Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
‘S o, is this a date?’ Iris asked from her stool when Archer met her in the kitchen.
She looked beautiful, as usual, but gentler tonight, less like she was trying to drive him to distraction and more like she just lived there. Like she was comfortable there in his kitchen in her jeans and a sweatshirt, her hair still damp from her shower. She looked cozy and sweet and like she belonged there. He shook his head, refusing to dwell on how much he wanted that. Permanently. As his girlfriend, not his kid’s nanny.
But one step at a time.
‘Do you want it to be a date, Iris?’ he asked, leaning over the island, just a little, just enough to get a bit closer to her, to smell her shampoo and watch the flush wash over her cheeks.
She looked up then, caught his gaze and her mouth tipped into a smile. ‘Maybe.’
‘Maybe?’
‘Yeah.’ Her smile grew more mischievous. ‘ Maybe I want this to be a date. Maybe I want to date you.’
Archer felt like he wanted to shout how fucking happy that made him, but instead he went with a very cool, ‘I’ll take it.’
Iris laughed. ‘You’ll take a maybe?’
‘For now.’
‘Well’—Iris hopped down from her stool— ‘I know just the place for our maybe date.’ She grabbed his hand and Archer let her lead him out of the house.
They ended up at the ice cream store he’d passed a bunch of times but had never gone in. They should bring Olive here, he thought and then almost laughed at how she was never far from his thoughts these days.
Iris stood in line, examining the giant list of flavors hung up behind the counter.
‘What do you recommend?’ he asked, leaning down to whisper in her ear and to watch the shiver run through her when he did. God, he just wanted to be close to her.
‘I like to mix and match. My favorite combo is a scoop of Strawberry Cheesecake with a scoop of Death by Chocolate. In a waffle cone.’
‘Wow.’
Iris turned to smirk at him. ‘You’re not the only fancy-pants foodie around here.’
He laughed. ‘I guess not. You’ve been keeping it a secret.’
She shrugged. ‘I didn’t want to intimidate you.’
‘Oh, was that it?’
‘Yep. Can’t go bruising that ego of yours.’ She laughed, her eyes dancing as she teased him.
They stepped up to the counter and he ordered two Strawberry Cheesecake and Death by Chocolate combos in waffle cones from the young guy at the register, who was busy staring at Iris. At first Archer wasn’t sure the guy had even heard him, he was so distracted, but Archer couldn’t really blame him. It was impossible not to stare.
Iris smiled at him, and Archer thought the poor kid might expire on the spot.
‘Hey Carter,’ she said. ‘How’s your grandpa’s new hip?’
The question about his grandfather seemed to snap Carter out of it.
‘It’s okay. But my grandma said she might put a pillow over his face while he’s sleeping and put them both out of their misery.’
Iris threw her head back and laughed, her hair like a fiery stream down her back. ‘Wow, that woman is dark,’ she said when she’d caught her breath.
‘Yeah,’ Carter said with one more shy smile at Iris before he went and scooped their ice creams.
‘Do you know every senior citizen in this town?’ Archer asked while they waited.
‘Pretty much.’
‘You know that’s remarkable, right?’
‘Is it? I’ve lived here my whole life. It would be weird if I didn’t.’
He didn’t really have a response for that, except he knew it wasn’t just because she’d lived here her whole life. It was because Iris cared about people. She paid attention to them. And that’s why people couldn’t help but want to be near her.
It was why he wanted to be near her.
That, and he knew what she tasted like and he desperately wanted more.
But for now he would settle for strawberry and chocolate.
‘Want to walk while we eat?’ Iris asked as they grabbed their cones.
‘Sure.’
They headed out into the warm night air. The town smelled like magnolia blossom and salt air. He followed Iris’s meandering lead, enjoying being with her.
‘It’s not just Olive that I’m worried about,’ she said, after a while. ‘I mean, that’s not the only reason I’m hesitant. About us.’
‘Okay. Do you want to tell me the other reasons?’
Iris took another bite of her ice-cream cone. ‘I don’t usually do things like this.’
‘Wander the streets at night while eating way too much ice cream?’
She laughed a little, her soft gaze flicking to his. ‘No, I do that plenty. Date people, is what I don’t do. Well, date one person for like a long period of time.’
‘Yeah, I kinda got that.’
‘You did?’
‘Iris, you tried to make our first time sleeping together a hit-and-run.’
She laughed harder at that. ‘A hit-and-run?!’
‘That’s what it felt like,’ he said with a laugh.
She cringed. ‘Sorry about that.’
‘I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it.’
She smirked and shook her head at him.
‘Look, Iris, I’m on unfamiliar ground here, too. With everything. With Olive, with the diner, with you.’ He swallowed hard, refusing to let this conversation get too far ahead of him. ‘I didn’t really do relationships in the past either. I didn’t have time for them. So maybe we just take this slow. See how it goes.’
‘See how it goes?’
‘Yeah, we see how it goes. We figure it out together.’
‘And what about the whole custody thing?’
‘I’m allowed to date, Iris. I just need to provide a good home life for Olive. If and when we decide we’re going to do this for real, we’ll deal with the lawyers and the town’s busybodies then. But us dating isn’t going to harm Olive.’
She didn’t look convinced, and maybe he’d been unsure of that fact at first, too. He didn’t think it was a good idea to have a fling with the nanny. But this wasn’t a fling. He knew Iris’s heart now. He knew she wouldn’t hurt Olive.
She glanced at him from the corner of her eye as they walked and he held his breath as he waited for her to respond. Had he said too much, pushed her too far already?
‘And what about the fact that you’re still my boss?’ she asked.
‘Are you going to report me to HR, Iris?’ he teased, nudging her gently, but the look on her face was serious. ‘Do you want to stop being Olive’s nanny?’ She had a right to say no, of course she did, but still he hoped she’d stay.
Iris made a humming sound in the back of her throat as she thought. ‘Well, if the goal is to disrupt Olive’s life as little as possible, then I should probably stay on as her nanny.’
‘Are you sure? I really don’t want you to be uncomfortable with this whole thing.’
‘I know you don’t. So let’s just take it slow and see how it goes. Like you said.’
Her hesitant smile had him breathing a sigh of relief.
‘Okay, good.’
‘But we still don’t tell Olive,’ she said, her brows drawing together in concern, and he saw it then, her love for Olive. It just reinforced his faith in her. She didn’t want to disappoint his little girl. And he didn’t want to either. He wanted to be able to tell Olive and the lawyers when this whole thing was on more solid ground. But he understood that Iris needed more time.
‘Agreed.’
‘And she’s like a little detective so we need to be discreet.’
Archer laughed. ‘Definitely.’
They’d come to the end of a dead-end street and the harbor stretched out ahead of them. Iris walked out onto one of the big rocks that separated a small beach from the residential street they’d just come from. She sat and he followed suit.
The waves lapped quietly at the shore, the moon hanging low over the water.
‘This is one of my favorite spots,’ she said, tipping her head onto his shoulder.
‘It’s a good spot.’ Any place where Iris rested her head on him was a good spot.
‘Did you know that Olive wants a bunny now? She’s moved on from puppies,’ she said.
‘She’s mentioned that to me several hundred times, yes.’
Iris laughed, and he felt the sound down to his toes. ‘So are you going to get her one?’
‘A bunny? Hell, no.’
‘We’ll see. I predict she talks you into it.’
Archer shook his head. ‘The last thing we need in this house is a pet.’
‘If she flutters those long lashes enough, you’ll get her one. You’d do anything for her, Arch.’ Arch . The teasing was gone from her voice, replaced with a sweet tenderness that made Archer feel like his heart was too big for his ribcage. That little shortening of his name, something people did all the time, sounded like the sweetest endearment from her lips. Oh Christ, he had it bad.
He cleared his throat. ‘I’d do a lot. But I draw the line at bunnies.’
Iris lifted her head and turned toward him on their sun-warmed rock. She looked beautiful in the moonlight, like a character out of Olive’s book of fairy tales.
He leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers. ‘I’m really glad I moved here,’ he said because it was true, so much truer than he ever thought it could be. How was it only a few months ago that he was scrambling to figure out a way to leave?
He felt Iris smile against his lips. ‘Me too.’ She kissed him, tangling her hands in his hair and he pulled her closer, wanting all of her but willing to settle for her sighs and whimpers and the feel of her soft curves beneath his fingers in the moonlight.
Later as they walked into the house, Iris whispered, ‘This was a nice date,’ with her fingers still twined in his. And her confession that it was a date felt like a win to Archer.
‘Yeah, it was. I’ll walk you to your room.’
Iris giggled. ‘You’ll walk me to my room?’
Archer smirked. ‘I have to make sure you get home safely.’
They snuck quietly down the hall, past Olive’s bedroom, peeking in to make sure she was fast asleep under a pile of stuffed animals. They stopped outside Iris’s room and she looked up at him and he wanted to take her to his room and kiss her everywhere, but he also wanted to show her he wanted more than that.
He dipped his head and she rose to meet him, her lips warm and soft on his. The kiss was slow and sweet and tasted like strawberries and chocolate. Iris sighed and pressed her body against his, every curve teasing him. And Christ, did Archer want to lean into it, but he pulled away, resting his forehead against hers.
‘Goodnight, Iris.’
Her eyes were big and dark, her cheeks flushed.
‘What do you mean, “goodnight”?’
He smiled. ‘I mean, will you go on a date with me again tomorrow night?’
She stared at him for a minute and he thought maybe he’d overplayed his hand, but then she gave him a small nod.
‘Great, nine o’clock, the kitchen. I’ll see you then.’ He planted another chaste kiss on her lips before leaving her stunned in the hallway.