I sighed.
“You done?” She motioned to my food, and I nodded. When I would have cleaned up, she smacked my left hand lightly and stacked everything on her tray. After she disposed of it, we headed out to her car. It was still cloudy and damp, though it hadn’t rained, and the temperature was chilly enough to make me glad Jake had dumped his letterman’s jacket on me earlier in the day.
Thankfully, Rachel only teased me a little bit about it when she picked me up. Once we were in her car, she asked, “Where to?”
I checked my phone. No message from Coop. Or Archie. So I texted Archie. “One sec?”
“Sure.”
Me:You make it to my place yet?
Archie:Sorry, babe. Still at the house. Might be a bit.
Me:Mind if I have Rachel drop me there?
I could just dropin on him. But I didn’t want to intrude. His mom might be there, and that was not a position I wanted to put Archie into.
The three dots indicating he was responding seemed to take forever before his message came through.
Archie:You never have to ask. You on your way now?
“Canyou drop me at Archie’s?”
“Yep,” she said, pulling out.
Me:OMW now. Yes.
Archie:I’ll be here.
“So,”Rachel said as she drove. “I have to say something nice to rich boy?”
I bit back a smile. “Well, we are going to his house.”
“Yeah, but I’m verifying that I have to say something nice to him, ’cause it might take me the whole drive to come up with something.”
“Then you should probably practice.”
She let out a groan. “The things I do for you.”
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“You’re welcome,” she answered in the same tone. “Now…while I think about what I can say to the entitled…” She paused, then made a face like it actually killed her to say, “…misunderstood rich kid, tell me what else you’re doing that I can maybe help with?”
“You’re already doing a lot.”
“Pfft. Give me more work to do, woman. Make me your slave.” She gave me a playful leer at the light.
“Save the dirty stuff for Skylar. Besides, you’d like being my slave too much.”
“Yes, I would,” she admitted. “Trust me, I’d make sure you enjoyed it, too.”
The funny thing about it? She was probably right. “You free next Wednesday at lunch?” I’d been sitting on this one all day.
“I can be. Whatcha need?”
“A ride.”
“Tell me more…”