“I should. I have to work in a couple of hours.” Should probably do some homework, too.
“Okay, we’ll get the TV back where it goes.”
“After coffee,” Archie said, leaning back against a counter and keeping his arms looped around me until I settled with my back to his chest. “And after I get some cuddle time. You assholes stole the bed with her.”
“Hey, you snooze, you lose.” Coop grinned, absolutely unrepentant. He winked at me. “You sleep okay?”
“I did, thank you.” The smell of coffee filled the kitchen, and honestly, I was ready to drink about a gallon of it. My brain was still in sluggish mode. Last night had been… brutal. But the guys—the guys had made it better. “I’m going to check on Ian.”
A kiss to my nape, and Archie let me go.
I was almost to my bedroom when Jake said, “Man, what are you doing?”
“I’m getting dressed,” Ian answered. “She’s fine. She has you three, and you’re all being cuddly. I need to go home and get some stuff done.”
“Don’t be like this, Bubba.” Jake countered.
“Be like what?” But there was something in his voice, Jake was right. Something cool and reserved. Ian was never cold. “I’m fine. She’s good. We came over to make sure she wasn’t alone, she’s definitely not alone.”
“So, what? You just take off in a pissy mood?”
Silence greeted that remark, then Ian snorted, “Stealing your thunder? You and Archie are the only two who get to have a bad mood?”
“What the fuck—no. What the hell is going on with you?”
“Nothing,” Ian replied. “Just have some stuff to do today, and she has work. Not going to get in the way. You guys are all here.”
“C’mon, Bubba…”
“Look,” he said, turning as he zipped up his jeans and that was when he saw me leaning against the doorframe. He sighed, then raked a hand through his hair. “I’m not being any way. I just have some homework to do, and I promised my mom I’d run some errands.”
“Okay, but I think we should all talk if you’re this uncomfortable.” I’d told them all from the beginning I didn’t want to lose my friendships, and I didn’t want them turning on each other. To be honest, I’d thought it would be Jake or Archie, they were so damn possessive, but maybe I didn’t think it all the way through.
“We don’t have to talk, Frankie,” Ian told me. “Seriously, it’s all good.”
“Then why does it feel like it’s not all good for you at the moment?” We’d made a lot of the last few days about me, but I wasn’t the only person in this group.
His shoulders dipped, and Jake shoved off the bed. “I’ll let you two talk.” Then he squeezed past me after a quick kiss.
Padding into the room, I sat on the end of my bed and looked at him. “Talk to me?”
Ian dropped to sit next to me and exhaled. “I’m not mad. I’m not upset. But it’s… it’s a little harder to watch you with everyone and know they are all pushing you, and sooner or later, it’s going to hurt some of us, but it will definitely hurt you.”
“Because I’m dating everyone?” I had to be sure.
“Yeah, and not just because of what the asshats are doing, Frankie. We’re all crazy about you,” he continued, then turned sideways to face me. “The thing is…crazy has limits. I’ve watched you aching this week from finding out we knew about your mom to their plan to deal with Mathieu.”
It had been a week. Exactly a week since then. It felt like eighty years.
“The shit Sharon pulled, and Laura… the fact we still don’t know who did that to your car. That you have to deal with your mom and Archie’s dad, and whatever that ends up meaning. Throw Jake and Archie pushing you…”
“You keep saying their pushing me,” I cut in, twisting to face him too, and our knees brushed. “They’re not.”
“Yes they are,” he said flatly. “I’m not saying you don’t have the right to say yes to whatever you want. I just—I want you to focus on you, and I think that’s getting lost in all of this.”
“I am focusing on me, all we talk about is me. I know the dating thing is new, and I wasn’t trying to… I don’t want you to think I don’t like you because I…I had sex with them. I wanted to with you but you…”
“That’s my point,” Ian said slowly. “You’re new to all of this. Maybe we’re a bunch of assholes because we rushed when we thought we might lose you to some other guy. But I don’t want you to regret a moment, and everything that has been happening, it just makes it all so intense. I want you to want to take those steps, and I want to be the guy you can depend on. I want you to feel valued. I never want you to feel like we expect anything.”