Chapter Thirty
Archie
The scent of sizzling bacon and eggs mixed with something floated through the kitchen as Brogan moved around the stove like he actually knew what he was doing.
Archie sat at the counter with one leg curled under him, thumbing aimlessly through his phone.
When it buzzed with an unfamiliar number, he almost ignored it. Almost.
Something nudged him to answer.
“Hello?”
A pause. Then that voice- gravelly and worn at the edges. “Archie. It’s me.”
Time stopped. The kitchen sounds fell away, replaced by the quiet roar of blood in his ears.
“Dad?”
The man on the other end sounded…small. “I didn’t know what was going to happen when I left for New York. I swear I didn’t plan to disappear. The fraud charges…they blindsided me too.”
Archie’s throat tightened, words getting jammed up somewhere behind his ribs. Why didn’t you just call sooner? Write? Anything? But his dad kept going, voice cracking like glass underfoot.
“After your mom…I wasn’t myself. I didn’t know how to be around you without her. Everything I did felt like a lie, so I just…ran. And then I got caught.” He laughed bitterly. “Some father I turned out to be.”
There was silence, broken only by Brogan’s pan clinking in the background.
“I’ve got something for you,” his dad said. “A graduation gift. I was saving up. Here’s a code for my bank account. Write this down.”
Archie typed it slowly into his phone. His eyes stung.
“And, Archie?” his father added softly. “I’m sorry, son. For everything.”
Archie’s voice was thin when it came. “I’m…I’m okay. I live in Foggy Basin. It’s quiet, kind of weird. Andrew and Joe are helping me and I’m figuring things out.”
“I want to see you when I get out.”
Archie closed his eyes. He pictured his dad’s face, older, with tired eyes and that crooked smile he hadn’t seen in years. “Yeah,” he whispered. “I want that too.”
When the call ended, he sat there motionless for what seemed like a long time, staring into the counter like it held answers. His chest felt like it had been cracked open and stuffed with something raw. He didn’t even realize Brogan had stopped cooking until he heard his voice.
“You okay?”
Archie looked up, tried to nod, but something twisted inside him and spilled out instead. Tears—hot, angry, messy—tumbled down his cheeks before he could stop them.
“It was my dad,” he said, voice cracking hard. “He called from prison. He said he didn’t mean to leave. He didn’t know…and he sounded so sad, Brogan. Like he was still stuck in the moment she died.”
Brogan didn’t hesitate. He stepped around the counter, pulled Archie in like it was instinct. Arms wrapped tight, grounding. Safe.
Archie pressed his face against Brogan’s shoulder, breathing in the scent of bacon. “I want to hate him,” he mumbled, “but I just feel sorry. I missed him, even when I told myself I didn’t.”
“I know,” Brogan said, voice low and steady. “You don’t have to sort all that out right now. Just feel it.”
And Archie did. Let it flood through him until the ache shifted, no less sharp, but somehow less lonely.
“Thanks for being here for me,” Archie said through his tears.
“Always.” Brogan gently dabbed at Archie’s tears with a soft tissue, the texture rough against the boy’s delicate skin. He leaned down and kissed him softly on the lips. “I have an idea.”
“What?”
“I’m still off and today is your day off too, so let’s take advantage of the day.”
“It’s a good thing it is. I’m not in the mood to work. I didn’t tell you something important. I should tell you now.”
“Is it bad?”
Archie’s phone rang again. His heart jumped, thinking it might be his father again, but when he looked at the screen, it was Andrew. A wave of disappointment passed through his body.
“Hey, Andrew. What’s up?”
“I wanted to apologize for Rafael last night. He got his information from Merle…drunk. I called Nate, the bartender, and he said Jade was never there. He’s not living at the motel either.”
“That’s good to know.”
“But there’s more.”
“More?”
“Jade is living with Brody Anderson who used to have a fucking thing for Rafael. He’s Scottish. Anyway, they’re living together in the next town.”
“Is that good or bad?” Archie asked.
“Well, he’s not in Dublin. So, Brogan wasted his money. But I heard from a few people who gossip they were found making out at Lover’s Butte.”
“That’s good news then. Thanks for telling me.”
“What did Andrew want?”
“He apologized for Rafael, but he had updated information on Jade.”
“And I don’t care.”
“Well, he moved in with a Scottish guy who used to like Rafael in the next town.”
“Who cares! He’s no one to me. Tell me what was important before the phone call.”
“I applied to three high schools for a teaching position. I’m waiting to hear. So far, nothing yet.”
“Can you still live with me here?” Brogan panicked.
“Of course. I applied with us living here in mind.”
“Did you apply at my school?”
“No. I didn’t think that would be a good idea.”
“You’re probably right. Let’s eat breakfast and I’m going to take you out for the day.”
“Let me charge my phone while we eat,” Archie said.
Brogan insisted they eat outside by the pool. There was an enormous umbrella over the table.
“Sit outside and wait for your breakfast,” Brogan said, then kissed him on the cheek.
Archie went to the bedroom, checked the bank on his laptop and saw his father left him ten thousand dollars.
Wow! He never expected that. Then he plugged in his phone to charge, then made his way to the pool.
He’d dreamed of having a relationship like he had with Brogan.
The guy had some faults because of his kind heart.
That’s why he couldn’t make a clean break from Jade.
He was sure that was part of the problem.
If Jade would only get the fuck out of here.
Brogan served breakfast outside, as promised. He kissed Archie, then sat down.
“Would you like to take a trip to Hawaii during my vacation?” Brogan asked.
“Sounds so exciting. I’ve never been there. I check my account and my father deposited ten thousand dollars.”
“Wow! That’s great. Now you don’t have to worry about money for awhile.”
“True. I wasn’t really worried about it.”
“I want us to be away from work and Foggy Basin for a bit.”
“Me too.”
After breakfast, Brogan drove them to the lake. He parked the van, and they walked down the path to the rental boats. Brogan rented a motorboat, and they climbed in.
The boat cut smooth lines through the lake, its quiet motor humming beneath Archie’s feet like a heartbeat.
The water stretched out in every direction—deep green in some places, glittering gold where the sun hit just right.
Trees leaned out over the shoreline like they were eavesdropping on the open water, and dragonflies zipped low above the ripples, skimming the surface like tiny electric blue dancers.
Brogan sat at the wheel, one hand loose on the throttle, his other arm draped over the back of Archie’s seat.
Wind whipped through his blond hair, and his expression was loose and easy, warmed by the late afternoon light.
Archie couldn’t stop looking at him, not in a weird way, but like Brogan had become the still point in the middle of everything else that kept moving.
Archie leaned back, letting the breeze tangle in his hoodie, the smell of lake water and pine clinging to every breath.
“I think this might be my favorite place on Earth,” he said, loud enough to be heard over the wind. “Not just the lake. Like this. Us. Right now.”
Brogan smiled without turning his head. “Yeah. Same. It’s like the world shuts up long enough to let us hear each other.”
Archie felt something in his chest. Not the fireworks kind of thing, but more like a quiet unfolding. Steady. Sure. He traced a finger over the sun-warmed seat between them, then looked back out at the water.
“I’m not great at saying it,” he murmured, more to the lake than anything. “But I need you, Brogan. In ways I didn’t even know how to name before you.”
Brogan reached over and hooked his pinky with Archie’s. “You don’t have to be great at saying it. I see it. I feel it. And I need you too. In my bones, Arch. You hold me together.”
Archie blinked hard, the wind suddenly sharper in his eyes. Of course, he would say something like that. The kind of thing that reached inside and rewired how Archie saw himself. Like being loved like that changed the shape of him.
“I used to think I was going to live on the edge of everything forever,” he whispered. “Like…looking into people’s lives, but never really in one. But now, when it’s you? I want the middle. I want all of it.”
Brogan let go of the throttle, letting the boat drift. The silence settled around them, nothing but water slapping gently against the hull and the hush of wind through the trees.
Brogan leaned closer, resting his forehead against Archie’s. “We’re in the middle. Right here. Together.”
Archie closed his eyes, breathing him in. That quiet steadiness Brogan always carried with him. The calm inside the storm. And for once, Archie didn’t feel like he had to outrun the ache in his chest. He just let it be there, open and full and alive.
If the lake could hold this moment forever, he’d never ask for anything else.
The End