Page 57 of Summer Breakdown (Training Seasons #2)

“Mama,” Lani says, her little voice close to her face. Jasmine smiles. She missed her.

“Morning, baby.” She opens her eyes slowly, moving her legs around, but there’s no ankles to touch.

Oh. She turns slyly, trying not to jostle Lani. Frankie’s gone. Jasmine wants to pretend she’s not surprised. That this is what she knew she’d do, but it wouldn’t be true. She believed her wholeheartedly.

“Mama, I think it’s sunny today,” Lani says.

The excitement in her voice makes Jasmine smile somehow.

Maybe the wild garden with animals won’t work out here.

Ezra won’t be able to help Marcel create it anymore, but they could go somewhere else.

She thought this town was their home, but it might have been Frankie all along.

“Mm-hmm,” Jasmine replies. “You want a pool day?”

Lani hums, threads of laughter caught in her throat. “Please. Please.”

There’s an ache at the back of Jasmine’s eyes. “What’s the time?”

Lani looks to the side, which means it’s not time to get up. Jasmine looks at her clock. Five fifteen a.m. Wow, Frankie really left in the middle of the night. Perhaps she didn’t sleep at all. Maybe she waited for Jasmine’s hopeful eyes to close and dipped moments later .

Jasmine can’t even contemplate believing it. There’s a reason she’s not here. She’ll check her phone and there will be something.

“Baby, it’s too early. You’ll be so tired at lunchtime.” Lani grumbles. “How are you going to play mermaids with me all day if you’re so sleepy?”

She giggles. “‘Kay.”

“‘Kay,” Jasmine replies. “Let’s get you back to bed.” Lani goes back down easily, and the walk back to Jasmine’s room isn’t as long as she’d like.

She isn’t sure she’ll go back to sleep, but she hopes so.

God, she’s tired. Her room looks the same as it did when she left, and she was hoping it would look different.

“Is it just you?” Frankie asks, and Jasmine yelps.

“Frank?”

She pops her head out from under the bed like a jack-in-the-box.

“What are you doing?” Jasmine asks, with her hand over her heart. She’s here.

“I couldn’t say hi yesterday, and I—we haven’t spoken about them. If she saw me, we wouldn’t have a moment to discuss it. I tried to get to the bathroom but, fuck, Lani is fast.”

Jasmine pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. “Did you army-crawl under there?”

Frankie blushes. “No.”

She’s so in love with her. Jasmine doesn’t want to punish her. She’s happy, and she’s safe, and she loves her. They’ve got work to do together, but she never anticipated it would be easy. It’s not hard. Just different.

“Like I saw in your office?” Jasmine asks, her head tilted, and Frankie groans with a smile. She gets up, her abs moving as she does. Jasmine should get her a top.

“Be nice to me.”

“I’m always nice to you.”

Frankie smiles. “You are. Are you getting up? ”

“No. It’s the crack of dawn.” She wants to get back into bed, but she feels gross.

Frankie goes with her when she washes her face and brushes her teeth.

Her eyes light up when she sees her things are still there.

Jasmine flops back onto the bed, and Frankie laughs.

She moves the books from her side of the bed and stacks them on the sideboard.

Then, she lies next to her. They don’t touch, but Jasmine can feel her there, even with her eyes closed.

“Do you want me to leave? Now, or before they wake up?” Frankie asks.

Jasmine frowns against her pillow. She wants Frankie in her life, but she’s not sure how to go about it. There’s a trust she has that never disappeared with the episode. Jasmine doesn’t think the same thing will happen again, but she’d thought that before.

“I was thinking,” Frankie starts, her fingers light against the back of Jasmine’s arm, “I want to tell them. If I’m in their life at all.”

Jasmine sits up. “Yeah?”

Frankie shrugs a little. She’s leaning back against the headboard, and Jasmine wants her to lie down if only so she can lie on her.

“If you think it’s okay. It would make me feel better if I wasn’t around for a little bit that they knew why. I’ve felt so guilty not being here and not giving them an explanation. I never want them to be waiting on me.”

Jasmine’s chest softens, and she leans closer to Frankie, who holds her arm out. Jasmine smiles, sliding into the space. “How are you now?”

Frankie takes a deep breath. “Tired. Coming off a low takes a while. Only a few days for most of it, but I am tired.”

Jasmine hums, running her fingers over Frankie’s abs. “Okay. If you wanted, you could have your low periods here. You don’t have to leave.”

She kisses her forehead. “I’m not fun to be around. ”

Jasmine shrugs, tilting her face to look at her. “Whatever works better for you. I will love you either way, low or not.”

Frankie’s lip pops out, and she looks so much like Lani. “You will?”

“Every day. All the time.”

Frankie lifts Jasmine onto her chest, then slides down the bed until they’re lying down. She pushes the stray curls out of Jasmine’s face, her fingers soft against her cheek.

“I love you. More than I could possibly articulate, but I will try every day for the rest of time, if you’ll let me.”

Jasmine smiles and kisses her nose. “I’ll think about it.” Their noses brush for real, and Frankie leans in.

“You have to be sure,” Jasmine whispers. “Don’t kiss me unless you’re sure.”

Frankie leans in again, but Jasmine backs up.

“I’m serious. Think about it.”

Before, they were dating. Jasmine knows it to be true. This is something else.

“I am always thinking about it,” Frankie says. “I know what comes with kissing you.”

“You do?”

“Yeah,” Frankie replies, her hand against her jaw. “It comes with going to bed at nine thirty.”

“Oh my God.” Jasmine laughs, burying her face against Frankie’s neck.

“And it comes with watching the kids at football, even though they’re so rude for ditching rugby.

It comes with family dinners that Lani dishes up.

It comes with camping, even though my back doesn’t like camping.

I’m hoping it comes with Lani calling me Mum, even if you already have the cute version of that. ”

Jasmine smiles brightly. Frankie looks at her with stars in her eyes. “You want to kiss me anyway?”

Frankie shakes her head. “Not anyway. There’s nothing bad about any of the things I said. Being with you is revolutionary. You’ve given me everything I never thought I’d be able to have. There’s no despite. I want to kiss you because of it.”

Jasmine’s throat burns for an entirely different reason. She really might get to keep Frankie for the rest of her life.

“I want to kiss you because you stuck stars on the ceiling for me,” Frankie says, kissing her temple.

“I want to kiss you because you rubbed circles on my back when I didn’t even know who I was.

” Her nose this time. “I want to kiss you because, during the scariest moment of my life, you were the thing that pulled me through.” Her cheek.

“You’re the first thing I thought about when I woke up. ”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Frankie replies, a kiss on her lips. “And you’re smoking-fucking-hot. I wanna kiss you for that too.”

Jasmine’s eyes go wide, and then she laughs, and Frankie matches her. Jasmine wants to bottle the sound and carry it around with her always.

“I love you,” Jasmine says.

“I love you more.”

Jasmine shrugs. “Okay.”

Frankie laughs like she thought she would, her head so far back Jasmine can only see the muscles in her neck. “Come back here and tell me you love me the most.” But before Jasmine can say anything.

“I love you,” Frankie whispers. “Please kiss me.”

And, as with their first kiss, Jasmine smiles into it.

There’s no way Jasmine slept for more than another ninety minutes, but she feels rejuvenated when she steps into the kitchen. Lani is already at the table, legs swinging as she throws Jasmine into a conversation the moment she sees her.

“Maybe we could call Frankie and see if she wants to be mermaids?” Lani asks, as she grips the crayon in her hand.

Jasmine smiles. “Morning, baby.”

Lani smiles back. “Morning, Mama.”

“Are you going to try and drown me?” Frankie asks, walking into the kitchen, and Lani squeals, the crayons spilling onto the floor.

“Frankenstein!”

Frankie picks her up before she has a moment to get off her chair. “Oh, hi, monster girl.”

“I missed you,” Lani says, her hands against Frankie’s cheeks. She kisses her nose, and Frankie laughs, kissing her back.

“I missed you most.”

Marcel comes running down the hallway, sliding into the kitchen in his swim shorts and no top despite the fact the sun won’t be hot enough until midday.

“Frankie!”

“Hey, champ,” she says, and he hugs her.

“Where you been, loca?”

Frankie laughs, her head back. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you watch Twilight . Oh my God.”

Marcel sits at the table, and Frankie places Lani down.

“Let me make tea, and then catch me up,” Frankie says. Jasmine has already clicked the kettle on. “Lan, are you having cereal?”

“Please.”

“Marc?”

“I had toast,” he replies. “But, sure, why not.”

Jasmine could sit down, but she likes watching Frankie move around. Everything is second nature to her, even if she wasn’t here. She picks her favourite mug, and Jasmine’s. She grabs the kids’ ones and makes the tea as she hums along to the music Marcel is playing from the speaker .

“You’re staring,” Frankie whispers. She loads the teapot, milk, and sugar onto a tray.

Jasmine grabs the mugs. “I know.”

Frankie smiles. “I love you.”

“I know that, too.”

The moment they sit down, Marcel starts talking.

“I went to Tabitha’s for dinner.”

Frankie’s eyes widen. “Tell me everything .”

Jasmine adores how she’s not faking it. She truly wants to know everything about him. If Frankie got her own way, she’d make them replay the entire time she missed.

“I saw her room.”

Jasmine laughs as Frankie’s eyebrow arches. “With parental supervision?”

“Oh my God, you’re like Mum,” Marcel groans. “The door was wide open, and I sat on the floor.”