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“Mom and Dad tried the marriage counseling thing, remember?”
She nodded.
“Well, during all that, Sis was also acting out.” I had her full attention. “One of the fights Mom and Dad had was over Sis’s behavior, and they wanted to put her in therapy. I volunteered ’cause why not, I figured it’d be fun. An hour every week to just talk about me? The best subject on the planet next to the subject of you? What could be better?”
Frankie laughed. Genuinely laughed, even her eyes lit up. “An hour a week to talk about you, huh?”
“Hey, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. I’m a fantastic subject.”
I meant it on some levels. Mostly it was playing, and yeah, I had thought about therapy. For my parents. For Sis. For Frankie.
For the most part, I did okay. But everything I’d read and learned taught me that we needed more opportunities to open up, not less.
“I wish I could just talk to you about it.”
There it was. I wished she could just talk to me about it, too. “I’d love to be your sounding board, and you can talk to me about anything,” I promised her. “I mean it. You can talk to me about everything from hair and nails to Rachel’s choice in chicks to how much better in bed I am than the other guys…”
Her cheeks flushed pink, but her smile was so wide, my grin stretched to meet it.
“You can Frankie. I’ll listen to everything. But I am horribly biased where you are concerned. I’d do my damnedest to give you advice and to just listen, but there’s a big part of me that just wants to fix it, and as sad as I am to admit it, I’m not an expert.”
Stretching out her left hand, she cupped my face, and I covered her hand with mine before turning to press a kiss to her palm.
“I adore you,” I reminded her. “I’ve known you forever, and I plan to know you forever. So what you need and when you need it, I’m here. And if you want to make appointments or consultations with those different psychologists, do it. Most offer a free consultation, and you can meet them and see if you click or not.”
Her expression softened. “You know I adore you, too, right?”
My heart might have done a backflip at that admission. Scooting forward, I rested my forehead against hers while still holding her hand. The breeze stirred around us, and her bare leg was soft against mine.
“It’s because I’m perfect, I know,” I teased, and her laughter was a heady thing.
“Sometimes,” she admitted, and I raised my brows. “Sometimes you’re a little shit.”
“Okay, I can live with that assessment.” What else could I say? She wasn’t wrong.
“Coop?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I ask you a hard question?”
“You can ask me any question you want.” I pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose before threading my fingers with hers.
“Do you guys talk about me?”
That wasn’t a tough question. The easiest answer was yes, we did. Except… “We do,” I said. “We talk about how you’re doing. They text me when they’re home with you so I know you’re doing okay or if you need something.” Catching a tendril of her hair that had pulled from her braid with my free hand, I tucked it behind her ear. “If you’re having bad dreams, we talk about that. We try to coordinate so we know our schedules and what you need. But what we do or talk about when it’s just us?” I shook my head.
“At all?”
“Nope.” The surprise on her face we all deserved. “Frankie, what you do with Archie or Jake—that’s your business and theirs. What you and I share? That’s ours. No, I’m not telling them how it feels to kiss you or feel you wrap around me. When you talk just to me? Then that’s between us, too. Unless…” I held up a finger, and she tracked it with her gaze for a moment before focusing on me. “Unless you’re really hurting. Then we talk because we all want to take care of you, and as far as I’m concerned, we’re all boyfriends, even Bubba—okay, maybe not Bubba, but he’s kind of boyfriend level.”
Her nose wrinkled.
“Fine, he’s a good friend. I’m not making his case for him.”
That pulled a smile from her.
“That said, if you’re worried I’m going to tell them about this conversation? Then rest easy because the answer is no, I’m not. I’ll only bring it up if I think you’re really hurting and need all of us to talk to about it. Otherwise, what you tell me stays with me. I’m a vault.”
