Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
~ARCHER~
“ H ow was your day?”
I can’t stop staring at her. We’re in her little cottage, and she’s gathering her things, a light sweater and her purse, almost ready to go out on our date. She’s in a barely-there yellow sundress, perfect for the warm, late-summer evening. Her dark hair is loose and falls in waves down her back.
Southern Oregon is in the midst of an Indian summer. Or so I’ve been told at least six times today from various locals around town.
“Busy, but really good,” she says with a smile. “We finally hired an extra person at the refuge, so I get tomorrow off. It’ll be the first day off I’ve had in months, at least one that wasn’t because of a funeral.”
“Spend it with me,” I say immediately and smile down at her when her eyes jump up to mine. “Pack an overnight bag and spend the night at my place tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll goof off together.”
“I should get some things done. I have laundry and bills to pay. I was thinking about?—”
“Please.”
She sighs as if she’s waging war inside herself, and then she turns without a word and walks upstairs to her bedroom.
When she’s out of eyesight, I pump my fist in the air in celebration.
“I saw that,” she calls down, making me laugh.
“You didn’t see anything.”
Less than three minutes later, she returns with the same overnight bag she took with her to Seattle. I toss it into the back seat of my car, get her settled, and pull out of her driveway.
“Where are we going?” she asks. “And am I dressed appropriately?”
“You’re gorgeous.” I head toward town. “I thought we’d do something tonight that we used to do back in the day.”
She quirks a brow at me. “Did you?”
I feel my lips twitch. “Easy, tiger. For starters, we’re going to a high school football game. It is Friday night, after all.”
Earlier, I researched where the game is being held so it would be easy to find. I pull into a packed parking lot once we arrive.
“Small towns love their Friday night football games,” I say as I cut the engine and turn to smile at my girl. She’s not smiling in return. “What’s wrong? You used to love football.”
“I still like it.”
“My cousin Will will be thrilled to hear that.”
She rolls her eyes. “I just don’t usually come to these kinds of things. I try to blend, remember?”
“You’re a member of this community. Going to a game isn’t going to make you stand out like a sore thumb. Come on, it’ll be fun. They have hotdogs, and I’m starving. Aren’t you hungry?”
“For hotdogs?”
“They might have soft pretzels. Or nachos.”
I waggle my eyebrows and get out of the car, then walk around to open her door and take her hand to help her up.
“So, it’s a fancy date, then,” she says while batting her eyelashes. “You shouldn’t have.”
“We spent many a Friday night at the football field when we were younger,” I remind her as I link my fingers with hers and follow the crowd walking toward the gate.
“Yeah, because you were on the team, and I was a cheerleader. Attendance was required. Also, we were in high school. Here, we don’t even know the kids playing.” She stops short and blinks rapidly.
“What’s wrong?” I look in the direction she’s staring, but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. “What is it?”
“Nothing.” She shakes her head and then smiles up at me. “I thought I saw something. Anyway, we’re no longer required to come to high school games.”
“Hey, it’s football.” I wink down at her, determined to have a good time tonight. “No pro teams in southern Oregon.”
“True.”
“Next!” a mom yells out. She’s wearing a Bandon Tigers sweatshirt, a pin on her chest with a photo of a player, and gold and black paint on her face. My guess is she’s the president of the PTA. “What can I getcha?”
“Four hotdogs for me,” I reply and then look down at El—Ally. “You?”
“ Four ?” she asks and then shakes her head. “I’ll have one hotdog and a Coke.”
“Oh, a Coke for me, too.”
The lady nods, shouts our hotdog order at the other mother filling those requests, and before long, we’re paid up and walking away with our food.
The lights are bright overhead, and the sun is starting to set. The cheerleaders are at their post on the sideline, just inside a wooden fence, smiling for the crowd.
As we walk past, I feel Ally move closer to me. I glance down in time to see her narrowing her eyes at the girls.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing.”
We climb the bleachers and find a good spot, right in the middle of the crowd.
“For real, what happened?”
Ally takes a bite of her dog and shrugs a shoulder. “They were checking you out.”
“They’re like…sixteen.”
She shrugs again.
“I don’t go for jailbait, babe.”
“You did once.” Her voice is cool and matter-of-fact, and I can’t help but bust up laughing.
“Yeah, over you. And if I recall correctly, I was also jailbait at the time, so it doesn’t count.”
She laughs now, and I finish off one dog in two bites, then start on the next.
“You know, this isn’t a contest,” she says, watching me. “You can chew it.”
“I am.”
“How can you afford to feed yourself?”
“Good thing I’m rich.” I wink at her before taking a sip from the straw in my Coke. The game is about to start. A woman climbs the bleachers and sits next to me with a smile.
“Is this seat taken?”
“No, ma’am.”
She lays a blanket on the bench, sits, then spreads another blanket over her lap like it’s blizzarding out.
“Do you have a son playing?” she asks me.
“No, just here to enjoy the game. You?”
“That one.” She points to the field. “Number two.”
“Quarterback,” I say with a nod. “Very nice.”
“And that cheerleader,” she continues, pointing to a blond girl in the middle, “is my daughter.”
“Double the reason to be here,” I say with a nod. “That’s great.”
“They’re good kids,” she says, watching her daughter as she laughs with a friend. “I’m a single mom, so it hasn’t always been easy, but I have no complaints when it comes to them.”
“That’s great,” I say again.
“So, not married, then?” she asks, looking at my ring finger. “Sorry, I’m Bea.”
“Hi, Bea. No, I’m not married, but I’m here with my—” My what? Girlfriend? Ex-wife?
“I’m Ally,” Ally says, reaching around me to offer her hand for Bea to shake. “And I can hear you.”
“Oh, I was just making conversation,” Bea says, clearly flustered. “I certainly didn’t mean any offense.”
“Of course,” Ally says with a nod and sits back, mumbling under her breath, “Home-wrecker.”
I lean over to whisper in her ear. “Your green eye is especially green tonight, sweetheart.”
“Your blue eyes are both about to be black,” she says with a saccharine-sweet smile. “Must you flirt with anything in a skirt?”
“To be fair, she’s not wearing a skirt. And I wasn’t flirting. I was talking. ”
“Hmph.”
“You know, your jealous side always did turn me on. Seems nothing’s changed in that regard.”
Her eyes are pinned to the field, but her lips turn up in a half-smile. This is a conversation we would have had before. Teasing and easy. She’s not easily swayed to jealousy, so I know she’s just giving me shit—the way she always did.
Falling into an easy cadence with her is as simple as breathing.
The game is underway, Bea keeps to herself now, and I spend the next two hours cheering for a team that isn’t mine, in a town that isn’t mine, next to the woman that is mine.
“Come on, ref, put your glasses on!” Ally yells, almost coming off her seat. “What a jerk.”
I grin down at her. “I knew you’d enjoy yourself.”
“I’d enjoy it more if that ref knew what a decent call is.” She shakes her head in disgust. “He’s not a great banker, either.”
“Excuse me?”
“The ref. He works at the bank.”
“Small towns,” I murmur with a smile, enjoying myself. She’s getting so worked up by the game, it’s hilarious to watch. “You would love watching Will play.”
“I’ve been,” she says and sends me a sly smile. It fills my heart to know that she’s still interested in my family after everything that went down between us. They loved her and were upset when we broke up. “I drove to San Francisco to watch him a couple of years ago. I always liked your family.”
“I know.” I swallow and watch the quarterback throw the ball. “They liked you, too. Still do.”
She nods. “Anyway, it was fun to drive down for a couple of days and watch him play. He used to remind me of you.”
“Because of the amount of food we ate?”
“That,” she says, “and your personalities. You’re both easygoing, funny. Kind of cocky.”
“Hey, I’m not cocky.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “Have you met you? You’re completely cocky. But not in an asshole kind of way.”
“Uh, thanks?”
She takes my hand in hers, smiles, and then resumes watching the game. I want to cover my heart with my hand and sigh.
I have it bad. Real bad. I don’t know how we’re going to make this work, but there is no other choice. Because I’m not leaving Bandon without her. Next week or next month, I don’t care when.
“You put in a hot tub?” she asks as she stares dumbfounded at the bubbling tub out on the deck. We stepped out to listen to the surf below. “That was fast.”
“I work fast,” I reply. “It seemed like a good investment. Who wouldn’t like to sit out here in that tub, watching the ocean? If I end up using this place as a vacation rental, it’ll help lure in vacationers.”
“I would rent it,” she says and dips her hand in the water. “Is it all ready to go?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll be right back.”
She turns and disappears into the house. I want to go after her, but my phone rings.
“Hi, Stasia,” I say.
“How’s it going?”
“Great.”
“Are you with her?”
“Yes.”
She huffs on the other end of the line. “Gee, you’re so talkative. Tell me things, Archer. Where are you? What did she say when she saw you? What are you doing now? When are you coming back to Seattle? Are you an item again?”
“Christ, do you ever stop talking?”
“I need information. You’ve been very tight-lipped. So, where did you find her?”
“I’m not telling you that.”
She pauses. I can just see her face in my head, her brow furrowed in a frown.
“Why ever not?”
“Because she doesn’t want anyone to know where she is.”
“Well, you have to tell me something. ”
“No, I don’t.”
“What if something happens to you? What if something happens here, and I need to send for you?”
“Send for me? What is this, sixteen-sixty? I have a phone. Call me.”
“Archer Steven Montgomery.”
“That’s not going to work, and you know it.”
She sighs dramatically, and I can hear a deep voice in the background.
“He won’t tell me where they are.”
“Is that Kane?”
“Of course, it’s Kane.”
“Tell him to rein in his wife.”
I grin and wait for the sputtering and spitting to come. I’d never have the balls to say that in person, she’d slice me in two, but from this safe distance, I can’t help it.
“Have you lost your bloody mind ?” she screeches, making me laugh loudly.
“You deserved it,” I remind her. “We’re safe, we’re fine, and that’s all you’re going to get out of me.”
“Stop hassling your brother,” I hear Kane say.
“Listen to your husband, the way a good wife should.”
“I’m going to slash all your tires when you get home.”
“Goody. See you.”
I hang up as Elena walks out of the glass doors, wearing nothing but a towel.
At least, I think it’s nothing but a towel.
“Turn around,” she instructs me.
“Hell, no.”
She tilts her head to the side and raises a brow. “Do it, Arch.”
I sigh and turn my back on her. “Fine.”
I hear something fall to the deck, the water sloshing, and then, “Okay. I’m in.”
I turn to see her submerged to her neck. She pinned her hair up, and she’s resting against the headrest.
“This is divine.”
My tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. She shifts, exposing the tops of her breasts, and I feel my cock harden in response.
“You should join me. I won’t look while you strip down.”
I blink, giving it more thought than I ever figured I would. I want to jump right in and take her, right here and now. The image of us naked and slick, making love in that water is at the forefront of my mind.
But I didn’t plan to take it there tonight. I mean, I want to. But I won’t until she can be open and honest with me about all aspects of her life, not just her body.
“Archer.”
“Yeah?”
“Get in the water. Before I’m a prune.”
I don’t ask her to turn away. I strip out of my clothes and sink into the water. I sit across from her, keeping my gaze steady on hers.
“Who were you chatting on the phone with?” she asks. A droplet of water drips down the side of her neck and runs down her chest to the bubbling surface.
I can’t take my eyes off the wet path that droplet took.
I’ve never been jealous of water before in my life. I guess there’s a first time for everything.
“Arch?”
“Sorry?”
She grins. “Phone call?”
“Anastasia.”
All humor leaves her face as she stares at me from across the tub. “Are you kidding me?”
“She’s my sister.”
“Did she ask where you are?”
“Of course, she did.”
“Shit.”
“That doesn’t mean I told her. Elena, I have to have contact with my family. It’s my family. ”
“How could I be so stupid?” she mutters.
“Whoa. Hold up. Neither of us is stupid. But you’re the one hiding, not me. If I don’t stay in contact with my siblings, they’ll put an all-points bulletin out on me, and all of the Pacific Northwest will be looking. I didn’t give her any information.”
“Someone can trace your cell phone. Why do you think I don’t have one?”
“I turned off the GPS on my phone. I did it the minute I left Washington. But if the mere thought of me talking to the people who love me the most pisses you off, we need to figure this out now. I’ll call in Caleb or Matt or someone to help. You can’t just hide here forever.”
“Stop it,” she says, shooting daggers at me with her eyes. “You don’t dictate how this goes, Archer. I’ve been doing this for a long time. You’re right, I can’t tell you not to speak with your sisters. That’s not fair. But I won’t sit here and be a sitting duck either.”
“I’m telling you, you’re safe.”
“And I’m telling you , you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She stands in the dark and climbs out of the water, grabs the towel off the deck, and stomps inside. I hurry after her.
She slams the bathroom door shut and locks it before I can fling it open behind her.
“Open the door.” My voice is way calmer than I feel. “Elena, you have to know that I’d never put you at risk, and neither would my family. We’re not stupid, and we’re not careless.”
“You don’t get it,” she says when she steps out of the bathroom, clad in her dress once more.
“Then tell me.” I don’t let her rush away. I cage her in against the wall and tip her chin up so I can look in her eyes. “ Talk to me, Elena.”
“It would be easier if we just had sex and went our separate ways.”
“I’m not sleeping with you.”
That catches her attention.
“Well, that’s a small blow to my ego, but I’ll get over it.” She moves to pull away from me, but I easily hold her in place.
“I’m not going to be intimate with you until you’re willing to fully open up to me. I told you that already. Not until it’s more than just this incredible chemistry between us. It’s true intimacy. You’re not just some girl I met at the gym, or the bar, or wherever. It’s you , damn it. I need to know what happened twelve years ago. I need to know what they did to you.”
She closes her eyes in defeat and leans her forehead against my chest.
“Archer.”
My hands glide up and down her arms.
“Come on.” She looks up at me now with clear, determined eyes. “Let’s go outside.”
“I’ll pour us some wine on the way.”
“We’re going to need it.”