Page 14 of Archer (Dirty Misfits MC 3)
I made my way back inside and—as quickly as I could move— raced to get to my phone. I needed to call Astrid. I needed to tell her how stellar this place was.
And even though Archer would be pissed off, I wanted her to come over and hang out.
“Josie! How are you feeling?” she quickly asked.
I walked back down the stairs with Astrid on speakerphone. “You know, I’m not feeling too bad.”
“That’s good, that’s good. Have you eaten at all today?”
I nodded as I hit the bottom of the staircase. “Yeah, I had breakfast. But I slept through lunch.”
“Oh, no, no, no. That won’t do. Where are you? Isn’t Archer there to cook or something?”
I snickered. “Uuuuuh… I may or may not have pissed him off.”
She paused. “Wait, what? How? Archer’s the most even-keel person I know.”
I grinned. “Does Porter know that?”
“I mean, he’s right behind me, so yeah.”
I barked with laughter. “Well, I kind of… maybe… sort of… poked at him to tell me about his past when I realized he didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Aaaaand this is why you’re single.”
I snorted. “Will you just shut up and come over with food? I’m starving. And you’re going to DIE when you see his place.”
“Wait, is it really as nice as he said it is?”
I shook my head slowly. “Nicer, if you can believe it.”
After feeding her my order and finding a piece of mail in the kitchen that had Archer’s address on it, I hung up the phone. I figured he couldn’t get any more upset with me than he currently was, and besides! I didn’t know what the issue was, anyway! He ran with these people. They were his family. So, why didn’t they know where he lived?
Seemed fishy, if anyone asked me about it.
And forty-five minutes later, Astrid’s rapid knocking came at the door.
“Girl,” I said as I whipped it open, “I am so beyond glad you’re here.”
Her mouth was gaped open. “Holy fuck, this place is huge.”
I held my arms out. “Right!? Wait until I give you a tour. No, no, no, no. Wait until you see this back deck. Did you bring your bathing suit like I told you?”
She stepped inside. “Are these marble floors?”
I closed the door and locked it. “Did you bring it, though?”
She nodded mindlessly. “Wearing it under my clothes.”
“Great. Did you bring me one?”
She pointed to her purse as she looked up at the ceiling. “Holy fuck, he’s got a chandelier.”
I scooped the pizza and breadsticks out of her hand. “Here. I’ll lead you into the kitchen and you can gawk while I find us some drinks.”
Astrid took her time walking down the hallways as we weaved our way into the kitchen. She gasped with every turn and pointed at things she found absolutely unbelievable, and I couldn’t blame her. But Astrid’s phone soon buzzed and her nose was stuck in it.
“Porter?” I asked as I led her out onto the back deck.”
She typed back to him quickly. “Yeah. He’s at the clubhouse. Apparently, they’re waiting for Archer to show up before they have some sort of meeting.”
I rolled my eyes. “I hate it when men are dramatic.”
She giggled. “Because you like pushing their buttons.”
I gasped. “No, I don’t.”
Astrid eyed me carefully before I spoke again. “I love it.”
We fell apart laughing as I sat the pizza and breadsticks onto the edge of the hot tub. Astrid pulled her dress over her head and slipped out of her shoes while I headed back inside to get changed. I was stiff, but I had my full range of motion, so sliding into the bikini didn’t seem like such a terrible challenge.
And after grabbing our drinks that Astrid whipped up for us, I went back out to the hot tub.
Before walking down into it and handing Josie her drink.
“Wow, what a view,” she murmured.
I turned to face the ocean. “It’s even better when you wake up to the sounds of it.”
“Where the hell did Archer get this kind of money? Porter sure as hell doesn’t have this kind of money.”
I shrugged. “Maybe he does, but he just doesn’t tell you about it.”
She giggled. “Because he knows I’d end up convincing him to get a home for us just like this one.”
I sipped on my drink. “Say, you up for a little road trip?”
She slowly looked over at me. “Whyyyy?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Might be nice to go meet the guys at the clubhouse.”
She nudged me. “You want to eavesdrop, don’t you?”
I played with the drink straw with my tongue. “Don’t you dare try to convince me that you don’t want to do the same damn thing.”
She looked around. “Eat while we drive there?”
I set my drink down. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
We scrambled out of the hot tub and threw back our drinks before we clamored our wet bodies into our clothes. The hot tub could wait until later, but I wanted to know what those boys of ours were up to. Astrid scooped up our food and we locked the back doors behind us before blazing a trail toward her car. And after locking up the house to the best of my ability, we climbed into her car and headed for the clubhouse.
