7. Archer #2
“Yes, I moved here two years ago,” he responded to her.
“What made you come here?” Talia questioned him.
“A job,” he answered shortly, his face becoming stiff. It was more than that, but I knew he wouldn’t expand on that with her, or really anyone.
“Have you ever been to the Swedish Bakery over on Peachtree Crossing ?” Ace asked him.
Axel’s face softened a bit as he looked at her. “ No , but I will try it. I do miss sweet foods from home.”
“Stella is the young woman who owns the bakery, and while I’ve never been to Sweden , so I can’t know how they compare to the real thing, I do know they are delicious,” Ace added, smiling enthusiastically while describing some of her favorite items from the shop.
In response, Axel asked a lot of questions, some of which she was able to answer.
“Where in Sweden does she come from?” Axel inquired.
“Umm… I’ve never asked. Sorry ,” Ace replied.
“You have a favorite thing from her bakery? What is the thing?” Axel asked again.
“She makes a really good cinnamon roll type of pastry,” Ace answered, grinning.
“Ah, the kanelbulle,” Axel said, smiling hugely at this announcement. “ She also makes the traditional kladdkaka, yes?”
“Umm… I don’t know,” Ace replied. “ Stella has the Swedish names next to her baked goods, but she also has the English version, so I usually just order with the English name.”
Axel hummed in response, but I could see the wheels turning that he was likely already planning a trip there.
“As a curling champion, it is my duty to tell you that you should definitely try that bakery,” Talia chimed in. “ Anna has brought us some of their specialties, and they are incredible.”
Dan and Ace groaned at Talia’s mention of her “curling champion” title, while Axel and I just smiled.
“She’s never going to let us live this down,” Dan said to Ace , and they both smiled.
The easy banter continued among the five of us as we ate appetizers, until I caught Ace looking at a man across the room. He , too, had been staring at her, and I wondered if they knew each other.
“You good?” I asked her, bringing her thoughts and line of sight back to our table.
“What?” she asked, clearly startled.
“Do you know that man?”
She looked at me, then over at the man, and then back at me. “ I thought I did, but no.”
“He’s been staring at you, too. You sure?” I pressed again, getting the sense she wasn’t telling me everything.
“I saw that too, but I think he probably just watches our TV station and recognized me. He’s moved on now, so it doesn’t matter.”
Sure enough, he had just walked out the restaurant’s front door.
I still didn’t like it though. With a bounty on both our heads, you could never be too careful.
I looked over to Axel . He nodded slightly and then got up from the table.
He told the group he needed something from his car, but I knew he was going to check that guy out.
The conversations continued, and I learned Dan wore shorts year-round—given he was from northern Minnesota , nothing was too cold for him.
Talia had just been named in Black Enterprise Magazine’s Top 40 under 40 last month for her contributions to science in the media.
Oh , and Ace was going to auction herself off for a date next month for a foster youth charity.
That irritated me more than it should. I had no claim over her anymore. Even though I had regretted the decision to divorce her a million times, I couldn’t change the past.
Thankfully, I didn’t have too much time to focus on that particular quandary since Axel walked back into the restaurant. Before he had the chance to fill me in, Talia spoke as she got up from her chair.
“Alright, kids… This superior curling player needs a nap.”
More groans and mumbles could be heard from Dan and Ace .
Talia had ridden over with Dan , so both said their goodbyes.
Talia spoke to Ace as she leaned in for a hug. “ As a curling master, my advice is to jump that man’s bones.”
I wasn’t sure if she meant for me to hear it, but I did, and I knew she was referring to me.
Ace growled Talia’s name before telling them both she would see them at work the next day.
They both walked out, leaving just Axel , Ace , and me at the table.
I turned to her and asked, “ You ready to leave too?”
“Yes, once Axel fills us in on what he found out when he followed that guy to the parking lot.”
Damn. Sometimes she was too smart for her own good.
Axel just smiled at her before he filled us in. The man did not appear to be a threat, but Axel tagged his license plate and car details just in case.
We made our way out of the restaurant. Both Axel and I watched our surroundings before getting into the car to head back to my place.
“Either you were an Olympic -level curler and didn’t know it, or you’ve curled more than just a few times in your youth,” I mentioned, throwing her own words back at her, remembering how good she was.
“Yeah, when I was a kid,” she responded, kind of hedging the question.
“They have curling facilities in Northern California ?” I asked her.
“Technically, it was an ice-skating rink, but they would convert it a couple days a week for curling leagues and youth programs,” she answered, putting her seat belt on. “ Not much else to do in Northern California in the rainy winter months.”
“So how often did you play?” Trying again, I hoped she’d give me more on the drive home.
“My foster moms loved curling,” she responded. “ They took my sisters and me several times to learn and try it out. They signed us all up for just about every sport imaginable so we could see if we liked one. Soccer , basketball, tennis—you name it, we got to try it.”
“You hadn’t tried any of those before?” I’d known she’d been in foster care but couldn’t recall at what age she had found her forever home , as she called it.
“When you move around foster homes a lot, you don’t always stay in the same location long enough to remain on a sports team.
Usually , teams want you to be able to commit to at least twice a week, every week, for months.
When you have court dates, family visitations, or meetings with counselors, it often interferes with practices and games, so it was tough. ”
Now I felt like an asshole. I hadn’t thought of that.
My dad may have been a true prick of a human being, but my home life didn’t prevent me from playing sports or losing friends because I moved schools all the time.
My dad being a politician meant that to the outside world, our life had to seem perfect, even if it wasn’t.
My mom made sure I played whatever sport or activity I wanted, and my dad couldn’t exactly complain because that would have looked weird, and you don’t win elections if your family is weird.
For Ace , all those people had walked away from her after promising her a home, friendship…
Shit . It just occurred to me that I had done that too.
I’d walked away from her shortly after we got married—albeit for good reason, but she didn’t know that.
She likely thought I had abandoned her, just like everyone else. Well , not everyone.
“Your coworkers are nice,” I pointed out, though she likely already knew it. “ You’re lucky to have found good friendships like that.”
She smiled at me, having no idea the angry thoughts in my head were directed at myself.
“They are,” she confirmed. “ I’ve learned over years of bouncing around several stations that some people can be very catty in this business. I lucked out with Dan and Talia .”
“How did you like all your other stations?” I asked, choosing not to bring up the fact that I already knew all her other TV stations since I had low-key stalked her for her whole career.
“My first station was rough just because I was totally new and had no idea what I was doing,” she replied with a small grin, likely thinking back to that first station in California .
“ Bakersfield taught me a lot. I learned all the basics, and it was nice because it wasn’t too far for me to drive home to see my family if I needed to. ”
She chuckled as she looked out the window.
“ Cincinnati was next. I remember thinking I was hot shit because I was making enough money to not have to live paycheck to paycheck like I had at my first job. I grew so much at that station, both from a career standpoint, but also personally. I learned a lot about myself there and the goals I wanted out of life.”
“That’s good. Some people never figure that out,” I told her honestly.
“Yeah,” she said, her tone a bit more somber now. “ But those next jumps in the business can also bring out the competitiveness, so the cattiness can reach an all-time high as people work to get to the next stop on their career path.”
I felt the sudden urge to beat up anyone up who had been mean to her.
“You can wipe that look off your face, commando,” she said with a hint of humor. “ I don’t need you to unalive anyone in the name of my honor.”
I would, though. Including the assholes who had put bounties on both our heads.
“By the way, you never showed me the rest of your house,” Ace said, and I realized she was right.
We had been so busy the last forty-eight hours with Ace’s job, her trainer, my job, and her learn-to-curl class with her friends that I hadn’t finished giving her a tour of my house.
On the drive back to the house she had asked about the pool, so when we got back, I started over with the tour from top to bottom.
It was simple from the front—a combination of stone and wood with a garage facing the driveway—but the back of the house was where the real character was.
A covered patio with a huge built-in grill space.
There was also a large-screen TV that faced the backyard so people could watch a game while hanging out. And yes, I also had a pool.
She chuckled next to me as we walked out the back door. “ I see you got your hot tub with a TV nearby to watch games on.”
I smiled back at her, impressed that she remembered from all those years ago. It had me wondering if she remembered the rest of the conversation as we walked back into the house. As we re-entered the living room, we headed left to the kitchen, laundry room, and storage area.
Then on to the last room on this floor. It was beyond the kitchen and faced the side yard. The door was closed, but as I opened it for her to enter, I heard her small gasp next to me as she looked around the room. She paused there at the doorway for a moment, just staring and taking it all in.
“You have a library,” Ace said, her words spoken in a shocked version of quiet.
“Someone once gave me the idea for a room that was just filled with books on endless bookshelves and a few different seating options…and it stuck with me,” I responded honestly.
She turned to face me, her eyes filled with unshed tears, and I wondered if it was a bad idea that I had taken her dream room.