Her smile faded. Nothing good had ever come from those four words. “I don’t have anything to say.”
“That’s okay, I do.” He patted the bench with his good hand.
She hesitated but she did move to the bench. Not within touching distance though. She wouldn’t be able to think if he touched her. She met his gaze. His color was really off and so was his breathing. “You shouldn’t be out here, Archer, you should be resting.”
“I needed to see you.”
She shook her head, throat tight. “You watched over me for eleven years. Your duty is done.”
“This wasn’t about duty. I meant everything I said to you, everything, even when I didn’t know I was saying it. But when I asked you to leave my hospital room, it was because I was embarrassed for you to see me and my dad go at each other. I meant for you to leave the room, not my life.”
“I figured that out,” she said. “But it occurred to me that I was in deep with you, that I wanted to be in even deeper, and that scared me. I’m still not sure what you really want from me.”
“A lot,” he said. “But I’ll start with a promise to stop saying stupid shit to you if you promise to toss out all the stupid shit I’ve already said.”
She stared at him. “That’s a lot of shit.”
He choked out a laugh and then winced. “Yeah, I know. Think you can do it?”
“Did you know that Joe actually bought us tickets to Vegas?” she blurted out.
“Yes,” he said. “I was serious about it.” He cocked his head. “Is that why you ran?”
She looked away and her eyes landed on Archer’s truck at the curb. Pru was holding up a piece of paper with the number five on it. Willa had four fingers up. Spence had used his iPad, showing a big, fat two. “What in the world?”
“I think they’re grading my effort to get you back, and apparently I could do better. So about my promise . . .”
“If I’ve learned anything from life,” she said, “it’s that promises don’t work.”
“They do if they aren’t broken. And I don’t break my promises, Elle. Ever.” He scooted closer, grinding his back teeth as he did, probably from the pain the movement caused. “You asked what I want. In all seriousness, I want to be yours. I want you to be mine. We could fly to Vegas, or go home to my place because I have the better shower. Whatever you want as long as we do it together.”
“But we irritate each other.”
“Yes,” he said, “but I’ve discovered that I want to spend every irritated moment with you.”
Her insides went mushy and she scooted closer.
The back window of his truck rolled down and Kylie stuck her face out. “It’s the fountain,” she called out. “It’s working! The legend is working! You can’t fight the legend!”
Elle shook her head. “The peanut gallery’s crazy.”
“You’re just now figuring that out?” Archer took her hand and tugged her even closer.
“Hey, can we come out yet?” Willa yelled.
“No!” Archer yelled back without looking. He didn’t take his eyes off Elle. “Kylie might be onto something about the fountain and true love thing.”
She blinked. “You’re not serious.”
“I am. I want a life, Elle, with you. I want everything with you, including having a—”
“Whoa,” she said quickly. “You heard I’m not pregnant, right? And I don’t know if I’m ever going to be ready—”
“Dog,” he said. “I want a dog with you, Elle.”
She choked out a low laugh. Okay, so yeah, he got her, all the way got her, and she loved that. “But what if I don’t ever want a big house with a high chair in my kitchen?”
His eyes were warm with affection and honesty. “I can go either way on kids, babe. What I can’t go either way on is you. Did you forget? I love you. You.”
“No, I didn’t forget,” she whispered. “But I thought maybe you did, or that it was just the drugs talking.”
He grimaced. “Yeah, I’m a lightweight on drugs but that doesn’t change anything. I’m ridiculously, deeply in love with you, Elle.”
Oh. Oh, that was good to know, really good. “So you’re not scared of being tied to me?”
“Oh, I’m terrified,” he said. “You should hold me, Elle.”
This got a real laugh out of her. “You’re not terrified of a single thing. Not even nearly dying for me.”
“You’re wrong,” he said seriously. “I’m afraid of plenty. Mostly of being without you.” He gently squeezed her fingers in his. “You’re it for me, Elle. From that long ago night when you looked at me like I was something special to you to when you reamed me out after the squirrels ate the wires to when you so fiercely went to protect your sister, even knowing you could get hurt. You’re it for me, Elle. It’s always been you. Only you.”
She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “I feel things for you that I can’t even name.”
“Glad to hear it.” He pulled her into him, carefully, slowly. “But it’s your turn to say it.”
She hesitated and the smile left his face and he became very serious again. Very serious, very intent, as he withdrew his arm from around her and closed his eyes.
“No, no, you don’t understand,” she whispered, entwining their hands again. “It’s hard because those words . . . I don’t say them lightly.” She paused. “Actually, I’ve never said them at all,” she admitted and watched as he opened his eyes. “But I do love you, Archer. Always have, always will.”
For a long moment they sat there in mutual surprise. After all the time they’d waited, they’d both finally come to the table with their feelings.
Feeling freer and lighter than she had in a long time, Elle smiled up into his serious face and watched his answering smile start at the corner of his lips and spread into his eyes. Then he began to awkwardly and one-handedly fumble through his pockets for something.
“You deserve better,” he said, “but until I got my hands on you, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. Shit.” He turned toward her a little, gesturing with his chin to his right front pocket, which he couldn’t get into because of the sling. “Pull it out for me.”
“Are you kidding me? We have an audience.”
He flashed a grin. “I mean the box.”
She blinked. “Oh.” She reached in and retrieved a small clear plastic box. With a fake ring in it. The kind that came from a bubble gum machine. She stared at it, heart pounding. “Is that—”
“Yeah,” he said. The band was painted gold with a gaudy green fake stone and she felt her throat tighten as he slipped off the bench to his knees, nearly falling over in the process. “Will you marry me, Elle?”
She gulped air. “You took too many pain meds, right?”
“No.” He laughed a little. “You’re killing me here, Elle. Yes or no.”
“You’re serious.”
“Very. My knees are gone.”
She dropped to her knees in front of him and stared into his beautiful warm, slightly impatient hazel eyes. Then she kissed him and pressed her forehead to his. “Yes.” Her eyes filled as the horror of the last day overcame her, the horror and her overwhelming love for this man, and she sniffed. “Yes.”
He cupped her face. “Don’t cry. I promise to get you a better ring. There weren’t any jewelry stores open.”
Now she was both crying and laughing. “The ring’s perfect. You’re perfect.” She ran her fingers over his scruffy, unshaved jaw. “I love that you couldn’t wait until the stores opened. That’s how I know how much you want this.”
“You better believe I want this. We fought like hell for it. So let’s stop wasting time and spend the rest of it together.”
“Yes, please.”
“Great. I can’t get up.”
Laughing, she helped him back to the bench, where she snuggled into his chest and held out her hand to admire the wildly gaudy ring ten sizes too big on her finger. “Where did you get
it?”
“There’s a lineup of candy machines at the pizza joint on Divisadero,” he said. “And trust me, it wasn’t easy. It took twenty-five bucks in quarters to get the one I wanted. Those fuckers are totally rigged. Spence was ready to buy all of the machines just so I’d sit down. Pru and Willa spent the whole time laughing their asses off and Kylie missed the whole thing because she was flirting with some guy who worked there.”
“Never tell me you’re not romantic,” she said, and he smiled his trouble-filled smile.
“Well, you do inspire me,” he said.
Epilogue
#HappyEverAfter
Two weeks later Archer woke up first. Since he was still on light duty, he hadn’t had to get up at the crack of dawn to work out and then get to the job. He’d have gone ape-shit stir-crazy days ago except for Elle. She’d insisted that he, being incapacitated, needed someone to watch over him. She’d appointed herself the boss, demanding he rest and recuperate and recover by sitting on his ass until the doctor said otherwise.
There weren’t many who’d ever been able to tell Archer what to do. Actually, there’d been no one.
Until her.
And the only reason he let her was because when she bossed him around in that sassy tone of hers, eyes flashing, it turned him on, enough that he sometimes gave her trouble just so she’d give him ’tude. She wasn’t onto him, yet, although she’d been practically sitting on him every day, to keep him quiet and still.
There’d been some noteworthy exceptions of the naked variety. They’d had to be inventive to work around his limitations, but it turned out that, on top of being smart and amazing, Elle was also creative as hell.
But today was to be his first day back into the office. And yet with Elle wrapped around him like a pretzel, suddenly he wasn’t in a rush to get back to real life at all.
Unable to wait any longer for her to wake up, he shifted against her. She stirred, smiling without opening her eyes as he gently rolled her onto her back. Covering her body with his, he spread featherlight kisses along her throat, heading south.
“Don’t you have to go soon?” she murmured, still smiling. Her eyelids fluttered open and her baby blues focused on his.
He ran his hand across the naked curve of her hip before burying his face in her hair. “I’m calling in sick.”
She froze and then struggled to sit up, trying to fight his hands to get a look at his shoulder. “I knew it, you pushed yourself too hard and you’re hurting—”
“Not even a little bit,” he promised, capturing her hands. “I just want you to myself for one more day.”
She met his gaze and gave the slow smile that never failed to rev his heartrate. “Did you have something specific in mind?” she asked.
In fact, he did, and he reached for the remote on his nightstand and hit a switch.
Instantly a fire came to life in the hearth.
“That’s kind of cheating, don’t you think?” Elle asked.
He paused, looking over his shoulder at the flames dancing in the hearth, then back to Elle. “It’s a gas fireplace.”
“I know. But I’d have loved to watch you build a fire with your bare hands.” Her eyes were dancing with humor. “Shirtless.”
He laughed. “And I suppose I should’ve chopped the wood shirtless too?”
She let out a little whimper that had him grinning. “Yeah?” he asked.
“Oh yeah.”
“Well, you’re the boss.”
She grinned and kissed him, a really great kiss, a deep, soul searching, body tingly, brain cell destroying kiss. “Say it again,” she whispered.
He rolled to his back, pulling her over top of him, tugging her face to his. “You’re the boss.” He grinned. “For this one last day.”
This made her laugh. “Just one more day? That’s it? Then you’re going to take a turn?”
“Yeah, then I’m taking my turn. Make it count, Elle.”
She kissed him with such tenderness it made his heart feel like it might burst from his chest. Fisting a hand in her hair, he kissed her back with everything he had, adding a little nip of his teeth and then a glide of his tongue to soothe the ache.
She laughed softly as she straddled him and rubbed up against him until he couldn’t laugh. Hell, he couldn’t breathe. All he could do was hold on and try to show her with his body how much he loved her. He reached into the nightstand drawer and grabbed a condom. “We’ll double up for now, at least until we figure out the high-chair dilemma,” he said, lifting up to press a kiss over her heart. Then he turned his head slightly and kissed her breast, lingering until she sucked in a breath.
“I love you, Archer,” she whispered and sank over him until he was deep inside her.
Flooded with intense pleasure as he rocked up into her, he gripped her tight, almost unable to believe they were finally here, in this very spot, doing what he’d dreamed about every night for years. “Fuck, Elle.”
“Yes, please.”
With a choked groan, he slid his hands into her hair, holding her head so that she couldn’t look away as they began to move against each other. He began to drown in her eyes and he reared up to nip at her full bottom lip, taking control, making her melt into him as he buried himself into her over and over, holding her gaze in his, seeing everything she felt for him. He groaned her name, which sent her into a shattering orgasm. She was still shuddering when he thrust into her one last time and followed her over.
When she caught her breath she lifted her face from the crook of his neck. “I do have one last demand.”
“Anything,” he said, and he meant it. At that moment he’d have signed over everything he had to her, everything he would ever have.
“Love me,” she whispered.
“Forever, Elle.”
An Excerpt from Lost and Found Sisters
Did you love Archer and Elle?
If so, be sure to check out the other books
in the Heartbreaker Bay series!
SWEET LITTLE LIES
THE TROUBLE WITH MISTLETOE
and the special holiday novella
ONE SNOWY NIGHT
Available now from Avon Books and Avon Impulse!
And read on for an exclusive sneak peek
at Jill’s first trade paperback!
LOST AND FOUND SISTERS
Coming Summer 2017
Chapter 1
I walk around like everything is fine, but deep down, inside my shoe, my sock is sliding off.