We sit and eat our food, watching the first movie as the sun fully sets, watching as Anakin finds his place with the rest of the Jedi. Near the end of it, we start to lie back and Viv snuggles into me. I take a deep breath.
It feels like the first one all damn week. Between work for her and for me, we’ve been going non-damn-stop. I was proud of us both for stepping up and knowing she had her first presentation tomorrow for Hansen, I also knew that she could do whatever she put her mind to and not waver.
I nudge her. “Hey, how was Fall Springs this weekend?” We’d barely had time for me to ask.
She moves her head against my shoulder until she’s looking at me and says, “It was actually really good. CT and his dad were happy with what I came up with.” No surprise there, I think. “Then I got invited over to Graham and Quinn’s for a barbecue. They have the cutest house.”
“I’ve never been there before.”
She gives my shoulder a little tap. “Hey, any reason you can think of that Graham would be acting weird?”
I frown at her question. “Hmm, no. None that I know of. Why?”
She sighs. “No reason. Just Quinn thinks he’s being weird. I watched him though, and he was completely obsessed with her all night.” She rushes to add, “In a good way.”
“I don’t think she has anything to worry about,” I say because, knowing Graham, he was getting ready to make their situation more permanent. I was shocked they hadn’t just gotten hitched and not told anyone about it. Hmm, what an idea.
“Anyway.” She waves a hand. “I got to meet some of Quinn’s friends and they were really great. Several of them want to talk about marketing with me and grabbed my card.”
See, this was why I thought she should do her own thing. Not only was she still working her tail off to prove something to Cyrus and Lillian Hansen, but it was something she didn’t need to prove. She had clients falling at her feet.
“Maybe you should take them on privately, instead of through Hansen.”
She sighs. “I don’t think they would like me operating outside of their company. I can’t have side gigs.”
“You have Warren and CT already and they’re not through them.”
“But I got them before I was being considered for this position. I don’t think it looks good for me to be hoarding clients on the side when I’m trying to make a good impression.”
“So, let’s just forget Hansen, start your own thing.”
She sits up and looks down at me, her brows drawn together. “It’s not that easy, Archie.”
“I know it’s not easy.” I sit up too, so I can look at her. “But wouldn’t that be better? You could focus more on your clients than impressing someone who is literally making you jump through hoops.”
She bites her lip and sighs. “I don’t know.”
I lean forward and take her lips, not wanting to fight on our only night together this week. “Just think about it.”
“Okay,” she whispers, leaning in for more. Too soon, our kisses escalate, and I nudge her nose with mine.
“Do you wanna stay and watch or go home?”
“I want you to come home with me.”
Good enough for me.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“It means more to me when he can just let me have my moods. I don’t need it fixed; I need to feel. Sometimes I need to cry at random commercials. Let it be.” – Quinn
ARCHER
It was a shitty fucking Friday. I was late this morning by five minutes, my first time ever, and it was due to construction on the highway. Rocks had fallen and the crews were working to clean it up. Literally something I could do nothing about and I got reamed.
Of course, this was the first time since my first day that Devon had actually shown up to work on time.
Of. Fucking. Course.