Page 75 of Maple Mountain
It would be so easy to fall in love with him.
Lenni returned to the table.“Can we go home now?I miss Millie.”
“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” Archer said, shoving back from the table.He came around to help me with my chair.
“Don’t you have to pay the check?”Lenni asked.
“Already took care of it,” he explained.
Archer helped me with my black shawl, his hands lingering on my shoulders.He placed his hand at the small of my back again and guided me out of the restaurant.He stood close enough that I could smell the traces of his spicy cologne that made my knees nearly buckle.
His smell was intoxicating.
Hewas intoxicating.
Stupid, stupid pheromones.And hormones.Both of them were trying to undermine me.And the third bitch—my heart—was completely useless.
He tried to take my hand in the parking lot, but I clenched my fingers into a fist and prevented him from holding my hand.Still, I took his hand when he opened the passenger door of the truck and helped me up.I was in heels, after all.
Lenni fell asleep a few minutes into the drive back to Huckleberry Hill.
“You cold?”Archer asked, reaching for the heat.
“A little,” I admitted as I pulled the shawl tighter around my shoulders.
“Did I tell you that you look beautiful tonight?”
I turned my head toward the window so he couldn’t see me smile.“You said I looked dynamite at dinner, but you were too busy trying not to choke on your tongue when I came down the stairs before dinner, so technically, no.”
He let out a soft laugh.“You know what’s crazy about you?”
I looked at him.“I’m afraid to ask.”
“No, listen.”He shook his head.“You’re stunning done up the way you are.Hair up, long gorgeous neck, makeup ...and those heels.God.They make your legs look miles long.”
I suddenly had a vision of me on my back, my legs wrapped around his waist, my heels still on ...
“But honestly?I think I like you more the way you were the other night in the kitchen.In the middle of the night, I mean.I don’t know how to explain it, Wyn.You had no armor on.It was like you were open.In a way you’re not right now.”
I swallowed.“Armor protects you from getting hurt.”
We drove the rest of the way home in pensive silence.There had been no more reason for me to explain.I’d said all I needed to say.
Archer slid the truck into the parking spot in front of the house.I reached for the truck door.
“Wait,” he said as he climbed out.
He came around to my side and took my hand and helped me down.There was a patch of frost on the asphalt and my heel slipped on it.Before I fell, Archer steadied me.I placed my hand against his chest and my fingers curled into his shirt.
I peered up at him.
The warm glow of the streetlamp gilded him in shadows and light.His breath steamed the air.
“You good?”he asked.
I nodded.
He paused for a moment and then stepped away.Archer opened the back door of the truck and looked at his sleeping daughter.He unclipped her seat belt and slid his arms beneath her.She was dead weight, but he lifted her as though she was as light as a bubble and then carried her toward the porch steps.
