Page 18 of Rules, Roses, and Rivals
That was gonna end well.
“Talk to her like what?” Jake snarled right back and he went toe to toe with Archie. His temper was already burning and none of this was helping. “Like she’s important? Or like maybe I give a damn what happens to her?”
Fuck me.
Bubba swung his leg off the bike and it too stopped rumbling. He pulled off his helmet and cut behind Frankie’s car to get between the guys and Frankie.
“Guys,” he said, pitching his voice down and even. If she said anything after that, I didn’t hear it. But both Jake and Archie pivoted to glare at him. Physically, Jake and Bubba were pretty much evenly matched. Archie wasn’t a slouch, but he didn’t have their muscle mass.
That said, I wouldn’t put money on any of themexceptJake. Archie could eviscerate someone without breaking a sweat when it came to words. Jake, however, was mean and brutal in a straight fight. He also didn’t wait for anyone else to start it. The fact his right hand was curling into a fist made up my mind for me.
“I got this,” I said to Frankie as I passed her. The heat sweltered around us, rising from the parking lot in waves. Sweat had already soaked the back of my neck and left my hair damp.
Bubba nudged Archie aside even as I collided with Jake to push him back. Good, I wasn’t the only one who’d seen the imminent explosion.
“What the fuck?” Jake hissed, transferring his glare to me.
“You want to punch Archie? Do it later,” I advised, not raising my voice either. “Not here. Notnow.”
His glower promised me his temper was definitely on a razor thin wire. Probably the only reason he listened was because it hadn’t snapped yet.
I flicked my gaze to the side, as though I was going to look over my shoulder. That snared Jake’s attention and he followed the gesture to where Frankie stood. With my focus on Jake, I couldn’t read her expression. If she was well and truly furious with all of us, well…
Right now, we probably deserved it.
“We should move your cars so Frankie can back out.” Her vehicle was the only one still on and probably to let the a/c kick in, which it had plenty of time to do by now and we were just wasting her gas.
Archie blew out a breath. With the rigid line of Jake’s shoulders relaxing, I spared a look to where Bubba had backed Archie up to his car. Hopefully, the crisis had been averted.
“Why don’t you just follow us over to the diner?” Archie focused on Frankie and I managed to not slap a hand to my face. “Start of school tradition, we can work out our schedules.”
A muscle ticked in Jake’s jaw and that surprised me. He didn’t want her going to the diner? Really? When I raised my brows at him, he shot me a bland look right back. The demand of his earlier text message resurfaced.
Right. He wanted to talkaboutFrankie. That meant her being there was a bad idea.
Honestly, I didn’t think excluding her was a good idea either.
He shrugged, because what else were we supposed to do right now?
It was a whole conversation in a few glances. One Frankie could probably interpret. We’d all known each other so long.
“Maybe she has plans,” Bubba suggested, then added, “But you’re more than welcome to come with. Archie is right, it’s tradition. We usually talk about homework and how we’re handling stuff.”
“And who I’m tutoring and when?” The snark in her tone was undeniable.
Yeah, still a bad idea.
“If you don’t want to tutor anyone,” Bubba said, picking up the sarcasm she’d lobbed at him without missing a beat. “You don’t have to. Senior year is gonna be tough on all of us—but if you need a hand withanything, I hope you’ll give us a shot at being able to return the favor.”
“Smooth,” Jake muttered and he wasn’t wrong. Though, now Archie was giving Bubba a sour look.
“You know what,” I said, jumping in. “If Frankie has plans, then we can do a call tonight.” Twisting, I faced her. “You know, we can do it on video chat, if you want, or voice call. Then you don’t have to feel pressured to make any decisions right now, and we can get out of this heat.”
It would giveeveryonetime to chill. She licked her lips, and I swore I could feel her studying me. Come on, Frankie, give us an opening. “Do you still need a ride home?”
The guys were really going to owe me for this one, but I jerked a thumb at Jake’s car. “I’ll make him take me home, that way you can do what you need.” It was a concession. “Then just text when you want us to call.”
It was handing her all the control and I caught Bubba elbowing Archie when he opened his mouth. The air whooshed out of him, but he didn’t say anything.
