The harshness in my tone must have warned him, because he stared at me.
“Really? You aren’t dense, Coop. If she wants to talk to you it’s not because she feels like spilling her guts in front of me. So stop being a dick.” This right here was what I’d meant.
Laura’s eyes widened, and she wasn’t alone. Coop frowned. “I’m not being a dick.” But he cut his gaze to Laura. “Am I?”
“I think I should just go. I wasn’t sure if you broke up with me because of Frankie, but now I think you did. Which—” She actually threw me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have bothered you if I’d known, but Sharon said you were with Bubba and Maria insists that it’s Jake, so—I had to be sure.”
“About what?” The tone shift in Coop’s voice dipped toward a warning.
“Nothing,” Laura said as she stood.
Dammit.
“Good job,” I said with a sigh as she walked away.
“What?” Coop twisted to look at me. “I’m not going to go off and talk to her, we’re done. I told her that. I came over here to talk to you.”
Maybe he meant well. Maybe he didn’t. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
He frowned. “C’mon, Frankie…”
“No,” I said, then tugged my arm out of his grip. “I’m going to walk around.”
I didn’t wait for him to follow me. I didn’t want him to. I felt bad for Laura. Folding my arms, I circled the pool to get away from not only him, but from where Ian was talking to his friends from football. I didn’t see Archie or Jake, but I wasn’t trying to find them either. Unfortunately, my path took me right past the pool house.
Last place I wanted to be. The music around the pool cranked up, and a handful of the kids ended up in the water. Sharon cut a look from me to where Ian stood, then dove in the water. Call it an intellectual exercise, but I didn’t miss the way she swam right over to where he was standing and asked for assistance getting out of the pool.
Rolling my eyes, I turned away and smacked right into Jake.
“Going somewhere?”
“Taking a walk.” I side-stepped to go around him, and he hooked my arm.
“Frankie,” he said, his voice low. “Come on, seriously? Don’t—”
“Don’t what? Make a decision for myself? Decide I’m worth more than you guys plotting behind my back? Decide that you keeping an epic secret from me because—what? You thought it would hurt me? Did it hurt me less finding out how I did?”
“First—I’m not apologizing for the Frenchy thing. I don’t know that guy and more, I don’t want to know him. I’ve wanted you for years. The first inclination you show toward dating, and you’re going out with someotherguy? Not happening. Not without making it clear I care, and I think I made it pretty damn clear and so did you.”
Heat flooded my face. Yes, he had made it clear.
“That said, I’m glad we didn’t have to do it. I never want to hurt you.”
I scoffed.
“You think I’m lying…”
“I think you already hurt me.”
He slid his hand down my arm and then closed over my hand, even as I curled it into a fist. “I’m sorry that it hurt you. That I can say sorry about. Hurting you wasn’t the intention.” Sighing, he glanced past me toward the pool. “Can we get out of here? Just you and me? I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
I almost crumpled, right there. I just—I needed a hug. I needed someone to tell me this was all going to be okay. I wanted to go back to that floaty feeling I had that morning before Archie told me about theplanand before I’d seen my mom and Archie’s dad.
“You missed us this summer,” he reminded me. “Wemissedyou. Please don’t make me miss you again standing right there…”
My resolve wavered. I was mad but…
“Hey, Frankie.” Rachel Manning calling me was probably the second to the last thing I wanted to happen right now. Jake scowled, but the other girl was a lifeline—whether she knew it or not—and I was drowning.