“What color are you getting?” He set his backpack on the table and reached for the Coke.
“I don’t know… do you have a preference since it’s your Homecoming date, too?”
“Whatever you wanna wear. I don’t think there’s a color that looks bad on you.” The ease of that compliment had my toes curling. “Just make sure you tell me so I can match you.”
“I promise,” I told him, then took a drink.
“Swim?” He curled his hand in invitation.
“You just want to make out in the pool again,” I teased him.
“I didn’t hear you complaining,” he retorted as we linked our fingers together.
“And you won’t—” I might have spoken too soon because he tugged me to him, and then we were airborne before plunging into the water. Even though the water was far from cold, it was definitely cooler than the air, and I came up spluttering as he laughed. With a growl, I launched toward him and he let out a shout as I managed to land on his shoulders and just barely dunked his head.
Before I could streak away though, he caught my leg and towed me back to him. Then he lifted me up and tossed me. Laughing when I came up this time, I pursued him across the pool. We spent the next hour laughing, dunking, and wrestling in the water, until I finally moved over to the steps and sat there, panting.
All the earlier nervous energy had been burned away, and my muscles protested the vigorous play, but I didn’t care. It had been fun. When Ian came to sit next to me, I leaned my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes as we just rested there.
“Feel better?” The quiet question nudged me from my near-doze state.
“How did you know?”
“You’ve been pretty wired the last few days,” Ian said. “Yesterday when you crashed out like that, I knew you’d probably had enough, and you worked so hard today at not letting anything bother you.”
I sighed. “Apparently not hard enough.”
“I pay attention,” he said, trailing his fingers up and down my arm soothingly. “I’m trying to anyway, and you have a way of smiling when it’s the last thing you want to be doing.”
Lifting my head, I twisted to face him. “I do?”
“Yeah. The smile is here,” he murmured, tracing my lips with his finger before gliding his touch up to brush against the corner of my eyes. “But it doesn’t reach here. You distract people because you can be solemn and you get harried and busy, so you don’t have to focus on any one thing. I still saw it.”
I swallowed. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be seen like that.
“I’m not going to dig at you. This weekend had some epic suck moments.”
Yeah, it had.
“But,” he continued, cupping my face. “I think it had some good ones, too.”
“Sunday was nice—later. Sorta—I mean it was, but later in the day. Not first thing. That was…” I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk about the stuff with my mom. I’d told Archie because it was about his dad, too. But the rest?
“I’m glad,” he continued, then tugged my wet hair gently. “If you ever need to talk, you know you can talk to me, right? About anything? Even—even the other guys.”
“You punched Archie when I talked to you about what happened, even when I said I was fine with it.”
He met my gaze unflinchingly. “He deserved that hit, and he’d be the first one to tell you he did.”
“So if I tell you about Jake or Coop, are you going to hit them, too?”
“If they’re dumber than a box of rocks, probably.” He blew out a breath. “But I will try to restrain it to those times when they really deserve it. And before you get started winding yourself up about that, I fully expect Jake or Archie or Coop to knock me on my ass if I’m stupid where you’re concerned.”
“So… when do I knock you guys on your ass when you’re stupid? Or who knocks me on mine?” Because I was genuinely curious.
Ian chuckled. “You’re the smart one, Frankie. You can very effectively knock us on our ass. As I recall—you flat out told us to get out. You said there were boundaries. And you said you wanted to date.” He coiled a lock of hair around his finger and tugged. “And no one is knocking you on your ass.” Then he reeled me closer and nuzzled a kiss. “Because anyone who tries to knock you down is going to have to get past us.”
I sighed as he teased kisses down my throat.