“Smart. Amazing. And true,” Jane finishes with a smile at our friend.
“Look, I know I’m the goof. I’m the jokester. But I do run my own business.” She points to her head. “I have a brain, you know. And I’ve messed up with Chris. I know when I’m wrong.”
“April,” I say softly. “I’ve never thought you were dumb.”
“No, but you all act like I’m the most ridiculous person. But I watch all of you. I’ve watched you all fail and frankly, Viv, you’re sabotaging yourself and I don’t want you to miss out on something wonderful by being stubborn.”
“I’m just…” I chew on my lip, trying to find the words to explain how I feel. “We spent so much time pretending we didn’t love each other that when we finally did get together, it was hard to believe it was real.” I wipe away an errant tear.
“I can understand that,” Jane looks at me, her expression full of sympathy. “It’s hard to feel worthy of things that are so amazing. But we can back you up here. Archer loves you, Viv. Don’t throw away something amazing because of fear.”
I wipe another tear, then another away, nodding my head. They’re not telling me anything I don’t already know, I just have to figure out what I’m doing to do about it.
“So what are you going to do?” Quinn asks, taking a sip of the wine. I motion for her to top off my glass and she does so gladly.
I let out a bone-weary sigh. “Right now, drink this wine. Then.” I lift the glass in a salute. “I’m going to get my best girlfriends to help me make a plan.”
Chapter Forty-Six
“Friends don’t just show up unannounced at your work with lunch, that’s a girlfriend thing. If a friend does that, you need to have a talk.” – Chris
ARCHER
I’m on the site, examining the tiles and flooring and making sure everything is correct before I give the go-ahead to the floorers who are standing around, waiting on me. I hate making people wait. But the worst thing would be them installing the wrong stuff and us all starting over again.
You would think that the floorers would appreciate my thoroughness, but I could feel them glaring at me.
“Yo, Moore.” I turn and see Charlie giving me a shit-eating grin. He motions over his shoulder with a thumb and says, “You’ve got a visitor.”
I frown and sigh. “Just a minute, guys,” I say to the floorers who roll their eyes.
Whatever. They can wait five freaking minutes. I’m at a loss at who could be visiting me, probably one of the guys here to hassle me, which if that is the case, then I can just tell them to fuck off and get back to work.
When I make it out where the front door will be—it’s going to be installed this week—I stumble to a stop at the beauty leaning against my truck, a tight black dress clinging to her curves and her hair down in soft, dark waves.
Fucking hell. I must be dreaming.
I make my way over to her, taking her in as I go.
“Viv,” I say when I’m close enough. Close enough to see her hands twisting nervously in front of her and her scent to hit me with its full force.
“Hey, Archie,” she replies shyly, giving me a small grin.
I should hate her for what she’s done. But I don’t. I never will. This woman was terrified, and I didn’t make myself clear. I would make this better, so the next time she showed up at one of my jobsites, I could sweep her into my arms and claim her as mine.
“What are you doing here?”
My words seem to snap her out of whatever trance she was in, and she says, “Oh, I brought you lunch.” She goes to her bag that’s resting on the hood of my truck and pulls out a plastic bag, the label of my favorite sandwich shop on the front. She hands it to me.
I take it automatically and look at it for a minute. “Why?”
“I just… I loved the flowers,” she says, then crosses her arms tightly across her chest. “I wanted to… apologize. For what I said. I wasn’t being fair.”
I nod slowly, not sure what to say to that. My heart feels like it’s going to beat out of my chest.
I wasn’t expecting her to show up, I was expecting her to keep her distance and quietly be confused as gifts kept showing up. But… she was here. This was some sort of olive branch that I didn’t see coming.
I look around the site. “Can you hang out for a minute?”