Chapter One
Crazy in Love
Being back at school exhilarated me. From the moment we walked into the cafeteria together, to when I gave Ian and Jake quick kisses before heading off with Archie for first period, my spirits remained high. Were people staring? Yup.
Did I care?
Nope.
Archie kept giving me these sideways looks and biting back smiles.
“What?” I asked, raising a brow as my phone dinged.
He chuckled as he slid his arm around my shoulders and took over piloting while I glanced at my phone. “Nothing. Just happy that you’re happy.”
“Well you need to be happy for you, too,” I retorted, giving him an elbow. The text on my phone was from Coop, with pictures of my kisses with Ian and Jake. Well that didn’t take long. Only he also sent a pouty face.
I laughed. I’d given him a kiss when he said he had to run to the library before class. Archie snorted as he glanced at my phone. “Next time kiss Rachel, too, then he can really pop a blood vessel.”
I elbowed him again, but it barely had any impact as he chuckled and then pressed a kiss to my temple before turning us into class. I fired off a quick text to Coop that promised I’d make it up to him later.
A minute after we were in our seats, Rachel’s text hit my phone.
Rachel: Brace yourself. They already hit Snapchat and Instagram.
I scrolled back to Coop’s text and the two pictures he’d sent. They weren’t bad shots really. I saved them to a file on my phone and then tabbed back over to Rachel’s message.
Me: Fuck ’em.
Rachel: That’s my girl.
My phone buzzed twice more, both messages to our group chat.
Archie: You snooze you lose, Coop. Don’t whine cause you had to go to the library. You could have asked F to go with.
Coop: <middle finger emoji>
Jake and Ian piled on, but I just grinned and shut the screen off. It was going to be a great day.
My mood held through calculus and all the way to French. It faltered a little when I realized Mathieu wasn’t present. He always beat me to class, but he wasn’t there. That kind of sucked. Rachel quirked a brow at me as she dropped into her desk. “Problem?” she mouthed, but I shook my head.
Madame cleared it up when she reminded all of us that Mathieu had gone home, his semester abroad ended in December.
Oh. My. God.
I was the absolute worst kind of friend. I had completely forgotten I wouldn’t see him again. I hadn’t even said goodbye. Man, I sucked.
Rachel nudged me with a foot, and I shook my head. “Just…I didn’t even think about the fact that he wouldn’t be back.” I’d breezed out of that last class with him with a half-wave, and I was off. Since we’d been able to blow off classes on the actual last day, we hadn’t bothered to show up.
She let out a little huff of laughter and rolled her eyes. I flipped her off with my hand hidden behind my book so Madame wouldn’t catch it, and Rachel snorted again. Bitch.
But we grinned at each other and then dove into class.
Seriously, though, it kind of bugged me all the way through AP Lit, and I was chewing on the thought when Ms. Fajardo asked me to stick around for a couple of minutes after class. Apparently, I wasn’t doing a good job of hiding my concern, because Coop shot me looks all the way through class and then lingered with me as the others left to head to lunch.
With a roll of her eyes, Ms. Fajardo just shook her head at Coop before focusing on me. “I just have a packet for you to review so you can get me any questions you have.” She held out the folder, and I stared at her blankly for a minute.
As I took it, I stared at it and then her. “I feel like I’m forgetting something.”
“The internship.”
Oh. Shit.
Coop snickered at me. The asshole. “Sorry, Ms. Fajardo, Frankie’s still recovering from our holiday break. I think she might have had too much Christmas cheer.”
I totally didn’t wait to flip him off with one hand behind my back before I opened the folder.
Amused, Ms. Fajardo said, “It’s fine. You got all the paperwork in, and since you have the temporary emancipation order, we were able to get it all finalized without involving your mother.”
Good.
“So, just take that home and read it tonight. Email me any questions, and we can talk tomorrow. Orientation is next week, so you’ll be signing out on Wednesday for that. Then likely Wednesdays and Fridays for the next few weeks.”
“Thank you,” I told her. I really had forgotten all about this. Fuck, that was going to add to the pile I already had.
“And on that note,” Coop said, hooking an arm around me. “I better go feed her before the hamster wheel burns out. I can already see the lists she’s typing in her head.”
With another laugh, Ms. Fajardo waved us out, and I hugged the folder to myself as we walked. “I can’t believe I forgot about this.”
“I can,” Coop teased. “We had a lot more fun things to think about than…” He cut his head to the side. “Business opportunities. Since when do you care about business opportunities?”
“It’s the scholarship and grant money,” I reminded him. “I’d like to keep all my options open.”
He grunted, then pressed a kiss to my temple before pausing in the hallway to nudge me against a locker.
“Coop,” I warned him.
He just grinned, the little shit. “Frankie. PDAs are back on the table.” Then he kissed me with enough ferocity, it threatened to burn right through my clothes.
“Mr. Brennan. Miss Curtis.” The prim voice intruded right through the lustful haze slapping me right back to Earth.
Wearing the cockiest smile, Coop lifted his head and glanced at Ms. Phillips. We’d had her for ninth grade humanities. “Hey, Mrs. P.”
“Good afternoon, you two. Off you go, and I’ll pretend there was nothing to see here.” The warning was unmistakable, but so was the indulgent smile on her face. I had to be about fifty-eight different shades of red, but Coop just grinned.
“Sure thing. We’re going to be late to lunch anyway.” He gave me a mock glare. “You really need to stop dragging me against walls, Frankie. We’re at school.”
Asshole.
I narrowed my eyes, and he waggled his brows.
If he wanted to play that way, game on.
“Sure thing,” I retorted as I ducked under his arm. “I’ll make sure I just trip you next time and grab Rachel. She won’t complain.”
I made it all of three steps before he had an arm around me. “I don’t know whether to spank you for that or get turned on, ’cause that’s kind of hot.”
“Keep it up, Cooper. I’ll do it.”
He laughed. “No you won’t, because you wouldn’t want to lead Rachel on.”
“You and your logic can bite me,” I told him as we pushed out the doors to where Jake and the guys waited with the SUV.
“That can be arranged,” Coop said with a grin.
“Why are you two always late?” Jake asked, glaring at us over the edge of his sunglasses. I slid my own on as our phones pinged.
“I apparently assaulted Coop in the hallway when I tripped him, and his mouth landed on my lips.”