“She’s the one who broke up with me,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, because it was something she could control.” And that was it in a nutshell. “Can you handle it tonight? ‘Cause if not—don’t do this to her or to us.”
“I’ll handle it.” Because the thought of not being there or showing up separately was even worse than just being the odd man out. I sucked in a deep breath. “In fact, I’ll spring for pizza because I’m starving.”
Jake studied me for a long moment. “Good. All right, let’s go over a few rules about tonight while we’re at it…”
Rules?
I followed him up the stairs to the apartment’s back door. When he pulled out a key, I had to swallow the sting of that, too. It was my own damn fault. Maybe if I reminded myself of that enough, it wouldn’t burn quite so bad.
“Yeah,” Jake said. “Rules. Hey, we’re here,” he called out as he held the door open for me.”
“Good,” Archie said. “We’re about ready for the mums part of this mess.”
“Bubba’s buying pizza so throw in your orders. Meat lovers for me.”
“Pineapple for Frankie,” came Coop and Archie’s dual responses. Jake smirked, and I laughed.
“No shit,” I said. “She hasn’t changed her order in years.”
“Just making sure.” Coop glanced at us as we walked through to the living room. Two of Frankie’s cats perched on the sofa. Tiddles was one and the other had to be Tabby. Tory was the shy one. “Hang your suits up in the bedroom. We put a rack on the door to her closet.”
The mum construction was laid out on the table in the living room. The ribbons on Frankie’s were numerous along with charms and trinkets. There were three garters made already and a fourth sitting in pieces.
“Rule number one,” Jake said as he returned up the hallway. “Coop got first dance, I got second, Archie gets third. You can ask her after that.”
Dragging my attention off the mums, I glanced at him.
“What are we doing?” Archie asked.
“Giving Bubba the rules for tonight.”
“Ahh…fine, rule number two, there will be no scenes at Homecoming. We’re all going to just have fun.”
“That’s kind of a rule for all of us,” Coop argued. “Not that I object to it, just saying.”
“So we’re making these rules specifically for Bubba or for all of us?” Archie glanced at me, then at Jake.
Jake shrugged, and I rolled my eyes. Then laughed. “You know what the first rules we had work…”
“No texting on a date, and Sunday nights are Jake’s?” Archie raised his brows.
“Eh,” Jake said. “The important thing is Frankie has fun. That we all have a good time. No drama. Just partying and dancing. She wants to make memories.”
Oh, she’d been making memories the last few weeks. I diverted down the hall to her room and hung my garment bag with the others. The stand was hooked over the door and jutted out like its own clothing rack. The bed was a little disheveled, and there were scattered clothes near her laundry basket.
Frankie tended to be neat, but those were Jake’s socks, and the shirt on the back of the chair was one of Coop’s.
“Fine,” Archie’s voice climbed, but I missed whatever he was responding to. “Rule number three, no one disappears with Frankie at the dance.”
Wandering back out, I tugged my phone from my pocket to order the pizzas.
“No taking off, or ducking out to make out. We start the evening together, we end the evening together.” Archie was hot gluing purple ribbon to the fourth and last of the smaller circle cutouts.
“That’s fair,” Coop said. “One of us always with her.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “Who gets to the restroom with her?”