Chapter 36
Chapter
Thirty-Six
FRANKIE
I don’t know what I expected when we pulled up to Archie’s, but it wasn’t for all three of them to be standing out front with the door open like they were air-conditioning the driveway.
Archie stood with his hands on his hips, and I swore I could practically feel his foot tapping impatience radiating off him in waves.
Wearing a guarded expression, Jake stood near but not right next to him with his arms crossed.
Bubba gave me a firm once over then a genuine, if relieved smile as I put the car in park.
“You’d think they’ve never had company before,” I muttered as I turned off the engine.
“You’re not company,” Coop said, pushing his door open. “And you know it. If you don’t—then you should.”
That little comment shouldn’t have made my stomach flutter. And okay—maybe it wasn’t just the comment. Maybe it was everything. The kiss. The promises. The fact that Coop kept glancing at me like he wanted to pin me against the car and make me late on purpose.
Instead, we headed out to meet them together like normal people. Normal people who were about to walk into a not-normal night.
Archie strode forward to meet us and gave me a very firm look. “You okay?”
That was going to be the question of the night, wasn’t it?
“Peachy,” I lied. “Cramping like hell but emotionally stable-ish.”
The corners of his lips twitched as he gave me a measured glance. He didn’t fully believe me, but he was going to let me get away with it. “We’ve got hot food and cold drinks. That should help.”
When he held out a hand, I clasped it and let him draw me into the house. The others fell in with us. He took us straight to the dining room where the table was loaded with takeout boxes, french fries, pizza, salads none of us were going to eat and a giant-sized cookie loaded with chocolate chips.
The smell of it hit like a wave. Carbs and sugar.
“Okay,” I said, blowing out a breath as I let go of Archie’s hand. “I want to get part of this over with right now.”
That earned me four matching expressions of confusion.
“I have a question,” I said, pointing a finger around the room like I was conducting a very weird orchestra. “And I want an honest answer from each of you.”
Jake frowned. Bubba leaned forward like I was about to reveal national secrets. Archie just lifted a brow. Coop flipped open a box of pizza and started filling a plate.
I zeroed in on all of them. “Are any of you Mr. Thorns?”
Jake blinked. “Who?”
“Mr. Thorns ,” I repeated. “The guy who’s been leaving roses. At school. At my door. Randomly in my locker like a very floral stalker.”
“Oh.” Bubba leaned back and squinted. “That’s not creepy at all.”
“It’s not creepy, it’s—” I stopped, because okay, sometimes it was creepy, but also it was a little thrilling in the romantic mystery kind of way. “It’s a thing. Someone’s been leaving roses and notes and I started calling them Mr.Thorns cause there’s never a name.”
“Not it,” Coop said before he took a bite of pizza.
“Nope,” Archie said, popping the p . “Not me.”
I turned to Bubba.
He shook his head. “I have a black thumb. Plants fear me.”
My eyes landed on Jake last. His gaze finally met mine for the first time since I walked in. “I told you already, wasn’t me.”
I didn’t know what I was expecting. Relief? Disappointment? Proof one of them was secretly a romantic weirdo in disguise?
Instead, I just felt this hollow kind of thud in my chest. Like a door had closed before I even knew it was open.
“Well,” I said, forcing a shrug. “That’s disappointing.”
Bubba actually looked down about it too. “I kind of hoped it was one of us.”
“Same,” Archie muttered, then cleared his throat. “I mean—not that it’s not weird. Just that you’ve got this whole Jane Austen meets ‘You’ vibe happening and it’d be nice if the guy was someone we could yell at.”
Coop set a hand on the small of my back. “Still cool if I punch him when we find out who it is?”
“Why do you get to punch him?” I asked. “Also, did you have to bring up the Joe Goldberg of it all?” Now I really was a little freaked out.
“Cause I called dibs,” Coop said with an oh so helpful grin.
I stared at the table as my lower abdomen reminded me that today was, in fact, a situation . The kind of cramp that felt like my uterus was trying to eat itself. I winced and grabbed a bottle of Coke, mostly for something cold to press to my stomach.
“You need something?” Archie was already heading for the kitchen. “We’ve got Midol. Or whiskey. Possibly both.”
I stared at Archie for a long moment. “Do I want to know why you have Midol?”
One corner of his mouth curved upward into a teasing smirk. “For you, babe, obviously. You’re the only reason I even know where that aisle in the grocery store is.”
“That’s—,”
“Creepy,” Coop muttered as he pulled a chair out for me and I smacked his arm.
“It’s not creepy.”
“Fine, it’s not creepy.”
I didn’t roll my eyes but I did sit down and then shot Archie a smile. “Thank you, I’m good. I’m just trying to keep it together.” Frankly discussing my period was not something I wanted to be doing but the guys were not cringing away from it either.
Jake and Bubba hovered at the doorway but moved in as I took a seat. Archie came back to claim his own slice of pizza, but he didn’t sit down so much as face me across the table like we were about to have a team meeting.
Which, to be fair… we kind of were.
“Okay,” I said, setting down the drink. “We’re all here. We all know things need to be said. So—should we just rip the Band-Aid off?”
No one answered.
Great.
I sat back and let out a breath. “I’ll go first, then.”
Coop touched my arm, but didn’t stop me.
“Things got messy. Really messy. Apparently, you were asking me out and I wasn’t noticing.”
I hated that I missed out on them asking me out. That I’d been utterly blind to their alleged devotion. How stupid was I?
“You were then dating other people and that I definitely noticed.”
It stung too each time I thought about it. They were so crazy about me, that they ended up dating other people? Hooked up? Heat flashed through me and I clamped my jaw down before I could chase that thought any further.
“Then I find out that you guys have cut off others who might have been interested in me.”
That really hurt when added to the rest.
“It hurt you.” Archie echoed my unspoken thoughts. “All of it.” He didn’t deny it nor did he try to soften it. His bluntness helped. So did his lack of excuses, denial, or blame.
“Yes.” Since he mentioned it. “I’m going to say that, my obliviousness and failure to notice your interest hurt you .”
Folding his arms, Bubba frowned. “Frankie…” He blew out a breath. “I don’t know that hurt would be the right word.”
“Frustrated is a word,” Archie volunteered, then he shot me a half-smile. “But babe, just—having you around was enough.”
I raised my eyebrows and I wasn’t the only one who just stared at him because Jake snorted and shook his head.
“Yes, having her around—”Jake began before he cut a look at me. “Having you around is more than enough. But I always wanted more. I just didn’t want to put you on the spot when you didn’t seem to want the same things.”
“Maybe you should have been clearer then,” I said, spreading my arms. “Why couldn’t you have just said— I am asking you out on a date? A real date?”
“Because you laughed at us,” Jake countered. “You joked and teased, then just turned it aside.”
“Or—turned it into a group outing,” Coop said with a faint grimace as he scratched his jaw. “I’m not making excuses, but if we’re going to put cards on the table here then… we put them on the table.”
“If you didn’t want us dating other people,” Bubba asked. “Why didn’t you say anything to us when we did?”
“I didn’t have the right to stop you from going after what you wanted.” It would never have occurred to me that I did. “I’ve always wanted you guys to succeed at everything you wanted to do, even when I didn’t get it. Not just where it concerns football.”
Archie pushed one of the cartons of food over to me. “So… to be clear, we asked you out but you didn’t think we were serious because we’d always been friends. That’s what we’re hearing you say?”
I flipped open the carton and stared at the moo goo gai pan and considered it. “Not really sure anyone saw me as attractive.”
Literally, because I could feel the buzz in the room rising, I held up a hand.
“I’m not fishing for compliments. In fact, right now, I have cramps, I can’t make up my mind about whether I want to cry or scream, and I really want to fall face first into ice cream, so let’s just accept that I don’t think of myself as gorgeous or attractive.
Or any of the things that I would think guys want in a girl. ”
I locked gazes with Coop and to his credit, he just rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Fine, you don’t see yourself that way.”
“Not fine,” Archie countered, but waved his hand. “But accepted. Eat that and we’ll build sundaes in a minute. Also, I was serious about the Midol.”
Instead of responding immediately, Bubba seemed to be staring at me intently like he was looking for something in the words. Jake, though, he scowled.
“You’re fucking beautiful, Frankie. You’ve always been gorgeous.
You were pretty as hell even when you were getting into fistfights in elementary school.
” Arms folded, he glared right back at me.
“You don’t have to fish for compliments and if we have to accept that you don’t see yourself that way, then maybe you should have to accept that we see you differently. I see you differently.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then popped it closed again.
Head bowed for a moment, I turned the comment over in my head.
“You know, point to you on that one.” Because I couldn’t tell them how to see me anymore than they could tell me how to see myself.
“I’ll accept that you see me one way and I see myself another. ”
“Thank you.” It was quiet, but firm while lacking any kind of real triumph.
“The thing is—I think we all could have handled this better.” Yes, I would lump myself into this category with them. “Maybe I should have just picked a fight with all of you when I found out what you’d been doing.”
“I wish like fuck you had ,” Archie said, his gaze locking on me. “In fact, from this point forward, if you’re mad or hurt or confused or just generally uncertain about something, you throw things at our heads if you have to. No more ghosting.”
I flinched, but he wasn’t wrong.
“Hey,” Coop said, shoving out the chair next to me and sliding his hand onto my back. “You do what you have to do, but the not talking thing has to be a no go. If we don’t know what’s wrong, we can’t fix it.”
‘You can’t fix everything,” I reminded him.
“No,” he said. “Maybe not. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be there for you.”
I swirled my fork in the container of mushrooms and chicken. “You can’t make more decisions for me.”
“In our defense,” Bubba said before the guys could jump in. “We thought we were just supporting your decision. Knowing what we know now, we’ll work on that.”
“Still not going to be on board with you dating other people.” Archie leaned back in his chair, arms folded. “That’s not negotiable.”
“Really?” Was he serious right now?
“Yes, really. If you have to date one of these guys, fine. I don’t have to like it as much but I know them and I trust them—” He cut a look at Jake. “Most of them.”
“Archie—”
“It’s okay,” Jake said. “I deserve it.”
“You do,” I said, agreeing with him and met Jake’s pale blue gaze as he widened his eyes. “Doesn’t mean Archie gets to make those decisions for me.”
“You have any idea how long you’re going to be pissed at me?” Jake asked and I shrugged.
“Jury is still out. Be happy that I want to talk to you at all.”
Lips pursed, he nodded slowly. “Point.”
Rubbing a hand over my face, I sighed. “This is not what I imagined when I asked for this conversation.”
“We are listening,” Bubba said, and the intensity in his blue eyes promised he meant it. “I know we’re all a little hard-headed.” He bumped Archie with a light jab of his shoulder. “Some of us are a lot hard-headed. But we’re here. And we’re listening.”
They were. Every one of them. For better or worse.
So I blew out a breath. “I asked Mathieu if he was going to ask me to Homecoming.”
Everything at the table stilled. Forks paused midair.
The rustle of pizza boxes went silent. Even Archie’s chewing slowed like he was trying not to interrupt the vibe.
The only one who didn’t flinch was Coop—we’d already had this conversation, though saying it again in front of the rest of them made it feel brand new.
“He said he wasn’t going to,” I continued. “And before you offer to kick his ass, don’t. He’s doing it to give me space—to let me figure out what I want without him adding more pressure.”
It was sweet. Frustrating. Fair. And deeply inconvenient for my heart, which still hadn’t made up its mind.
I rubbed at my chest like I could smooth out the ache there. “Part of me wishes he would fight for me. But I get it. No one wants to throw themselves into a war if they’re not sure they’ll be welcome when the dust clears.”
And that was it, wasn’t it? The heart of all of this. Wanting to be chosen, but also needing to choose. Wanting clarity, when all I had was chaos.
“If I’m being honest,” I added quietly, “I really like him. I do. He’s easy to be with.
It’s fun and uncomplicated.” Then I exhaled and looked down at my hands.
“But I don’t know if that’s enough. Because the truth is—” I hesitated.
“My lips are still tingling from Coop’s kiss.
And the rest of you? You’re tying me up in knots. ”
The silence that followed was thick.
That feeling?
Yeah. Still deeply conflicted.
“You’ve all invited me,” I said, finally glancing around the table. “I haven’t forgotten that. I swear.”
They were watching me like I was a live wire. Like one wrong move might burn the whole night down.
“I just…” I licked my lips. “I don’t want to say yes to one of you and make the others feel like they don’t matter. I don’t want to be that girl who turns something real into a contest.”
“So what girl do you want to be?” Bubba asked, voice gentler than I expected.
“I don’t know yet,” I admitted. “But I do know I want to go to Homecoming.”
The truth slid into the air like a weight, solid and real.
“And… I kind of want to go with all of you.”
I didn’t look at them right away—didn’t dare . But when I finally raised my eyes, the table was frozen like someone had hit pause on the universe. No one moved. No one breathed.
And that’s when I realized—I hadn’t just dropped a bomb.
I’d lit the fuse.