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“Taking you to dinner isn’t spoiling you, Frankie.” He glanced at me as he navigated through traffic. “That’s something a boyfriend does. They take their girl out. They experience new things with her.” “Is that in the handbook or something?” I tried to not focus on the label he’d just used. “Ancient Guy Secret. I could tell you, but then I couldn’t date you.”
“Wow, you do realize we live in the twenty-first century, right?” “Don’t care,” he said with a shrug. “There’s a way to do it right. I’m the guy, so I pick you up and I take care of you.” “So what do I do? Just look pretty?” Some of my earlier giddiness dissipated. “No, you’re freaking brilliant. You’re probably going to end up running the world someday, and I’ll be looking at the television and saying, I remember sucking Madame President’s fingers clean of her juices before I took her out to dinner
When do you get to be a wild and crazy teenager?” “Well, I rode on Ian’s motorcycle the other day, and I walked out of my bathroom naked to kiss you. I think I can make the argument that I’m being pretty crazy right now.” Not to mention dating four wonderful guys. Four. Oh, the idea made my head swim every time I focused on it. “Want to get a little crazier?” He eyed me. “Crazy how?” “Well, walk around the lake is out, but I have a hot tub, and you don’t have to wear a suit.” Oh. Damn.
Meeting Archie’s gaze, I chewed on my bottom lip. This was a little awkward, but one thing he was very right about—he was Archie. Coop was the guy who helped keep me grounded; he’d always been there. Jake was a close second to that, but he never let me keep rose-colored glasses on, we were always brutally honest. Ian? He was the guy who made me think fantasies were possible, but he always knew how to make me smile. Archie was my confessor. We confided sometimes really uncomfortable truths to each other, and we could talk about anything.
“You sound like you don’t get why we all like you and worry that I only want sex.” I grimaced. That sounded even worse. “To qualify that statement, I absolutely want sex. I’d fuck you in a heartbeat. But fucking you isn’t why I’ve spent four years trying to make sure I had your attention and time squared away with you. I wanted every Friday night this year not because I thought I was getting laid, Frankie. I wanted them because I want you
“I really like that you don’t look down on me or any of us really.” He blinked. “Excuse me?” “Archie—you have money. Lots of it. You’ve traveled. You drive a Ferrari. I live in an apartment with my mom and work twenty-four to thirty hours a week so I can save up for college. We come from two different worlds, but you never look down on me on any of us. You never have.”
“Your turn.” “I like that you’re Frankie. You looked at me on the first day of high school, when I didn’t know anyone and said, ‘Hi, I’m Frankie. You can sit with me if you want. My friends will be here in a minute.’”
“I went from being the new kid to one of the guys in the space of a day because you made room for me. I got great new friends, people who didn’t care about my name or my family or my money. For some weird reason, they just liked me.”
When we asked you out, you were shocked, and that was an ego check.” I wanted to hide my face, but there was nowhere to go. We were too close. “So you want to date the guys? Fine. I don’t have to like it. At least I know they’re not going to be too stupid with you. But I’m a possessive guy, Frankie. Now that I have your attention…you better fucking believe I plan to keep it.”
my first time making out or getting off…no those went to Ian and then Jake respectively, but the rest? “Yes.” “Okay,” he whispered, gripping my nape as he sucked in a deep breath. “Bad?” If I’d thought he seemed intense before, it had nothing on the way a muscle in his jaw ticked or how his nostrils flared. “No,” he assured me, squeezing my nape gently. “Babe, nothing about you is bad. Just need to make sure I get my head in the right space to not lose my mind because I’ve been thinking about this for four years.”
“It sounds like they meant well, but they were also selfish. It’s a learning curve… Punishing them is a good idea. Not talking to them drives it home, but don’t hold onto it so much it hurts you. Set boundaries, with them and with yourself. Make it clear, then… if they do it again, it’s a pattern of behavior, and you’ll know whether they’re worth it or not. But the most important thing—value yourself. They don’t define you. You do.”
“I’m worth a hell of a lot more than you guys humiliating me again. I want to see you, but not at the expense of me. I have always supported you…in whatever you wanted to do. This… this plan…this just reinforces you aren’t supporting me. That I’m worth what I am to you, not who I am.”
Movement in my periphery caught my attention and I glanced. Then froze. “Frankie…” Archie’s voice shifted, the concern in it inescapable. There was a couple exiting the pool house. A man and… “Mom?” My mom. Archie’s dad.
Mom’s new boyfriend was Archie’s dad? She’d been here? She couldn’t get away, she couldn’t get home, because she’d been with his dad? Had they been here the whole time? What about Archie’s mom? Oh. Fuck. The pair broke apart, and I recoiled, backing away from the rail because I didn’t want them to see me. I slammed into Archie, who didn’t look surprised, but he did look pissed. Twisting, I searched Jake’s, Coop’s, and Ian’s expressions. They’d known. Every single one of them. Just when I didn’t think it could get any worse. I had to get out of there.
