Page 113 of The Mentor
Archer looked down and Finn broke the awkward silence by holding up his cup of coffee and backing out of the kitchen. “I’ll let you two figure this out while I go take my morning dump.”
Archer kept his focus on me. “I saw the suitcase in your room, but I never imagined that you would leave the school. I honestly didn’t think I meant that much to you.”
“You didn’t seriously think I could live here and watch you be married to another woman, did you?” I asked.
Archer gave me a sad smile. “It would’ve been a doomed marriage between me and Lori Ann. I mean, with me being in love with you and jealous of any man you took for your new lover. You will never know how relieved I was when I got your text.”
“I watched you when you read my text,” I said slowly. “And there was no reaction on your face.”
“You might’ve watched my face, but you didn’t feel my heart racing or my spine tingle.”
“But you looked straight ather.”
“I was crossing my fingers behind my back and hoping that she wouldn’t choose me,” Archer said.
“What happened to her?” I was ashamed that I hadn’t thought of poor Lori Ann, who had been left with three trolls to choose from.
“She chose Kennedy instead of me.”
“The one without teeth?” I asked and wrinkled up my nose.
Archer nodded. “Once his teeth are replaced and his face isn’t swollen anymore, he’ll look himself again. Kennedy is actually not bad-looking and Magni says he has a great sense of humor.”
“Still, she must’ve been very disappointed.”
“Yeah, but at least Kennedy was howling with joy while I would’ve been pining for you.”
“You really gave up one million dollars for me?”
Archer broke out in a small chuckle. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but living out here on this isolated island, there isn’t a lot for me to spend money on anyway. Besides, Boulder gave me half of his prize money when he married Christina.”
“Thank you for choosing me,” I whispered and couldn’t help my eyes tearing up again.
“I’m just grateful that you wrote that text. All the way back here, I kept thinking about how close I came to losing you.”
Our peace was over when the children started to move around.
“Finn says we’re not going running this morning,” Storm said when he found us.
“That’s right, we have something else planned,” Archer said matter-of-factly.
I was waiting for Storm to comment on the fact that we stood closely together with Archer holding his arms around me, but Storm just yawned before he moved on.
“Is that boy blind?” I asked.
“Nope, he’s just a self-absorbed teenage boy.” Archer leaned in and gently bit my earlobe. “Now I suggest you get ready for our big day before all the other children start to ask us questions.”
CHAPTER 30
The Ceremony
Archer
Last night, I had been two minutes away from getting married to Lori Ann in front of the entire nation. I’d been nervous then with all sorts of crazy thoughts going through my mind.
And yet compared to this ceremony, yesterday had been a tranquil experience.
Standing in front of the school, with Kya by my side and Khan in front of us, I was a nervous wreck.
