Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
The next morning, Scarlett left Archer’s place and headed home to shower and change, unable to keep the smile from her lips. The sun glinted on passing windows and gilded the river, turning Stirling into a glittering jewel.
From one of the worst days of Scarlett’s life, she’d experienced a kind of rebirth. Or maybe a resurrection. She’d experienced abandonment from her family and her ex, and she’d rebuilt her life into something simple yet full of contentment. She had a home, a family, a community—and a man.
She and Archer had made love that morning. He’d woken her up with soft strokes of his palm over her arm, and they hadn’t spoken a word, letting their bodies do the talking instead. He’d held her spooned against him, their bodies fused, pleasure quickening their panted breaths. She loved the feel of his strong arm banded across her stomach, pulling her tight against his front. She loved the way his calluses scraped over her skin, how he touched her like he couldn’t get enough of her. She loved the desperate way he said her name.
She loved…him.
As she pulled into her tiny garage next to the Cape Cod cottage she loved so much, Scarlett cut the engine and leaned back against the headrest, letting the realization settle over her.
She was in love with Archer Jones. That’s why she’d pulled away all those months ago. It wasn’t because a breakup would be messy and would jeopardize their friendships with the rest of the group. It was because Scarlett was terrified of what this man could do to her if she let him in.
But how could she not? How could she go back to her little routine and her quiet life, knowing these feelings lurked below the surface?
That particular bell couldn’t be unrung. The vibrations of its gonging echoed deep in Scarlett’s bones. She knew what it felt to feel his palms on her thighs, to see the worshipful look in his eyes.
What was fear in the face of that kind of exhilaration? How could she possibly turn her back on a happiness she hadn’t even known was possible?
When she finally made it to Pushing Daisies, showered and changed and made decent again, Scarlett still couldn’t answer the questions that had arisen in her heart. All she knew was that she was counting down the seconds until she’d see Archer again.
“Hello, hello!” Lucy poked her head through the door and smiled at Scarlett. “I thought I’d find you here. I’ve got the invitation ready to post online. All you have to do is approve it.”
“Great.”
Lucy stared at Scarlett for a moment, dark brows drawing together. “There’s something different about you today.”
“Me?” Scarlett grabbed the broom from where it leaned against the wall, avoiding Lucy’s piercing gaze. “What do you mean?”
“You look…brighter.”
Scarlett focused on sweeping a corner of the shop, even though it was already clean. “Okay…”
Lucy marched over to stand in front of Scarlett. She planted her hands on her hips and stared into Scarlett’s face. “You look happy.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“You’re not getting back together with that awful ex of yours, are you?”
“What? No!”
Lucy blew out a breath. “Good. I know you said so yesterday, but now…” Lucy’s eyes widened. “You went to see Archer last night, didn’t you? The two of you are together.”
Scarlett’s cheeks felt hot. She shrugged. “I don’t know if we’re together , together, but…”
Lucy squealed, throwing her hands out. She hugged Scarlett so tight a wheeze escaped Scarlett’s lips, and then pulled away and took out her phone. “I’m calling the troops!”
Scarlett groaned. “Come on, Lucy, don’t?—”
“Confirmed,” Lucy said into her phone. “Scarlett and Archer. Yep. Okay, see you soon!” She hung up and smiled at Scarlett. “Camilla’s coming over with Amelia. They’re at her bakery, so they’ll be over in a few. In the meantime, check out this post and put it up on your socials so everyone knows we’re throwing a party tomorrow.”
Scarlett pinched her lips to hide her smile, then did as Lucy said.
And sure enough, less than ten minutes later, Camilla came bursting through the door with a tray of coffees. Amelia wasn’t far behind bearing a box of pastries, and the four of them sat around the counter next to the register to share the treats.
Sipping her oat milk latte, Scarlett tried to pretend she wasn’t the target of an inquisition. “It’s all very new,” she said, waving a hand. “I’m not really sure…”
“He’s totally smitten, you know,” Camilla proclaimed.
Scarlett’s gaze snapped up. “He is?”
“Oh yeah,” Lucy said, nodding. “He couldn’t stop looking at you yesterday.”
“And when you went to see your ex, it looked like he wanted to smash something,” Amelia added.
A pleasant flush of warmth filled Scarlett’s chest. She didn’t want him to be some kind of jealous animal, but the thought of him wanting Scarlett for himself… It pleased her. It pleased her in the same way his stunt with Jimmy had. As an evolved, intelligent woman, she probably shouldn’t like it—but she couldn’t help feeling a little bit special.
She cleared her throat and studied her friends’ faces. Lucy was wiggling her fingers over the box of pastries, clearly debating which one she wanted to eat. Amelia was staring at the flower fridge in the corner like she was trying to crack a tough nut of a problem. Camilla was watching Scarlett, seeing far too much.
Scarlett spoke her deepest fear aloud: “So you’re not upset?”
“Upset?” Camilla repeated. “What do you mean?”
“About me and Archer. You don’t think it’ll make things awkward?”
“Awkward for who?” Lucy asked.
“For all of us.”
There was a short silence. Amelia broke it by saying, “What are you talking about?”
Scarlett squirmed on her stool. “I just mean, if me and Archer are together, it might change the group dynamics, and I don’t know if that would bother you…”
Amelia’s blond brows furrowed dramatically. “Scarlett, you realize that we’re all married to his three best friends, right?”
Scarlett’s face was red. She could feel it heating up under her friends’ scrutiny. “I know. I was just worried. I don’t know.”
Camilla clicked her tongue, slid off her stool, and shuffled over next to Scarlett. She wrapped her arms around Scarlett and squeezed. Scarlett couldn’t help but melt into the other woman’s arms; Camilla gave great hugs.
“Honey,” Camilla said, and there was a depth of meaning and fondness in the word. “We just want you to be happy. Whether that means you’re dating casually or you’re marrying Archer tomorrow, we don’t mind at all.”
“Okay, no one said anything about a wedding,” Scarlett clarified, laughing as she wiped the moisture that had started to gather in the corners of her eyes.
Lucy held up a finger. “Yet.”
Scarlett laughed and shook her head. “We haven’t even talked about what we are. We just…”
“Screwed each other’s brains out?” Camilla guessed.
Scarlett’s laugh turned to a cackle. “More or less.”
A sharp edge in the depths of Scarlett’s psyche smoothed itself out. Her eyes prickled, and she focused on the warm cup in her hand, the taste of the sweet latte on her tongue. These women had been the cornerstone of her new life in this town. She’d rebuilt herself with their help, their friendship. To lose them would have devastated her.
So she had to be sure. “If Archer and I were to…do this. And then if we broke up…” She lifted her gaze to look at the three other women. “Would we still be friends after?”
Another sharp silence punctuated the conversation. This time, it was Lucy who broke it. “Do you mean, would we choose him over you?”
A lump lodged itself in Scarlett’s throat, so all she could do was nod.
Camilla still stood beside her, and she put her arm around Scarlett’s shoulders. “Honey, you’re our friend. If he broke your heart, we’d be there for you.”
“Although,” Amelia added, ever the pragmatist, “if you were the one to do something totally reprehensible, like cheat on him and break his heart… That might be another story.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Scarlett said.
“So there you go,” Lucy said, shrugging, as if that closed the issue.
Camilla squeezed her shoulder. “It sounds like you’re borrowing trouble. You’re already thinking about a breakup when you haven’t even decided you’re together yet.”
Scarlett grimaced. “Right. I just… Ever since my ex ghosted me, I get worried that everything is going to collapse. Whenever things go right, I start looking over my shoulder, like I’m waiting for the next catastrophe.”
“I used to do that,” Camilla said. “I was so used to taking care of everything on my own that I felt like I had to be prepared for every disaster that came. But you’re not on your own, Scarlett. You have all of us.”
“And everyone else in town who’s rallied around you,” Lucy added, glancing at the notifications on her screen. “There’s a lot of interest about tomorrow’s re-opening already.”
Scarlett wiped her eyes and nodded. “Right. Well, on that note, I should probably get to work in here. There’s a bit more cleaning to do, then I need to hit the wholesalers, and probably start buying decorations and party supplies. Not to mention food.”
“I’ve got the food covered,” Camilla said.
“I made a list of everything we need,” Amelia added, pulling a tablet out of her purse.
Lucy smiled and clapped her hands. “Let’s do it!”
They got to work. A lot of the bulk cleanup had been done the previous day, but there was still quite a bit of dirt on the ground, and a lot of the flowers needed to be tended to. Most of them would be losses. Even though Scarlett mourned the damage, she didn’t fall into a pit of despair. Things would be okay. She’d already started an insurance claim, and her business would survive.
She had a community now. A family.
When Scarlett was done scrubbing the floors, she gathered up the flowers in buckets near the far wall. Lucy and Amelia were bent over the computer at the register, talking party plans, and Camilla had already gone back to her bakery.
Then the door opened, and Lucy let out a little noise of delight. Scarlett looked up to see Cormac looming in the doorway, a cat carrier in his hand.
“What did the vet say?” Lucy asked.
“Sweet Potato is healthy as can be,” Cormac said, curling an arm around Lucy as she tucked herself into his side. Lucy tilted her head to accept a kiss, eyes glimmering, then bent over to peek in the cat carrier. She and Cormac had adopted the furry creature on their wedding night, and it was clearly an integral part of the family already.
Scarlett watched them surreptitiously as she pulled a bundle of dahlias from the green bucket she’d hauled into the sink. They made such a cute couple. She let the stems drip for a few seconds, then gently laid them aside.
“Hi cutie,” Lucy cooed through the grate of the carrier. “Are you feeling okay? Was the vet nice to you?”
“We should get him home. Snowball was anxious when I took him away,” Cormac said, which made Scarlett bite her lip to stop herself from letting out a squeal. There was just something about a big, strong man caring for animals that made her want to melt.
Did Archer like animals? Maybe when they moved in together eventually, they could get a dog…
She shook her head. There she went again, getting ahead of herself. She picked up the bucket and tipped the old water into the sink. A few leaves and wilted petals fell out with the musty, four-day-old water. Behind her, Lucy peeked into a bag Cormac carried and exclaimed over the number of cat toys he’d picked up on his way home. Scarlett glanced over, curious.
Then something metallic clattered against the sink.
Scarlett brought her attention back to the task at hand, only to see a flash of gold clatter across the metal bottom of the sink and disappear down the drain. She let out a yelp of surprise as she dropped the bucket on the floor and stared down the drain.
“What is it?” Amelia asked behind her left shoulder.
“There was something in there. Jewelry, maybe. It looked like a ring.”
She looked over to see Cormac frowning. “A ring?”
Nodding, Scarlett turned her attention back to the sink. She opened the cabinet and looked at the U-bend, frowning. “You think it’s in there?”
Lucy, Amelia, and Cormac crowded behind her. Cormac peered down the drain, then pulled out his phone. “I’ll call Archer. He’ll have tools to take this apart.”
Scarlett grimaced. “His phone is charging over there,” she said, nodding to an outlet behind the cash register where both their phones were plugged in. “We had to put both our phones in a bag with silica packets, and now I’m charging them to see if they’ll turn on.”
“Any idea where he might be?” Cormac frowned at the sink, then at Scarlett.
The front door opened, and Scarlett let out a breath. “Standing in my doorway,” she said, relief gusting through her. It wasn’t just because he knew how to take apart a sink. She felt relieved because she’d missed him, even though they’d only been apart for a few hours.
He cut through the people crowding around the sink and slid a hand across Scarlett’s back. “What’s wrong?”
When he pressed a kiss to her temple, Scarlett saw Lucy and Amelia exchange a sparkling glance. She ignored it, turning to the man she loved. “There was a gold ring in that bucket. I dumped the water out without seeing it, and it fell down the drain. Do you think you can get it out?”
Archer nodded. “I’ll try.” He turned to Cormac. “Any news? I heard you were working with the police.”
“They hired us for tech support,” Cormac answered with a nod. His company, Elite Security, often contracted for the local police when they needed outside help. “Nothing concrete yet. A bunch of the cameras aren’t working on the route that silver car took, so we’ve had trouble identifying it. Elton’s going back through hundreds of hours of data to try to find it. We got sidetracked trying to find the guy who was snooping here on Tuesday night.”
“Still no concrete suspects, huh?” Scarlett answered, grimacing.
“We’re working on it,” Cormac assured her.
The next half hour was spent watching Archer and Cormac work. Lucy took the cat out of the carrier, and the women took turns holding the little creature as they watched the men work. Scarlett’s gaze kept getting drawn back to the focused look on Archer’s face as he fiddled with the pipes under the sink. He had a bucket under the U-bend to catch the water that would be expelled once he took it apart, and he was currently fighting with one of the PVC pipes. He lay on his back on the floor, his head under the sink. His knees were bent and spread wide, and his shirt had ridden up a bit on the side. Scarlett could see an expanse of golden flesh and a hint of that trail of hair below his navel. He twisted under the sink to get a better grip on the PVC, and his muscles clenched in a way that reminded Scarlett of how they’d looked when they’d been in bed together.
Blushing, she looked away. A moment later, Archer let out a grunt, and plastic clattered against plastic. He slithered out from under the sink as Cormac kneeled beside him, the two of them tilting the bucket so they could peer inside.
“Is it there?” Scarlett asked, creeping closer.
Lucy approached beside her, cradling the tiny orange cat to her chest. Amelia looked on curiously.
Archer met Scarlett’s gaze, then turned back to the bucket and reached inside. All of them crowded around his upturned palm to look at the ring, which glinted bright yellow in the sunlight streaming from the big front windows.
“Do you recognize it?” Amelia asked, looking at Scarlett.
She shook her head. “No. It’s not mine.”
Archer picked the ring up to study the inscription on the inside. When he sucked in a hard breath, Scarlett’s gaze cut to his.
Throat bobbing as he swallowed, Archer’s face turned white.
“What is it?” Scarlett asked softly, squinting at the tiny writing on the inside of the gold band.
“The inscription,” Archer said in a strangled voice.
She moved closer but still couldn’t make it out. “What does it say?”
“R + A L,” Archer whispered. His hand shook as he held the ring. “Ralph and Ada Lewis,” he finally said. “That’s Ralph’s wedding ring. Ada’s had the same inscription; she showed it to me one time when I asked her if Ralph had ever done anything romantic for her.”
Scarlett’s heart thumped so hard it felt like the pounding crowded out her lungs. That didn’t make sense. How would Ralph’s ring end up in her flower bucket? She pulled in a hard breath, then gulped. “We have to call the police.”
Archer closed his eyes and nodded. “Yeah. We do.”