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“Marathon sessions of Resident Evil.”
He leaned away in mock horror. “Oh, Frankie, say it isn’t so. We spent hours doing that.”
“I know,” I said, biting my lip. “Whole weekends, sometimes for twenty-four hours straight, all four of you slaughtering zombies.”
“Hey, you helped slaughter some.”
“I did.” Truth be told, I’d liked it in the beginning. “But I think after hour five hundred and five, I was over it.”
He rubbed his hand against my bare back above the bikini bottoms. “Damn…okay if we’re playing a game to death, tell me.”
“Or I’ll make you go mini-golfing with me.”
He laughed. “Fair deal.”
“What else?” I looped my arms around his neck as I balanced on his thighs. The hot water and Archie were a nice combination.
Keeping one arm around me, he retrieved his wine glass and took a sip before putting it back and offering me mine again. I had to loosen one arm to take it. It was colder than the water we were in and really sweet.
“You want to sit here and discuss all the things we don’t like doing that we do with each other?”
“Or things we don’t like about the other.”
“Oh no, no, no, Little Blonde Riding Hood, down that path lies danger and wolves dressed up like understanding.”
I giggled. “Seriously?”
“Um?” He raised his eyebrows and looked at me askance. “Seriously. I’d rather talk about all the things welikeabout each other.”
Licking my lips, I pretended to give it some thought. “I really like that you don’t look down on me or any of us really.”
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Archie—you have money. Lots of it. You’ve traveled. You drive a Ferrari. I live in an apartment with my mom and work twenty-four to thirty hours a week so I can save up for college. We come from two different worlds, but you never look down on me on any of us. You never have.”
“Okay, so you like that I’m not an asshole. Got it.” He made a face and I grinned.
“Your turn.”
“I like that you’re Frankie. You looked at me on the first day of high school, when I didn’t know anyone and said, ‘Hi, I’m Frankie. You can sit with me if you want. My friends will be here in a minute.’” With care, he took the wine glass from my hand and set it back on the side before lifting my hand back to his shoulders and I looped both arms around his neck again. “I went from being thenewkid to one of the guys in the space of a day because you made room for me. I got great new friends, people who didn’t care about my name or my family or my money. For some weird reason, they just liked me.”
My heart twisted.
“You, Frankie Curtis, are one of the best things to ever happen to me.”
Okay. “I can’t top that. You guys—I’ve known Coop and Jake forever, but you and Ian, you’re my guys, too. I missed you guys this summer.”
“Well don’t be a dope again,” he chastised. “I couldn’t figure out what we’d done wrong. You were so…distant at Bubba’s party, and then you just disappeared again.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you—Frankie, do you understand why we made you untouchable? Why Jake popped that guy? Why I basically tried to dominate your time so the others would back off?”
“Well, you said it was because you thought I didn’t want to date.” They’d all said that. I never took any offers, so they didn’t want anyone foisting themselves on me.
“Yeah, you didn’t seem to want to date. You blew us off when we flirted, and I took you out every weekend six weekends in a row, and you didn’t seem like you were interested. At all. You were a buddy. Then… I asked out Pris—Pam—some chick with a P in her name.”
“It was Christine,” I reminded him, and he blinked.
