Page 30 of Summer Breakdown (Training Seasons #2)

“It’s his dream house. Well, it’s the dream home of two people in the kitchen right now.”

Jasmine smiles. It would suit them perfectly. Ezra and Cam with their matching grills, Cam with rollers in, feeding cows. “I can imagine them there.”

Frankie smiles. “He’d let Marcel do whatever, of course.” It’s nice that everyone in the group thinks Jasmine and her family will be with them for a while. Ezra put an entire path on the side of his house for her child who, reasonably, could walk ninety percent of the time.

“I do like my house, and the lack of mice.”

Frankie laughs, then looks to the house when they hear laughter that sounds a lot like Frankie’s. “We should go. That’s my parents.”

“Okay. ”

Why is she nervous? Jasmine isn’t anyone’s girlfriend. Her children are well-behaved. Meeting parents isn’t a big deal.

So, why does it feel like it is?

Frankie stops. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

Frankie frowns, turns, and blocks the way, not letting her out of the shed. Her hand rests against her arm. God, she’s testing Jasmine with the whole not pushing her against a wall thing. Her head tilts. “Tell me something.”

Jasmine smiles despite herself. “We only see my parents, like, once a year. I feel like meeting parents is important. What if they hate me?”

“They won’t hate you.”

“Mike’s parents hated me.” It shouldn’t be a comparison. Mike was her boyfriend, and Frankie is not her girlfriend.

Frankie scoffs, her hand slipping from Jasmine’s arm to her hand. “I hate them. Give me photos. They’re banned from Titans grounds.”

Jasmine laughs, her head tipped back. Frankie looks at her with a smile.

“You’re ridiculous,” Jasmine says.

“You’re beautiful,” Frankie replies quickly, then swallows.

“I want to be more intentional with you.” Her thumb rubs over her knuckles.

“With what I tell you, and how I act. So, I hope this might make you feel better. I think you’re gorgeous, obviously, but with more things than that. I want to clarify—“

“You’re talking like you’re answering a work email,” Jasmine replies. She steps slightly closer.

Frankie chuckles. “I’ve practiced this just as many times.” She swallows. “The night we met, it wasn’t bad for me.”

“Oh.”

“I think it might have been the best orgasm of my life,” she laughs, with a huff, running her hand over her face. Jasmine’s body lights up. She might start ascending.

She gasps. “It was? Are you lying? ”

“I’m a terrible liar,” Frankie says. It’s true; she is. “I never want to lie to you. I’m really sorry if I ruined it for you.”

Jasmine smiles. “You didn’t.”

Frankie takes a deep breath, then says, “I don’t want there to be any confusion. I left, and I’m sorry. I am. I’ll never forgive myself, and—“

“I forgive you,” Jasmine says easily. She forgave her the next morning. She forgives her for the rest too. It was easy the moment she told her she missed her.

“You do?”

“I do.”

Jasmine pictures her saying “I do” in another setting. She’s not going to mention it, though.

“I just hope you know that I did want to take you home,” Frankie says.

Jasmine wants to kiss her. “The moment I saw you. I would have wanted to take you home no matter what.” Jasmine blinks, her eyes wide.

“If I had seen you in the middle of a zombie apocalypse,” she says, and Jasmine laughs.

“If I were on the way to my own wedding, I would have wanted you. And yeah, it’s because you’re out-of-this-world stunning, but it was so much more than that, so quickly. ”

Jasmine holds on to her hand. “I want to be your friend. I want you to like me. I want to struggle through my thoughts just to have a three-minute conversation with you.”

“I want that too,” Jasmine replies, moving back slightly. “I’m a little nervous about it, because you come with a lot of people I want to keep, but you are at the top of that list.”

More laughter comes from the kitchen. Jasmine tugs Frankie out of the shed.

“The very top?” Frankie asks.

“Mm-hmm.”

“I’m telling Ezra.”

Jasmine laughs, pushing Frankie away as they walk back into the kitchen .

“Frankie,” her dad says. He’s precisely two apples tall. Apart from that, he looks like Ezra and Frankie. Adorable. Then his eyes land on her, and Jasmine smiles.

“Jasmine!” Oh. She’s been introduced already.

“Hi,” she replies. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“We’ve heard so much about you,” he says, pulling her into a hug.

“Daraki, in case my rude children didn’t tell you.

And this is Imani.” Imani is taller, with darker skin.

It’s sort of ridiculous that the entire family could be models.

She’s in a bright yellow headscarf and is coming for Cam in the amount of jewellery she has on.

Jasmine waves. “These are my womb mates, Kehlani and Marcel.” Jasmine thinks they already met, because Lani is slyly moving closer to Daraki, like maybe he has something in his pocket.

“Womb mates?” Daraki repeats, then laughs loudly. Jasmine finds where Ezra gets it from.

“Oh, I love it,” Imani replies. She comes around and hugs Jasmine too. Her hands rest against Jasmine’s jaw. “Such a beautiful face.”

Jasmine blushes, but Imani isn’t looking at her anymore. Her hands remain, however. “Now I know why Frankie won’t stop talking about you.”

Frankie groans.

“Moan all you like, Francesca; it doesn’t make it untrue.”

“If you wanted me to have a longer name, you should have called me something else,” Frankie says. “You can’t just make it up now.”

Imani humphs. Her hands drop from Jasmine’s face but then move to her hands. “Did Ezra offer you a drink?”

“I’m doing it, Ma,” Frankie says, as she pours glasses. Lemonade, and she puts cherry syrup in one. Jasmine smiles.

Imani hums. “So, Jasmine, are you married?”

“Oh my God,” Frankie replies, her forehead on the counter. Lani rubs her neck .

“I’m not,” Jasmine replies. Though, with the smile Imani gives her, she thinks she knew that anyway.

“Girlfriend?” Imani asks, and she’s sure Frankie is going to slip to the floor.

“Nope.”

Imani gasps. “Well, would you look at that? My wonderful daughter doesn’t have a girlfriend either.”

“Ma!”

Jasmine laughs. “She doesn’t?”

“Jasmine!”

Jasmine hums. “Frankie, please. I’m having a conversation.”

Frankie screws up her nose, and Jasmine thinks she’s utterly delightful.

“Lani, we need to set the table,” Cam says, then looks at her with a smile while Lani looks at the distance of the table.

Lani hums. “I could do two trips.”

Cam nods. “Okay, babygirl. What about just one, but with the bread?”

Imani asks, “You don’t need your chair today, Kehlani?”

Lani shakes her head. “Ezra always picks me up, so we left it in the car.”

“So clever. Ezra talks about you a lot.”

Lani giggles. “He does?”

“Oh, yes. We have all the rules. My hands are clean, and he said if I wore yellow, you might think I was cool, and if I watched the football, Marcel would want to chat about it, but I zoned out in the first half.”

Lani smiles, bending with the force of it. Cam holds her hand against her chest because Lani’s still sitting on the side, and she has no self-preservation skills. “I love yellow.”

Imani winks at her.

“The path looks great, son,” Daraki says. “Did you do it? Keith said he was going to drop the bricks off.”

“Yeah,” Ezra replies, as he dishes up. God, it smells good. “He did. Talked at me the entire time. ”

“Did you speak back?”

Ezra grunts.

“What did you need the path for?” Lani asks.

“In case you need your chair,” Ezra replies.

Lani blinks. “Oh. Mama, we didn’t even use it! We should go get it.”

“You don’t need to get it, baby,” Jasmine replies. “It’s just in case. But it’s very kind.”

“We didn’t have to think about it,” Cam says, with a frown. “No one needed anything accessible. Now I feel gross about it. Everyone’s fixing it quickly, though, and we’re sorry.”

“Fixing what?” Jasmine asks.

“Making sure Lani can get in. The shop is fine. It has flat surfaces throughout so babygirl can come and take cookies whenever she wants,” Cam says, tapping her on the nose. Lani’s eyes light up.

“Sugar fixed the path the other day, but Frank’s lift has been broken since she moved in, and she’s spent like eight hours threatening to sue the landlord if he doesn’t fix it.”

Jasmine looks over at Frankie. The woman she’s been studiously ignoring for weeks, while she’s been trying to make sure Lani could come over. Ugh. Jasmine might really want to like her.

“My place is a nightmare for chairs, but I’m hoping to move soon, so we can’t do events there until I do. And Zach put a path to their back door this week—you’ve seen the width of their front door.”

Jasmine blinks rapidly. Yes, access is something she must think about, and for public spaces, she wishes it was thought about more. She wasn’t expecting them to all run and fix it in their homes and workplaces in case Lani wanted to go around in her chair, though. Her throat burns. She has friends.

“I could have carried her,” Marcel replies.

“Because you’re great,” Cam replies, and, true to form, Marcel blushes. “But what if babygirl wants her chair? ”

“That’s very nice of you,” Jasmine replies. “I can’t believe everyone is trying to steal my children.”

Lani giggles, and Marcel smiles as he shows Daraki something on his phone.

“Cam-Cam, why are you moving?”

“Sometimes, you outgrow your place,” Cam says with, a shrug, but she averts her eyes. “I want somewhere with a garden. I don’t have one right now.”

Lani hums. “Then you could grow daisies!”

“I could. And I’d have ducks.”

Lani gasps. “I love ducks!” Jasmine really might make her garden into a homestead. She couldn’t have horses—there’s not enough space—but she could have ducks. Maybe some cows.

“Ez,” Jasmine says, “did you do your garden?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you do mine?”

“Yeah,” he replies. “What do you want?”

“I dunno. I’d need to plan it with the kids, but maybe something a bit more natural. We want to keep the pool, though.”

“Pool and cows!” Lani says. “And duckies, and the ones with the horns.”

“Horns?” Jasmine asks, and Lani frowns.

“Frankie?”

“Yes, babe?” Frankie replies. She’s setting the table, and Jasmine wants to sit next to her. Or opposite her. Near her.

“When you told me the story the other day, which animal had the horns?”

“Goats,” she replies. What story? Jasmine wants to know the story.

“Thanks, babe,” Lani replies, and her eyes are wide when everyone laughs.

Ezra smiles. “Make a list. I’ll come over and we can plan it. Marcel can help me.”

“Tight,” Jasmine says .

“Tight,” Lani repeats. “Cam-Cam and Frankie and I can watch and play mermaids.”

Jasmine smiles. “You can.”

“And we should get Mali too.”

“Okay.” Jasmine waits for it.

“And Zach.”

“Right,” Ezra says. “Get seated.”

“I didn’t even do the bread, Mama,” Lani whispers, but it’s too late—Ezra walks past her, tucking her under his arm like a surfboard as Lani cackles sideways.

Jasmine grabs the bread, but by the time she gets to the table, there’s only one seat left. Frankie is on the other side of the table. Not even opposite. Jasmine tries not to frown.

“Jasmine,” Imani says, getting up. She’s opposite Frankie, and not at all subtle. “Can we switch?”