Chapter 16
Archer
Archer approached Erica’s cottage by the hidden gap in the hedgerow. He was taking a chance entering her space uninvited. When Archer walked through, the clink of the beer bottles startled a bird out of the bushes. When he looked over at the patio furniture, Erica stared back at him. She flipped the pages of what she was reading so the white pages sat neatly on her lap and tucked a hand under her chin. Archer’s steps faltered when she smiled, sending a jolt to his heart.
His feet kept going, but his heart gave off warning signals like there was a significant engine failure on a helicopter. The sirens blared in his head, screaming that his soul might never be the same again if he went through with this.
Stepping up to the patio area wall, he put the six-pack of beer down on the wall. “Hello, Erica, sorry for coming by unannounced. ”
“That’s okay. I wasn’t doing much. What’s that you’ve brought?” Erica asked.
“Beer,” he answered, holding them up by the handle. “I wanted to explain something.”
Erica nodded to the sofa opposite hers, and he sat down. Then, twisting off the caps of two bottles, he handed her one. She raised her bottle, and they clinked necks.
“Cheers,” she said and took a long sip. Her exposed throat moved slowly as she swallowed the liquid. His mind instantly turned filthy at her movements. Taking a long gaze at her body, he was happy to see she was wearing a baggy green dress.
“Cheers,” Archer muttered and closed his eyes as he drank half the bottle.
“Have you eaten?” she asked, looking to the open window through the kitchen. “I have cheeses and bread if you’re peckish.”
He needed to find the words to tell her about his situation, so he grabbed the time delay with two hands. “That would be great, thanks.”
“Be right back,” she said and placed the stack of papers attached at the corner with a gold clip face down on the table between them.
Her long flowing bottle-green kaftan moved as she gracefully walked into her kitchen. Archer looked into the darkened garden, searching for support from the nocturnal animals. He practised how he would start the explanation but the words stuck in his head.
When Erica returned to view with a tray laden with food, Archer jumped up to take the tray from her. He placed it on the table between the two sofas and sat back, admiring the graceful way Erica walked and sat. It seemed rehearsed, practised a thousand times until it became natural.
Archer reached over the cheeses and bread and took a selection on a cloth napkin. He placed it on the seat next to him—no more stalling.
“What did you want to explain?” Erica asked, then broke off a chunk of cheddar and dropped it into her mouth.
Her eyes sparkled with mischief like she knew what he was about to say. A smile played on her lips as she chewed her food. Never in all his life had he thought a human being as sexy when they ate.
“I wanted to explain why I couldn’t kiss you,” Archer said, then stuffed his mouth with too much bread.
“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?” she asked.
“Shouldn’t more like.”
Archer let out a long sigh and sat back on the sofa, brushing the crumbs off his lap. He stared at Erica, getting the measure of her, seeking answers in her expression to let him know if he could trust her.
Deciding he was willing to gamble, he said, “I’ll inherit this one day.” Archer looked up at the cottage.
As he looked at the house she had been renting, Erica followed his gaze.
“You’re going to inherit the house?” she asked.
“Copper Island,” he said and snapped his gaze back to Erica.
She jolted back on the sofa and took a deep breath, holding her palm to her chest.
“You’re not the maintenance guy?” she asked with her eyebrows raised. There was still humour in her eyes while she waited for the answer.
“At the moment, who knows? ”
“Copper Island belongs to your father, and you’ll inherit all this beauty one day?” Erica guessed.
“It’s more complicated than that. My father passed away seven years ago.”
“I’m sorry, Archer, truly.”
“Thanks,” he said and paused. “I adored my father, my mother too. They should still be here, running Turner Hall.”
“You must be lonely.”
Erica said it as a statement. Archer didn’t consider himself lonely, not with three siblings he thought the world of and would do anything for them.
“Copper Island has been in my family since the early 1700s when copper was mined here. There is some antiquated rule that only one Turner can own the island at any time. When my father passed away, my grandfather was still alive. My father never got to own or run an inch of this piece of Earth. Everything went to my aunt. I’d hoped to learn from my father how to run everything when I was a kid. But he didn’t have any interest in the old ways. He wasn’t the eldest Turner either. My aunt is. Something happened that no one talks about back when my dad and aunt were younger. But fate had its way, and she is the matriarch.”
“And you didn’t get anything?”
“We won’t get anything until she passes away. It’s how the will was written.”
“We?”
“I have two brothers and a sister. So when I inherit as the eldest, I will split it four ways between us immediately.”
“What about your mother?”
“I haven’t seen her in a very long time. Close to thirty years. She could be dead for all I know. ”
“Archer,” she said.
He couldn’t work out if she told him off or pitied him. Erica slumped back on the sofa and stretched out to look up. Most of the back of the cottage was under coverings. The couches were at the edge of a low wall overlooking the lawns.
They fell into silence, not looking at each other. Instead, Archer fixed his gaze on the stars.
“I don’t understand the connection between inheriting this island and kissing me? Do you think I’ll run off with your inheritance?”
Smiling, Archer looked her way, resting his forearms on his thighs.
“No. Nothing like that. Until recently, my brothers, sister, and I worked on the same oil rig. They closed down the operation, and now we need to find a new workplace. We can split up and work at different oil rigs around the world, but none of us wants to work solo. We’ve been together all our lives. Well, apart from education. It was either this island or the oil rig.”
“Wow. I can’t imagine liking my family well enough to spend that amount of time together.”
“We’re tight, inseparable, you might say.”
“Are you going to get to the kissing part?” she asked, licking her bottom lip.
Did she do that on purpose? Archer thought.
“My aunt owns every inch of this island. I thought she would let us run the hotel, wedding business, and cottage rentals.”
“That sounds like a good idea. You’ll all be working together side by side. Presumably, your skills are transferable.”
“Mostly,” he said. “Luke will have to adapt the most. ”
He wasn’t sure how much forklift trucking Daisy would be able to achieve, but he had a hunch she wanted to pursue her accountancy qualifications.
“Kissing,” she said and did a double lift of her eyebrows.
Archer was feeling the pressure of confessing what he’d agreed to. He had to say it out loud to someone other than his siblings. It sounded crazy.
“I went to my aunt, who, by the way, is nearly eighty, and proposed the idea.”
“And what did she say?”
“She had a counter-proposal or a condition. A big one.”
Sitting up, Erica took a swig of her beer and gave him a stern look. “This is like drawing blood from a stone, Archer. I’m on tenterhooks.”
“She’ll hand over the hotel, wedding business, and cottages on one condition.”
“You find a wife,” Erica blurted out, then clapped her hand over her mouth.
“How the fuck did you know that?”
Archer looked around to see if there were hidden cameras or one of his brothers hiding around the corner, setting him up.
“I saw it in a movie once,” she said, her eyebrows almost reaching her hairline.
She wouldn’t look him in the eye. The grape on her plate was far more interesting.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Something about him getting his inheritance and proving that he could find his wife to his father. It was only supposed to be for a year, but they fell in love.”
“Wow.”
“It’s a bit far-fetched, but some people are more old-fashioned than their age. ”
“That’s my grandmother to a T.”
“So, kissing is off limits while you find a wife? I’m guessing you will find a wife because you care about your siblings. This place reeks of old money and tradition. If you turn down the deal, you could be looking at twenty years waiting for her to die. That’s morbid and depressing and no way to live.”
“I want to marry for life, ya know? My aunt has very traditional views on marriage. It wouldn’t occur to her to have a love match. For her, marriage is about convenience and making sure the Turner line keeps going.”
“Good job your mum could have four kids. Less pressure on having children if you were an only child.”
“Are you an only child?”
“Yep.”
“Do your parents pressure you to have children?”
“They’ve never mentioned it, which tells me they do.”
“There were so many reasons why I shouldn’t kiss you. I didn’t want to kiss you and then tell you I needed to find a wife. Then I didn’t want to kiss you if you thought I had ulterior motives. I didn’t want to kiss you, feel your lips on mine, and then stop because I’d have to start dating another woman. My sister has set up a dating profile for me.”
“You think way too much. You know that Archer?”
Erica put her plate down on the coffee table, tossed the napkin on top, and stood. Then, she came around to his side of the table and sat next to him on the sofa.
“I’d still like that kiss, Archer,” she said and placed her hand over his on his thigh.
“Knowing what you know?”
“Yeah, knowing what I know.”
Archer turned to face Erica, who wore her sexy, playful smile. He pulled her onto his lap with one hand reaching for her neck and the other inching towards her waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in. When he closed the gap, pressing his lips to hers, he yanked her tighter to his body.
“This is reckless, Erica,” he said over her lips.
“Nothing better than a reckless kiss, Archer.”
When he kissed her a second time, he didn’t let her go to chat. He twisted his tongue around hers, toying and teasing while she pressed her breasts against his chest. Archer trained his brain to keep his hands where they were in her hair and around her waist. He would risk a kiss with this woman, but he needed to find a wife, and taking this passionate kiss to the next stage was stepping way over the line.
Erica broke away from him, pressing her lips together, trying to hide her grin.
“I’m glad you came to explain why you couldn’t kiss me,” she said.
“Shouldn’t,” he corrected.
“With a kiss like that, I could definitely pretend to be your wife.”
He cupped her cheek and rubbed his thumb along her skin. “There wouldn’t be any pretending, honey. I must find a wife and marry her in the family chapel behind Turner Hall.”
“There’s a chapel? Is it as under-described as these cottages are? Because these are not cottages, Archer, they’re houses.”
“I think fifty people would fit in the pews, so it is definitely a chapel.”
“Actually get married? Wow, your aunt is not messing about. Where will you find a woman to marry you in such a short time? Three months is not long when you have to announce a marriage a month before the date.”
“Two months in my case. Apparently, the vicar wants more time between announcing the marriage and saying I now pronounce you husband and wife. ”
“Do you know the vicar?”
“Reverend Chivers has been here all my life. He comes to the chapel to do all the services. Christenings, weddings, and funerals. I bet he earns a fortune with all the weddings the business must do.”
“It sounds like your aunt knows what she’s doing. So a month to find a wife.”
“Three weeks. I struck the deal a week ago. Christ, I don’t know why I agreed to it.”
Erica cupped his cheeks and pressed her forehead to his. “Because you want to help your brothers and sister. It’s a noble reason, Archer.”
“My aunt doesn’t think I’m marriage material. I think that’s why she gave the deal. She doesn’t have a high opinion of my father and thinks I am a replica of him. As soon as I agreed, she insisted I move into Turner Hall so she could keep an eye on me. No girls back to my room. I feel like a teenager again.”
“I guess that’s her upbringing. Very traditional. It doesn’t mean you can’t have sex in the sand dunes or sneak to her place.”
“Sex in the sand dunes is painful,” Archer said.
“Is it now?” Erica said with an eyebrow raised.
He realised she was still sitting on his lap, happily chatting about his crazy task ahead. She felt good sitting in his arms. He never wanted to let her go.
“There was a third reason I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“And what’s that? ”
“I’ll want more, and you’ll ruin me for every other woman.”
“Then I’ll marry you,” she said as if she offered to buy a pint of milk.
“You can’t say shit like that.”
“Why not? I could play the role of doting wife. Don’t you think I’m up to the challenge?”
“You have a life, presumably a lucrative one if you can afford to rent all five cottages. So why would you want to marry me?”
“I’ve been married before. Divorced now, so the giddiness and the romance of getting married have gone sour. I thought I was marrying for life. It turns out he didn’t think the same. He proved that marriage is not for forever, so if you need a wife, I can do that.”
“What would you get out of it?”
“Seeing you and your siblings get what you deserve. This island and hell, these houses are big enough that if we start to hate each other, we would never have to see each other. If the Royal Family can do it, then so can we.”
Archer gave her a questioning look. “You’re crazy,” Archer said.
“Maybe so, but you kiss like a dream, so I shall remember your lips forever if nothing else works out.”