picked me up, but I just hugged him tight and ignored the fact my feet were off the ground.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I don’t like pissing you off.”
“Won’t stop you from doing it though,” I answered him in an equally soft voice, even as I pressed my nose against his neck and inhaled his scent.
“Nope,” he admitted. Rubbing my back gently, he lifted his head and then pressed his lips to mine. It was a simple kiss, a gentle apology, and offer of truce all in one. “I love you, Baby Girl,” he reminded me, and I smiled.
“Even when I’m a brat?”
“Do you still love me when I’m a jackass?” he teased.
I grinned. “Most of the time.”
He pressed his lips to mine and then paused again before he jerked his head back. “Most of the time?”
Chapter Seventeen
Four to Tango
After we made it back downstairs, Jake had grumbled a bit more but settled after I curled up in his lap. The temptation to stay in his room and keep making up had been overwhelming. But the others were waiting, and I wasn’t ready to test how willing they were to wait if making up turned to sex. I just wasn’t. Not yet.
The heady feeling accompanying the unspoken but natural follow up thought that I would test it eventually made me dizzy. Heat rolled through me, and I forced my mind away from Speculation Avenue. With fresh coffee in hand and the fire burning merrily, it was hard to believe it wasn’t even lunchtime. Still, the snow fell outside, and I had a hard time tearing my gaze away from the windows.
“You know, I never thought I’d have competition from the weather,” Coop drawled, but I just shot him my middle finger.
“Like you’re not staring at it, too,” I huffed, but Jake just chuckled and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. While I still wasn’t thrilled with the caveman tactics from earlier, I’d forgiven him. I probably overreacted. Maybe.
Firm maybe.
“True,” Coop said, then fixed his gaze on me. “But I’d rather stare at you.”
Ian laughed as he leaned back on the sofa he’d claimed. They’d all gotten one really, except for me and Jake. He’d sat down not far from the fire and I wanted to be next to it, too, ergo, his lap was now my chair. I also wasn’t too proud to admit I needed the comfort. Arguing with them wasn’t new. But fighting like we had earlier had a way of catapulting me back to the previous spring and that gut-wrenching feeling of betrayal that they’d warned all the guys off of me and had for years.
It just… Ugh. I shook my head. Better not to think about that. Feelings, as Erin had admonished me during that last session, were complicated. Fuck, I needed to email her and let her know I wouldn’t be at my sessions the following week.
Putting my coffee on the hearth, I wiggled forward to grab my phone from the coffee table. Yoga pants did not have pockets.
Really, the only problem with them.
Jake gripped my hips, whether to steady me or keep me from grinding on him, I wasn’t sure. I also didn’t ask. When I leaned back against him and stretched my legs out, he slid one arm around my middle and tucked his head against my shoulder.
“I didn’t really book us plans for today,” Archie said. “So when you’re ready, we’ll totally head back outside to play.”
I grinned, even as I opened the email on my phone. There was a Wi-Fi available.
“Password for the Wi-Fi?” Jake asked.
Archie rattled it off, and I typed it in. Man, it wasn’t until I had both thumbs flying as I logged in to the Wi-Fi, then opened my mail and wrote a note to Erin, that I realized how much I missed having both thumbs. If Jake read what I wrote over my shoulder, he didn’t comment. Instead, he just asked, “When are we going skiing?”
“Day after tomorrow,” Archie said. “Then I have a few ideas for the weekend. We can go skiing again after that.”
“Wait, so you don’t have us all scheduled and time-clocked booked right down to who gets Frankie when?” the teasing note in Coop’s voice kept the question from being harsh, but it was a little on the nose.
I cut a glance toward Archie, who sprawled back on the sofa, feet up on the fat, square coffee table that looked like it had been carved out of some huge tree trunk. Seriously, I