I locked gazes with Coop and to his credit, he just rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Fine, you don’t see yourself that way.”
“Not fine,” Archie countered, but waved his hand. “But accepted. Eat that and we’ll build sundaes in a minute. Also, I was serious about the Midol.”
Instead of responding immediately, Bubba seemed to be staring at me intently like he was looking forsomethingin the words. Jake, though, he scowled.
“You’re fucking beautiful, Frankie. You’ve always been gorgeous. You were pretty as hell even when you were getting into fistfights in elementary school.” Arms folded, he glared right back at me. “You don’t have to fish for compliments andif we have to accept that you don’t see yourself that way, then maybe you should have to accept thatwesee you differently.Isee you differently.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then popped it closed again. Head bowed for a moment, I turned the comment over in my head. “You know, point to you on that one.” Because I couldn’t tell them how to see me anymore than they could tell me how to see myself. “I’ll accept that you see me one way and I see myself another.”
“Thank you.” It was quiet, but firm while lacking any kind of real triumph.
“The thing is—I think we all could have handled this better.” Yes, I would lump myself into this category with them. “Maybe I should have just picked a fight with all of you when I found out what you’d been doing.”
“I wish like fuck youhad,” Archie said, his gaze locking on me. “In fact, from this point forward, if you’re mad or hurt or confused or just generally uncertain about something, you throw things at our heads if you have to. No more ghosting.”
I flinched, but he wasn’t wrong.
“Hey,” Coop said, shoving out the chair next to me and sliding his hand onto my back. “You do what you have to do, but the not talking thing has to be a no go. If we don’t know what’s wrong, we can’t fix it.”
‘You can’t fix everything,” I reminded him.
“No,” he said. “Maybe not. But that doesn’t mean we can’tbethere for you.”
I swirled my fork in the container of mushrooms and chicken. “You can’t make more decisions for me.”
“In our defense,” Bubba said before the guys could jump in. “We thought we were just supportingyourdecision. Knowing what we know now, we’ll work on that.”
“Still not going to be on board with you dating other people.” Archie leaned back in his chair, arms folded. “That’s not negotiable.”
“Really?” Was he serious right now?
“Yes, really. If you have to date one of these guys, fine. I don’t have to like it as much but Iknowthem and I trust them—” He cut a look at Jake. “Most of them.”
“Archie—”
“It’s okay,” Jake said. “I deserve it.”
“You do,” I said, agreeing with him and met Jake’s pale blue gaze as he widened his eyes. “Doesn’t mean Archie gets to make those decisionsforme.”
“You have any idea how long you’re going to be pissed at me?” Jake asked and I shrugged.
“Jury is still out. Be happy that I want to talk to you at all.”
Lips pursed, he nodded slowly. “Point.”
Rubbing a hand over my face, I sighed. “This is not what I imagined when I asked for this conversation.”
“We are listening,” Bubba said, and the intensity in his blue eyes promised he meant it. “I know we’re all a little hard-headed.” He bumped Archie with a light jab of his shoulder. “Some of us are alothard-headed. But we’re here. And we’re listening.”
They were. Every one of them. For better or worse.
So I blew out a breath. “I asked Mathieu if he was going to ask me to Homecoming.”
Everything at the table stilled. Forks paused midair. The rustle of pizza boxes went silent. Even Archie’s chewing slowed like he was trying not to interrupt the vibe. The only one who didn’t flinch was Coop—we’d already had this conversation, though saying it again in front of the rest of them made it feel brand new.
“He said he wasn’t going to,” I continued. “And before you offer to kick his ass, don’t. He’s doing it to give me space—to let me figure out what I want without him adding more pressure.”
It was sweet. Frustrating. Fair. And deeply inconvenient for my heart, which still hadn’t made up its mind.
