“Dude, revenge is gonna be sweet,” Archie informed him,
“Bring it, Standish. Our girl likes it when we compete for orgasms.”
Yes, I really, really did. I liked it even more when they went to work on my first while we headed back to the house. Winner- winner, Jake, Ian, Archie, and Coop for my dinner.
CHAPTER TWO
LIFE IS A HIGHWAY
COOP
“Family meeting starts in five,” Archie called as he came in the door. Considering the rest of us were already sitting around the table, dinner in warmers, ready to be served, I wasn’t sure who he was reminding—himself or us. Jeremy had set everything up before he and Miss Abigail had gone to meet Ms. Bradshaw in the park.
I liked Ann, she was becoming something of a fixture in Jeremy’s life. It meant she was at the brownstone more often, and she was good for Frankie. I glanced over at the love of our life, where she currently had one physical textbook open, a second one open on her e-reader, and a third one on her phone.
Our beautiful overachiever was twelve credits away from her bachelor’s degree. Despite cutting back on classes, she’d continued to add one each summer to make up for the ones she didn’t take in the fall and spring semesters.
A bright green-eyed gaze snared mine. Busted for staring, I grinned. Her lips curved, then she blew me a kiss and I winked. Moments like this were just—perfect.
There really was no other word for it. Jake had graph paper in front of him with a design he’d been sketching for the last half-hour. It was a light plane from the looks of it, and Bubba was in a text conversation with their manager.
They’d finished a half-dozen songs in the last two months. Four were being offered to the manager for the recording company’s other artists. The last two, they were going to record on our mid-autumn break when we headed out to the Hamptons.
The house there, had been gradually becoming more and more our own. Archie and Frankie had actually redesigned an entire set of rooms and the work had been done while we traveled. When we came back, we had a huge suite just for the five of us, with the biggest fucking bed I’d ever seen.
To get to our bedroom, you had to go through a game and movie room that Archie kitted out like our teenage geek dreams - from the wet bar to the one-hundred-inch screen that descended from the ceiling to the array of video consoles tucked into the convertible coffee table.
The oversized sofa also boasted two lounges on either end. Extremely comfortable and perfect for when we randomly would get in the mood. Frankie loved the fabric on her nipples. The height and the angle were perfect for getting the right thrust.
Blowing out a breath, I stood and shoved that particular train of thought to a different track. I’d already been thinking about peeling her out of that tank top and shorts since I’d first realized her braless state and the very deliberate swing to her hips when she came down from her shower.
Note to self, shower time needed to be taken advantage of more. “Getting another glass of wine,” I said. “Anyone else?”
“Beer would be good,” Jake said at the end of a yawn as he stretched. “I’ll get it.” He cracked his neck and then his shoulders before he leaned over to drop a kiss on the top of Frankie’s head. “Ten more minutes, Baby Girl, and you need a break. You’ve been working on that all afternoon.”
“I know,” she said without looking up, but she did catch his hand with her left and gave it a squeeze. The light danced over her rings, and the possessiveness ripped through me like a Texas thunderstorm. “Ten minutes should be enough to finish this section. I need to draft a full proposal and I wanted notes to take with me when I meet with Eddie.”
Bubba glanced up from his phone, his gaze assessing as he swept it over the books, the devices, and the way her pen moved at speed as she took notes. “If you’re only doing another ten minutes, then wine to go with dinner?”
Lifting her head, she glanced at me, then Jake, and finally Bubba. “Yes, please. Now, stop interrupting me, or it’s going to take longer.”
I chuckled as Bubba tugged her hair gently and went to get the wine. Archie took slightly longer than five minutes. He came down just as I got a second bottle opened that Ian had brought out and then gave Frankie the rest of the first bottle. It filled a four-ounce glass and we had the second for the food.
Jake had brought out three beers. Archie glanced at the wine, then the beer, and ran a hand over his face before picking up the beer.
“Babe,” he said as he leaned over and smoothed his hand over her hair. She tilted her head up and gave him a lazy kiss.
“Three minutes left,” she murmured and he chuckled. Yeah, we were all nuts for her. I loved how they loved her. Loved how we all loved her, really.
I started dishing out the food. Bubba shoved his phone away and we built Frankie’s plate first. When she lifted her head, snapping her book shut, Jake helped put it all away and even stowed his own graph pad.
“Family meeting over food or after food?” Archie asked as he took his seat. In no time, we all had massive plates of roast beef, roasted potatoes that were still crispy—how the fuck did Jeremy do that—roasted Brussels sprouts, and fresh bread.
“Depends,” Frankie said as she cut into the meat. “Are we going to argue in the meeting? Cause if so, I need chocolate and more wine before that.”
“You feeling okay, Beautiful?”
“Cramps. New IUD the doctor recommended is better, but it’s making me a little crampy this month.” She made a face. “Too much information?”
“About you?” Bubba said with a snort. “Never. But if you’re cramping, we can move the meal to somewhere more comfortable for you.”
“I’m good,” she promised, and there was nothing evasive or dismissive in her posture or her words. The only thing she did was shift to sit on her leg. “I am. I’ve had much worse, but I just don’t want to argue while we’re eating.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “But I don’t think this is an argument so much as a debate. It’s October. We’re seven months from graduation. Time to decide where we want to live after—if we’re staying here, going back to Texas or moving to California.”
Her eyes rounded and Archie frowned at his food.
“Truth is,” I continued, because the family meeting had been my idea after all. “You guys,” I motioned to Jake and Archie. “You can pretty much work anywhere. There’s some freedom in building your own company. Bubba can write his music anywhere, as long as Frankie is around.” Then there was Frankie. We all glanced at her. “But you’ve been looking at taking on more at Standish…”
She bit her lip as she studied me. “I have been,” she admitted. “I actually like working with Eddie.”
“He definitely likes working with you,” Archie told her with a grin. “You’ve got a lot of sharp insights. You’re a natural, but that said—if taking over Standish is the goal, we’re better off in New York—at least, for another four to five years.”
I nodded thoughtfully.
“Wait—take over Standish?” Frankie gawked at him. “I don’t want to run the whole company.”