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“My apologies, Mr. Archie, Miss Frankie. I wanted to inquire as to the evening’s plans. Will Miss Frankie be staying over, or will you be taking her home and staying there?”
I bit my lip as Archie glanced at me and grinned. “Want to spend the night? Or want to go back to your place and spend the night there?”
The guys were expecting us back at my place…
“Whatever you want,” he reminded me, but…
“Friday nights are your nights.”
A quiet kind of joy lit up his face. “You feel safer when everyone is there.”
That wasn’t entirely true, except…
“We’re going back to Frankie’s tonight, Jere.”
“Very well, Mr. Archie, Miss Frankie.” Disappointment hugged those words. “I do expect at least one sleepover this week, perhaps the night before Mr. Archie’s birthday so you can have breakfast here, Miss Frankie.”
“Jeremy, my man, you have my back, always,” Archie said without once looking away from me.
“Absolutely. Now, if you are taking her home, it is late, and she likely hasn’t taken any pain meds this evening.”
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. When I went to stand, Archie helped me up and I glanced to where Jeremy stood. Sure, my face was on fire, but he met my gaze with a gentle smile. “Thank you, Jeremy.”
“My pleasure, Miss Frankie. Shall I come by this weekend to collect the laundry?”
“Tell him yes,” Archie said, sotto voce. “It will make him happy since he can’t make you breakfast in the morning.”
I elbowed Archie. “You really don’t have to. Archie promised to help, and I’ll take pictures.”
A delighted look creased Jeremy’s face. “Well in that case…”
“I did, huh?” Archie asked.
“Hmm-hmm.” I canted my head to look up at him. “You want to spoil me. I want to make sure you have all the skills you need to handle life on your own.”
“So a little tit for tat, huh?”
“I don’t have any tats.” I dared him to say it with Jeremy standing right there.
Something the older man clearly understood as he cleared his throat again.
“Mean,” Archie said with a little snap of his teeth before he kissed my nose. “Yes,” he continued wrapping his arm around me and looking to Jeremy. “I will be doing the laundry this weekend, so you may need to rescue the wreck I make of it.”
We were all still laughing as we made our way out of the garden. Archie left me with Jeremy for a moment while he ran upstairs to grab his bag.
“Jeremy…if I ask you a question about his grandfather, do you think you can answer it?”
“I’m not promising anything, Miss Frankie,” he told me. In the light cast by the porch, it was easy to see some of the gray in Jeremy’s hair. He didn’t have much. A little around his temples gave his darker hair a little more regal appearance. His expression, always kind, sobered as he studied me. “But I shall do my best. You’re worried about Mr. Archie.”
“He loves his grandfather.” Not a question. “I know he wouldn’t have reached out to him if he wasn’t worried himself. Do you think he can count on him?”
The last thing I wanted was to see Archie disappointed by another member of his family. It sucked on so many levels.
“I believe Mr. Ted will do his absolute best by his grandson,” Jeremy told me. “The family is…complicated. The affection, however, is genuine. On both sides.”
“So, I shouldn’t worry about him?”
Jeremy gave me a considering look, hands folded behind his back. In all the time I’d known him, I don’t think I’d ever seen Jeremy stand in anything that wasn’t almost attention. Even with all his formality, he was a thousand percent warmer than Archie’s parents.
