“I wouldn’t have to trick him, thank you very much.” I shoot her a glare. “He’s already offered to kiss my feet and make me his queen.”
A round of laughter echoes from everyone except my unamused brother, who’s glancing between Archer and me. But we’re not even touching, so I don’t know what his problem is.
“Relax, Tyler. Geez,” I tease.
“Blink twice if you need help,” he directs to Archer.
I grab a throw pillow from the couch and chuck it at Tyler.
“Can we open presents now?” Owen asks, thankfully redirecting the conversation away from me.
“After we get the food in the oven,” Katie tells him as Gemma and I move to the kitchen to help. “Then we will while they’re baking.”
It’s been our tradition to get together for years. We have homemade pizza, snacks, and desserts, then exchange presents. After that, we watch a Christmas movie. Since Katie and Gemma are breastfeeding, we opted out of alcohol this year.
“So Archer, now that you’ve been here for a month, how are you settlin’ in?” Gemma asks. I add sauce to one of the pizzas, and Archer comes and puts pepperonis and mushrooms on another.
“Better than I thought I would, honestly. Feels like I’ve been here much longer. So far, everyone I’ve met has been friendly. I love working at the gym, and Everleigh’s been a great roommate.” He looks at me with a boyish grin. “I’m glad Tyler urged me to move here.”
“Probably the second-best idea he’s ever had,” I muse. “Marrying Gemma being the first, of course.”
Gemma snickers as Tyler flashes me a scowl.
“I ran into MaryAnn at the grocery store the other day. She said she loves her boxing lessons with you and that you have a waiting list now,” Katie tells Archer. “You must be in hot demand.”
A flutter of jealousy waves through me because she’s one of my customers who kept asking about him. After explaining several times that I wasn’t running a single’s club, she told me I was rude. Of course it wasn’t hard to find him in this small town, and she quickly signed up to train with him.
“He is,” Tyler confirms. “I had to put up a sign about no recording private lessons. People were posting them online.”
Rage consumes me, and I’m tempted to tell Tyler to control his horny customers, but it’d do no good. I’d give myself away in front of everyone.
“MaryAnn said you two planned a date after New Year's,” Katie adds. I keep my head down and focus on adding cheese and pineapple to mine.
Archer clears his throat, and his eyes burn a hole into the side of my face. “Well, no. She asked if I wanted to go out for a drink sometime, and I told her I was really busy at the moment, which I am, and that maybe I’d have more free time after the new year.”
“I worked on her house a couple of months ago,” Noah says, oblivious to the thick tension in the air. “She’s really nice.”
Archer nods in agreement, and I wonder if he wants to go out with her. He’s said he wasn’t looking to date right now, but that could’ve changed. Perhaps I’m holding him back and keeping him captive in this roommates who sleep in the same bed but can’t touch hell. It’s obvious we have something brewing between us, but we’ve silently agreed not to cross that line. It’s a constant battle to fight the attraction. All night long, our bodies press against each other, and though it’s torturous, I look forward to it.
Now I’m wondering if it’s a bad idea to get attached to him and vice versa. Especially if he does want to start dating.
Once the pizzas are in the oven, we bring the snacks into the living room and wait for them to cook. Owen opens his presents from me, Tyler, and Gemma. Archer surprised him with three sessions of boxing lessons with his parents' permission. Then he opened the twin babies’ gifts and held them up for them to see. Of course they couldn’t care less, but we watched in excitement anyway.
We pause to get the food out of the oven and sit back down in the living room to eat.
“Who the hell put pineapple on this?” Noah shouts, and I release a giggle.
“That one's mine!”
“A whole pie, woman? You better eat every bite,” he warns in his dad voice.
“I love pineapple on pizza,” Archer interjects. “I can help you with it.”
“You do? Why didn’t I know that?” I give him a look, then realize we’ve never actually made pizza together. “We’re gonna have to start having pizza nights now. It’s a rarity to find someone who actually eats pineapple like me.”
“Sounds like a match made in heaven,” Gemma sing-songs.
Tyler arches his brow at her, and she quickly adds, “For roommates, I mean.”