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Bottle open, Archie filled the glass halfway and held out the wine. “Keys.”
If I took the wine, I was staying.
If I stood up right now, I could just leave.
“I know you’re mad,” Jake said quietly. “You can be as pissed at us as you want to be. We deserve it. But stay… we can cancel the stupid party. Just don’t go away angry and having to choke on this.”
“We’re still your friends,” Coop added. “Maybe not the best of friends right now, but we’re yours, and you shouldn’t be alone.”
“For what it’s worth,” Archie said. “I got really blitzed, and I was hungover as fuck on Monday. I knew Edward was cheating. It’s not like it’s new. He’s a serial cheater. But Muriel puts up with it. They left together. He came back alone, took a different bag and left again.”
Mom had been dating for months. The whole time, I hadn’t been talking to the guys. I stared at the wine glass for a beat longer. Shifting in the seat, I dug my keys out of my pocket and handed them to Coop. The corners of Archie’s mouth tightened, but he gave me the wine.
“It’s a little late to cancel the party,” Archie said as he grabbed a fresh beer out of the bucket and popped the cap. “But the fact we’re having it means they’ll go, so it’ll at least be a safe space here.”
“I’m not sleeping in the pool house.” The thought made my skin crawl.
“No problem,” Archie said. “You can have my room.”
“Hey,” Ian said.
“I said she could have my room,” Archie told him. “Not that I’d be in there with her. Course,” he continued, glancing back at me. “That’s entirely up to you.”
My stomach bottomed out, and I took another swallow of wine. It was sweet, but more, it seemed to help calm down my jangling nerves. “You only found out last weekend?” Did I have that right?
“Yeah,” Archie said. “I knew he had another—one.” One was not the word he’d planned to use. He was editing himself for me. “But I didn’t know it was her, Frankie. Bubba’s right, I didn’t know how to tell you.”
But they’d all been so keenly aware of Mom’s absence.
I scrubbed a hand over my face, and Jake tried again, this time just touching my arm. “Can I just hold you for a minute?”
The request floored me. Was he serious?
“Why?”
“Why?” He raised his eyebrows. “Because you just took your second sucker punch of the day—and I was part of one of them. You need a hug.”
I snorted. “Yeah, that was what Marsha said.”
“Her boss,” Coop said, probably answering Ian or Archie, but I didn’t look away from Jake. His pale blue eyes implored me to believe him, and the damn thing was, I wanted to believe all of them. But how was I supposed to do that? Really?
“This sucks.”
“Yeah,” Ian and Coop exhaled almost on the same breath.
“That’s a word for it.” Archie cut his gaze to Jake, and so did I.
“Okay,” I told him and stood. When I set my glass on the table, he surged upward. He took the chair, and when I settled in his lap, he wrapped his arms around me. It was nice, and I sighed as I leaned my head against his. “Are they gone yet?”
Archie pulled out his phone and sent something. A minute later, his phone vibrated. “Jeremy says they’ve left.”
I blew out a breath.
Jeremy knew.
This was… “I don’t even know what to do with this.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” Archie told me. “This isn’t on you. It’s on them.”
