Page 58 of Summer Breakdown (Training Seasons #2)

Frankie laughs, pulling Jasmine closer with her hand against her thigh. “Good.”

Marcel puts some cereal into a bowl and then passes it to Lani. “Tab is bi.”

“Cute,” Jasmine replies. Kids are much more open now than they were at her age. Frankie reaches for her hand.

“It’s annoying.”

“Excuse me?” Frankie says, and Marcel’s eyes widen.

“No—not for that!”

Frankie squints, but she’s playing. “Why, then?”

He groans. “I’m used to my friends fancying Ma because—“

“She looks like a goddess, yeah,” Frankie replies, and Jasmine laughs, resting her head against Frankie’s shoulder. She’s so ridiculously happy she might burst into pure sunlight.

“Yeah. So I was expecting Tab to like her face too, and I had prepared myself. But she has a poster of you in her room, and it’s ruining my life. ”

“Me?” Frankie asks. Jasmine loves when people talk about Frankie being beautiful.

Jasmine saying it won’t mean as much because Frankie will think she’s saying it because she loves her—which she does, but it’s true too.

Tabitha is a fourteen-year-old with no desire to lie to Frankie and probably doesn’t actually want Marcel to mention it at all.

Jasmine can see the blush on Frankie’s cheeks. She’s so fucking cute.

Marcel rests his forehead against the table. “Two of you in the house is so unfair.”

Frankie cackles, and Jasmine feels it more than she hears it.

“I’d like a Frankie poster in my room,” Lani says. Frankie winks at her, and Lani pushes her bowl away, her elbows on the table and her fingers crossed like a tiny manager. “Are you feeling better now? Mama said you were sick.”

Frankie takes a deep breath, rubbing her thumb over Jasmine’s hand. “Yeah, I’m getting better. Um, I might get sick again. Not soon, but perhaps.”

Lani’s head tilts to the side. “Why?”

“I’m bipolar,” Frankie says calmly. “It’s a mental illness, so it happens in my brain.”

“Where you have a split personality?” Marcel asks. He places his phone screen side down. It’s serious.

“Not quite. There’s not two of me in here, though sometimes it feels like it.”

“I would like there to be two of you,” Lani replies. Frankie smiles, and Jasmine taps her foot with her own.

“I take pills to help it. So, most of the time, I’m okay.”

“Like I do for my legs?”

“Yeah,” Frankie replies. “You know how you take them but sometimes they still ache a little?”

Lani nods, and Marcel looks at the table.

“Kind of like that. I’m not in pain, but I do get very sad.”

Lani gets off her chair, like Jasmine thought she would, and climbs into Frankie’s lap .

“I can help with that.”

“You can?”

Lani nods, then kisses Frankie’s face until she’s laughing. “And I can make you some drawings. Marcy is good at cheering up. Mama’s the best at it, and she’d help because she loves you,” Lani says.

Frankie hums. “You’re the sweetest. Sometimes I’ll be sad even if you do all of that. But I’ll still love you the most.”

“That’s okay,” Lani says, her fingers against the short hair on Frankie’s head. She rubs her hands back and forwards. “You can have the sofa to yourself if you’re sad. Marcy and I can make you beans on toast.” Frankie smiles, and Jasmine has never loved Lani more. And it’s hard.

“Marc?” Jasmine asks. She loves him too.

He looks up, chewing on his lip. “Do you talk to someone about it?”

“Yeah,” Frankie replies. “I’ve had a therapist since I was your age.”

He hums. “That’s good. I’m glad you’re good most of the time. You can be sad here. You don’t have to go to your house. We like it when you’re here. It feels like something’s missing when you’re not.”

Jasmine was always worried about how the kids would take a new adult. She reads the horror stories about them lashing out because they miss their dad. Jasmine got so unreasonably lucky.

Frankie smiles. “I like being here too.”

Jasmine wonders how long it will take for her to ask to move in. Maybe she’ll realise she doesn’t need to ask. They all want her to stay.

He chews on his lip. “Sometimes I’m sad for no reason.”

Jasmine takes a breath, and Frankie holds on to her hand while Lani spins in her lap. “Ezra told me to talk to you about it, but I got nervous. ”

“You talk to Ezra a lot?” Jasmine asks. She knows Marcel talks to him. Ezra told her. He said he’d only tell her if he was in danger. Otherwise, he’ll keep it to himself.

Marcel nods. “I like talking to you, but sometimes Ezra knows things, like what aftershave I should get.”

Jasmine laughs. God, she got so fucking lucky meeting them all that night. Frankie thinks Jasmine gave her everything, but it was an even swap. “Uh-huh, and he can pay for it too.”

“He said he’d come to the skate park when I wanted to take Tabitha so you wouldn’t hide in the bushes,” Marcel says, with a smile. “I was showing him a message I wanted to send to Tab, and he saw that I told her I was low.”

“A while ago?”

“Nah,” he says, with a shake of his head. “A few days. He said he’d give me a week to talk to you before he ratted me out. I spoke to Zach a little bit when they were watching us. He said you probably already knew.”

Jasmine smiles. “I’m just worried about you.”

“I know,” he says, scooping some cereal onto his spoon. “I’m sorry I haven’t been good at talking about it.”

“It’s okay, baby. Do you want to?”

“I don’t really know how. It’s not all the time. Sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed, unless Lani asks me to or if you want to see me. Online, it says if it was real, I wouldn’t be able to get up regardless.”

Jasmine’s glad he’s talking, but she hates that life will be a little harder for him.

“There’s a whole scale, baby. You can talk to me about anything. Or Frankie. Or Ezra and Zach, if that’s what’s best. I won’t be upset. I just want you to be happy and healthy. That’s all.”

“What do you think, Frank?”

She shrugs. “Sometimes it’s easier to talk to someone you don’t know.”

“Ma? ”

Jasmine smiles, her heart thumping a little too quickly. “I think talking to someone would help.”

Marcel nods. “Okay. Can we do that?”

“Yeah,” she replies. The weight lifts from her chest. Frankie rests her fingers against Jasmine’s jaw, tilts her face, and kisses her once.

“Gross,” Marcel groans. Lani claps with glee. Frankie looks right at Jasmine.

She’s got everything she needs.