Page 16 of Rules, Roses, and Rivals
“Because she was pretty and she was nice and…” I didn’t stand a chance with you.
“You wanted to get laid,” Frankie summed it up and now I grimaced.
“I’m notthatmuch of an asshole.”
“No,” she said, actually agreeing with me. “You’re kind of worse.”
“Excuse me?” The temper I’d been holding back slipped free. “How am Iworse?”
She gripped her backpack and blew out a breath. “You, Archie, Coop, and Bubba. Mybestfriends. People I thought I could trust with anything and everything.”
“You can. What the hell are you talking about?”
“Last spring, you know the dance was coming up and I kept waiting to see if someone would ask me. You guys were all making plans with the various girlfriends…”
“We included you,” I snapped. There was no way in hell we wouldn’t have included her. “Coop and I both told you we’d takecare of your ticket. Archie would make sure the car picked you up too. Bubba said his mom wanted to help you find a dress…”
It would let us pay for it since she never had money for a lot of extras. The girls weren’t a huge fan of Frankie running with all of us, but I’d rather have dumped Maria and gone with Frankie to the dance more than anything else.
We could have skipped the damn dance.
“Included me,” she said, then touched her tongue to her teeth. “Includedme? So telling every guy in school that I’m untouchable and no one should ever ask me out, was ‘including’ me? You kicking the ass of any guy who looked at me twice—thatwas including me? You four parading your girlfriends around while making sure I was alwaysalone—was including me?”
I don’t think she could have hit me harder if she’d actually opened her hand and slapped me.
“You broke my heart,” she admitted and my anger sank like a rock. “All of you. My best friends and you made sure I was miserable and you had no intentions of doing anything else. So yeah, I pulled back and went away. The minute I get away from you four—what happens? I got a date. I found a guy who likes me for me, who made time for me. Someone I could explore all the things with that I wanted?—”
She broke off and I couldn’t move. Explore all the things? Was she talking about sex? Had Frenchy put his goddamn hands on her? I was going to break them off and beat him to death with them.
The earlier words registered. That choked off my fury for the pain reflected in her voice. “Frankie?—”
It was already too late, she had her backpack in hand even as the bell rang. She practically dove for the door. By the time I made it to the hall, she was gone in a sea of students.
I knew where she parked, I could go there.
Or I could go find out who the fuck she’d been talking to that filled her head with all of that. Because the pain in her eyes? That had been real.
She blamed me for that. Me and the rest of the guys. I dug my phone out of my pocket and sent a message to them. We needed to meet and we needed to meet now.
Chapter
Eight
COOP
Iwas leaning against Frankie’s car when she charged out of the door at the same time as Jake’s text hit my phone.
We need to talk. All four of us. Now.
The combination of that terse message and the taut, wounded expression Frankie wore knocked the breath right out of me. The moment her troubled gaze locked with mine, however, her face blanked.
Fuck.
It hit me with the force of a truck. My phone vibrated from Bubba and Archie answering Jake. Or maybe they were arguing. Right now, I didn’t care.
“Hey—” I started, but she raised a hand, cutting me off.
“Don’t,” she said and when I would have opened my mouth again, she sliced that hand through the air. “I said, don’t.” The first word had come out harsh, but the last three were husky with elements of pain.
