Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
The Ranch
I looked like crap on wheat toast. Felt like it too. Not even a third coffee and heavy concealer helped.
Even after I’d returned to my room, my mind had refused to quiet. It kept replaying the conversation with Lenni over and over.
It hadn’t even been a week, and I’d already kissed her father. My emotions were all over the place, but I was doing everything in my power to hide that from Lenni. She was a child, and she needed to see stability in the adults around her during her transition into a new life.
I parked the truck in front of the main house and then climbed out. A gust of wind circled around my head, and I hiked up my collar before I grabbed the Sweet Teeth bag from the passenger seat. The sky was a gray sheet, but it didn’t look like snow or rain.
Archer was pounding out a horseshoe on an anvil when I arrived at his workspace. The clang of metal on metal rang in my ears as I approached. He didn’t see me right away, and I didn’t want to distract him. So I sipped on my coffee and impatiently waited for him to notice me.
Finally, he lifted his head, his brown eyes lit with surprise. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Few minutes.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You were busy.” I shrugged.
“I didn’t even hear you,” he murmured with a shake of his head. “I get so lost in this sometimes.”
“I get it,” I said, though I didn’t. Not really. No hobby or interest made me lose track of time. I envied him for that. “I brought you something.”
He took the bag and peered into it. “A chocolate croissant? Trying to chocolate me up, are you?”
I smiled slightly. “Can’t really butter you up, can I?”
“All you have to do is smile and I’ll give you anything you want.”
Please don’t say things like that.
I cleared my throat and attempted to sail past it. “I need to talk to you about Lenni.” I took a sip of coffee, my nerves past the point of frazzled. I should’ve switched to green tea.
“What’s wrong with Lenni?” he asked, his flirty smile dropping as he snapped into dad mode.
“I heard her crying at one a.m.”
“Crying? Why?”
“Several reasons, I think.” I gave him a run down about our conversation, but then I added my deeper concern. “I have to quit.”
“Quit? You can’t quit. Lenni needs you. I need you.”
I need you. What every woman wanted to hear.
I could feel myself waffling and then I strengthened my resolve.
“Don’t you get it? Lenni’s already attached to me. She’s worried I’m going to leave her just like her mom did. I don’t want to hurt her even more when I . . .”
“When you what?” he demanded.
“Go back to New York,” I said lamely.
“Bullshit.”
“Excuse me?”
“I call bullshit.” His eyebrows snapped together in anger. “You’re not going back to New York. And if you are, you’re not going any time soon, so I call bullshit. You’re afraid.”
“Afraid?” I stalked toward him. “You think I’m afraid? Of what?”
“You know what,” he stated. “I kissed you last night and now you’re running scared. And you’re using Lenni as an excuse.”
“Oh please.” I rolled my eyes. “Your kiss might’ve made me weak in the knees, but I’m not a coward.”
“You admit it, then. That I made you weak in the knees?”
“You were there,” I snapped. “No use lying about it.”
“Then why are you lying about the reason you’re quitting?”
“You don’t think Lenni getting attached to the nanny—the nanny that hasn’t even been in your house for a week—is a good enough reason for me to quit?”
“I think you’re terrified that it’s been less than a week and you can’t keep your hands off me.”
“Keep my hands off you?! Right now I’m ready to strangle you! You arrogant—”
“You want to do more than that.” His grin was feral. “But I know what you’re really afraid of.”
I popped a hip. “Enlighten me, savant of women.”
“You like me,” he stated. “A lot. And whatever you think is going on between us, you know it’s more than just hormones. Hormones you can ignore. And that scares the ever-loving shit out of you. So I don’t accept your resignation. You’re not quitting.”
“Yes, I am,” I declared with a toss of my head.
Archer reached out and gently clasped my wrist.
“Archer—”
“No.” His dark eyes were earnest, his tone emphatic. “You don’t get to walk away when things get complicated.”
“Archer, the longer I stay . . . the longer I live in that house with you, the longer I . . .”
“What?” he demanded.
His thumb stroked my skin, and it was so tender that tears filled my eyes.
I couldn’t get in any deeper.
Because when I was with them, I felt—
Archer’s cell rang, dissolving the moment between us.
He didn’t release me; using his free hand, he pulled out his phone from his apron pocket. He looked at the screen and frowned.
Archer pressed a button and put the cell to his ear. “Hello?”
I turned to leave, attempting to pull from his grasp. But he shook his head. I stayed put.
“Yes, I’m Lenni Murphy’s father.” He paused and closed his eyes. “Yeah, okay, I’ll be right there. Thank you.”
He hung up the phone and dropped my wrist. “That was the school. Lenni’s been in a fight.”
My eyes widened. “Is she okay?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, she’s fine.”
“Why did she get into a fight?”
“Not sure. Guess we’ll find out.” He untied his apron.
“We?” I asked.
“Yes, we. You’re coming to the school with me.”
“Fuck a duck,” I muttered.
“That’s one way of putting it.”
He tossed his apron aside and then clasped my hand in his.
I didn’t bother telling him no.
I sat alone in the passenger seat of the truck, my phone pinging with texts that I refused to answer.
Archer had clocked me—completely and without smugness. That’s what pissed me off the most. And the fact that it hadn’t taken any time at all before my heart had gotten involved.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t blame my vagina.
This was all my heart’s doing.
I had feelings for Archer. And I was terrified that if I spent any more time around him, I’d no longer be able to pretend to be in the wading pool of emotion. No . . . if I spent any more time around him, I’d dive right into the deep end . . .
And drown.
The door to the school opened and Archer and Lenni strode outside. He carried her yellow backpack in one hand and with the other, he had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. She didn’t push him away. Instead, she stared down at her feet as she walked.
He opened the back passenger door, and she climbed in. Archer set her backpack down on the seat next to her and then closed the door.
I unbuckled my seat belt and turned so I could face her. She was staring out the window. Lenni looked pale. Paler than I’d ever seen her.
Archer climbed into the driver’s seat and lowered the heat.
“Someone want to tell me what’s going on?” I asked.
“The school suspended Lenni for a day,” he said. “She can return to school next Monday, after the long weekend.”
“So, what happened?” I asked. “Lenni?”
She sighed. “Some kid was teasing me.”
“About what?” I asked.
She was silent for so long that I thought she wasn’t going to say anything. “Uncle Brooks,” she said finally. “The kid was calling him all these ugly names and telling everyone in the class he was an ex-con.”
I winced and shot Archer a look. His expression was carefully neutral.
“So, then what happened?” I asked turning my attention back to her.
“I told Robby that he was a liar and that if he didn’t shut his mouth, I was going to shut it for him. He said he wasn’t scared of a girl.” She looked at me. “He is now. I gave him a black eye.”
“I see,” I murmured.
“I just couldn’t let him get away with badmouthing Unc like that,” she said.
Archer let out a slow exhale. “Fuck.”
Lenni’s eyes widened.
“Okay, so here’s the thing,” Archer said as he peered at his daughter. “Robby wasn’t lying. Your Uncle Brooks did time in prison.”
Lenni’s mouth gaped. “For what?”
“Christ,” Archer muttered.
“No way out but through,” I said.
“He—and I—” He sighed. “Your uncle and I used to belong to a motorcycle club. That’s how I met your mother. She used to . . . hang around with us. And . . .”
Archer looked at me.
I raised my brows. “Don’t look at me, dude. You started this.”
“And when she found out she was pregnant, she realized she didn’t want to raise you around a bunch of bikers.”
“Because of Unc and him going to prison?”
“No!” Archer’s voice boomed and then it softened when he repeated, “Sorry, no. It had nothing to do with Brooks and everything to do with me. Brooks went to prison long after your mom left. And he went to prison because he was protecting a brother who’d just had a baby girl.
And he didn’t want him to go to prison and miss her growing up. ”
Her brow furrowed. “Like you missed me growing up.”
“Yeah, like that,” Archer said. “You get what I’m saying?”
“Yeah, I think I do,” Lenni said slowly. “Unc is loyal.”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” She paused. “I probably shouldn’t have slugged Robby then.”
“Well,” Archer shrugged, “it seems like you’re pretty loyal too. Must be a Keel trait.”
Her lips pulled up into a smile.
Archer started the engine. “You know what a champion fighter deserves?”
“What?” Lenni asked.
“A champion meal. How does a steak and baked potato for dinner sound?” Archer asked, shooting his daughter a look.
Lenni shot her fist into the air. “Yes!”
“We better hit the store, though. I don’t have steak defrosted,” I said.
“What, no push back on the fact that I’m rewarding my daughter for fighting?” Archer asked me.
I shrugged. “No push back from where I’m sitting. My dad had a rule growing up. You didn’t start fights. But you learned how to finish them.”
Archer put the truck in gear. “No grocery store needed. We’re going out. I’m treating my girls to dinner.”