by Heather Long
One person who might be able to help, but it kicked over a whole other anthill.
But I wasn’t willing to wait nine more days or for the other shoe to drop. I sent an email rather than a text. It would probably be a day or two before I got an answer, but at least I could get one ball rolling.
Surprising no one, by the time I turned in and slid into the bed on Frankie’s side, neither Edward nor Frankie’s mom had shown up at the apartment.
I’d take the reprieve, but I’d get ready for the war.
Chapter Eleven
Parental Discretion Advised
Coop
I pulled up to the curb and sent a message to Sis. Two minutes later, the front door to the house I waited in front of opened and she jogged out. Her friend waved to her, and then she was sliding into the front seat next to me.
The smell hit first. “Since when do Mandy’s parents smoke?”
“They don’t,” Sis said sliding me a look. “And don’t start.”
Seriously? I raised my eyebrows. “Since when do you smoke?”
“I just said don’t start, Coop.” She dragged her seatbelt on. “We had a couple of cigarettes. It’s not a big deal.”
Not a big deal? Mom would kill her. Then kill me. If not the other way.
“You and the guys did way worse than me, so I don’t want to hear it.”
“It doesn’t matter what I did or didn’t do,” I countered. “Smoking is a filthy habit.”
“So is sleeping with a bunch of girls, but that didn’t stop you.”
I glared at her for all of a moment, then blew out a breath. “You need to not believe everything you hear.”
“But that part is true,” Sis stated. “And I didn’t judge you, so maybe you could cut me a break.”
Gripping the steering wheel, I shook my head. She was fourteen going on forty. Putting the car in gear, I pulled out. It was still raining on and off. The temperatures had fallen off. It had only gotten up to the mid seventies during the day, and right now it was sixty and still dropping.
“You stink, and if you smoke that shit again, I’m not picking you up. That crap is gonna make the car smell.”
“You just got this car, and I’m hardly going to make it smell that bad.” She had no idea.
“Yeah, you tell Mom that when we get home.”
“Hmmph. She’s working late.”
Actually, no she wasn’t. Mom thought she had to work late, but she texted while I’d been out making deliveries that she was home. I’d told her I would still pick Trina up.
Unfortunately for Trina, Mom had a nose like a bloodhound. We’d barely walked inside when she sat up in her chair and glared. “Which of you two has been smoking?”
While she hadn’t focused on me, I raised my hands. “Not it. In fact, I’m gonna shower ’cause it’s all I can smell at the moment.”
“Thanks, Coop,” Sis said with a scowl.
“Trina!” Mom’s voice climbed into the red alert range, and I headed out of the line of fire. Trina needed to avoid that crap. But she and Mom were forever banging heads on some subjects. This was going to be another one.
I paused just inside the hallway heading toward my room and shower. Trina and I had to share a bathroom. Our apartment was laid out a lot like Frankie’s, only we had three bedrooms instead of just two.
“Trina,” Mom said with a sigh. “We’ve discussed this…”
Yeah, that was going to be an argument in three, two…
“Dammit, Mom. Why is everything I do put under a microscope? But Coop gets to do whatever he wants whenever he wants?”
“We are not talking about your brother,” Mom said. “We’re discussing you. This is not a matter of comparison or false equivalency.”
I swallowed a smile and continued to the bathroom. Trina always wanted to argue about what I got to do versus what she was allowed to, and she was forever pushing the envelope. If she kept this up, we’d end up having a visit from Dad.
Which was the point, I supposed. I barely saw him, and after he and Mom divorced, I was fine with it. Twisting the water on and letting it heat up, I stripped and checked my phone.
Two messages.
One from Jake. He was staying at Frankie’s tonight. It was Tuesday evening, and he didn’t have practice in the morning. He wanted to know if I was coming back.
The second was from Frankie.
Frankie: Just checking on you. My turn to ask, are you okay?
Tuesday had been a much better day at school than Monday. For one, her mother hadn’t put on an appearance and we’d managed to avoid the Cheryl intercept again. I got it, Cheryl was a nice girl for the most part. A ditz, but a nice girl. Then again, she’d also been the one to give Frankie the water. While I didn’t want to think she had anything to do with it, I couldn’t escape the idea that she had been involved.
That made me want to punch her.
Not a healthy mental space to be in.
Me: All good here. Picked up Sis. Grabbing a shower. Want me over?
I wanted to go, no argument. But if she and Jake needed some time, I could be generous. Saturday morning had rocked my world. And I’d meant every word about watching her with the other guys. I’d seen enough of their asses over the summer, that part never fazed me, but the idea of watching them go down on a girl never turned me on before I thought about it being Frankie I watched getting off.
Fuck. I was getting hard just thinking about it.
Everyone had their own kink. Apparently, a little bit of voyeurism was mine. Not that I just wanted to watch. No, I had all kinds of ideas.
Her message popped up just as I headed for the shower.
Frankie: Jake said he doesn’t mind, and I would like you here.
Snagging the phone, I fired off a fast response.
Me: Then you’ll have me. Be there after I shower and check in with Mom.
In the shower, I sped through washing my hair and shaving. I’d gotten pretty good at cleaning up the scruff without needing a mirror. I preferred not to leave rasp burns on her skin if I could avoid it. My cock ached as thoughts of her spread out in front of me kept dancing behind my eyelids.
One hand braced against the tile, I gripped my cock and got myself off in a few swift strokes. It wasn’t anywhere near as satisfying as getting myself off inside of her, but it would do. I’d had a lot of practice jerking off to thoughts of her.
But now that I’d had the real thing?
Yeah this was just a stopgap to get me through the rest of the evening without pouncing on her. Right now, Frankie called all the shots. The fact that she’d been more than willing to play with me on Saturday had delighted me to no end. But no pushing.
Period.
I’d walk around with blue balls before I let her feel pressured.
Shower done, I toweled off, then wrapped a towel around my waist before straightening up the bathroom and snagging my dirty clothes. The yelling from the living room had stopped, so either Mom and Trina had solved it or…
Trina’s door yanked open, and she stared at me with a sigh. “Sorry.” As apologies went, it sucked, but since I hadn’t asked for one, I just shrugged.
“Just worried about you, Sis.”
“I know,” she mumbled. “Mom’s mad. She called Dad. We’re having a ‘family meeting’ this weekend.”
Good to know. I’d be elsewhere. Instead of retreating to her room, Sis followed me to mine.
When I circled my finger for her to turn around, she rolled her eyes. “Like I want to see your hairy butt.”
I snorted.
“Anyway,” she continued, facing the door. “Sorry I was rude about it. I really don’t think it’s a big deal, and it’s not like I’m buying the cigarettes.”
“Well that’s good, since it would be illegal for you to buy them.”
Her scoff made me smile as I dragged on clean clothes. I also grabbed a change of clothes for the next day.
“You going over to Frankie’s tonight?” The q
uiet question tugged at me, and I glanced over at her.
“That was the plan. What’s up?”
“Nothing,” she said, but even when she turned around, she avoided meeting my gaze. “You’re just always over there now. You sleep there more than here.”
“That’s true. You need something, Sis?”
She lifted her shoulders again.
Dropping to sit on the edge of my bed, I patted the spot next to me. “Come on. Tell me what’s going on.”
“You don’t want to listen to me, you just want to go over and see Frankie.”
“Yes, I do want to see Frankie. But I also want to listen if something’s bothering you.” I studied her. The only times she got like this was when she really wanted my advice but didn’t know how to ask for it. Four years didn’t seem like a big age difference some times, but at others? It seemed forever.
Pushing away from the door, Trina crossed to sit down next to me. The waft of ash and smoke still clung to her hair, even if she’d changed out of her clothes. It would probably be there until she showered.
“You sure you have time?” The skepticism in her tone nearly mocked the hope in her expression.
Retrieving my phone, I opened it to message Frankie where Trina could watch me typing.
Me: Sis needs me for a bit. Gonna be a few.
Frankie: We’ll be here. Tell her I said hi.
Me: Done.
“Frankie says ‘hi,’” I said, tone dry. Sis laughed and bumped my arm. She’d gotten taller over the last year, but she was only an inch taller than Frankie. That still made her shorter than me, and I was fine with that. “So, spill. What’s going on?”
Twisting, she sat sideways and stared at me. “Do you remember Noah Auburn?”
The name wasn’t familiar. “Nope.” But he was a boy so… “Should I?”
“Well, maybe. He’s kind of a sophomore.”
“Why are you hanging out with sophomores?” Trina was in eighth grade. She and Jake’s sister Becca had a couple of classes together. Weirdly, they weren’t that close.
“I’m not—well, just Noah. Really. His sister, Jenny, she’s in my class, and I’ve gotten to know him a little when I go over to Jenny’s.”
I knew most of her friends. This was the first I was hearing about a Jenny. “Sis, when do you go to Jenny’s?”
Trina bit her lower lip and worry swam across her expression. Oh, I was not going to like this answer. Tipping my head back, I considered her.
“Just tell me. I’m already irritated about the smoking, and whatever this is, it’s bugging you enough you want my advice.” Which in and of itself said it could be bad news.
“Actually, I wanted to talk to Frankie about it, but I don’t want to bother her right now.”
Some of my irritation evaporated. “Frankie would talk to you about anything,” I told her. Even if I wanted to shield Frankie from the rest of the world dumping on her, if Sis needed to talk to Frankie and I blocked that, Frankie would kick my ass.
Justifiably so.
“I know she would,” Sis said with a faint smile. “But I don’t want to bother her. I just want her to get better, and maybe I can talk to her about this later if you’re not any help.”
“Thanks?” I said, teasing just a little. “I think.”
A flash of a smile warmed Trina’s face. “You’re welcome. Anyway… Jenny lives across the street from Mandy. So a lot of the time when I’m at Mandy’s, we head over to Jenny’s or Jenny comes over to Mandy’s place.”
“Got it.”
“Noah is Jenny’s brother.”
“Got that part, too.”
“He… Well, he’s really cute.”
Kill me. “Okay.”
“That’s it?” She stared at me, doubt written all over her face. “Just okay?”
“He’s a guy, he’s cute. I don’t have much more to say to that than okay.” I was too busy keeping the rest of my responses in check if she was about to tell me what I thought she was about to tell me.
Sis stuck her tongue out at me. “He’s a sophomore.”
“You said that already.”
“Fine,” she said with a frustrated shake. “He asked me to go to the movies this weekend. Like—him and me—on a date.”
On a date.
Sophomore.
I had a name…
“You talk to Mom about this?”
Her eyes were darker than mine, far more gray than green, and she rolled them at the moment, then looked at me like I was stupid. “After she just busted me for smoking…”
“He smokes.” It all clicked into place, and Trina winced. “That’s why you’ve been playing around with cigarettes.”
She gave a little shrug. “It’s not a big deal.”
I stared at her.
“Okay, yes, he smokes. But Mandy thinks he’s cute, too. When he offered her one, she took it and he gave her this great smile, and I wanted him to smile at me. So I took one, and they aren’t great but he is.”
Uh huh.
I rubbed the back of my neck.
“If we have to do that family meeting this weekend, I’m never going to get Mom to say yes to the movies.”
Oh, I had no doubt about that.
“Noah doesn’t have a car yet.”
“And you need a ride?”
She nodded slowly. “If I tell him no that I can’t go, he’ll probably ask Mandy, and I know she will go and then he won’t ask me again.”
Cause he was a douche if her saying no once would mean that was it. On the other hand… fuck.
“So you want me to what?”
“Maybe take us to the movies? I want to tell him yes and I need a ride for us to go, and you could take Frankie and we could double date if you took Frankie to a different movie.”
Yeah. That sounded like a plan—a double date with my sister, the eighth grader, and Noah, the sophomore who shouldn’t be looking at her sideways.
“Will you think about it? Please?” Sis continued. “And maybe don’t tell Mom?”
“I’ll think about it, but you have to tell Mom. You are way too young to date.”
“You took Frankie on dates when you were in eighth grade.”
“No, I didn’t. I hung out with Frankie in eighth grade. She’s also my age, and I’m not two years older.” When the older guys at school had noticed her when we got to high school, I hadn’t liked that, nor had Jake. It hadn’t taken long before Jake picked his first fight to keep that attention off of her.
It helped we met Archie day one. Archie proved very useful in keeping wandering eyes and hands away from her, too.
“Coop, you know what I mean. I really, really like him.”
I sighed. “Fine, you tell Mom and she signs off on it, then I’ll take you.”
“And you’ll ask Frankie?”
And probably Jake. He would help me deal with wandering hands no problem. I gave her a smile. “I’ll see if Frankie’s up to it.”
Trina gave a squeal and then hugged me. I chuckled then tugged her hair.
“Yeah yeah, go shower. You smell, and Sis…”
“I know, you don’t want me smoking.”
“If the guy only likes you cause you’ll smoke with him, he isn’t the guy for you.” Period.
“Maybe.” Not that she seemed to be agreeing with me. Then she bounced off the bed. “But I really like him.”
Ugh. “I can see that.”
“Does Frankie know that your cool and relaxed attitude is all an act?” Sis dared me with raised eyebrows, and I smirked.
“Ask her. Now get lost. I’m going to go see my girlfriend.”
At the door, Sis paused. “You know I’m happy for you, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Like Mom said, it was time for you to get your head out of your ass where Frankie was concerned.”
Yeah. I’d known how I felt about Frankie a lot longer than the rest of them. “See, miracles do happen.”
She snorted a laugh,
then let herself out. I grabbed my bag and headed for the living room, pausing in the kitchen to find Mom. She was making herself a cup of tea and had just shaken a pair of ibuprofens out of the bottle.
“Sis is making you crazy, huh?”
“Oh, don’t start,” Mom said with a laugh. “I swear, you were the easy child, so she’s making up for it and determined to drive me mad.”
I laughed. “Eh, I was just better at hiding what I was up to.”
“Hardly,” she countered, then patted my cheek. “But I always knew who you were with, and you had good friends, baby. Even if you all had your own kind of crazy. You tried to make up for that this summer though…”
I ducked my head. Mom had caught me coming home drunk a couple of times, and she hadn’t been thrilled. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Ha, I always worry about my kids.” She poured the boiling water over her tea bag and studied me. “It’s my prerogative. You spending the night at Frankie’s again?”
“That’s the plan.”
“You two are being safe?”
“Yes, Mom.” Almost slipped on Saturday. Almost. I wanted to do that again, but I wanted to be sure it would be safe for her. For us. That had felt amazing. “Not risking her.”
She nodded. Arms folded, she studied me with the same look Sis had given me earlier.
“Go ahead and ask,” I told her, leaning against the doorjamb.
“How is she?”
“She’s good. Has good days and bad. School was a little rocky. Didn’t help when Ms. Curtis showed up at the end of the day yesterday.”
Mom frowned. “I thought she’d moved out.”
Mom was aware of a lot of it. I’d kept her in the loop. She also wouldn’t use that information against Frankie. At one point, I thought Mom and Frankie’s mother had been friends. I had no idea what happened in the intervening years, but they’d grown apart.
“She did. Apparently, she got the call about Frankie being in the hospital and came to see her.”
A snort of derision escaped her then she shook her head. “Well, Maddy’s timing has never been stellar. Just…take care of you and Frankie, baby, and be safe. I know you said that nothing happened, but that’s still a shock for the system. The assault. The aftermath. She might be more fragile than she’s letting on.”
