22. Archer
Chapter 22
Archer
He woke up the next morning feeling like he was still dreaming.
Tea lay asleep beside him, her bare back exposed, her hair covering the surface of the pillow.
He remained there for a beat, listening to her soft breathing, marveling at how any of this could actually be real.
He slid closer to her, gliding a hand around her stomach and pulling her to his chest. He kissed her shoulder, then her neck, then her cheek.
“ Ergggh ,” she groaned.
He smiled. “Morning, sleepyhead.”
“Too. Early.”
He looked out the window at the sun, already well above the lake, the morning underway.
He combed her hair with his fingers.
“The princess still loves to sleep in.”
“Hard to sleep when you’re talking to me.”
A low laugh rumbled from his chest. He released his hold on her stomach.
“I’ll leave you alone.”
She snatched his hand then shimmied backward, pressing her body against his again.
“I didn’t say leave .”
He grinned, settling back in with her, his face buried in her neck.
He let himself lie there, ignoring his to-do list, which was fine; it wasn’t that long these days.
Tea made sure of that.
Plus, when did he ever get the chance to sleep in?
Better yet, when did he ever get the chance to sleep in with her ?
As he listened to her breathing go heavy, Archer’s mind wandered.
He thought about his summer, about how differently things could have gone.
Moving up here was temporary, or at least it was until he could figure out his life in Minneapolis and whether he even had a job at Hermes Lounge anymore.
But now, he wondered if maybe that wasn’t what he wanted after all.
His brother’s words from earlier that summer drifted into his head.
Stand up for yourself and what you want.
Don’t give up on the dream.
But what if I have new dreams?
he thought as he opened his eyes, examining miles of freckled skin.
He kissed her back, and allowed himself the smallest pleasure of what if.
What if he gave up on Minneapolis?
On Wild Pines? What if he packed up his stuff and followed Tea back east?
Would he be happy with that?
Would she ?
She rustled, waking back up.
“Coffee,” she pleaded.
He grinned. “Coffee.”
He kissed down her spine, then sat up and got out of bed.
He glanced at himself in the mirror and fixed his hair, then watched as Tea wiggled behind him, burrowing herself deeper in his sheets.
The sight of it left a goofy grin on his face that he couldn’t control.
The entire thing made him inexplicably happy.
He wondered why he’d held himself back from having this for so long.
Then he remembered that it wasn’t only him who’d needed the time.
Tea needed to work things out as well.
If he hadn’t given her that space—given himself that space—their conversation yesterday likely wouldn’t have gone the way it did.
It probably wouldn’t have happened at all.
He stepped into the kitchen and started his routine for making coffee; grinding the beans, heating the kettle, setting the filter.
“ Psssst !”
Archer followed the sound to the door.
Rhonda stood outside, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, mug in hand.
“Are you alone, or do you have a visitor?” she whispered through the screen.
He glanced back at the bedroom, the door slightly ajar.
He turned back to Rhonda.
“I have a visitor,” he whispered back.
“Also, go away, I’m barely dressed.”
Rhonda lifted her arms in silent celebration, then did a little dance.
He rolled his eyes. “ Stop . This is still really new.”
“New my ass. You guys have been tiptoeing around each other for years.”
“Yeah, well, this ”—he pointed at himself, then at his bedroom door—“is very, very new. Go away.”
“Do your parents know? Austin? Kelly? Wayne?”
“ No one knows. And please be quiet about it until I figure out how she feels.”
“You guys haven’t talked about it yet?”
His face flushed as he poured hot water over coffee grounds.
“There wasn’t much time for talking,” he mumbled.
Rhonda covered her mouth, making a scene of looking scandalized.
He glared. “Get out of here.”
She lifted her arms. “All right. Secret’s safe with me.”
“Thank you.”
“Archer?”
He blinked up at her.
“Yes?”
Rhonda beamed.
“I’m happy for you.” Then she was off, down his porch steps and over to Steph on the lawn, the two of them off on their morning ritual of coffee on the dock.
He couldn’t help his smile.
Happy. Moments later, as he poured fresh coffee into two mugs, his bedroom door creaked open.
“She’s alive,” he teased.
Tea approached him, sliding her body between him and the counter.
His smile widened as he held a mug to her, then placed his hands on the counter, bracketing her in.
She took a sip of the coffee and her face relaxed.
“Still a little grumpy in the mornings, are we?”
She took another sip.
“Get used to it.”
His heart did a backflip.
What did that mean? Her comment sounded awfully permanent.
It didn’t bug him—it thrilled him—but he reined in his emotions.
She only just woke up.
Maybe she wasn’t thinking clearly yet.
She took another sip, lifting a finger to his chest and tracing her tattoo.
When he returned to Minneapolis that fateful summer eight years ago for college and met Kiera a week into classes, who was eager to practice her tattoo skills on someone, Archer volunteered immediately.
He’d wanted something tangible to hold with him.
Even if Tea wasn’t speaking to him, he knew he would always carry a piece of her in his heart, so why not make it permanent?
Getting tattoos was easy after that—he collected them like people collected coins or baseball cards.
But there were only two on his body that truly meant something to him: Gareth’s sailboat on his back, and Sweet Tea on his heart.
In his two years with Janelle, she never asked him once if any of his tattoos meant something to him.
He wondered if that was one of the reasons he’d fallen into a relationship with her so quickly.
They worked well together…
but they also kept each other at a comfortable distance.
Nothing ever felt too deep with her.
Or at least, nothing did compared to how deeply he felt for Tea.
She scanned his face.
“Sleep well?”
He nodded.
“Very.”
“Me too,” she whispered.
“I’ve never shared a bed with someone before. I’m surprised I didn’t hate it.”
“Never? Not even with your flings ?”
She lifted a brow.
“Archer. Drop the flings. I don’t bug you about Janelle.”
He shrugged.
“You could, if you wanted to.”
“Hear about your gorgeous ex-girlfriend and the committed relationship you had that I didn’t have any idea about? No thanks, I’m good.”
He leaned in closer and cupped the back of her neck, angling her face to his.
“There’s only one thing you really need to know about my past relationship.”
She frowned.
“Fine, what is it?”
“I never once felt for her the way I feel for you.”
Her face softened.
“Really?”
“There’s never been anyone else like you, Tea. You’re it for me.”
She placed her mug down, then looped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug.
He squeezed her back, waiting to hear what she would respond.
But after a couple beats, he realized she wasn’t going to say anything.
He felt a snag in his chest, like someone was pulling a string loose.
Does she not feel the same way?
Did I say too much ?
His mind began to spiral, but he forced himself to quiet it.
They had only been together like this for less than twenty-four hours.
He wasn’t getting far too ahead of himself.
She would talk to him about how she felt in time.
He needed to be patient.
He squeezed her again.
“What are you up to today?” he mumbled in her ear.
“Hmmm.” She released her hold and looked at him.
“Think you could fix your sail?”
He smirked.
“Maybe. Looking for a particular nest?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Eight years without sailing is too long. I need to make up for lost time.”
He gave her a mischievous grin.
“There’s a lot of lost time to make up for.”
She slapped his arm.
“It took everything in me to get out of bed. Don’t make me do it again.”
He groveled, which made her laugh.
He loved her laugh, the way it sweetened any room she was in, like honey in a hot cup of tea.
He lunged for her waist and tickled her, which made her laugh—then scream.
He clenched her waist and lifted her up, depositing her on his couch, his hands smooth on her skin as he crawled on top of her.
He moved from one kind of tease to another, listening to the way her laughter shifted into pleading.
Archer decided that while he liked hearing her laugh, he liked hearing her beg much more.
Especially when it was his hands and his body that she begged for.
Archer spent a majority of the next week doing two things: kissing Tea, or thinking about the next time he’d be able to kiss Tea.
Finally having her in the way he always wanted didn’t slow down the intensity of his feelings for her—it ramped them up.
With Janelle, it hadn’t been anything like this.
She was an easy girlfriend, a good partner to him…
until she wasn’t. But with Tea, he felt that constant flame, and he enjoyed every minute of the burn.
During the days, he worked and watched Tea from a distance.
After he fixed his sail, she went out on his boat three more times, returning with windswept hair and glowing skin.
It took everything in him not to drag her to his cabin and kiss her pink cheeks.
Undress her from that striped one-piece and keep her in his bed the rest of the day.
They kept things quiet at first, wanting to keep whatever was happening between the two of them.
Rhonda didn’t say a word, but that never stopped her from winking every time she saw him.
Tea was cautious about how often she came to the cabin, especially with her grandparents close by.
At night, she would wait until Kelly and Wayne went to bed before sneaking over to his place then creeping back even later.
“This is a little ridiculous,” he admitted one night as Tea got dressed to go back to Cabin B.
“I feel like a teenager. Let’s tell them.”
She shrugged on her shirt.
“If I tell my grandparents, they’re going to come at me with twenty million questions.”
“Is that so bad?”
She paused.
“Kind of? How are we supposed to answer their questions if we’re still figuring things out ourselves?”
He sat up and placed his feet on the floor beside his bed, then pulled Tea close.
She stepped into the space between his legs and ruffled his hair.
He had gotten the sense that Tea was not ready to talk about what would happen after the summer.
He’d tried bringing it up once or twice, asking her what kind of job she wanted after all of this, or where she would want to live in New York.
Archer wanted to hear her talk about her hopes and dreams, and maybe see if there was a way he could fit into all of it.
Go with her. But she always changed the subject.
He ran his hands up the backs of her thighs.
“What if we said that?”
“Doesn’t that seem kind of vague?”
He titled his head.
“We’re still living through a pandemic, you know. I think there are a lot of other people out there who are also trying to figure things out.”
She played with his hair.
He closed his eyes, reveling in the feel of her hands, the way her touch made his shoulders relax.
“Doesn’t that scare you?” she asked.
Yes. He was scared. At Wild Pines, everything was safe and easy.
But outside of his cabin, where it felt like the world was falling apart?
The two of them would have to face that reality eventually.
It felt like he and Tea were on the edge of the dock, waiting to take the leap.
Yet after years of anger and longing, wishing that things had gone differently with the girl who stole his heart, he didn’t want to spend his time with her being scared.
He wanted to make the absolute most of it.
“What scares me is not getting the chance to wake up next to you in the morning,” he admitted.
“I don’t want to hide this anymore, Tea. Who cares what everyone thinks.”
She scanned his face, allowing the silence to linger between them.
Then she crawled into his lap and kissed him.
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Let’s tell them.”
He moved his hands up her legs, then slipped them inside her shorts.