Page 122 of Whispers and Wishes (Untouchable 4)

Evil plan was right.

Jake

Bubba had upped his game some from side-eye to eye bang, and I was all for it. Later. Right now, we needed to focus on dealing with the Sharon situation. This shit had gone on way too long. I was beyond over it. If she’d been a dude, I’d have already kicked her ass sideways.

As it was, I was half-tempted, but my mother would have my ass in a sling if I raised a hand to a girl. She’d be right, too. Still, it was really fucking annoying. I’d encourage Frankie to punch the bitch, but she had her arm already in a cast.

“It’ll take a little coordination,” Rachel said. “But we can do it. But you all have to agree.” Almost as one, we all looked at Frankie.

There were days when she was too damn nice. But it was that compassion that we all valued, too. The openness of her heart and ability to embrace dating all of us, and honestly, I never felt like I was getting the short end of the stick. I knew what I mean to her.

More, I knew what she meant to me.

“You’d have your hands pretty much clean,” I told her. What Rachel described would only involve Frankie indirectly. Say what you wanted about Rachel, and trust me, I could say and had said a lot, she got our girl.

“That doesn’t really seem fair,” she pointed out. I didn’t groan, though I did scowl at her. “Not the plan,” Frankie corrected, meeting my gaze, and the challenge in those gorgeous green eyes dared me to disagree with her. “Keeping me out of it is sweet. But she’s targeting me. Whether to get even with you guys or to punish me or both. I should be involved, too.”

“You’re a part of the decision,” Coop offered. “You don’t have to play a part in anything else. Sharon wasn’t your problem until we made her one.”

“Until I made her one,” Bubba corrected him.

“No,” Frankie argued, twisting until she locked gazes with Bubba again. “She made herself a problem.”

I wasn’t alone in sighing. Frankie would give us a lot of slack, and she’d forgiven a lot of our shit. But I was with Bubba on this one. We made Sharon Frankie’s problem. It really was on us to fix it.

On Bubba.

He was manning up to handle it, so we’d have his back.

“Are y’all done?” Rachel asked, bridging the silence. “Because the sweetness is going to give me a cavity at this rate.”

Frankie laughed and bumped her shoulder to Rachel’s. “You’re just jealous.”

“Hmm,” Rachel said thoughtfully. “Maybe. Just a smidge. But I know I’m your favorite girl, and I bet they have arguments over who your favorite is. So I win.”

Arms folded, I rolled my eyes, but Frankie cracked up so I’d take the needling. Not that I’d ever ask her to pick favorites.

Ever.

“Back to the plan,” Archie said, leaning forward. “We have about five minutes before the bell rings, then we need to hit sixth period.”

Rachel nodded. “I’ll prime the pump, since I don’t have sixth or seventh periods. A few well placed text messages, and the rumors will be generating. She’ll have heard about it by seventh.”

“She still stalks your path,” Archie said with a nod as he transferred his attention to Bubba.

“Yep,” he said with a sigh. “Unfortunately.”

“Would it be better if she could do it in front of me, or do I need to be out of sight?”

Personally, I wanted Frankie nowhere near it. Neither did Archie from his expression, but Coop said, “She might not go for it if she sees you. Bubba’s been giving her a hard pass.”

“Actually,” Bubba said, twisting to look at her. “It might play better if you do ‘catch’ us and then slap the shit out of me.”

“Oh, I vote for that,” Rachel said, arm shooting into the air, and this time, I had a hard time biting back a laugh. The girl was nuts and into our girl. Still…she was funny.

Frankie, however, frowned, but Bubba wasn’t done. “Think about it. We’ve looked rocky from the outside, and we have been. This just takes it up a notch, and you get to play a role.” His gaze fixed on her, and I almost whistled.

Nice. Well, at least someone had found their damn game, finally.

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