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“Definitely. Great start to the day.”
You know, he really wasn’t wrong.
And now that he put those images in my head?
Yeah. I was definitely turned on.
Chapter Seven
Lies, Lists, Plans
The rest of the day passed in a rush that dragged unbearably in places. It rushed when the guys first got back, and Jake got a knowing look in his eyes. It took Archie a beat longer, and then I was blushing when he slapped Coop on the back and gave me a very firm and warm kiss. Still, it was kind of nice. It dragged when I had to try and work with my splinted wrist. The guys were all about helping me, but a little part of me really hated the fact they had to help.
Okay, a big part of me. I just despised being ‘helpless.’
Still, we spent the day getting me caught up on homework with the guys playing the part of my hands since writing was right out. It was weird to try and work out math problems with Ian when he started to solve it for me, and I had to pinch him to make him stop.
Papers for lit with Coop typing was hysterical, ’cause he kept adding his own asides. Archie had government all laid out, and it was a lot of reading, and he typed up my paper for me as I pulled the facts together.
I was exhausted by late afternoon, and the guys decided to cook dinner with me supervising. In retrospect, that wasn’t the best idea. They didn’t burn down the kitchen, but they did set off all the smoke detectors, freaked out the cats, and had to toss the charred chicken they’d broiled for thirty-five minutes rather than three to five.
I don’t think I’d laughed that long or that hard in a while. The tears rolling down my face were as much from the laughter as the pain the laughter left me in when my side cramped.
After the evidence had been disposed off and the smoke aired out, Archie and Coop left to grab dinner for everyone, and it was down to me, Jake, and Ian. The fact that a storm had rolled in during the day and lightning kept flashing outside promised Coop and Archie might be a hot minute.
“I’m going to grab a shower,” Jake said, giving me a studying look before flicking his gaze to Ian then back to me. “You okay with that?”
“I’ll be fine. I think Ian and I can manage unsupervised for a few minutes.”
“But only a few,” Ian countered, his tone dry. “Because we know Frankie gets mean when she’s hungry.”
My stomach chose that minute to gurgle, even as I glared. “Hey!”
Really, the gurgling just undermined my outrage. Jake snickered, and I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Real mature,” he said with a grin and a wink. “Behave.” Then he strolled up the hallway, leaving me flopped back on the sofa with my feet on the coffee table. Ian had packed up my books for me and slid everything into my backpack. I still had some more homework to do, but we were leaving it for tomorrow. Calculus assignments were mostly done, there was one more and Ian said we had two quizzes. Government was done, that was probably the easiest.
There was a test in there I had to take, too. I had to do some reading for lit, fortunately I didn’t need my wrist to read a book. I was worried about European history, but Jake wouldn’t even discuss it until the next day. The TA work wouldn’t need to be made up, and that just left French.
I’d been tempted to message Mathieu, but the look of reproach I got from all four of them had me discarding that idea. Fine, I’d sent an email to Madam instead. Geez. Mathieu could probably catch me up faster, but it wasn’t worth the argument.
“You’ll get caught up,” he said lightly, and I slid my gaze to meet his. His blue eyes warmed as he smiled at me. “Don’t look at me like that, I know you. You’re making lists in your head.”
“A week is a lot of school,” I admitted.
“Pfft, for someone else, maybe. But not for you.” He pushed up from the floor. “You want something to drink? Or one of your pain pills?”
I grimaced. I had managed to not take one all day, even though I had been sore after Coop and I played. The shower had helped, but I’d gotten a little stiff from sitting around so much.
“You don’t have to take it, but you keep wincing,” he told me. “If you’re hurting and I can help, I want to.”
“I haven’t eaten in a while, it might be better to wait until after food, or I’ll end up face planting.”
He nodded and rubbed his right hand. The bruises were still livid marks across his knuckles. They’d turned a beautiful shade of green and yellow. There wasn’t much they could do about his knuckles after they’d relocated them.
“I’ll get you a soda, then, yeah?” He didn’t wait for me to answer as he headed for the kitchen.
“Ian,” I said, and he paused, swinging his glance back to me. “Did I ever actually say thank you or just imagine it?”
