7. Archer
ARCHER
PRESENT
Being in the house with Ace was a bigger struggle than I had originally thought.
If I were being honest with myself, I wasn’t over her.
I wanted a second chance. I wanted her back in my life in the worst way, but I got the distinct impression those feelings were not mutual.
Which made it that much harder to see her walk around my house like she belonged there.
Seeing her in my kitchen this morning getting a cup of coffee in her pajama pants and tank top that revealed just how cold she was in my house led me to taking my second cold shower in less than twelve hours.
The first had been the day before, when she went running with her trainer.
She’d come down wearing only a sports bra and the shortest goddamn shorts I had ever seen in my life.
Her trainer had worn equally short shorts—though she had a shirt on—but her shorts hadn’t given me the same reaction Ace’s had.
That reaction had my dick getting instantly hard.
When her trainer had arrived, I’d gone to the door to let her in, just as Ace had come around the corner from upstairs. I’d had to strategically hide behind the open front door so neither woman saw my excitement bulging out within my pants.
Introductions had been made, and I’d given them the best—and safest—route for them on the property.
It had taken them around my lot, over to Vince’s , and then down through the trail and pond at Jack’s house before circling back around.
I’d texted Jack to be on the lookout—subtly, of course—as they ran by, to make sure everything was good.
Vince had also stopped by his house to check on the progress there.
The women had thought they’d had freedom and peace to run the entire place, but they’d also been watched carefully, just in case.
Sara, her trainer, was nice. She’d asked a lot of questions about security and safety— I assumed Ace had mentioned the same story to her about having a stalker.
Sara was in great shape and had mentioned that she taught Krav Maga classes on the side—yet another reason to feel good about her abilities—and I appreciated that Ace had yet another highly skilled person to look out for her.
After they’d come back from their run, they’d gone into my small makeshift workout room, and I’d gone to take a cold shower. It had helped…until the next morning, when I could see her hard nipples through her white tank top in my kitchen. Nipples that I’d had my mouth on years ago.
That thought had me leaving the kitchen abruptly, telling Ace we were leaving in one hour and heading for another cold shower.
Now we were driving to go curling with her coworkers, thankfully with a lot more clothes on. It wasn’t cold outside, but we were headed to an ice rink, and the company had told us to dress in warm layers.
Axel had invited himself along for this learn-to-curl class they had all signed up for. I didn’t think we needed extra support for this particular event since it was small, but he was thrilled to get to do something from back home.
I, too, had done some curling when I was younger.
I’d grown up in Park City , Utah , and winter sports were a big part of life there.
Skiing and snowboarding were bigger, but I’d also tried my hand at hockey, snowshoeing, and curling.
I wasn’t great at it, but I knew the basics and could hold my own at the event today.
Thankfully , they had a few spots left in this instructional class, so Axel and I signed up.
We pulled up to the warehouse-looking building and got out of the car.
We made our way inside, and immediately I scanned the building for any potential threats, despite knowing Axel had planned to get here early to do the same thing.
He informed me there were twenty-four people total—including us—in this class.
As we entered the building, Ace walked right over to two people standing off to the side. Axel saw us arrive and walked over to us.
“Archer, you already met Talia ,” Ace said, pointing at the beautiful woman I’d met at the TV station dinner party.
“Good to see you again,” I said to Talia , who smiled back at me.
Ace turned to Axel next. “ Axel , this is my coworker, Talia Davidson . She’s our weekend meteorologist.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Axel said with his slight accent. “ I’ve never met anyone who studies meteors.”
Talia smiled at him. “ The name is confusing, but I study the weather. I handle weather forecasting and science coverage for the TV station.”
Axel nodded in return, likely cataloguing another thing for his I hate the English language list.
“And this is Dan Stanley , our sports reporter extraordinaire,” Ace introduced the man in front of me. “ Dan , this is Archer Papadopoulos and his friend Axel Skarsg?rd .”
I knew she had told her friends that I was a bodyguard, but apparently she didn’t want them to know Axel was one too.
Axel also exchanged pleasantries with both of them. “ Have either of you played curling before?” Axel asked the group.
“I’m from Minnesota , so I was on the ice before I could barely walk,” Dan responded. “ We practically come out of the womb knowing how to be on ice. Though it’s been several years since I’ve curled.”
“Technically, I grew up in Boston , but my family is from the Caribbean ,” Talia said.
A few strands of black hair poking out from under her thick knit hat, brushing against her dark tawny skin—skin that had a lot less makeup on it than she had when I had seen her a few days ago.
“Warm-water sports are more my thing than frozen-water sports. With that said, I’m a quick learner and fully prepared to crush all of you today.”
We all laughed. Maybe she’d do well, though I wasn’t sure she would be able to crush us.
Axel looked over at Ace , raising his brow in question.
“I did it a few times as a kid, but that was years ago,” Ace chimed in.
Two instructors made their way over and gave introductions, taught us the basics, and then broke us up into teams to play a full game.
There were usually four to a team, but there were five of us, so our instructor added a separate group of three people to our sheet of ice so we had eight full people to play.
Talia, Ace , Dan , and I were on one team. Followed by Axel with two twin sisters— Janet and Jasmine —and their older brother Jimmy .
The first lesson the instructors gave us was to learn how to come out of the hack—the starting point.
You had to position yourself low in a lunge position in order to slide out onto the ice while sliding the stone alongside you.
You could immediately differentiate the beginners from the ones who had done this before.
If you were a newbie, you likely found yourself on your ass because you didn’t realize that balancing was a much more complicated process, which was exactly what Jimmy and his sisters had done.
Having done this before, Dan did pretty well. He was a few years older than the women, but you’d never know it with how agile he was on the ice—he was damn good, too.
Ace proved that this must be like riding a bicycle, because she was very agile and did quite well. Talia was the surprise. For having never done this before, she was quite graceful.
“I’ve been practicing squats and lunges for weeks now to get ready for this,” Talia announced, likely as a response to seeing the shocked looks on several of our faces.
Axel had to go next and not only slid out gracefully but landed his stone perfectly in the center of the house on the first try.
“Damnit, we should have kept him on our team,” Talia mumbled under her breath, only loud enough for Dan , Ace , and me to hear.
After learning the basics and practicing a few times, our instructors felt we were ready to play a practice round.
After playing two ends—curling’s version of innings or rounds—our class had ended.
Axel was by far the best player on any team, but sadly for him, his teammates were terrible, so despite having some amazing shots, one of his teammates usually knocked their own team’s stones out of play by accident. Our team won with a score of 3-0.
In the end, Talia claimed she was the MVP because her stone was the closest to the center. “ Archer , you and Axel don’t count because you two are the equivalent of a Greek god and Viking , and it’s scientifically proven they can’t be bad at anything.”
We all shook hands and congratulated each other on a good game of curling. After it was over, Talia asked me if I could take a photo of her, Ace , and Dan together on the ice to commemorate the event.
We thanked our instructors, handed back our rental equipment, and walked out of the building.
“Celebratory drinks and appetizers on me,” Dan said to our group of five.
There was a Mexican restaurant next door that we all walked to. There was a table for six open at the far end of the restaurant, so we asked to sit there.
Dan asked around for everyone’s order, noticeably skipping Ace before coming to me. I declined, choosing a Coke instead before turning to Ace . I was about to ask what she wanted when Dan repeated back the order. “ Okay , two beers, one margarita, one Coke , and one Dr . Pepper , correct?”
The look on my face must have been obvious, because Talia spoke up. “ She doesn’t drink.”
“Ever?” Axel asked her, no judgment on his face, but rather just curiosity.
“You never know when you could get called into work, and I don’t want to be anything but lucid for that,” Ace responded.
I understood that, but the look on her face implied there was a bit more to it. Though I wasn’t going to call her out on it here and now.
“Honestly, some people can’t hold their liquor well, so it’s not a bad idea to have that rule in place,” Dan added before turning toward the bar. “ Drink order coming right up.”
“So, you’re Swedish , huh?” Talia asked Axel after we all decided on several appetizers to order.