Page 44 of Summer Breakdown (Training Seasons #2)

“Hey,” Jasmine says. Frankie blows her whistle, and Jasmine knows she held her phone away, but she still scrunches her nose at the sound.

“Hey, sweetheart,” she calls. The sound of the wind makes it difficult to hear her, but Jasmine doesn’t mind the challenge. “How was your meeting?”

Frankie hums. “That’s still annoying. They didn’t sign?”

“Oh, yeah,” Jasmine replies. She clicks the car half back on so she can roll the window down.

She wouldn’t mind sitting here if her family was with her.

Lani would be singing. Marcel would be hanging out the window.

Frankie would—oh, Frankie would be there too.

Jasmine swallows. “I upped my quote as well because they were knobs.”

“I adore you,” Frankie says, then, “I don’t fucking think so, Ezra. To the ground!”

Jasmine smiles. She misses her, and she saw her last night. Well, she saw her through tired blinks this morning before she had to run out the door. Frankie made breakfast without her having to ask. It was nice. It’s also strange, giving over control. She trusts Frankie. Her kids trust Frankie .

“I can get the kids,” Frankie says.

Jasmine sits up. The car is off, but still, she checks her blind spot.

“What?”

Frankie blows the whistle a little, and Jasmine wants to know whose lunge didn’t hit the floor. She tries to imagine Frankie complaining about it over dinner. The way she furrows her brow and rolls her eyes. It’ll be Bright.

“From Mike’s. It’s three-something, and you’re ages away. I’m assuming that’s why you called.”

She chews on her lip. It is three-something, and she’s supposed to pick them up at four.

Mike would have no choice but to keep them until she could get there, but she hates the idea of them feeling unwanted.

She’s been thinking about getting full custody.

Mike would fight it just to fight it, but she’s not sure he’d do it for long.

Lani would be sad in the moment, but she’d get past it. Maybe.

“Yeah, but I was just venting to you. I didn’t mean you had to do anything. I just like talking to you.”

Frankie laughs. “You know you’re my girlfriend, right?”

Jasmine smiles, her heart beating faster. Jasmine is thirty in a few weeks, and she’s blushing in her car alone because the woman she’s falling in love with said she was her girlfriend for the first time.

“I am?”

“Don’t be cute,” Frankie responds. Jasmine hums, slipping her sandals off and pulling her knees onto her chair.

“You’re allowed to ask me for stuff.”

Jasmine doesn’t call her out on her hypocrisy, because she’s trying hard. Jasmine knows that.

“I know.”

“You’re allowed to ask me for stuff that’s not just me eating you out.”

Jasmine rolls her eyes. “You’re so ridiculous.”

Frankie laughs, then shouts, “Johnson, run that pass again.” It’s Friday, so practice is until five. Frankie would have to cancel and deal with the fallout. Jasmine hadn’t even considered asking her to drop everything to pick her kids up.

“Sweetheart?”

“Huh?”

“Hi, you’re back.” Jasmine loves that she knows Frankie is smiling. How nice it is to know someone so well.

“Sorry.”

“That’s alright,” Frankie replies. “So, can I get them? You know Lani adores me, right? Marcel thinks I’m at least half-cool. And you know I’d push anyone in front of a bus for them, you included.”

Jasmine smiles, and she’s sure Frankie knows that too. “I’m not sure why I’m being attacked right now.”

Frankie hums. “Do you need to call Mike? Do I need a password?”

Jasmine rolls her eyes. He’ll probably have something to say, but he’ll want to get the kids out more than he’ll care about it.

Jasmine has told him Frankie exists because she’s polite and trying her hardest to coparent.

He doesn’t offer her that decency. “You have practice, and it’s the last quarter of the season. ”

Frankie blows the whistle again. “Lads! Practice is cancelled. Go home or run laps, I don’t care.”

“What?” Ezra shouts. “Why?”

“I’m going to pick the kids up.” Frankie’s smiling again. Jasmine won’t call her out on it. She matches her.

“Oh. Alright.”

“Right,” Frankie says, talking to Jasmine. “I don’t have practice now. So, what do you say?”

Jasmine has no issues with Frankie being alone with her children.

She’s just getting used to letting someone do something for her without feeling like a burden.

Frankie adores Lani and Marc. She fights Jasmine for bedtime reading, and she wins because Lani is a little traitor and Frankie does good voices.

Jasmine isn’t worried about what they might do; she just wants to be there.

She takes a deep breath. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I’m going to let Lani eat ice cream.”

“Okay,” Jasmine replies. “Um, I gotta call Mike.”

“Ew, gross. What’s the password?”

“You’re ridiculous,” Jasmine repeats.

“You like me so bad,” Frankie replies. “It’s embarrassing for you.”

“I do like you so bad,” Jasmine responds, and she smiles at the way she knows Frankie’s jaw has dropped a little.

“Don’t be mean,” she groans. “You know I blush easy.” Jasmine wants to say a hundred things, maybe more.

Too many to sort through. They press up against her ribs, crowd her throat, so she can’t find where she’d even begin.

She presses her face into her palm. Jasmines pathetic.

She’s hopeless. She’s so stupidly in love she can hardly stand it.

“Can I take them to the shopping centre over in Taunton?” Frankie asks.

“Sure.”

“Yay,” Frankie replies. “Okay, I’ll text you updates.”

“I trust you,” Jasmine says. It’s no longer scary how true that is. She never thought she’d have anyone to leave her children with. Jasmine doesn’t like to be without them, but she knows Lani will light up when Frankie picks them up. Marcel might smirk a little, but he’d be pleased too.

“I know, but I know you wanna be here too, and I bet Lani made Marc match shorts.”

Jasmine laughs. It’s lame that she misses them so much.

“I bet she did.”

“Mm-hmm. Okay, text you when I’ve got them!”

“Bye, my girl.”

Frankie pulls up outside Mike’s at exactly three fifty-five, and she’s not due to get them until four, but they’re already outside, waiting with their bags.

If she kicked him in the shin, would he call the police?

It might be worth it. He’s not here, though.

The front door is open, so she supposes he hasn’t abandoned them, but she hates him all the same.

“Frankie!” Lani says, and she walks towards her. It’s a quick walk, but it’s not a run—either because Frankie keeps telling her to slow down, or because she’s been walking too much today.

“Hey, monster girl,” she says, picking her up. Lani rests against her more than usual, her body sagging against Frankie the moment she can. “Hey, Marc.”

“Hi,” he replies, with a small smile. “Where’s Ma?”

“Stuck in traffic.”

“Oh. Thanks for picking us up.”

“Of course! I love hanging out with you guys,” she replies. “I should let your dad know I’ve got you.”

“I’ll go,” Marcel replies. “Do you need help putting Lani’s wheelchair in the boot?”

Frankie smiles. He’s so sweet. “I’ve got it, bud.

” It doesn’t take long to make sure Lani is strapped in, and then she waves to Mike at the door.

He closes it without responding, but at least he knows she has gotten the kids, and that Marcel isn’t just running away from him because he’s the worst. Marcel sighs as he gets in the passenger seat.

“How was your night?” Frankie asks.

“It was fine, thank you,” Lani replies. Fine? Lani never thinks something is fine. She has an eight-page thesis on the colour pink .

Frankie frowns, looking at Marcel. He doesn’t say anything either.

“Are we going home?” Lani asks.

There’s a surface-level panic coursing through her body.

Marcel seems down. Lani might be tired. They’re not in matching clothes.

Frankie wants to call Jasmine—she’d know what to do.

Lani’s face would light up with just the idea of talking to her.

But Frankie knows she’d be worried, and that there’s nothing Jasmine can do right now.

Jasmine is miles away, and besides Frankie trying to find her on a gridlocked motorway, she’s the parent right now.

“Well, I thought we could go to the shopping centre in Taunton, but—“

Lani gasps, and Marcel spins to look at her. They’re talking to each other without talking to each other. Frankie didn’t know how frustrating it was when she and Ezra did it. Now, she kind of feels bad for her parents.

“As you know, it’s your mum’s birthday soon,” Frankie says. When she gets nervous, she starts talking like she’s performing a seminar. “I want to get her some things and thought maybe you could help me pick?”

There’s silence, then some more looking. Frankie’s about to pass out. It’s a good thing they haven’t moved from the side of the road.

“Frankie,” Marcel says, after a tense fifteen seconds where Frankie thought they’d never talk to her again.

“Yes, babe?”

He rolls his lips, shuffling in his seat. Frankie checks the rearview and, sure enough, Lani’s eyebrows are rising. “Do you have any chores you need doing?”

Frankie frowns. “Chores?”

“Yeah,” Marcel replies. “Like, do you want us to wash your car?”

Rude. Also unnecessary because this car, clean or dirty, is a heap of shit. “A dirty car just makes sense! ”

“Uhm,” he says, looking out the window, “or we could do your laundry.”

“What do you want to do chores for?”

Lani steps in when Marcel turns bright red. “Because then you could pay us, and we can get Mama things for her birthday.” Oh.

“I saved my lunch money,” Marcel says, “but then we had to replace the wheels Lani has at Dad’s.”

“What?” A feral need to protect them rushes over Frankie. Mike is also three seconds away from getting whacked, and he’s not making it easier on her. “Why did you?”