Page 131 of Whispers and Wishes (Untouchable 4)

I smirked and called, “Your benevolence knows no bounds.”

“I know, right?” he answered, then his voice dropped to a more normal tone. “And no, I don’t mind, Frankie. You guys can stay here if you want, we can all make ourselves scarce and let you have an evening to yourself. Or at least part of it, and I can always come sneak back in after you’re all warm and naked and sleepy.”

“Subtle, man. Real subtle.”

“Not even trying to be subtle. I like sleeping with her.”

Who didn’t? Whatever Frankie answered, I didn’t catch, but I managed to get all the clips downloaded and laid out in the video program one after the other. It would take some time to play them all.

“I also don’t mind sharing her,” Coop pointed out as he wandered back into the living room. I glanced past him but didn’t see Frankie.

“Jake called,” he said. “So she’s talking to him. I think he needed to know she was okay after all of that.”

I nodded. Made sense to me.

“How’s she look to you?”

“I think that was harder on her than she cares to admit.”

Yeah, I got that, too.

“Well, this better work, ’cause if Sharon comes after her again, I don’t know what I’m going to do exactly, but it won’t be pretty.” I’d already decided I could reach out to my grandfather. Ted Standish knew exactly how to deal with people who did him dirty. Maybe I could get Sharon’s parents transferred to the ass-end of New Mexico or something.

That would be a feat.

No Sharon, no problem, right?

“If this doesn’t work and Sharon goes after her again, we might need bail money for Jake and Bubba.” Coop tugged at his lower lip, and I eyed him.

“Bubba’s not going to snap.” Jake? Yes. Three weeks of anger management did not a solution make.

“I don’t know about that. Did you look at his face when he was talking to her?”

It hadn’t been that bad. Had it? “Not really, I was focused more on making sure we had a good angle to catch her face.” That and keeping an eye on Frankie. She’d done an admirable job of a poker face. Too admirable. Maybe a result of having to cover for her mother all these years.

Shit. Her mother.

I pulled my phone out and looked at it. Sure enough, there were several messages from Maddy waiting for me.

“We’ll keep an eye on Bubba,” I said. “Hopefully, some of this is catharsis for him.”

“Put the past to rest?” Coop mused.

“Something like that.” While I hadn’t had this conversation with any of them, I was pretty sure the real problem was Bubba built Sharon up to be someone else in his mind. Another blonde we all had a thing for. Unfortunately, she had never been Frankie. Never could be her. I’d steered away from most blondes, to be honest. None of them were Frankie.

Jake and Coop? Eh, if they’d dated any, it hadn’t lasted more than once or twice. Made sense, ’cause they weren’t Frankie. Not Bubba. Sharon had paid him all the attention in the ways Frankie hadn’t, and the sap had soaked it up but it hadn’t been enough, and I doubted he’d seen it himself.

But he’d been getting an eyeful of the real her now.

Unknown:I don’t expect you to understand.

Unknown:I also don’t expect you to take my side.

Unknown:However, it’s in Frankie’s best interests that we smooth this over. You know how your father is.

Oh,I knew exactly how Edward was.

Unknown:Can we meet?

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