Legacy and Lovers (Untouchable Book 11), page 28
Worth it.
It was the weirdest, best, sweetest, and most amazing spring break in a while.
Between my new IUD and taking the time to make sure it was working, I rediscovered something about my guys. We didn’t need sex to enjoy each other. We always had—yes, I was the blind one, I knew.
At the same time—having them. Feeling them as they filled me over and over? Being able to watch them fall apart as they came inside of me?
It was the fucking best. We didn’t have to have sex.
But it was fun as hell when we did.
Our last day in the Hamptons, I slipped out of the house early to walk Miss Abigail. The sun was just rising as we headed down toward the beach. I could take her off her leash and let her run and play with the water if she desired.
She was such a good girl and stayed close.
The air was cool, but the days were getting longer. The sadness that had been a constant companion had shrunk. The future was right there in front of me and, if I glanced back at the house, it was behind me too.
My past and future were already my present.
“Hey,” Coop called and I swung around again to find him descending the steps toward the sand. “Running away?”
I grinned.
“Never.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
RACHEL IN PARIS?
FRANKIE
“So, what’s made the top of our list?” Flopping back against the pillows, I sat cross-legged on her bed while she packed her things. I’d totally be helping, but Rachel’s type A plan was for me to get out of her way while she did everything.
“You mean my list?”
I sniffed and eyed her over the top of my digital tablet. Her grin was infectious though so I just rolled my eyes. “How about the list?”
“Deal.” Hair pulled back into a ponytail and face bare of cosmetics, Rachel still looked like a million bucks. She was pulling out each item from her closet, holding it up and examining it. Each article of clothing earned an assessing look before it was sorted into one of four piles.
Europe.
Storage at the brownstone.
Donation.
My closet, but for returning later.
The last only had two items in it, but they were my favorite of her shirts and she knew it.
“Right, so,” I continued. “The list begins with an internship with Rene Dubois, lead photographer for Paris Daily. He agreed to sponsor you for the program admission as well. You’ll have a full semester at the Sorbonne studying with Mischa Condre, Alia Gagnon, and a possible feature in an end of the year show for student photographers and artists.”
A half-smile curved her lips. “Please, take note, that I am not going to ask how you pulled all that off.”
“Hashtag humblebrag,” I teased her. “You know damn well you got into the Sorbonne and you got this internship on your own merits.”
Holding up a dark, forest green dress to herself, it was strapless and would hug the body, and the rouching would do amazing things for her figure, not that she needed the help.
“I am kind of awesome,” she admitted, her grin growing. “If I could legally marry myself, I would.”
Laughter rushed through me and I shook my head. “So, your first semester will be primarily in Paris, though there is opportunity to travel with Rene on various assignments.”
“Ooh, run and fetch girl,” Rachel mocked playfully as she settled the green dress into the pile to go to Europe. Good girl.
“You need the heels that match that and the lingerie.”
She flicked me a middle finger and I cackled. “Right, so what else is on this list of yours?”
“Christmas is something we do here at home, I thought, if you wanted, I could fly you back to spend the week after Christmas with us? If you didn’t want to go to your family or spend it in Paris.”
A flush of pleasure lit up her face. “You really don’t have to do that for me, I know how much that holiday with your guys means to you.”
“It does and I wouldn’t have asked if we weren’t all in agreement.” Ian had suggested it when I’d been particularly melancholy about Rachel leaving. But she didn’t need to know that. “You don’t have to decide now, we can check in around Thanksgiving.”
“Fair enough,” she said after a moment’s consideration. “Second semester?”
“You’ll still be attending the Sorbonne in the spring, but your courses are all a form of independent study that will take you to Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, and possibly Spain, but that is marked with asterisks that say it depends on who your assigned advisor is for the spring.”
“That makes sense. Rene DuBois had a very busy career in Paris, so I’ll likely be paired with another instructor or professional, quite possibly a group of us.”
She paused for a moment, hugging a Torched sweatshirt to her chest. The locked arm motion and the deep shudder worried me.
“You’re going to be amazing,” I told her softly. “I’m kind of jealous of you, and at the same time, I have no idea if I could do what you’re doing.”
Flicking her eyes open, she stared at me. “You can do anything you want.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But being that far away from everyone I know? Tearing up the world and making my mark? You are such a fucking bad ass.”
Her snort only made my grin wider. “Right, you push the boundaries on your comfort zones all the time.”
“Yeah, but I’m also secure in the fact that I have all of you to catch me.”
“And what?” She raised both her brows. “Y’all won’t catch me?”
I snorted. “One,” I said, holding up a finger. “You’ll catch yourself long before I even realize you’ve started to fall. Two, if you are falling, you’ll probably yank the asshole pushing you too far with you, so they can break your fall.”
The first made her smile. The second made her grin.
“Third, if after all of that, you were still to hypothetically need me, don’t worry, Team Frankie and the F-Men will be right there to fuck shit up.”
“The F-Men?” The quirky comment did exactly what I hoped, Rachel fell onto the bed next to me laughing. “I fucking love you, blondie. Don’t you ever fucking change.”
Grinning, I glanced from the screen of the tablet to look down at her. “Well, I’ll do my best. But from my experience, adulting sucks, and it ages all of us.”
Shoving me over a little, she climbed up to sit next to me. “What are these dates?”
I had a few highlighted on the calendar. “Ian and I are going to plan some appearances, spread out a little so we’re not gone for months at a time. Those dates are ones we already have tentatively said yes to.”
“This one is in Germany.”
Smugness filled me. “I know.”
“Germany in September?”
I shot her an innocent look. “Well, it’s Octoberfest.”
“Uh huh.”
“Jake and his dad have both told some funny stories about it.”
She continued to eye me.
“We’re only there for a week, well ten days, but we padded it with a couple of days on each side so we could sightsee.”
“Sightsee.”
“Did you know that Paris is only a six-hour train ride from Munich, you know give or take? Like, we can take the night train and sleep, then get to Paris and spend the day. If we have to go back, the night train takes us right back to Munich. If we want…”
Curling her arm around my neck, Rachel dragged me closer to press a kiss to the top of my head. “We should both swear off boys and run away together. I know you like dick and all, but the right strap-on can do wonders.”
I snorted, leaning into her hug. “I’m very high maintenance. I would drive you crazy.”
She appeared to consider that for a long moment. “Man, it might be worth the crash and burn.”
“Nope,” I informed her. “It wouldn’t. Because I’m needy and if you dumped me, I would have to become a stalker and follow you everywhere just to make sure you were okay.”
The corners of her lips twitched. “You make that sound like a bad thing.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “Okay, let’s talk summer and the following year. You should have all the academic credits you need by the end of the second semester to graduate in the States.”
“But I’d need at least one more semester there to qualify for their graduation.”
“Yep.” After she’d let me go, I leaned my head against the wall and studied her. “Or you could have already scored some lucrative job pursuing hot fashion models…”
Rachel made a face. “High fashion models are like a size 0. I prefer to have something to hold onto if I’m going to pursue anyone.”
I bit my lip and her eyes narrowed. “I meant pursuing them for your portfolio.”
“Uh huh, sure you did.” She made a face then stared at her closet and the stacks of clothes. “Why am I doing this again?”
“Because you wanted to go minimalist. Kind of focus on where you are rather than anything else. You also didn’t want to take more than two suitcases and your camera ‘bags.’”
“Right.” She groaned and pushed up from the bed. “Solid plan.”
“I’m happy to help.”
“You are helping,” she said as she walked over to her closet again. “You’re gonna keep Little Dick for me, and store my things, underwriting my European vacation—well studi-cation.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Thank you, for that. I know that you’re the reason I got that grant, but I appreciated how sneakily you did that.”
“Couldn’t have been that sneaky if you figured it out so quickly.”
“Well, you signed your name to it and Archie’s and his dad’s I think.” The look she wore said, “what, was I supposed to not notice that?”
“I solemnly swear, I didn’t interfere or influence anything else.”
“Just the grant that will cover all my living and travel expenses while aboard and supplement my education fees and visa fees for what my scholarships don’t. Oh—and provide me with living accommodations.”
“Pretty much.”
“You really are spending too much time with Archie.”
“Not possible. Besides, according to all of you, my heart it way too big and I give far too much. So, I didn’t add like anything for a car or driver service—but I can, if it will be helpful.”
I caught the shirt she flung at me. “Oh,” I said as I shook it out. “I like this one. Where did you get it?” It was a little big for her, but I loved the band on the front and the shirt itself was super soft.
“It’s Dominic’s. Keep it. Toss it. Give it to the boys.”
I grimaced.
“Nope,” she said firmly. “None of that. It used to be his, he didn’t get all his shit when I told him to. You like it. Keep it. Otherwise, I’m just donating it.”
Now was not the time to bring that up and, to be honest, I didn’t want to put her on the spot about him again. Rachel had made her decision. I would respect it.
“I’ll keep it.” I eyed the pile for donation. The internal argument didn’t need voicing aloud. But I could go through all that stuff for Dominic’s things then put them aside in case Rachel wanted them later. Rachel never had to know. The worst that would happen is she would finally get over this thing and I’d get rid of the stuff later.
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t,” Rachel said and I caught her staring at me.
“Actually, what I was thinking was that I’d like you to do a couple of photoshoots with me and the guys before you go.”
“Yeah?” She was rolling a few pairs of jeans and setting them in the pack pile. “What did you have in mind?”
“Photos of me, so I can do presents for them later. But I also need some of me and Ian for potential album covers. Then, I’d kind of like to do a day in the life with the guys. Slice of life pics.” I grinned. “And if you weren’t too objectionable to it, we could lure you into the photos too.”
“Slice of life pics?” She eyed me. While, yes, I could be transparent. On this one, I’d practiced my innocent look. Besides, I really did want the pictures for the house. “Artistic? Collage? Poster? What are we going for?”
“Family.”
Because we had a lot of little things all over the brownstone. Gifts, photos, and mementoes. After helping Eddie and Archie with Grandpa Ted’s things and the numerous photo albums as well as digital displays of multiple pictures over the years.
They’d actually divided some of them up with Archie bringing a couple of albums home. Then he and Eddie began a project of scanning everything in. Not all the photos were even of people they knew, but there were a lot of photos of both Eddie and Archie as kids.
I wanted more memories like that. We snapped photos randomly, but I wanted pics of the guys that I could put up in my room and down on the walls. Family shots we could add to different places.
A flash of the images on the mantel at Hank’s place danced through my head. Each time I’d gone up to visit, new photos had been added or had begun spreading out over the living room.
The kids. Me. The guys. Sometimes together, sometimes in singles. There was even one of Jeremy and Miss Abigail. I was pretty sure Chloe and Craig insisted on that one.
Rachel looked thoughtful. “I would love to do that for you, do you mind if I use some—with your approval of course—for my final portfolio for this semester?”
“Don’t you usually do the man on the street or strangers together?”
“Sometimes, this time it’s slice of life or even a day in the life of a person or an individual.” Then she tossed another shirt my way. This one was deep red, with spaghetti straps, and lace.
“Dominic’s?” I teased as I held it up.
The twitching corners of her mouth betrayed her before she began laughing. “Do you have any idea how tempting it would be to Photoshop that on him?”
“Don’t fight the temptation,” I said. “You deserve good memories too.”
That was why we abandoned the packing and spent the next forty minutes with Rachel teasing that red lace shirt and a pair of red lace tap bottoms that matched onto a really nice pic of Dominic. I didn’t ask when she’d gotten one of him in his underwear or in that pose.
She didn’t tell.
Still, by the time she was done, I had tears running down my face from laughing. At her questioning look, I managed to be almost sober in my careless shrug.
“Red’s not his color.”
A rich snort escaped her and she tapped her lower lip for a minute before she went to work again. The red cami and taps turned into a shade of rich chocolate. It looked damn good against his tanned skin.
“Better,” I said. “Guy’s got nice legs.”
“His eyes are up top,” Rachel reminded me with a laughing huff. “You also have enough dick to juggle. Trust me when I say, you don’t want to add him to your harem.”
“Even if I did, I wouldn’t go near him.”
That earned me the warmest of looks. “I love you, too.”
“Cool, love me enough to let me finish helping you sort out this mess before we go find food?” My stomach chose that moment to grumble rather loudly. “Or maybe order some in? I’m starving.”
"Go ahead,” she told me, waving me toward the closet. “Do your worst. I’ll get the pizza ordered.” Cell phone in hand, she headed to the door. “I’m also gonna get us some Cokes. Which one of the brother boyfriends is picking you up?”
“Jake,” I told her. “He was working late at the aerodynamics lab so he said he’d come by to grab me when he was done.”
“Right, adding an extra mushroom, onion, and pepperoni.”
Turning to her closet, I grinned. This would go a lot faster if we were both doing it. And I hadn’t missed some of the longing looks she’d given various articles of clothing.
Sometimes, memories were just a little too much. So, if I could help buffer that, I was all in. But ten minutes later when she came back into her dorm room with drinks in hand, she paused.
“What’s wrong?”
I glanced at her and gave the tiniest of shrugs. “The tears thing is a leftover from the new year, but—I hate the idea of you being so far away. Selfishly, I never want you to leave me and at the same time, I can’t wait to hear all about your adventures. Then to come and see you or have you steal away and see us.”
Putting the drinks aside, Rachel crossed over to me and wrapped me up in a hug so tight, I shuddered with relief. It had been easier to think about when it had been months away.
Now, we were a matter of weeks and I’d be saying goodbye to my best friend for a year, possibly two. Who knew? If it went well, maybe she never came back.
“You’re not getting rid of me,” she scolded me. “Texts. Calls. Video calls. Me harassing those assholes you live with and of course, presents, and dirty pictures.”
I burst out laughing and pulled back. “Who are the dirty pictures for?”
“Does it matter?” She grinned, a real one this time. One that lit up her eyes and transformed her whole expression. It was easy to forget just how beautiful she was when she was so damn strong and her personality dominated most people’s opinions of her.
My girl left an impression.
“No, but I have a feeling if I’m looking at foreign dick pics, we should probably add some boob shots for the guys.”
“Very democratic of you.”
“Hey, the only underwear they get into is mine. But I’m not going to tell them they can’t look.”
“Right, they never take their eyes off you so no harm, no foul.”
Well, since she put it that way… “Oh, did I tell you? Jeremy took Miss Bradshaw on an honest to god date.”
“What?” Rachel swiveled and pinned me with a glare. “You did not tell me. Start talking and don’t leave out any details.” She thrust another shirt at me, male. This one still carried a scent of cologne. Right, into the box. “I can’t believe you were holding out on me. You didn’t even tell me when Jeremy and Ann went on that cruise.”
