“Because…?” He prompted in that easy, coaxing tone that could usually convince me to tell him what I’d gotten him for Christmas or his birthday or just about anything even when I was trying to keep it a secret.
“Because, it involves all of us. Or at least me with each of you and talking to you first might give you an unfair advantage.”
“I’m good with unfair advantages.” His smirk was almost adorable. “However, I will make the great sacrifice of saying, I’m asking as your best friend and not as the guy who wants to date you. Or the guy who asked you to go to Homecoming. If you’ll recall, I also said even if you picked someone else, I just wanted to be there for you.”
He had said that.
“At the risk of shooting myself in the foot, you’ve had to listen to me bitch about relationship drama and stuff before. I’m offering to do that for you now, and I give you my word that what you tell me stays between us and I won’t use even an iota of it in my campaign to win.”
“You do, huh?” There was something utterly captivating in how direct he was being.
“Hey, for you? I can do anything.” He checked his watch. “We have ten minutes, Frankie. What do you want to do?”
Chapter
Thirty-Five
FRANKIE
What do you want to do?
“That’s kind of the ten-thousand-dollar question, isn’t it?” I followed him back to the living room and sat on the arm of the chair. Tiddles immediately jumped up to get attention. He even gave Coop alookand a very irritatedmeow.
“Sorry, Your Highness,” Coop responded. “I haven’t paid the tithe yet.” He added a long, slow stroke to the cat which had Tiddles purring on my lap and then turning in circles to keep rubbing against Coop’s hand and mine.
“Demanding little thing,” I murmured, but I also appreciated the company.
“I’d think you’d like to have at least one guy in your life who can ask for exactly what he wants.” The dry comment had me meeting Coop’s gaze as he looked down at me.
“From what you’ve all said, it’s not that you haven’t been asking, I’ve just not been hearing.”Thatwas a sore point. I didn’t want to be the problem.
“I think it was a little from column A, a little from column B, and probably a whole lot from column C.”
“C?” I tilted my head. “What was in column C?”
“We’ll wait and see,” he said, continuing to pay homage to the little purr engine that could, that was Tiddles. “I always thought it would be you and me. That you just needed the time. So maybe not freshman year, then not sophomore, then you know—junior was out. So maybe not high school at all. But there was always college, and after college.”
I frowned.
“Frankie, you and me? We’re cradle to grave, you have to know that. Hell, even if we end up going to different colleges, I am so going to show up regularly, call you, and see you on breaks.” He made a face. “Not that I’m planning different schools. Who is going to be your best friend if I’m not there?”
The thought alone was enough to make my heart sink. “Who would be yours if I wasn’t?”
“See.” He grinned then scooped Tiddles off my lap to give him another loving pat before he set him on the sofa. Then Coop caught my hand and tugged me up from the chair. “You and me. We’re forever.”
“It sounds really good.” Really, really good.
“But?”
At his prompt, I shrugged. “Do you know how small the percentage of high school friendships that last into adulthood really are?”
“Nope,” he said with a wink, even as he threaded his fingers through mine. “Don’t care about statistics either. We’re not just not a number, Frankie.”
“I want you to be right.” I could admit that, then pressed my forehead against Coop’s shoulder.
“It’s going to be alright,” Coop said, shifting so he could slide his arms around me. When he wrapped me up in that hug, I gripped him back. “I mean it,” he promised me against my hair. “When have I ever led you astray?”
“Third grade,” I said against his shirt. “You said if we caught the ice cream truck just as he left the apartment complex, we’d get a buy one get one free.” I’d gone up to wait near the sign that sat next to the turn-in while Coop “tracked” the truck inside.
