Page 101 of Whispers and Wishes (Untouchable 4)

I was pretty sure I was redder than the boxers Jake had been twirling around his finger—Coop’s by the way, that had somehow been added to my drawers along with another pair from Archie, and two from Jake. I gave them fair warning if my old ones from Coop vanished, there would be hell to pay.

The whole time though, Ian watched with a speculative glint in his eyes, and I found myself wondering if he’d end up giving me a pair of his. Then I gave myself a mental shake.

I shouldn’t be wondering those things. The subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in his behavior left me wondering where this was going.

Again.

The minute those questions cropped up, I just shut them off. I didn’t want to borrow trouble. Ian was there. We were talking. It was enough.

For now.

It had to be.

Trina showed up at dinnertime, pissed. She knocked on the door like she was ready to yell “police” or something. Jake opened the front door and just backed up a step as she charged in.

“Youthreatenedhim?” She practically vibrated with outrage. Her shoulder-length sandy-blonde hair, so much like Coop’s, flew as she spun from him to look at me. I was perched on the arm of the sofa with my feet tucked under Archie’s thigh.

He paused the show on robot builds they’d had on.

“Frankie? Did he tell you what they did?” Agitation climbed along with her tone.

“Trina,” Coop said. “Stop shouting.”

Whirling on her brother, she glared. “Youthreatenedhim.” Yeah, she wasn’t going to stop shouting anytime soon. “I told you he asked me out and I wanted your help, and you threatened him.”

“Point of order,” Jake said, folding his arms. “Coop didn’t threaten him.”

Rolling her eyes, Trina put her hands on her hips. “Having you do it, Jake, is just playing semantics. If any of you guys threaten someone, they know they’re getting all of you. I’m not anidiot.” Then she looked at me again. “Frankie. Talk to them. Fix this?”

“Um…” I had parts of this conversation. Jake and Coop threatened someone. That I got. It had to do with dating Trina. That I also got. “Who asked you out?”

“Does it really matter?”

You know, before Homecoming, I’d probably have still said yes. But that was because Trina was Coop’s baby sister. Now?

“Yes, it matters. Because some guys are just assholes.”

Trina glared at me for a long moment, then the heat in her eyes faded as she snapped her mouth shut. Archie wrapped a hand around my calf as Trina all but deflated.

“I thought you’d be on my side.”

“I am on your side.” I was. “So is Coop. So is Jake.” I swallowed. I hadn’t been out with some unknown guy when bad things happened to me. I’d been with people I trusted. “So, who is he?”

“Noah is a great guy, he lives across the street from Mandy, and I’ve hung out with him.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Doesn’t he smoke?”

“Thank you,” Coop said, tapping his nose and earning his sister’s ire all over again.

“That doesn’t make him a bad person.” Trina damn near growled the words. For a moment, it struck me she wasn’t a kid anymore. She was, but she was almost the same age I was when Archie came into our lives. Four years.

It didn’t seem like much, until it was.

Still, she was Coop’s baby sister, and as much as she could aggravate him, he loved her to pieces.

“Smoking doesn’t mean he’s awful,” Trina insisted, looking to me for support.

“No,” I agreed. We all had vices. The guys liked to drink. Archie often supplied alcohol because he could get it from Jeremy. Definitely not legal. They had other habits over the summer that we weren’t going to dredge up right now. “But that’s literally the only thing I can think of when I think of him. So, he asked you out…”

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