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“And you’ll ask Frankie?”
And probably Jake. He would help me deal with wandering hands no problem. I gave her a smile. “I’ll see if Frankie’s up to it.”
Trina gave a squeal and then hugged me. I chuckled then tugged her hair.
“Yeah yeah, go shower. You smell, and Sis…”
“I know, you don’t want me smoking.”
“If the guy only likes you cause you’ll smoke with him, he isn’t the guy for you.” Period.
“Maybe.” Not that she seemed to be agreeing with me. Then she bounced off the bed. “But I really like him.”
Ugh. “I can see that.”
“Does Frankie know that your cool and relaxed attitude is all an act?” Sis dared me with raised eyebrows, and I smirked.
“Ask her. Now get lost. I’m going to go see my girlfriend.”
At the door, Sis paused. “You know I’m happy for you, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Like Mom said, it was time for you to get your head out of your ass where Frankie was concerned.”
Yeah. I’d known how I felt about Frankie a lot longer than the rest of them. “See, miracles do happen.”
She snorted a laugh, then let herself out. I grabbed my bag and headed for the living room, pausing in the kitchen to find Mom. She was making herself a cup of tea and had just shaken a pair of ibuprofens out of the bottle.
“Sis is making you crazy, huh?”
“Oh, don’t start,” Mom said with a laugh. “I swear, you were the easy child, so she’s making up for it and determined to drive me mad.”
I laughed. “Eh, I was just better at hiding what I was up to.”
“Hardly,” she countered, then patted my cheek. “But I always knew who you were with, and you had good friends, baby. Even if you all had your own kind of crazy. You tried to make up for that this summer though…”
I ducked my head. Mom had caught me coming home drunk a couple of times, and she hadn’t been thrilled. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Ha, I always worry about my kids.” She poured the boiling water over her tea bag and studied me. “It’s my prerogative. You spending the night at Frankie’s again?”
“That’s the plan.”
“You two are being safe?”
“Yes, Mom.” Almost slipped on Saturday. Almost. I wanted to do that again, but I wanted to be sure it would be safe for her. For us. That had felt amazing. “Not risking her.”
She nodded. Arms folded, she studied me with the same look Sis had given me earlier.
“Go ahead and ask,” I told her, leaning against the doorjamb.
“How is she?”
“She’s good. Has good days and bad. School was a little rocky. Didn’t help when Ms. Curtis showed up at the end of the day yesterday.”
Mom frowned. “I thought she’d moved out.”
Mom was aware of a lot of it. I’d kept her in the loop. She also wouldn’t use that information against Frankie. At one point, I thought Mom and Frankie’s mother had been friends. I had no idea what happened in the intervening years, but they’d grown apart.
