Page 54 of You Cake My Breath Away

His green eyes are paler today, like he’s tired and in need of a good night’s sleep, and his lips are slightly chapped, most likely from the wind San Antonio’s known for. He’s much more attractive than I remember him being five years ago when I first met him.

A cleared throat pulls my attention to the two women standing off to the side with grins on their faces. I roll my eyes and pull my hand back from Archer’s.

“Thanks, but it’s not that deep.”

“Give me your hand.” He reaches into the cabinet and pulls out one of Nora’s fingertip band-aids. Like I’m a child, he wraps it around my finger then places the trash in my hand and tells me to go throw it away.

The room is near silent, but there’s a buzzing energy floating around the table when we finally sit down to eat. Shantel and Archer chat about a new contract her husband negotiated for his company, and I piledrive pot roast into my mouth. Nora’s eyes bore into the side of my face, and even though I try to fight the urge to turn and meet her eyes, I royally fail. She’s got a smug look on her face like she’s proud of something, but I can’t quite figure out what that something is yet.

“Archer and Shantel can set up the table while you and I do the dishes,” Nora says to me.

The silence that descends over the room is shocking. I always set up Jessie’s poker table, and if Nora is beckoning me to the kitchen, it’s to talk in private. And I’m not sure I’m ready to hear what she has to say. Has seeing the change in the dynamic between me and Archer made her reconsider her thoughts on whether we belong together? Is she now disgusted at the thought?

My throat tightens and I chance a look at Shantel. She shrugs like it’s no big deal. Archer’s eyes are wide and filled with worry. I imagine it’s what I’d see if I looked into a mirror. Nora’s humming a tune and scrubbing the dishes when I finally make my way into the kitchen. She throws me a dish towel to dry with.

“How’s your finger?”

“It’s fine. Just a cut.” She hands me a bowl to dry.

“You know Archer is like a second son to me, right?”

Whoa. Right in for the kill. Nora doesn’t waste any time getting to the point.

“I do.”

“And I want him to be happy just as I wanted Jessie to be happy.”

Fear spikes through me, raining down shards of dread.

“Yes?”

“I want Archer to be as happy with you as Jessie was.”

The bowl tumbles from my hand, clanking against the countertop but not breaking. I send a thank you to Heaven, and a question of ‘why’ to God. Why did my mother-in-law just tell me she wants me to be happy with my husband’s best friend?

“It’s okay, Tilly,” she says when I don’t respond.

“How? Why?” I fumble my words. “I don’t understand.”

“Yes, you do.” She leaves the dishes in the sink, dries off her hands, and turns to me. “I haven’t seen you smile in months, yet the minute you started working with Archer you’ve done nothing but smile.”

“He’s helping me with the bakery.”

She charges on. “You didn’t flinch away from his touch.”

A tear slides down my cheek. “The pain from the cut was all I felt.”

She smiles and shakes her head like she can’t believe I’m trying to defend myself when it’s so achingly clear what’s going on.

“You’ve come alive again, and so has he.”

“But I’m married to Jessie,” I choke out.

She reaches out for my hand on the counter, and I nearly pull it back, a kneejerk reaction I’m trying to curb as I work on my touch issues. I know she needs the comfort just as much, if not more than me.

“You loved Jessie with all your heart while he was on this earth, but he’s not here anymore. He’s up in Heaven probably yelling at you to stop getting in the way of your own happiness.”

“I feel like I’m betraying him, betraying you and Shantel.”

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