After I parked, I twisted to look at him. “I like you.”
He grinned. “I like you too.”
A laugh escaped me. “Yes, you’ve shown me. We’re being direct, right now?”
“Always.” The emphasis on that word steadied me.
“Then right now, I don’t know what I feel for them. Exactly.” Rachel had called it. I loved them. “They are—they have always been my best friends. I miss them like I’d miss my arms. But the last few months have shown me that we have a lot we’ve never talked about. Jake’s choices yesterday…”
They hurt. A lot.
“What I am trying to say,” I pressed forward, then cleared my throat. “I don’t want a sexual relationship with anyone else yet.” It was weird enough to say that, like I might want another at all. Then all I had to think about was the way Jake had kissed me and… Yeah. I pushed that out of my head. “I don’t know if that’s going to change. I don’t know if any of us will forgive each other after yesterday.”
There were so many issues littering the ground between us. So much fallout.
“You don’t have to decide anything,” Mathieu said, leaning over to cup my face. “But don’t ever be afraid to talk to me.”
“Do you want to be open so you can date others?” It might gut me, but Mathieu didn’t owe me anything.
“Not at the moment,” Mathieu said easily. “No. It will be a decision we make together, Francesca. Or we won’t make it at all.Oui?”
I hated my full name so much but he made it sound like an endearment. Covering his hand on my cheek, I smiled. “Oui.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead, lingering there a moment before dipping to brush another over my lips. “Good. Now, no more worrying or hurting yourself.”
“Deal.” My smile this time was real. “Dinosaur waffles?”
He laughed.
Unbuckling my seatbelt, I shut off the car before I opened the door and we were both climbing out. I let myself believe—for just one morning—that it might really be that simple.
Chapter
Thirty
COOP
By Sunday afternoon, the place still smelled like chlorine, cheap rum, and a mistake we all watched happen in slow motion. Or maybe that was just me. None of us had left. The only difference from every other back to school party was the lack of Frankie being present. She’d left with the new boyfriend, followed swiftly by Rachel. As far as I knew, we hadn’t seen or heard from her since.
While Jake hadn’t left, he hadn’t really hung out with the rest of us. Not really. Not in the way he should’ve. He’d disappeared into one of the guest rooms after the party like a ghost who knew better than to haunt the rooms we were in, but not brave enough to leave the house.
I gave him space. Then I ran out of excuses.
“Talk,” I said around noon, arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe like that would hold the tension back. It didn’t.
Jake was sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor like it had personally wronged him. He didn’t look up.
“She slept with him,” he said flatly. Did he think if he said it enough it wouldchange?
“That’s not the bombshell you think it is.” Or it shouldn’t be. Still, I’d told myself I would listen. With that in mind, I focused on him.
“It’s not—” He finally looked at me. “It’s not just that she did. It’s that she didn’ttellus. Tellme. Not even after.”
I let out a slow breath, trying not to roll my eyes. “She didn’toweany of us that, man.”
“We talked to her. We told her.” His jaw clenched. “We were friends.”
Maybe that was the problem, not that I said that aloud. “And now we’re all stuck in the wreckage of what you did with that friendship,” I snapped, then pinched the bridge of my nose.
