She didn’t interrupt me once all the way to Archie’s. “I can do that,” she promised as we pulled in. She took me all the way up to the house, and Archie came out to meet us. “One sec,” she said to me. “I have to do my nice thing.”
I bit my lip as she rolled my window down, since Archie was on my side of the car.
“Hey, Archie,” she called.
“Hey, Rachel,” he said, and his sudden wariness at the appearance of Rachel’s smile nearly made me laugh aloud.
“I’ve been meaning to give you a few pointers on the best way to use your tongue so it’s really nice for Frankie…”
Oh.
My.
God.
Rachel grinned at me. “See, I can be nice.”
Chapter Fifteen
Just Like Him
Istole a look at Archie as Rachel waved to us before she pulled down the driveway. His mouth had twisted into a half-grimace, half-smile, even as he suppressed his laughter.
“She means well,” I said, trying not to laugh myself. My face was hot, because Rachel hadn’t been kidding about her “nice” advice.
“Yeah,” he said slowly, then gave me a measuring look. “There something you want to tell me about my tongue?”
If not for the barest hint of a twitch to his lips, I might have died of mortification right then. My shoulders began to shake as the laughter escaped, and I shook my head. “I’m good,” I said. “I promise.”
“Uh huh.” The light in his eyes made me smile wider. The last couple of weeks had been tough, and they’d all focused on me, a lot. “You know, you can tell me if there’s something to what she was saying. I’m always willing to test theories.”
When he held out his hand, I slid my palm across his and pressed my forehead to his arm as I laughed. “Your tongue is just fine. As I recall, you use it quite well.” If it were possible to get heatstroke from embarrassment, I was well on my way.
“Hmm,” he murmured, then pressed a kiss to the top of my head. Glancing up, I studied him. While they had been focused on looking after me, I’d tried to pay attention to them, to what was going on, and the last few days, Archie had been distracted.
He had been since Monday, really, and the appearance of our parents at school. Whatever distracted him, he’d been keeping to himself—to protect me, most likely. I hoped he talked to the guys, even if he wasn’t confiding in me. But that was why I had Rachel bring me here in the first place. I adored him for wanting to take care of me, but that didn’t change the fact that I wanted to take care of him, too.
All of them.
“C’mon,” he murmured. “Jeremy is probably fixing something for you right now since I mentioned you were coming this way.”
“I just had dinner,” I reminded him, and Archie chuckled.
“When has that ever stopped Jeremy? Besides, it might be something with ice cream and cake.”
I groaned.
“Or maybe it was brownies.” The sidelong look he sent me told me he knew exactly what Jeremy had fixed and he was just teasing me.
“I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t disappoint him.” Once we were inside, he helped me take Jake’s jacket off.
“You could never disappoint him,” he reminded me. The foyer, with its wide open space and vaulted ceilings leading to the stairs that angled up and then deeper to the larger living and sitting rooms on either side, seemed bigger somehow. “While I wasn’t expecting you to come here tonight,” he continued. “I’m glad you did.”
“Yeah?” Some of my surprise must have shown, not that I hadn’t expected to be welcomed, but Archie had said he’d be back at the apartment tonight. In fact, they’d probably all be over after Jake and Ian’s game.
“Of course,” he said, frowning a bit. “Did something happen?”
“No, I’ve just been worried about you.”