Page 136 of Archer

My eyes widened. “What did she say?”

“Nothing. The number was disconnected.”

I frowned and stole a look at the sheriff in my living room. “How strange.”

Maggie straightened, chin lifting. “He’ll be okay. He always is.” A shrug. “It’s just hard, watching him be okay all by himself. I think I’ll manage a little unreturned affection from Colton O’Connell.”

We returned to the group a few minutes later, but I wasn’t convinced about Colton’s indifference to Maggie, and I couldn’t help wondering if Archer knew about Nash’s broken heart.

Archer

The last of our friends’ rides pulled away a little before nine.

The work crews were long gone.

Harper curled on the couch beside me, a hot mug of tea in her hands.

The nor’easter had done a number on this island and to her cottage, but everything was better without Webb running loose.

“It’s been a good day,” she said.

It had been, aside from the part where I was fussed over continuously and treated as if I was an ill Victorian child.

She smirked.

I’d heard the surgeon tell me to rest. Apparently, everyone else had heard the surgeon say to treat me as if I was on my deathbed.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Harper said.

I slid my eyes in her direction. “About?”

If she suggested another way she could take care of me, I would explode, grenade-style.

“I have obligations in Nashville. Meetings, recording sessions. Things I’ve been putting off.” She stopped. Looked out at the water beyond the windows, then me. “If Alexis is right about the record labels, I’ll be on a plane as much as I’m home for a while, which is my dream.”

I frowned. “Are you breaking up with me?”

She laughed. “No. I’m thinking out loud, to help me process what happens next for us. And me outside my career.”

“Oh.” I breathed a little easier. “Okay. Think away.”

“Are you looking for a girlfriend?” she asked.

“I have a girlfriend.”

“I mean someone who’ll be around to provide the whole traditional relationship experience?”

“No.”

She nodded. “Then it won’t matter that I’m gone a lot.”

“No.”

“Would you like to elaborate on your thoughts?”

I rolled my head and shoulders, attempting and failing to dislodge the tension building there. I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend because I had one, and though I’d never rush her in that direction, I was plotting to make her my wife.

But she had a whole big dream to live first.