Page 53 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House
Iris stood in the doorway with Archer, scanning the crowded pub for Kira and Bennett, who’d promised they’d get a table. Instead, she spotted Noah first, his height and his hair making him stand out in the crowd. He waved and Iris waved back.
‘They’re over there. Come on.’ She grabbed Archer’s hand and started pulling him through the crowd. It was what she would have done with whoever she was with, grab their hand, but now that Archer’s fingers were tangled with hers, she couldn’t think about much of anything else. They were big and rough, calloused on the palms. Strong. Capable.Talentedhands.
Thankfully, they arrived at the corner booth her friends had snagged before Iris could let her mind wander to all the places she would like those hands to travel. She dropped his hand before Kira could comment on any of the things Iris could tell she was thinking. Iris shot her a ‘don’t you dare’ glare that just made Kira’s smile grow.
‘You made it!’ Annie was standing beside the booth with Kira and she greeted them with hugs. Archer’s startled face from inside of Annie’s embrace made Iris giggle.
‘Of course we did,’ Iris said. ‘The after-meeting drinks are the best part of the town meeting.’
‘Cheers to that,’ Logan said from his seat in the booth, raising his pint in Iris’s direction. She was pretty sure he hadn’t even made it to the meeting in the first place.
‘That was another bizarre example of Dream Harbor’s quirkiness,’ Kira said.
‘Oh, you love it.’ Annie bumped her with her hip and Iris smiled at her friends. Already crowded in the booth with Logan were Hazel, Jeanie, and George. Noah was taking their drink orders to bring up to the bar, so she ordered a hard cider and Archer ordered a local ale.
The book club was taking up most of the stools at the bar, the PTA parents were getting rowdy in the back corner, and several of Iris’s favorite aerobics students were sipping their wine and working on an enormous basket of fries at two of the high-top tables in the center of the pub. The whole place was dark and homey as all good pubs should be. Dark wood, dark furniture, dim lighting. The perfect place to be on a rainy April evening.
Behind the bar, Amber and Isaac were scrambling to fill drink orders and Noah ended up waiting on more than just their own table. Iris saw him making the rounds around the dining room.
‘So, you brought the chef,’ Annie said, letting her gaze wander to where Archer was still hovering somewhere over Iris’s shoulder.
‘Yep. He needed a night out.’
‘I hope it’s all right that I crashed your night,’ he said, his voice a deep rumble that Iris could feel vibrate down her spine. The crowd had forced him to stand closer, his breath tickled her ear when he spoke.
‘Honey, half the town is here!’ Kira yelled to be heard over the din of the crowd and the music streaming in over the speakers. ‘You didn’t crash anything!’ She leaned a little tipsily into Iris.
‘Have you been drinking already?’ Iris asked her and Kira winked.
‘We had to get here early to get the booth,’ she said. ‘And then we may have done a couple of shots to pass the time.’
‘Okay, where’s Bennett?’ Iris asked, scanning the bar. The first thing to go when Kira got tipsy was her filter. And Iris really needed her to keep that thing on tight right now.
‘Bathroom. He’ll be right back.’ Kira refocused her attention on Archer. ‘So,’ she said, tipping her head as she examined him. Oh lord, here we go. ‘Archie,’ Kira went on and Iris expected Archer to correct her but his laugh caressed the back of her neck instead.
‘Settle an argument for me.’
‘Okay…’
‘Grits and polenta are different, right?’
Iris blew out a sigh of relief. A food question? That was fine. Demanding what business Archer had licking his employee was another matter altogether, and of course Iris had already told Kira about that. She required zero drinks to lose her filter.
‘For sure. They’re both made from ground corn, but the texture is totally different. Polenta is usually coarser. And prepared differently.’
‘Thank you! That’s what I said!’ Kira shouted. ‘Where the hell is Bennett? I told him they were different.’ With that argument won, she stormed off in the direction of the bathrooms.
‘I want to introduce you to someone,’ Annie said, breaking the weird silence Kira left in her wake and tugging Archer by the sleeve.
He looked back at Iris with a shrug as Annie led him toward the bar, so she followed close behind. She didn’t trust any of these people not to make things even more weird between her and her boss.
‘Archer, this is Mac. Mac, Archer,’ Annie said, gesturing between the two men. ‘Mac’s basically your only real competition in this town.’
‘Oh?’ Archer said. ‘Competition for what?’
‘Food,’ Annie replied, leaning against the bar. Mac hadn’t stopped staring at her since they came over.
‘Are you saying my food is good, Annie?’ he asked.
