Archie and I both looked at Coop, but I was pretty sure I wore the more incredulous expression.
With a shrug, Archie slanted a sideways look at me. “What about my butt?”
“I hate you,” I told Coop, then took a sip of my coffee before focusing back on my notes. “Nothing. He has decided that I like his ass, or I wouldn’t put up with him. I’m beginning to question that judgment.”
Coop snorted. “She gave me a seven.”
“On a scale of?” Archie asked.
“She won’ttellme.”
Archie laughed, and I got to the end of the page then re-read the notes I’d copied over. “That’s because you’re obsessed… and annoying.”
“Wounded,” Coop gasped, clutching his chest. “You wound me.”
Snickering, Archie shook his head. “Do we all get ratings, or just Coop?”
And I knew this would happen. I closed Coop’s notebook and passed it to him. “See…”
“Hey, if you’d just given me a scale, I wouldn’t have brought it up,” Coop declared.
“Bullshit,” I told him cheerfully. “You’d have been bragging or complaining one way or the other.”
“That is also true.” At least he didn’t deny it. “So, going to tell Archie, or do I have to enlist Jake and Bubba to get it out of you?”
“No and no, the subject is closed.” I shut my own notebook and tucked it back into the backpack.
“I don’t know,” Archie said, giving me an amused look. “It could be fun.”
“Fun would be if she gave us a scale.” Coop pouted. “Please, Frankie?” The puppy dog eyes were adorable, but I was immune.
Mostly.
“Actually,” I admitted. “This is a lot of fun, too.”
He groaned. “My misery is fun.”
“He’s in a dramatic mood today,” Archie commented, propping his chin in his hand as he studied me then Coop.
“He was philosophical last night.”
Archie’s shudder echoed my thoughts from the night before, and Coop glared at us both.
“Philosophy is dangerous,” Archie advised him.
“Nope,” Coop said. “Not going to get to me.”
“Well, that’s one way of looking at it,” I said with a grin. “But there’s always another point of view.”
Coop fixed me with a look. “Are you declaring war, Frankie?”
I laughed. “That’s an extreme view.”
“Depends on your point of view,” he countered. “You’re being mean to me today.”
Considering my lips still tingled from our rather enthusiastic make out session, I didn’t mind the accusation in the least. “I could be meaner.”
“She could,” Archie agreed. “Absolutely she could, and we agree with that so she doesn’tproveit.”