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When Bubba continued to be silent, I shrugged. “We better get moving…”
“You know what the problem is,” he said, and I sighed as I dropped my chin. Facing away from him, I seriously debated just continuing to walk.
“No,” I answered. “But I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“We’re pretending the summer didn’t happen.”
“Excuse me?” I pivoted to face him.
“You heard me.” He’d dragged his own bag out of the saddlebags on the bike and slung it over his shoulder. The sun beat down on us, but right now, I didn’t care about the heat so much. “We made a lot of bad calls, and we’re pretending it doesn’t matter because now she likes us. I know how damn desperate I was to even have her talk to me again.”
“We screwed up with Frankie.” I could admit that much. “We should have been up front with her. Maybe a little more blunt.” If I’d had half an inkling of what it would be like to really kiss her? I’d have long since just done that. “But the summer has nothing to do with her.”
“It has everything to do with her, Jake,” Bubba exhaled. “Now you and Arch… you just had to get her into bed. Did you even slow down for a second before you fucked her to think about whether it would be good for her?”
“Be really careful, Bubba,” I warned him as aggravation raced over my skin like an angry rash. “Nobody gets to talk about her like that.”
“Like what? Another notch you and Archie punch into your belts to make a point?” Bubba glared at me. “She’d never dated, and in less than a week, Archie has her in bed and you…tell me you didn’t get damn close? You were pissed that Archie got there first? Or were you just pissed at the points you lost?”
“Say it again,” I dared him as I dropped the backpack and narrowed the space. “I fucking dare you to say that again. Your face won’t be so pretty for the game.”
“See, I don’t know if this is just your natural state or if you really do care…”
“Where the fuck is that coming from? Do I really care about Frankie? Fuck you, Bubba. I know I care. I know I care enough that I’m not putting her on the spot or making her feel bad that she likes all of us. I’m not going to punish her for not just picking me.”
His eyes shuttered, and he gave a little jerk like I’d actually hit him. Good. He deserved a solid fist to the jaw.
“What is going on with you?”
Bubba sighed and then shoved a hand through his hair.
“Dude, I’m not playing with you right now,” I pushed on. “’Cause you plan to keep this shit up, just leave. Cut the cord and let one of us take her to Homecoming. Don’t jerk her around like she’s some puppet for you to play with.”
He turned that glare on me, anger flaring in his eyes. “I’m not playing with her. Icareabout her. I care about her more than I do me or scratching some damn itch. She’s worth a hell of a lot more than a score card or a pickup line that will make them agree.”
“No shit. So what is wrong with you?” Out of all of us, I expected Archie to play the power games—not Bubba.
“I’m worried about her.”
“So are we.”
“The crap with her mom, the stuff at school—we still don’t know who did that to her car.”
“Yes and yes, how does shoving her away help with all of that?”
“Because Rachel was right.”
Now there were words I never wanted to hear. Rachel Manning had a thing for my girl, and all other competition thoughts aside—Rachel could be a real bitch on wheels when she put her mind to it. Nobody fucked with Rachel. Not if they didn’t want to be eaten alive.
“About Frankie needing a friend?” Because Rachel had said other shit to her, some of it in those notes—and didn’t that just burn that Rachel was the one to give Frankie those words of encouragement and thought that should have come from us—and more at the party the weekend before last.
“Yeah,” Bubba said. “We’re supposed to be her best friends, but…we haven’t really been good at that part. All we’ve done is make it worse. You guys…look, Jake, I get it. You saw an opportunity, and you took it. But did it ever occur to you how she was going to cope with it later?”
“Cope with what? The sex?” Because if he was implying I forced her, I really was going to relocate his jaw.
“Yes. Frankie’s not one of the other girls who didn’t care as long as they got off.”
“No shit.” Why the hell he had to keep bringing up some of those… “Bubba, no one was lied to. If Frankie said stop, I would have stopped.” I did stop. Not that it was any of his business. That first night she and I made out after I slept over. The first time I got to really touch her and she’d touched me.
