Chapter Four Remi
Chapter Four
Remi
Vanessa—also known as Ness, Auntie Ness to Gavin, or the pink-haired monster of chaos to Muriel—showed up for her afternoon shift in an absolute tizzy.
“Holy shit, you’ll never believe what happened last night with Christian.”
I looked up from my computer and blinked. “Hi. What?”
“God, it was amazing. I kinda thought the party was it, because he was playing it cool and he didn’t call me for three weeks while he was on tour, right?
But then he called me four times last week.
I could’ve strung it out longer, but he’s so gorgeous, I figured that it was a pity to torture myself when I wanted the same thing he did, you know? ”
I could take you right here, couldn’t I?
Shit. No. Bad Remi.
“Uh-huh. I hate that feeling. So we’re not talking to the guy with the piercings anymore, right?”
“The guy with the piercings was psycho. He wanted to name our future children after one night together.” She widened her eyes. “One night.”
“Maybe if you weren’t so sensational at everything, he would’ve been like every other guy and moved on after.”
“I know,” she sighed. Then she tilted her head. “You look pretty today.”
“I—what? I look the same as I do every day.”
“No. You put on blush or something.”
I gave her a crazy look. “No, I didn’t.”
“Did you have sex?” she whispered.
“No. And why are you whispering? There’s no one in here. Muriel is already gone for the day.”
“There was another truck in the parking lot.” She set her feet up on the edge of my desk. “New volunteer?”
A frown pulled at my lips before I could stop it. “Sort of. I’ll explain after you tell your story.”
Her feet dropped off the desk, and her head briefly disappeared as she rooted around in her giant bag, resurfacing with a piece of licorice in her mouth—a sure sign that she was spiraling.
“Oh boy,” I muttered.
She yanked off a piece with a violent snap of her teeth. “‘Oh boy’ is right. I am shook, Remi. We go back to my place after dinner, because I’m not stupid enough to go to his place, right? Like, what if he’s a serial killer?”
“I’m guessing the choice of venue wouldn’t matter too much if that was the case.”
Ness blinked. “Right.”
“Continue,” I prodded, flipping through some adoption applications that had come in over the weekend. “Clearly, you didn’t die.”
“Almost,” she said glumly.
My hands paused and I glanced up. “Explain.”
Ness leaned in. “He wouldn’t sleep with me.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know!” she wailed. “We had this amazing dinner, and the sexual tension was off the fucking charts. He had his hand over my thigh—you know what I mean. All I’m staking my claim and shit.
Just parked there. Little movements of his fingers .
. . But he never strayed too far, and I was ready to climb into his lap in the middle of the entrée. ”
“Goodness,” I mused. “That’s a powerful hand he must have.”
“I wouldn’t know, because he wouldn’t use it on me.
” She pouted. “We kissed and it was so hot, and he had his hands up the back of my shirt, and I thought we’d mosey on back to the bedroom and make a night of it, but .
. .” Her voice trailed off. “Then he pulled back and said he couldn’t wait to go out with me again. ”
“And we’re mad about this?”
“Yes!” she cried. “I damn near begged him to stay. It was pathetic.”
I smiled. “What did he say?”
Her head flopped back and she laid her forearm over her eyes. “That he changed his mind and didn’t want this to just be one night or some casual fling, and he wanted to take his time because it felt . . . big. Felt important.”
She whispered this last part, and my smile grew.
“Aww, he’s got a crush on you, Ness.”
“Fuck off,” she said without any heat behind it. “I’ve got a crush on him, too, but can’t we have mutual crushing and also bang the bejeezus out of each other?”
“In theory, yes.”
She sat up, her cotton-candy pink waves falling forward over her shoulder as she pinned me with a look. “Not your theory, Miss Eight-Date Rule.”
“The eight-date rule was born from abject misery and lessons about modern dating that I did not feel particularly keen on learning.”
“That it sucks,” she said knowingly.
“Big-time.”
“Good thing I can come here and distract myself from this shit.” She tapped her temple.
“And what’s in there?”
She gave me a miserable look. “I thought about baby names this morning while I was drinking my coffee. Now I’m the psycho.”
I burst out laughing. She did too.
When we’d calmed down, I handed her two applications.
“Got these in for Coco. Why don’t you call and set up meetings for both families.
You can get a feel for who might be the best fit.
And I’ve got one for Charlie, one for Belle.
If the meetings are good, we should be able to get all three kennels turned over this week. ”
“Sweet. I’m on it.” She hopped up from the chair and adjusted her short denim shorts. “Does the yard need cleaned up?”
I sighed. “No.”
Her eyebrows rose slowly. “You were on shit duty?”
“Not exactly,” I hedged.
A deep voice came from the doorway: “That would be me.”
Ness froze, then turned slowly, her eyes widening comically as she took in the sight of Archer at the entrance to my office. “Oh, holy fuck me in the eardrum.”
Archer’s eyes narrowed. I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“You’re Archer Evans,” she breathed.
His entire body seemed to brace for impact. Couldn’t even blame the guy. I’d hardly given him a warm welcome. “I am.”
“You’re Archer-fucking-Evans.” She pointed at him. Then pointed at me. “Did you know about this?”
“When he showed up in the parking lot this morning, yes, I was officially made aware.”
“Archer Evans is volunteering here?” she squeaked.
“Can you stop saying his name?” I snapped.
Ness whistled. “You feeling feisty today, friend?”
“She hates me,” he said.
My eyebrows shot up. “I never said that.”
He arched a brow right back, and I tore my gaze away. Direct eye contact with this man made me feel all squirmy inside, and I did not like it.
“Her son was obsessed with you,” Ness said. “Like, obsessed.”
However Archer reacted to that news was none of my damn business, so I kept my focus locked on my best friend. “Vanessa Marie, you have things to do.”
“Don’t use my full name on me, Remi Elizabeth.”
“‘Was’?” Archer asked, and I cursed quietly under my breath.
Ness tilted her head. “Yeah. Past tense. The whole drunk-driving thing is a real turn-off when picking your heroes. He requested to toss the jersey he got for his birthday a few months ago. Right in the trash.”
This time, I couldn’t help myself. My gaze flicked back up, catching the brief flash of emotion in Archer’s eyes. He masked it immediately.
The phone on my desk started ringing. “Ness, please go schedule those visits. You,” I said to Archer, “sit.”
Ness grinned. “I love it when you get bossy.”
Archer’s unreadable gaze stayed on me while I rolled my eyes and hit the button to answer the call on speaker. “Second Leash Sanctuary, this is Remi.”
“That nurse won’t leave me the hell alone.”
I sighed. “Pops, we’ve been over this. You have to take your meds.”
“I did. She says I’m lying.”
“Did you hide them under your pillow again?”
He paused. “How’d you know about that?”
“Because I know you. You’ll get no sympathy from me. She’s just trying to do her job, okay? Don’t make it harder than it has to be. She’s there to help.”
“I thought you were going to help.”
Guilt shredded my insides. “Hiring her is my way of helping right now. Until we can get you moved in, I still have to work. Someone has to fund our lavish lifestyle.”
He snorted. “Lavish, my ass. Tell me the last time you bought yourself anything.”
“I bought groceries yesterday. That’s as big of a splurge as you can get right now.
” I shuffled the stack of papers to the side and tried to ignore Archer as he sat silently in the chair pressed against the wall of my tiny office.
God, he made that thing look half its size, with his legs spread out and his arms crossed over his wide chest.
“Can I still watch my show when she leaves?”
“Yes. I’ll be over later to get you some dinner and do the laundry she can’t get finished, all right? Gavin has soccer practice, so I’ll have about an hour at your place while he’s there.”
“Okay. Love you, bug.”
Allowing Archer this glimpse into my life made me want to crawl under my desk. It seemed like he knew it, too, because he kept that knowing gaze leveled at my face.
“Love you, too, Pops. Go take your meds,” I added, just before he hung up.
“He gets to call you a nickname?”
My glare was unavoidable. “He’s my grandfather, and I like him. Did you get the yard cleaned up?”
“How much do you feed these dogs? Or did you plant some extra shit just before I got here?”
“Oh, Archer. I’m thrilled you think I have that kind of foresight. Alas, they just poop a lot.” I smiled. “Lucky for you. You’ll be a pro by the end of your time here.”
He shifted in his seat, widening the spread of his legs. “Can I do a few long days here and get this over with?”
I shuffled some papers into a neat pile. “No.”
“Excuse me?”
“I want you disrupting as little as possible while you’re here. This isn’t a circus, where people can come gawk at the sideshow. We’re trying to run a rescue, and I don’t need your dwindling fan club lining up for autographs.”
Archer expelled a sharp punch of air. “‘Dwindling fan club,’” he said quietly. “I’ve still got a few.”
“Less than you did last week, I promise.”
His jaw tightened, but when he looked away, I felt a sharp twist of victory. It was short-lived, though, thinking about Gavin’s face when he’d brought the jersey into my bedroom.
“Fine. I work out early right now. I’m done working with my QB coach by nine.”
“No practices or anything?”
“Not yet. We start OTAs at the end of the month, so I’d like to be done by then. Everything until then is voluntary.”
I sighed. “I don’t know what OTAs are, but fine.”
“Organized team activities.”