. “But let’s sober you up so you can tell us. If you don’t tell us what the dick did, you can at least tell me how much damage to inflict on him.”
Coop chuckled. “You’d go find him and kick his ass, wouldn’t you?”
“Damn straight.” Jake cupped my elbow and helped me climb off Coop, and between us, we pulled Coop to his feet. He slung an arm around me and sighed.
“He had an affair on my mom.”
“Yeah, man, we know,” Jake comforted him as we got him moving. Coop wasn’t quite weaving on his feet, but he was definitely not steady.
At the door to the bathroom, Jake left Coop leaning between me and doorjamb while he got the shower started.
Coop turned those mournful gray-green eyes on me, and my heart squeezed at the sadness there. “I’ll help him kick his ass,” I promised.
“I believe you,” he said with a slow sigh. “His affair was with your mom. I can’t believe he did that. To me. To Mom. I thought Archie’s dad was a douche, and it turns out my dad is a douche.” A humorless laugh broke out of him. “Hey, Archie and I can now form our own little club. Pretty sure Bubba’s dad is definitely not in it, and Jake’s dad didn’t come back…”
“Yeah, he had his own issues,” Jake said steadily as the water pounded down in the shower, but my brain was still back at the fact that Coop’s dad had an affair with Maddy. Maddy and Carly had been friends, right?
“Sorry, Frankie,” Coop told me mournfully, and I rubbed his spine gently. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I didn’t want to tell you. I can’t believe him.”
Maddy poisoned everything she touched.
“Come on, let’s get you into the shower.”
It took Jake and me both to strip Coop, and then I dropped my own clothes and went in after him to help him shower and wash. Jake stayed right there, leaning against the counter and ready to move if Coop swayed too far from one side to the other.
He bowed his head so I could wash his hair and then leaned it back to let me rinse the shampoo out. I got his hands cleaned up