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“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means, Archie had no business having sex with you. It means Jake should have kept it in his pants, but no, not Jake. He’s always got to push things, and not Archie because he always has to be first or grab what he wants. Doesn’t matter what it is.”
He touched his tongue to his teeth and took a couple of steps toward me.
“You have never dated. Not once. You have…fuck, Frankie, you’re our best friend, and we did our best to keep the rest of that crap from touching you. Liking you? That’s never been a problem. We all like you. Too much sometimes, but we do. And it was safe when you didn’t want us.”
I stared at him. “It’s not safe now that I do?”
“No,” he said simply. “You’re catching hell from girls we…girls we fucked over. Right, wrong, or indifferent, we did. Now they’re taking it out on you. Archie took you from zero to sixty.”
“Okay, you need to stop talking about me having sex with Archie like it’s something he did to me and I’m poor Penelope Pitstop who didn’t have a say. He gave me every opportunity to say no, not that it’s any of your business. And yes, I made out with Jake before that and Ilikedit. I made out with Coop, too. Right there on that sofa. When I had sex with Archie, I did it becauseIwanted to. I did it becauseIsaid yes. No one mademedo anything—”
“Sweetheart, that’s my point. We know how to get girls tosayyes,” he shouted, and then raised his hands and took a step back. “That’s what we do. That’s what we did all summer.”
My stomach bottomed out, and I stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“Getting girls to say yes, it was a game. A game we could all do, and we got really good at it.” He dropped his head and then shook it. “And I’m not saying you’re the game, Frankie. Because God knows, you’re the fucking best prize there is. Sooner or later? You have to pick one of us, and I don’t know that you’ll ever be able to, and that’s going to tear you up. They need to think aboutthatwhere you’re concerned, and not just about how good it feels to be wanted by you.”
Chapter Five
The Song Has No Title
“The prize,” I said slowly, and I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to smack him. “Did you just seriously call me the prize?”
“I know how it sounds,” Ian bit off the words, a grimace straining his expression. His beautiful blue eyes were sharp and pained.
“I don’t think you do.” Spinning on my heel, I headed for my bedroom. We’d come here for my suit, and apparently, so Ian could tell me I was too stupid to date.
Got it.
“Frankie,” he said with a sigh as he followed. “I’m not saying this to hurt you.”
“Could have fooled me.” I jerked open the drawer and shoved aside a wrap to pull out the two-piece I’d gotten. Ian stood a couple of feet in the door, but he’d stopped talking.
Instead, he stared at my bed briefly. The disheveled covers. Jake’s t-shirt was over the back of my desk chair. He hadn’t taken it with him, and I could probably use it to sleep in tonight if I wanted.
Pulling his attention from the bed, Ian focused on me. “I’m worried about you,” he said quietly.
“You don’t have to,” I promised him. “You’ve made it very clear that you don’t want to ‘date’ or to put me in the position of having to ‘choose,’ particularly since you’re all masters at making girls say yes. You can have anyone you want. Apparently, I’m just the ditz who falls for every line.”
“That’s not what I said,” he challenged.
“No, that’s pretty much what you said and you implied.”
“Fuck,” he said, vehemence punching up the word. “Frankie, I don’t think you’re a ditz. I think you’re perfect.”
“Then why don’t you believe me?” And why were you pulling away? But the last question seemed glued to my tongue.
“I never said I didn’t believe you. I know…look, I know you agreed. But I also know them.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I can’t make decisions for them. I can’t pull them back from what they’ve already done. I want you to be happy…”
“Weirdly, I was pretty happy Saturday morning, even after all the crap. Then you just left. You decided that I didn’t get to have any say in it. That I couldn’t be trusted with my own agency. Wow…it’s kind of don’t date Frankie all over again. Only instead of warning off other guys, you’re taking you away from me.”
“I must be shit at explaining this, because I’m not leaving you,” Ian insisted. “Am I trying to protect you?Yes. Do I think they pushed you too fast?Hell yes.”
“What’s too fast?” I asked.
“You know what I mean.”
