“Good thing you said no pizza,” he murmured. In the cool air-conditioned kitchen, he was warm. I was dressed for outside, not in.
“Right?” I said with a glance. He was really close though and my nose brushed his cheek. He gave me a little bump and backed off a step.
“You ready?”
“Yeah, let me just answer Jake—and Bubba.” There was a message from my mom, too.
Hey look, she remembered I was alive. Go me.
Bubba:We could do Papa Pete’s if you don’t want Emilio’s.
It was still pizza.
I sent backEither is fine.
“No it’s not,” Archie argued. “Emilio’s is a lot better.”
Then added,But Archie whined that Emilio’s is better.
“Hey,” he said with a mock scowl. “I did not whine.”
“Then stop reading over my shoulder.” The fact he kept closing the distance was giving me goosebumps. Or maybe it was just the air. “And it’s freezing in here.” Not that I planned to turn the a/c up. It was just being in the halter and shorter shorts.
“C’mon, Frankie,” Archie snagged my folders from where I tucked them and wrapped an arm around my bare shoulders. “I’ll keep you warm.”
“Get off,” I said with a gentle elbow he avoided like a pro. I grabbed my keys and checked Mom’s message after I shooed Archie out the door.
Mom:Long week. Really long week. Not going to make it in before you go to bed, probably out before you get up, too. Sorry, baby. Hope the first week was great. See you Saturday after work?
Except I had plans Saturday after work and, to be honest, I didn’t think Mom was coming home, but I couldn’t really call her on that because maybe she was.
Going out with the guys Saturday to do escape room thing. Left you a note about it.
Mom:Oh, that’s right. Okay. Well, I’ll see you soon. I’m going to the grocery store on Sunday, leave a list on the fridge of what you need.
I stared at the message for a beat. Archie had descended three of the stone steps but paused to look at me. “You okay?”
I frowned. No. I really wasn’t. I hadn’t left Mom a note. We made the plans for the escape room on Monday after school, I’d meant to tell her about it, but I hadn’t really seen her and…
She just lied to me. Granted, I lied first about the note.
Or maybe she was distracted. I had been.
“Frankie?”
“Yeah,” I said, shaking it off. “Fine, sorry, just sorting something out with Mom.”
The look on his face said he didn’t believe me, but he waited for me to send her another message.
Will do. We’re out of pretty much everything.
But she didn’t respond. There weren’t even dots suggesting she was writing anything. Well, whoever he was, I hoped he treated her right. She was that distracted; it had to be a guy.
A message popped up from Mathieu, and I cleared it before Archie could see it as he came back up to hook my arm with his. “Okay, new rule for Friday nights,” he told me as he gave me a gentle tug and got us moving toward the car. “No parent talk.”
I laughed. “None at all?”
“Well, if you want to talk about her, sure. I’ll listen. Edward and Muriel have given me vast experience in the realm of distance where parents and kids are concerned.” At his Ferrari, he unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for me as he slid his sunglasses back into place. “But definitely not a requirement.”