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“If I go back to your place,” I said slowly. “We’re going to end up having sex.” It wasn’t really a question. Not right now. Every single one of them was so damn gorgeous. Jake and I had done everything but actual intercourse and making out with Coop on the sofa had been—yeah.
“That’s not a bad thing, right?” Archie linked our fingers together. “You like me, and I like you.”
“No,” I answered, my libido warring with my logic. Being in the restaurant bought me some time, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about how it felt when he kissed me. I’d imagined it, but they all kissed so differently. “Except… this is our first date.”
He made a face, and I could almost hear him say,never stopped me before, but he didn’t. “We’ve known each other for almost four years, Frankie.”
Technicallythiswas our fourth year, but I wasn’t going to argue semantics.
“We’re not strangers. Most of the time, dating is about getting to know someone. I know you, and I hope by now you know me.”
Nudging the empty dessert bowl aside, I started to answer but paused as the waitress came by to check on us.
“We’re fine,” Archie said. “Just give us a couple of minutes then bring the check, please?”
I waited until she’d cleared away our dessert bowl and spoons then left us again. Meeting Archie’s gaze, I chewed on my bottom lip. This was a little awkward, but one thing he was very right about—he was Archie. Coop was the guy who helped keep me grounded; he’d always been there. Jake was a close second to that, but he never let me keep rose-colored glasses on, we were always brutally honest. Ian? He was the guy who made me think fantasies were possible, but he always knew how to make me smile. Archie was my confessor. We confided sometimes really uncomfortable truths to each other, and we could talk about anything.
I hoped that applied here.
“I do know you. I know the good and the bad,” I told him. “I know about your first kiss, the first time you had sex, and I know the name of every girl you dated, most of whom didn’t last a week, sometimes two.”
Archie didn’t look away.
“I know you cry at the end of sappy movies, even if you don’t want anyone else to know. And I know that for a while you had nightmares that used to wake you at two a.m. every night.”
“I would call you, and you always answered your phone,” Archie murmured quietly.
“But in—six days? I went from being the untouchable girl, lonelier than I’ve ever been, to dating all of you. It’s intense and takes my breath away. If we have sex for real, it’s going to change things, and that scares me.”
The waitress slid by the table with the check, but Archie already had his card out, so he just gave it to her. As soon as she left again, he leaned toward me. “I know you’re dating the guys. I know everyone has told you they like you. Bubba jumped right in with both feet to invite you to homecoming, and Jake spent the night at your place.” He gave it a beat. “I’m not asking what you do with them…”
“They don’t tell you?” I found that hard to believe. They always talked about their dates.
“We’d never talk about you like that, Frankie,” he said quietly. “Never. And I meant what I said earlier. Nothing happens unless you want it to happen. I can keep my hands to myself. I just don’t want to call it this early, even if the rain is spoiling some of our plans.”
“We could always go walking in the rain, but that would probably get cold and uncomfortable.”
“True, but again, if you want to do it, I’m game.”
Walk in the rain? Hot tub? Or go home? It was all happening so fast. Yet, it all seemed perfectly natural. I knew them, but the shift from platonic to very much not made my head spin.
I knew what I wanted, I just… “C’mon,” Archie said after the waitress returned with the check and his card. Two minutes later, we were out front waiting for the valet to bring up the car. It was still raining, and the temperature had dipped beautifully. Goosebumps raced over my skin, but I didn’t mind. Especially when Archie wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
Once we were in the car, he looked at me, “Where to?”
“Hot tub,” I said and his smile grew. “But I need to borrow a suit, and I’m not saying yes to sex yet. I just don’t want the night to end so early.”
My libido flipped off my logic, but I had to make the choices for the right reasons and not just because I wanted to feel him up.
“Split the difference?” Archie asked as we pulled out.
“How do we split the difference?”
“We both go topless.”
Laughter bubbled up through me and I leaned my head back against the seat, staring at him. “That seems really unfair to you.”
“How so?”
