Page 62 of Summer Breakdown (Training Seasons #2)
“Jasmine,” Frankie begs. Jasmine doesn’t put her tongue back on her, though, because it’s her birthday, and she can do whatever she wants. Instead, her lips touch her hipbone, her thigh, her stomach.
“What’s up, my girl?” she asks quietly. Her fingers never leave Frankie’s skin. She wants Frankie to remember exactly what she wants. How badly she needs her touch. Frankie huffs above her, her jaw tight.
“I need to come,” she mutters quietly. It’s barely six a.m., but they’ve been at this a while.
Frankie tried to wake her up with her tongue against her, even though Jasmine said she wanted to make Frankie come first for her birthday.
So, obviously, Frankie is in trouble. She didn’t know Jasmine can never sleep in on her birthday.
She’s never excited for it, but she can’t sleep anyway.
It’s different this year. Jasmine doesn’t know if Frankie is a big birthday person, but she knows she’ll at least remember.
Frankie will have done something. Perhaps she drew some drawings for Lani’s scrapbook.
“I know,” Jasmine replies softly. “I know. You’re doing so well. So perfect.” She should probably make her come, because Jasmine knows the kids will wake up soon, and she doesn’t want to edge her for the entire day.
Or does she?
Frankie pulls at her hair, trying to get her where she wants her.
“How do you want it?” Jasmine asks, her teeth against her neck. “Do you want my mouth, or my hands? Maybe you want it so bad you’ll fuck yourself against my thigh.”
Frankie sobs. “Stay.”
“What do you want? Dirty slut?”
“Yes.”
“Pretty whore. Wet and needy and down so fucking bad for me. Tell me.”
Frankie hiccups as Jasmine moves her thumb against her clit.
“You’re everything to me,” Frankie mutters.
“Cute,” Jasmine replies, slowing her thumb.
“No, n—I need to come. I need you to let me come, Jasmine. Please. Okay? I need—“
“You know how I’m being so nice?” Jasmine asks, her fingers dipping inside her, and Frankie chokes out a laugh.
“It’s been hours . You haven’t let me come for hours,“ she begs, her neck tensed. “You came twice.”
“That’s because you pulled my pussy to your face and you’re stronger than me.”
“You—uh, you crawled up my body.”
“I’m not in trouble.”
“ I’m sorry. ”
“I know,” Jasmine replies. “That’s why I’m being nice.”
Frankie clenches her jaw and her fingers against Jasmine’s waist as she says, “Nice.”
“Mmm. But next time,” Jasmine whispers, the warning tone creeping between them. She wants Frankie to push her on it. “Next time, I will tie you up, and I will gag you, and I will edge you until you cry.”
“You’re so fucking hot,” Frankie moans. “Until I cry?”
“If you said yes, which you would.”
Frankie comes brightly, but Jasmine is there, her hand against her mouth so she doesn’t traumatise the children. Jasmine kisses her temple as she pulls her fingers out .
Frankie hugs her tightly, rolling them around the bed. Jasmine can feel the rapid beating of her heart against hers. She’s so cute.
“I would,” Frankie says, with a kiss. “I would do anything for you. Happy birthday, sweetheart.”
Jasmine cries the moment she walks into the kitchen.
She might have been crying when Frankie made her wait in the hall as she went in.
It didn’t take long, and she heard Lani and Marcel giggling the entire time.
It was worth it. Balloons dangle from the ceiling, a large gold three and zero over by the window.
There’s so many flowers she’s surprised Frankie isn’t sneezing already, and, best of all, her family are right here.
“Happy Birthday!” Marcel shouts, his arms in the air. Lani runs over, and Jasmine lets her because her wheelchair has been decorated and she’s not sure it will move. Marcel is there right after.
“Oh, you’re so cute,” she says, pulling them into a tight hug. “I love you so much.”
“I love you!” Lani says, and Marcel kisses her on the cheek.
Lani keeps not so slyly looking at something, so Jasmine follows her eyeline.
There’s a four tier pale pink cake, decorated with hundreds of flowers and fruit.
It’s utterly obscene and the prettiest thing she’s ever seen.
(Outside of Kehlani, Marcel and Frankie, of course.)
Jasmine gasps. “Did you make this?”
Lani giggles, her hands against her face. “Cam-Cam let me put some fruits on. ”
“Is this what you wanted to talk to her about?” Jasmine asks.
Lani smiles proudly. “I kept it all to myself! And I told Marcy.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And Frankenstein. And Ezra helped too.”
Jasmine raises her eyebrow and Lani scrunches her nose. “And Mali and Zach.”
Jasmine kisses her. “Thank you, baby.”
“Do you want breakfast?” Marcel asks. “Frankie taught us pancakes, so it doesn’t even have to be beans on toast.”
“Presents!” Lani squeals, pushing Jasmine towards the table. “Presents first, Mama.”
“Presents?” Jasmine asks, her jaw slack as she sees the stack on the table.
There are an unreasonable number of wrapped parcels on her dining table.
She looks over at Frankie, who quickly looks elsewhere.
She goes to turn the kettle on, and she’s a ridiculous human being, and Jasmine finds something new to love about her every day.
Jasmine picks up a gift. It’s fun. Stupidly exciting to have things that her favourite people in the world went out and got for her. She didn’t get asked a single time. Jasmine wouldn’t have been able to think of anything anyway.
“Mama, I picked it,” Lani says, her little face ecstatic as Jasmine pulls the paper apart. She giggles as Jasmine opens the box. There’s a cream-coloured candle inside. Jasmine’s eyes flutter shut as she smells it before it’s even opened.
“Oh my God,” she says. “This smells amazing.”
Lani smiles brightly, her little fingers crossed like Frankie. She loves seeing them take parts of each other.
“Thank you, baby. I love it. It smells like the pie we had last Christmas.”
“I know! I know!” she says, spinning in her seat to see Frankie. Jasmine’s eyes always find Frankie. She smiles opposite her. She’s under no illusion that Frankie wasn’t in on it. Probably the orchestrator of it all .
“I told Frankenstein in the shops. Didn’t I?”
Frankie smiles as she stirs the teas. “You did, babe.”
Jasmine gets to have Christmas with Frankie. For the rest of her life. Oh, she’s going to get matching pyjamas. Something with vests.
Jasmine picks up another gift, and another, and another.
They’re all things she would have wanted if she’d thought about it really hard.
She doesn’t need anything other than the people at the table, but she does like everything they picked her.
Truly likes. They know her, without her having to say it out loud, and there will never be anything she wants more than that.
“Happy birthday,” Marcel says. Lani starts giggling as Jasmine unwraps the soft gift. Frankie looks like she’s trying to remember what’s inside when she opens them. They’re towels. Jasmine loves a towel. Sage green as well.
When she spins them over, she sees they’re embroidered hers-and-hers towels. Jasmine laughs, her head thrown back as Frankie frowns.
“When did you pick these up?”
Marcel laughs, his shoulders shaking with it. “Ezra gave me some money when we saw them downtown.”
“What for?” Jasmine asks, her fingers against the material.
Marcel shrugs. “He thinks I’m cool, and, uh, he said he was proud of me for starting at a new school.”
Jasmine smiles. She’s proud of him too. She told him that, but she knows—even if he pretends not to care—that he wants to hear it from someone else. Having a massive man around that Marcel thinks is the coolest thing alive isn’t a hardship.
“He did say if you were upset, I should tell him,” Marcel says. “You’re allowed to shout at him.”
Jasmine smiles. “I’m not upset. I love them.” She leans over the table for the millionth time to kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you, baby. ”
“They’re so we don’t have so many towels when Frankie moves in for real, because you two have too many,” Marcel says, shaking his head. “Every morning, I’m fighting for my life with towels.”
“Frankie is moving in?” Lani asks, with a smile. “That’s the best birthday gift.”
Jasmine laughs and looks over at Frankie. Frankie already got her so much, but if she had all of her worldly belongings in floral wrapping paper, she wouldn’t be mad.
“I can’t wrap up a key to a house Mama already owns,” Frankie says. She’s not panicking. Her feet tap the floor, but Frankie’s feet always tap the floor. “That’s not a gift; that’s wrapping up her own things. I could wrap up the key to my place.”
Lani pouts. “You have a place? The place with no lift?”
Marcel frowns. “You’re leaving?”
“No. Well, yes,” Frankie says, her hands floundering. “I do have a flat. I had it before I met you. I’m not leaving; I just already have one.”
Lani hums, her hands on the table. Marcel matches her. Manager mode activated.
“We’re not sure if it’s our choice,” Marcel says, and Lani nods, her eyebrows high in encouragement, “but we would like Frankie to live here.”
“Full time,” Lani says, sipping her tea. They had to take a mini break because they bought too many gifts (Jasmine let Lani open at least half) and had another round of tea.
“You do?” Jasmine asks. She wants Frankie to live here too. She thought it was too soon, but Mali told her it didn’t matter. They’re in love. They’ll be in love no matter where Frankie lives.
“Yep,” Lani replies. “Then Marcy can help with training all the time now that we’re in the championship and it would get us to the premiership so fast!
Frankie can make me so many drawings, and I’ll get better at colouring.
Then, when I go to school, you can pick me up together, and I can show everyone that I have two mums, which is so much better than a mum and a dad. ”
She says it so casually, like this is something she’s thought about.
Marcel nods in agreement.
“We moved some stuff in the garage in case you have storage,” he says, “and you can help us plan the garden. Maybe we could have a permanent star-looking place.”
Frankie cries, as Jasmine expected her too. Lani moves over and climbs into her lap.
“Happy tears?” she asks, and Frankie nods.
Lani hugs her anyway. Frankie whispers into her ear, and Lani gasps.
There’s some movement, and then Lani hands Jasmine the scrapbook.
Jasmine cries as she looks at it. She thought it might not happen this year, after everything else.
This is the year her life changed. She hoped it was documented with various shades of yellow.
The first picture is of them all on the sofa. Marcel has a red nose. Lani is smiling so wide her eyes are closed. Jasmine smiles with her teeth, and Frankie’s looking right at her.
“I love it so much,” she whispers. When she turns the page, all the spare paper around the photos is coloured. Some are drawings Lani made, flowers and hearts. Some are Frankie’s work, but they blend together perfectly.
There’s page after page of pictures of Jasmine and Frankie doing nothing, hands on backs, heads touching.
Lani is such a sneak. There’s even a photo of them sitting on the seats at the Titans grounds the day Frankie built the ramp.
They weren’t even friends then, but their hands almost touch.
Jasmine’s not sure she was ever subtle about the way she wanted Frankie, and she’s never been so glad about something before.
She flips the pages. Marcel asleep on Frankie’s shoulder. Ezra smiling with Cam. Ezra smiling with Lani. He’ll be raging. A picture of Frankie as she looks in the mirror with a smile. Jasmine doesn’t know if she even knew Lani was there.
“Oh, I love you so much,” Jasmine says, kissing Lani on the top of the head.
Jasmine had known, when she was lying in the dark so unreasonably alone with her boyfriend in the spare room, that at some point, everything would be worth it.
She knew it to be true the moment she held Marcel.
She knew it again when Lani held onto her finger for the first time.
She knows it now, as Frankie patters around the dining table to kiss her on the forehead.
Jasmine knew she’d be so full of happiness she wouldn’t know what to do with it. Still, she can’t quite believe she has everything she’s ever wanted.
Frankie smiles at her. “Everyone is coming over in a little while. Breakfast?”
“Yeah,” Jasmine replies. “Breakfast sounds nice.”