20. Archer
Chapter 20
Archer
“ TEA! WHERE ARE YOU? ”
Archer screamed in the dark, frantically swimming around the boat.
The storm that came out of nowhere had blanketed everything in darkness.
He couldn’t see her pale skin or wild red hair.
Panic climbed up his chest as he swam.
“ TEA! ”
“ Right here! ”
He whipped around and saw her clutching the mast.
Relief flooded his body.
“Are you okay?! Are you hurt?” He had to shout at her above the booming thunder.
“The boat!”
The two of them attempted to twist the boat upright and push it to shore.
But the sharp gusts of howling winds made flipping it impossible.
Archer’s muscles strained as he pushed with no luck.
“Maybe we should get out of the water?!” Tea yelled at him.
Right. Thunderstorms and water.
Not smart.
They abandoned the boat, the two of them making their way to the patch of sand nearby.
They weren’t close to any of the resorts on the lake.
Tea ripped off her life jacket and threw it on the beach, then paced back and forth.
She looked furious .
He sat down on the wet sand and unbuckled his own jacket, scanning the torn sail as his boat floated sideways in the water.
It was the only part that seemed to have any damage, but it meant they wouldn’t be able to sail back to Wild Pines.
“There’s a patch of blue sky at the northern end of the lake. I bet this storm will pass, and then someone will hopefully come get us.”
His reassurance didn’t seem to calm her nerves.
If anything, she looked more frustrated as she paced, her face pinched into a scowl.
A crack of lightning flashed above.
“Tea!” he shouted. “It’s going to be all right!”
“ Of course it is, it always is with you !”
“What is that supposed to mean?!”
She whipped around to him, her wet hair sticking to her face.
“Why are you not angry with me? You had to stop working today to rescue me, and now I ruined your sailboat!”
“Who cares! It’s just a boat!”
“ Arrggghhh!! ” She screamed to the sky.
It startled him. Never once had he seen her so agitated about something.
“You are insufferable sometimes, you know that? You want me to talk to you and share my feelings, but you can’t ever do the same! I hate it. Stop being so Minnesota Nice to me and be real for once!”
Anger flared in his chest as he jumped up from the sand.
“ Fine. You want me to be real with you?” He stormed up to her and got in her face.
“I hate that you don’t want to talk about your dad.”
Her jaw jutted out, but she didn’t respond.
“He was like a second father to me and I miss him every goddamn day ,” Archer admitted.
“When I found out he died, I had to cope with the fact that I lost him and you in the same month, and it wrecked me. Then you come back to Wild Pines and you don’t want to talk at all about your grief, which makes me feel like a complete asshole because I’m still grappling with mine.”
She swallowed.
“Yeah? Well, I hate how you don’t want to talk about what happened to us that night.”
“ Of course, I don’t! You told me I was a mistake.”
“I didn’t mean it, Arch!”
“Oh yeah? How was I supposed to know that, through radio silence?” He waved his arms in the air.
“If you didn’t mean it then why didn’t you reach out to apologize—or something after all of those years?”
“Because I was hurting. I lost Dad and I didn’t know how to function. The only thing I knew how to do was box up my emotions and put them away for a while. I didn’t allow myself to really think about it. Or feel .” She crossed her arms, not even bothering to wipe the raindrops away; she was soaked.
“You should have reached out when you were in New York.”
“And what? Hear about all of your flings ?”
She took a step back.
“What? No! I would have wanted to talk things out .”
He shook his head.
“I couldn’t. I was still angry that you didn’t try reaching out first, and still way too in love with you. I couldn’t handle watching you walk away from me again. It was horrible the first time. You broke me, Theresa.”
She remained silent for a beat.
“You were in love with me?”
Panic climbed up his ribcage.
“Y-yes.”
Her eyes widened.
“Are you still in love with me?”
Clench.
Unclench. He scanned her face.
“Are you?!”
“ I don’t know! ”
Her lips parted in shock.
He swallowed. “Was I really a mistake the other day?”
She shook her head.
“No,” she said, her tone softer, the sound of the storm almost drowning out her words.
“No, never.”
He felt like he could cry.
“And eight years ago?”
Tea looked out toward the furious waves of the lake.
“I’m so sorry, Arch. I shouldn’t have done or said any of that to you. I was angry that night. My parents told me about Dad’s cancer, then I went to Quentin’s. I thought they were being selfish for ruining my evening, because all I wanted that summer was to kiss you, and I was determined to do so that night. And then everything felt too good and after we—”
Archer wiped the wet hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear.
She flinched at his touch, so he dropped his hand.
“After, when it was done, my only thought was how could I possibly learn to love another person when the pain of losing them would be too great? I was going to lose my dad. I didn’t want the same to happen to you.”
“You could never lose me,” he croaked.
She finally faced him.
“Have you seen what’s going on in the world? People are dying all around us. Our time together is not guaranteed.”
“So that’s going to hold you back from living your life? You’d rather live in fear than have what you want?”
“I don’t know what I want.”
“I don’t believe that for a second.”
Her face softened.
“Theresa Richards, you are the most stubborn, determined person I know. You spent this summer reading about loons because I know you secretly want to find that nest, and you walked into my office and told me you wanted a job and didn’t take no for an answer. If you want something, you go for it.”
He stepped closer to her, crowding her space.
“Now tell me, what do you want?”
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“Liar. What do you want ?”
“I-I—”
“Tea!”
“ I want you! ”
He grasped her waist and yanked her toward him, sealing his mouth to hers.
Tea wound her arms around his neck and raked her hands in his hair.
He rolled his lips against hers as he slid one hand around the small of her back, the other cradling her head.
He tilted her so she was at the perfect angle to devour her mouth.
She tasted even better than he remembered.
Or maybe it was the fact that it felt like a tectonic shift had taken place between them.
In a single moment, it felt like everything changed.
She didn’t think I was a mistake.
He knew in his heart that there was much more to that evening long ago, that her words were said in anger and in fear because of what was going on at home.
But it was ignoring him for eight years that got him.
After a year of giving her space and not hearing from her, then another, he wondered if she really did mean it when she said he was a mistake.
But now she was here in his arms, saying she wanted him, admitting that he wasn’t.
That he never was.
The rain slowed to a sprinkle, then petered out.
It felt like a natural shift to end the kiss, but Archer was greedy.
He didn’t want it to stop.
He grabbed her by the ass and lifted her up.
She wrapped her legs around him and cupped his face, the intensity of her kiss letting him know that she wasn’t done with him either.
“ Hey, lovebirds! Need a lift?”
They pulled from each other at the same time and turned toward the voice shouting at them.
Rhonda was in her motorboat, swinging a hook in her hands, smirking like the Cheshire Cat.
Archer hooked his sailboat, then climbed up to sit on the bench, his mind racing.
Her confession. Her kiss.
It all played out in his head, his swim trunks feeling tighter and tighter as he thought about the whimpers that came from her throat, or the little flicks of her tongue.
He wasn’t done with her.
He was far from done.
Tea hopped out when they got to the dock, then the three of them guided his boat back to the beach.
He pulled it out of the water, then untied the sail and released the ropes.
Archer heard Tea thank Rhonda, who replied with a sly “No, thank you .” He didn’t look up, or at least not until Rhonda was sufficiently out of ear shot.
“Archer!”
He groaned and looked in the direction of Sandy Vanderberg, who was standing on the porch of her cabin.
“Yes, Sandy?”
“You can’t beach your boat! Under the owners’ by-laws—”
Oh hell no.
“Tea is injured!” he lied.
“I need to take care of that first.”
Tea turned to him, her brow tilted in surprise.
“ Please go with it,” he grumbled low.
She smirked, then reached for her ankle.
“I tumbled pretty hard!” she shouted to Sandy.
Archer beamed, then scooped her up in his arms. She clutched her ankle, dedicated to the act.
Sandy kept shouting something, but he ignored her as he carried Tea to his cabin.
His mind was on one thing.
He’d waited almost a decade for it.
He wasn’t going to waste another second.
Tea played with his hair as he climbed the porch steps.
“Not playing dutiful, nice, Midwest boy, are you?”
“What are you talking about? I’m carrying an injured woman to my cabin.”
“Hmmmm.” she flicked his ear as he swung open the door.
“And what injury do I have, sir?”
He looked her in the eye.
“The injury of having to deal with flings for eight years.”
A devious grin spread across her face.
“Oh, that really bugged you, didn’t it?”
“You have no fucking idea.”
She laughed, then looked down at the floor.
“Are you going to let me down, or?”
“Nope.” He walked to the back of the cabin and straight to his bedroom.
Wet suits were discarded to the floor.
Soft, creamy skin splayed out on top of his sheets.
Red curly hair painted over his pillow.
All of it felt like a fever dream.
Archer climbed on top of her, running a hand up her leg, following the slope of her curves.
Tea slipped a hand between them, reaching for him.
“Arch, I want you. Please .”
He grinned, kissing her neck, moving his hand between her legs.
“Patience, love. I rushed with you the first time. I’m going to take my time tonight.”
And that he did.
Archer savored every single moment, committing every dip of her body and every sound she made to memory.
Then he carried her to the shower, and did it all over again.