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“Hey,” she said, and I grinned at her.
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty, get tired of napping the day away?”
She snorted and shuffle stepped over to me, and I put the coffee cup down to wrap her up in a hug. This I could totally do. Face tucked against my shoulder, she let out a little sigh. With care, I rubbed her shoulders gently. The tank top and sleep shorts were thin enough, if I glanced down, I could make out the dark bruise still on her back. Better to not set it off.
“I can’t believe I slept this late,” she murmured.
Rubbing my cheek against her hair, I smiled. “If it makes you feel any better, I only got up about fifteen—no, twenty minutes ago.”
“You got up earlier, too, when the guys were getting ready for school.” So had she, but I didn’t call her on it. She’d been disappointed they got to go and she didn’t. Frankie loved learning and hated being behind more than anything. I didn’t think we’d have much luck getting her to take it easy after this week.
“True,” I admitted. “Then I promptly snuggled up to the prettiest girl in the world and went back to sleep.”
Her laugh lifted me a little higher, and I leaned away to glance down at her.
“Hey, why don’t you throw on a hat and a hoodie, and I’ll run us out to get expensive coffee? Jeremy is bringing us lunch in a little bit.”
She bit her lip, then winced. There was still a small, if healing cut that she’d been worrying at. Another nail I’d like to drive into Mitch’s coffin. “Sure you want to be seen out with me? People might get the wrong idea.”
Yeah, I didn’t give a fuck about what other people thought. “Babe, I’d be your arm candy any day of the week. We all know I’m the good looking one in this relationship.”
“Oh my god,” she groaned, and rolled her eyes, but I counted a win when she laughed and smacked my shoulder. “Ass.”
“Sometimes,” I agreed. She ran her fingers through her hair and then studied me.
“You sure it will be all right?”
“We can do whatever you want,” I promised. “If you don’t want to go, I can ask Jere to stop on his way. He’d love to do it.”
“He’s already bringing us lunch,” she argued, just like I knew she would. “He’s gone out of his way the last couple of days to bring stuff over here.” She wasn’t wrong. He’d sent food, as had Alicia and Carly – Jake’s and Coop’s moms respectively.
“Helikesdoing it,” I reminded her. “If Jeremy could spoil you every day, he would. Just like me. Good thing you’re not into older guys, or I might have to worry.”
That got me another hit and second set of rolled eyes. Oh, I was scoring big today. “Just for that,” she told me, “I’ll give you my freebie list after we get coffee.”
Oh, someone was getting feisty. Wait… “You have a freebie list?”
“I do now,” she told me, then tapped my chest. “I’ll go grab a hoodie. Should I put on real clothes?”
I glanced down at her long, lean bare legs. “You look great. We’re not getting out of the car unless you want to go someplace else.”
Fuck, I’d take her anywhere she wanted to go. I’d take her to mini-golf if she wanted it.
“Okay.” She made it three steps away, then turned around and came back.
“Problem?”
“No, I just…” She rose on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to mine. It was a quick, blink and you’ll miss it kiss, but I savored every nanosecond of it. “Forgot to say good morning.”
“Morning, babe,” I answered, and she gave me another little smile before she padded back toward her room.
Ten minutes later, she leaned back in the passenger seat next to me as I pulled out of the apartments. Not only did she have on a hoodie over her tank top and a baseball cap that I was pretty sure had to have belonged to Coop at some point, but she’d also put on sunglasses. It was a decent enough day out, not too hot and not too chilly, so when I offered to roll down the windows, she’d given me a thumbs up.
As soon as we had our coffees, I studied her profile. “You want to head back, or you want to take this nice day out for a spin?”
Frankie cut a look toward me. “Isn’t Jeremy coming over?”
“Yep,” I said, but then tapped the time on the dash. “We have an hour, maybe a little longer. Time for at least taking a loop around the lake. Music, coffee, my girl, and me?”
