Page 121 of The Sounds of Her

“Afraid of what? Me?” Archer gets out of his seat and comes to stand in front of me. My head tips so he crouches down instead of towering over me and takes hold of my hand.

“No,” I frown. “If anything, you know me better than anyone else in my life. I’m worried because it’s all happening so fast. It started unconventionally. What if we’re just caught up in it all?”

His lips tilt up. “So what if we started off the way we did? Even that only worked because we like each other. Sometimes life throws things at you when you’re not expecting them. Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re shit. You either bury your head in the sand, or you take what you want. And Brooke, I’m tired of burying my head in the fucking sand.”

He’s not one to hold back, but that was damn near as straight as anyone has ever been with me before. He’s right. Why can’t we take what we want, and we want each other? Don’t we owe it to ourselves to see where it goes?

“Okay, so we’re both shit scared, but want to be together?”

“In a nutshell. Shit, we are terrible at the romantic stuff,” he laughs.

“Well, when neither of us has had a proper relationship, we can’t be expected to be experts.”

“We don’t need to be,” he says, brushing some hair over my shoulder. “We’ll figure it out together.”

“You think we can?” I ask, the insecurity in my voice obvious to both of us.

Archer stands up and pulls me out of my chair. He presses his body up against mine and grips my chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Yes we can.”

He lowers his mouth to mine and kisses me, a sweet kiss, a promise that he means everything he said. All the fear melts away, all the reservations, the worry about how people will react to this.

As far as the world knows we’re already together, the only thing that is going to change is us getting our own heads around it. And our friends. They’re going to give us shit after we said we wouldn’t get together for real.

“If Jordan tells us I told you so, I’ll kick his ass.”

“I’ll hold him down,” Archer grins.

Pulling back, I glance at the clock. “Shit, I’m going to be late for work.”

“There is a first time for everything.” He lowers his head and sucks on my neck.

Fuck, that feels good. I push him away. “I’m in court at nine thirty and need to go to the office first.”

He grins. “I like this.”

“What? Making me late?”

“No, the normality of it, making you breakfast before you go out to work. It’s very relationship-py.”

I snort out a laugh at the made-up word. Seems fitting for us. I scold myself to be more positive. I want to be with him. I want this to work too.

“If I get my breakfast made for me, then it’s worth it.”

“Brooke, trust me,” his face turns serious, as if he can read my mind. “We can make this work. Now go get ready,” he steps back and slaps my ass. “I’ll clean up.”

“You better.”

I glance at the mess he’s made of my kitchen. As I walk around him, I return the favour and slap him right back on his delectable ass.

Archer laughs out loud, and I can’t stop smiling as I hurry to the bathroom.

After a longer session in court than I’d envisioned, I call Jenna. She text to ask if we could have lunch at the office. When I tell her I’m not back yet, she offers to swing by and pick me up.

For a change, no one is driving her, but she looks tiny behind the wheel of Adam’s SUV. It’s nice to be picked up. I ring ahead to the office and ask Ella to order us some sandwiches.

“Adam chose Rolling Stone again because they did a good job of writing about our relationship last year,” Jenna says after I ask about the fallout of the Zosia mess and being outed after the wedding.

“Are you okay with that?” I ask, sensing my friend is struggling with something.

---