Chapter 31
Chapter
Thirty-One
COOP
“Nope,” Jake said around a mouthful of pizza. “I’m still stuck on the fact that your moms had a UFC cage match and it looks like a photo shoot from Architectural Digest down there.”
The game room looked exactly like it always did.
Leather sectional. Low lighting. Massive TV paused mid–football game. When Jeremy let us in downstairs, however, I’d seen zero evidence of shattered glass or wreckage anywhere.
Jeremy was a miracle worker.
I leaned back on the couch, pizza untouched on my plate, and stared at Archie across the coffee table.
He wasn’t eating either. Frankie sat beside him. Not on him. Not tucked under his arm. Just… beside him.
Close enough that their knees touched. It was subtle, and more than a little deliberate.
Archie took the seat next to her but she hadn’t moved away.
She also bumped his knee as often as he did hers.
There was an easiness between them that had been missing before.
If I hadn’t been sure of it by where they chose to sit, the fact he was playing with her hair almost absently clinched it.
From the way Jake shifted his attention repeatedly from them to his food told me he’d clocked it too.
Clocked it and had no idea how to react to it.
That made two of us. The move to Archie’s house had bugged me because I hated that she was so far away.
Now… I had a feeling that more than just her location had changed.
“So,” Bubba said evenly, folding his slice in half. “In summary, despite what your mother told Archie’s dad, you’re not siblings.”
Archie’s mouth curved faintly. “No.”
“No.” Frankie huffed, then folded her arms as if assaulted by a sudden chill.
I didn’t realize how tight my chest had been until it loosened.
Not siblings. They’d been holding that little bomb to their chests since when exactly?
Disliking the fact she’d been wrestling with something this damn deep—hell that both of them had been wrestling with this—and we hadn’t known was a bitter pill.
At the same time, I was relieved for them. Because I really didn’t want to unpack what that would’ve meant for how Archie felt about her.
Jake leaned forward, elbows on his knees. The concentrated frown on his face reflected my own internal feelings on this matter. Because what the actual fuck…
“And your moms tried to kill each other over something that happened before any of us were born?” he asked.
“Pretty much,” Frankie muttered, with a little shrug. “Though, I’m fairly certain we can say it’s as much about today as then, and I think Mrs. Standish has the right considering where my mother and I are living.”
I watched her carefully. She looked steady, but not calm. It told me she was holding herself together with duct tape and grit. Her words didn’t wobble, but her fingers trembled. If I hadn’t been watching for it, I might have missed it entirely.
Archie noticed it too. He brushed his fingers against the back of her hand once. She turned her hand, palm up, and he settled his hand over hers and their fingers interlocked. The movement and the grip were both natural.
Too natural.
That did something ugly and sharp under my ribs.
Jake
Okay.
So.
The vibe in this room?
Not normal.
Not bad.
Just… different. Maybe too different.
Archie wasn’t hovering, but anger simmered beneath his calm facade. Frankie wasn’t avoiding any of us, but there was something so inexplicably sad that it was killing me not to do something about it. Beyond all of that, there was a charge between them that hadn’t been there last week.
Deeper.
Less flirty.
More… involved. Not just on Archie’s part. I wasn’t blind, he’d been into her from the first day we met him.
I didn’t hate it.
But I wasn’t blind to it either.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked, because if we didn’t move this forward it was going to get weird.
Okay, weirder than it already was and I’d long since dug my own damn grave in the middle of our friendship. I needed to keep filling that hole in and rebuilding that foundation. Repairing my relationship with Frankie was more important than some fleeting irritation.
After squeezing her hand, Archie leaned back then draped his arm across the back of the couch. Not around her. Just near enough.
“We’re not telling Edward tonight,” he said.
Frankie glanced at him.
“We?” Bubba asked mildly, and his eyes were narrowed as he focused on Archie. I didn’t doubt that he wasn’t as aware of Frankie as the rest of us, but there was an unspoken level of communication going on between Bubba and Archie that I couldn’t quite interpret.
Archie didn’t flinch. “We.”
There was a beat following his confirmation, then I looked at Coop.
He was watching them both like he was puzzling through a math equation he didn’t like the variables on.
“You sure that’s smart?” Coop asked and I had to admire how diplomatic he sounded.
Frankie answered before Archie could. “No.”
That made me grin. Archie huffed a quiet laugh.
“But dropping this bomb while they’re already bleeding isn’t going to fix anything,” she added and on the last couple of words, she shifted her attention to meet Archie’s gaze and the connection between them sizzled to partnership.
That was different.
But I could live with this difference and respect it.
Bubba
I’d been quiet on purpose.
Watching.
Listening.
Archie was controlled. Too controlled.
Frankie was steady, but I could see the cracks at the edges. The way her shoulders tightened when someone mentioned her mom.
Coop was jealous. Jake was curious. And me?
I was worried.
Not about the parentage—though that was some bullshit. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the kind of con her mother was pulling. The lies didn’t just affect Ms. Curtis or Mr. And Mrs. Standish. This was playing games with Frankie’s life and that… that pissed me off.
No, what worried me was the shift between Frankie and Archie. You’d have to be blind to miss the change between them.
Because something had changed between Frankie and Archie since we’d last seen them at school. It wasn’t just relief or attraction, but both were present. If I had to put my finger on it, I’d say the dynamic that shifted was the nature of their relationship.
It wasn’t just about friendship anymore.
Subtle. But absolutely present.
“You two good?” I asked finally because I would give anything to never see that wounded look in Frankie’s eyes ever again. We’d made a lot of mistakes over the past year. For the first time since last spring, Frankie was with us—well with one of us anyway.
Frankie looked at me first, then Archie did too. Her tremulous smile grew a notch and some of the sadness in her green gaze ebbed. “I think so,” she said, though her words hesitated, her tone didn’t.
Archie’s jaw flexed slightly. “Yeah.”
I didn’t miss the way he looked at her before answering. Like he was checking first. That told me everything. It also gave me food for thought. I might have let some of that show because Frankie tilted her head as she studied me.
Shit.
Coop
“I’m not choosing,” Frankie said suddenly. While no one had asked anything beyond Bubba’s “are you good,” I was pretty sure that she’d been thinking about what we were all not discussing.
The room went quiet.
Archie didn’t move. Didn’t bristle. Didn’t glare. Didn’t tighten his hold. No, he just watched us. Not her.
Us.
So, I had no idea what he was thinking except that he was more concerned about our reactions than Frankie making that announcement.
“Good,” I said, sitting my plate down.
Her eyes flicked to mine and I let out a long breath as those green eyes seemed to glimmer like jewels. The tears were in there but gone again after a couple of blinks.
“I’m not going anywhere either,” I added, because this was important. “When I said cradle to grave, it covered everything.”
The small smile from earlier tipped upward a little more. The relief in her eyes didn’t offend me. I hated that she might be scared of losing me to the point that talking about what she wanted was a challenge. That only meant I needed to work harder.
When she did a quick sweep of Jake and Bubba, I flicked a look to where Archie watched me. When I raised my eyebrows, he just nodded. We were both in this.
No one was surrendering their place and if that meant taking the time to carve it in right, then that was exactly what we would do.
Jake clapped once. “Cool. So we’re all just emotionally evolved now? Is that what’s happening?”
Bubba snorted.
Frankie’s smile turned into a genuine grin.
Jake
Okay, but here was the part nobody was saying: Archie was different. Not overtly possessive or darkly dangerous—I’d gotten a taste of that threat in the den downstairs a few weeks ago. I’d be good with not pushing him that far again.
I was fine with beating the shit out of each other, but Archie was the kind to destroy you, then go after anyone still supporting you.
The difference today was he’d already decided something and settled on it. That decision included all of us which as much as I appreciated the fact of not being cut out—being included seemed a hundred times more intimidating.
Determined to be worth it for both of them, I grabbed another slice and leaned back. “So, are the adults dead or just plotting?”
“Plotting,” Archie said dryly.
“Cool,” I replied. “So basically nothing’s changed.”
“Everything’s changed,” Frankie murmured.
That shut me up.
Bubba
The house was quiet. Too quiet. But upstairs, in this room?
It felt… solid. Real. Real in a way we hadn’t been in far too long. We were a unit again. The five of us. Maybe we were still messy, complicated, and not altogether certain—but we were intact.
We were going to figure it out together.
Archie reached for a slice finally and Frankie relaxed half an inch when he did.
Coop leaned forward and stole one off Jake’s plate just to piss him off.
Jake protested loudly.
Frankie laughed.
There it was.
The sound we were all waiting for.
Normal.
Or close enough.