I blinked. Well… “I’m still mad, Archie.”
“That’s fair, doesn’t change my request.”
He raised his eyebrows, and I leaned up and pressed a light kiss to his lips, but when he would have deepened it, I pulled away. Licking his lips once, he nodded. “Go on.” Then he looked past me to Coop. “Look after her.”
“Already planned on it.”
Battling the strange reluctance, I let to go of Archie and headed to the car. He followed us, and closed the door for me as I started the engine. Rolling the window down, I looked up at him. “Are you going to be all right with your mom?”
He laughed. “Muriel isn’t going to do anything to me, Frankie. Like I said in there, I don’t need their money. They know it, too.” He crouched so he could be on eye level with me. “You didn’t do anything wrong. All of this crap is on them. The rest of it is on us. We fucked up. We’ll fix it. They—you know what, let them deal with their mess. It’s not our problem.”
“Easier said than done,” I admitted. Coop covered my hand on the gearshift.
“That’s why you have us, even if you’re still mad. That doesn’t mean we can’t help.”
“What psycho boy said,” Archie grinned, then looked past me to Coop. “Psychology? Seriously? That was a nice zing.”
“I wasn’t making it up,” Coop told him. “I have been thinking about. That and film making.”
Archie and I locked gazes, and we both grinned. “It’s good to know we’re all fixed on what we want to be in life,” I said. “So much easier for planning.”
“Nah,” Archie countered. “We’re flexible, and I think that makes us a much better fit.” Then he leaned in and kissed me again, firm, but gentle and swift. “Take care of you, I’ll see you in the morning with coffee. Hot or cold?”
“I know I said hot earlier, but I think iced would be better. Double the extra shot of espresso?”
“You got it,” he said with a smile. “And go out with Jake. Tell him he can start making it up to you by making you smile.”
Then he backed off and motioned us toward the driveway. I glanced at the rearview mirror to find him watching after us, and I raised my hand out the window to wave at him before I turned out.
The last hour and a half had been so surreal, but… “Coop?”
“Hmm?”
“Was that weird for you?”
“The breakfast? Hell yes, it was weird. That woman needs to be medicated.”
I groaned. “No, that part was definitely weird. I meant—the part where Archie kissed me.”
“You mean after you kissed him?” There was the faintest note of teasing in his voice.
With a sigh, I looked at him. “Yes.”
“No,” he told me. “Not really. It was kind of hot, and he was doing all the right things. Guy’s got style, I’ll give him that.”
Oh. Relief threaded through me.
“Course, now I’m kind of hoping that my shot at getting a kiss just went up, too.”
I couldn’t help it.
I laughed.
“Maybe,” I told him, and he grinned wider.
“Maybe is good.” He clapped his hands together. “I’m good with maybe.”
Afterboom