Page 77 of Love You Always

“Excuse me.” The voice is deep, gruff, and sexy as hell.

I whip around to find Archer standing behind me looking like a cover model in a dark suit that hugs his broad shoulders and tapers at his slim waist. Underneath, a crisp white shirt is open at the collar, showing off the tanned skin of his neck that I’d like to lick right here in the middle of the crowd.

He holds a chilled bottle of beer in one hand and a glass of white wine in the other, which he offers to me. “Can I offer you a drink?”

I feel my cheeks pull so hard that my face erupts into a smile, even though I’m still sad about how we ended and mad that he hasn’t reached out at all.

“It’s good to see you,” I whisper, knowing he can barely hear me in the noisy crowd, but somehow he does.

“You too.”

I take the proffered wine and sip from the glass. The cool liquid slides down my throat, and at first, I’m just grateful for something to do because I still don’t know what else to say tohim. But something strikes me as very familiar, and I take another sip. “Is this…?”

No. It can’t be.

“Special edition vintage. Buttercup Hill Pebble and Clay. Just bottled this week.”

“Aw, I missed the bottling.”

“There’s always another bottling season. The bigger news is that if you do a little searching, you’ll probably find a business license for a new start-up. It’s going to build an app to tell you exactly when you should drink it. But spoiler alert, today’s the day.”

My smile pulls at my cheeks so hard they hurt. “You did it.”

He looks satisfied with himself. He lighter. He looks free. “I took the first step.”

“Congratulations.” I press my lips together, so proud of him and sad at the same time because I miss him and I love him. And I can’t have him.

“Thank you.”

“So you…came down here to…pour me a glass of wine?” I blink at him, trying to make sense of what he’s doing at my movie premiere.

“Not just that. Can we go somewhere to talk?” He gestures to a private trailer he shouldn’t know about. Nancy is sitting on the couch inside, and I start to explain to him that we can’t use the trailer because it’s serving as Nancy’s office tonight. This whole event is under her oversight, and she needs to work.

But she stands up without a word and nods at Archer before exiting the trailer and disappearing into the party. “How did you…?” I’m still speaking in partial sentences because I’m so confused about what he’s doing here and how he managed to commandeer Nancy’s trailer.

We climb up the stairs of the trailer. Archer goes first, and then he extends a hand to me. I follow him inside and close the door. We sit next to each other on the small couch and put ourdrinks on a side table. Archer stretches his legs out and his feet touch the wall on the opposite side. “Not a lot of space for a big guy,” I remark.

“Plenty of space for a grumpy grape,” he says, which makes me smile all over again.

“I reached out to your lawyer and submitted a background check. If I’m going to be in your daughter’s life, I don’t want there to be anything that stands in your way when the judge looks at your adoption application.”

I stand there, stunned, digesting what he’s saying. “You want to…be in her life?” I’m almost afraid to ask because he’s been so adamant about not wanting to be a father.

He nods and kneels in front of me. “I want to be inyourlife. Every damn day. I want to share the parenting journey. With you and only with you. I never thought I’d want to be a father because I was convinced I’d be awful at it. Like my own dad. But maybe it’s time to stop blaming him for everything. I can still make my own choices. And I choose you. I choose us. I want it more than anything because I love you more than anything.”

My heart swells with overwhelming love for this man who’s shown me the difference between going through the motions like I’m playing a role in a film and the way it feels to do it for love. I never want to do things any other way.

“I choose us too. I just never wanted you to feel forced.”

“I don’t. I feel lucky.”

From across the parking lot, I can hear that the crowd noise has died down, which probably means the movie is starting. That gives Archer and me two hours to sit here and figure out where we go from here.

“I need to be sure, Archer. You really want this with me, right? You’re not just trying to be a good guy?”

Still kneeling, he reaches for my hands. “I am trying to be a good guy. The kind of guy you deserve. I’m not doing it because I feel obligated or because I’d still love to ring Callum’s littlegoddamn neck. I want to be a good guy—the best possible guy—because you are the best possible woman I could imagine being with. And if I’m lucky enough to have you, I want to give you everything—kids, a beautiful life, and all the things a princess deserves. Will you be my forever, Ella Fieldstone?”

My heart leaps into my throat. “Wow, are you…?”

---