Epilogue #2
“It appears I’m your handler for everything,” Sara teased me. I knew she meant it as a joke, but at the same time, she wasn’t wrong. Yes , she was my FBI handler, but she had also become my dear friend.
I thanked both of them and made my way outside to marry the man I loved.
An hour later, we were sitting in the two tents we had rented for the reception.
Fully decorated tables filled the space to cater to the forty people we’d invited.
Small and intimate, but the people who mattered the most. We had a small bar, a buffet full of food, and a large dance floor in the middle.
Iris and I had just come back from the bathroom— I needed her assistance because my dress was so huge on the bottom—and were walking back to the small table where Archer and I were seated.
Hector was there talking with Archer when my sister spoke beside me in a low voice as we made our way across the room.
“ God , he’s so hot but so surly and grumpy all the time. ”
She wasn’t wrong. Hector seemed to have a perpetual frown on his face every time I’d seen him, but I tried to cut him some slack, given everything that had happened to him over the years.
“ He lost his brother while he was overseas and then had to live undercover with the mafia for years. I’d be depressed and grumpy if that were my life too. ”
“I refer to him as Hector the Convector at work cause he’s all stormy,” Iris replied.
At that comment, I turned back to look at her. “ Two things,” I said, pausing in our walk back to the table. “ One , I don’t know what that means.”
Iris sighed as if annoyed with my stupidity. “ Convective clouds are storm clouds. Hector the Convector is the most famous storm in Australia . We just thought it was clever at work because it’s his name but also a storm name, and he’s all stormy and grumpy all the time.”
She looked at me as if this was the most obvious piece of knowledge and she was embarrassed for me that I didn’t know. I wasn’t a weather nerd, though, so I wasn’t sure why she expected me to know that.
“I’m not a science nerd like you, but let’s put that on hold so we can get to the second thing,” I told her. “ Why are you talking about Hector at your job—often enough, I might point out, that you have given him a nickname?”
She started to blush, and I remembered her words just a few minutes ago about Hector being hot.
“Oh my gosh, you like him!” I exclaimed, keeping my voice low enough for only the two of us to hear. “ As in you like him like him.”
“So?” she responded a bit defensively. “ He ignores me the few times I’ve tried to talk with him or looks at me as though he’d rather be anywhere but near me.”
“In all fairness, he looks like he’d rather be anywhere else no matter who talks to him,” I told her.
“Nope, and I’ll prove it to you,” Iris said and started walking back over to where Hector and Archer were seated.
“Anna, you look beautiful tonight,” Hector said to me as we approached. “ Scary Spice , you look nice too.”
“Scary Spice ?” Iris looked at him with confusion.
“Your hair reminds me of Scary Spice from the Spice Girls —all curly and crazy,” Hector responded, and I knew Iris was about to give him a piece of her mind.
Iris didn’t mind the comparison to Mariah Carey because her hair looked just like Mariah’s in the beginning of her career—dark brown and very curly—but also because her body type resembled Mariah’s too, but more in the latter part of her career—full of curves.
But that was it. She didn’t like comparisons to other celebrities, even if they were good ones, like Mel B from the Spice Girls , Alicia Keys , or Michelle Buteau .
I wasn’t sure why that was a sore spot for her, but it just was.
“You’re one to talk,” Iris snapped back at him. “ When was the last time you had a haircut?”
She was right. His look from when he and I met many months ago had changed.
He now sported a full-blown beard and a mop of dark-brown hair pulled back into a messy man-bun at the back of his head.
He looked like a younger version of Jason Momoa —but just as rugged and un-tamed.
He pulled it off quite well, but I saw Iris’s point.
“And you look like you haven’t shaved in a month,” Iris added, putting her hands on her hips.
“I haven’t,” he said very matter-of-factly, shrugging. He then turned to me, gave me a small smile, and said he was headed out for the night. Before I could even thank him for coming, he was on his way out of the tent. No goodbye to Archer or Iris —or anyone, for that matter.
A glance over at Iris showed her eyebrow hitched high, as though to say, “ I told you so.” Touché . She was right. The weird thing was why. Before I had any time to ponder that, Archer grabbed me by the waist and pulled me into his lap.
“Okay, you two lovebirds, I’m getting a drink,” Iris said and started on her way to the bar.
“Welcome back,” Archer said, kissing my cheek.
I chuckled before turning to face him. “ I was only gone five minutes. Ten tops.”
He leaned forward and kissed me again, this time on the lips and full of hunger. I had a sneaking suspicion the lump I felt under my dress was a certain appendage that belonged to my husband.
“Is that a banana in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” I teased him.
He kissed me again, this time quickly, but left his lips on mine as he spoke. “ Why do you think I had you sit on my lap? To cover my supremely obvious hard-on. Which I seem to get a lot these days whenever you walk into the room.”
I laughed and then teased him some more. “ Poor baby. However will you survive?”
“It’s the cross I have to bear, and I accept this as my fate for the rest of my life,” he teased back, winking at me.
I grinned back at him then leaned over to put my mouth next to his ear and whispered, “ Or I can take you home and have my merry way with you.”
“Really?” he asked. “ Then , as your husband, it is my duty to make you happy, and since it sounds like this is the only thing that would achieve that goal, I am willing to sacrifice myself for the cause.”
“Is that so, husband?” I asked, chuckling at his response.
“It is, wife,” he replied, kissing me like he was starved.
I felt so lucky to have been given the chance to restart my relationship with Archer again, and I looked forward to the rest of our lives together.
THE END
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Thank you for reading RESTART & NEW REVENGE . I hope you enjoyed it.