Page 27 of The Archer and his Rosebud

My chin drops to my chest. “God, you know how to make me feel guilty.”

Getting up from the floor, he musses my hair. “I’m teasing. She’s not that loud. I’ll make her a bottle if you want to change her.”

To my surprise, when I’m finished with her diaper, Archer asks to feed Clem. I pass her over and we sit on the couch, watching another episode until the bottle is empty and she’s fast asleep.

“I’ll wait while you put her to bed,” he says.

“Cross your fingers she goes down and doesn’t wake as soon as I set her in the crib.”

When she stays asleep, I breathe a sigh of relief and close my bedroom door behind me before settling on the couch by Archer. He lowers the volume on The Office but keeps the show playing.

“She went down okay?”

“Yeah. Hallelujah.” The constant weight of being needed lifts from my shoulders. “I’m sorry your date didn’t go well tonight. Had to at least be better than sitting here with a haggard mom, watching reruns.”

“Ha. I promise this is much better. And I haven’t dated since high school. I felt like I was on a job interview. Like she was ready to pick out our china, she just needed to know if I could support her various cosmetic addictions. It’s fine, I didn’t expect my first date to be a hit.”

“You haven’t dated in the last five years?” What made him start now?

Archer combs his fingers through his hair, shaking his head. “All right. I shared a little about Leah. How about filling me in on Tyler.”

“Have I told you his name?”

He winces. “Devin might’ve mentioned it, but nothing else.”

I roll my eyes. Of course he did. “Speaking of Dev, I finally talked to him this afternoon. They won their first game. He even ran a touchdown in.”

Archer chuckles. “That’s great, now stop changing the subject and tell me about Tyler.”

“There’s not a whole lot to tell. He’s a year older than me. We met during my second semester at UVM and started dating casually, but by spring, we were serious. Or I thought we were. Even though I went back to Michigan, we took two trips together that summer. That seemed real.” My stupidity at allowing myself to feel something for a man who was nothing like I thought has me curling in on myself. “When we got back to campus last fall, things were off, but I figured it was due to our being apart so much during summer break. He broke up with me in October without much of a reason, and a month later, I was staring at a positive pregnancy test. He accused me of making a last ditch effort to keep him when I told him. He didn’t want anything to do with us. He actually wanted me to get an abortion.” Sweeping a hand toward my bedroom, I say, “As you can see, I refused.”

Archer inhales sharply, his jaw tensing. “Have you considered suing for child support?”

“I did a lot of googling while pregnant and scared. Since we weren’t together anymore, we didn’t establish paternity. He’s not on her birth certificate. Asking for support would mean giving him rights. I could sue to have his rights removed but…” I tug a loose string in my cardigan. “I’d rather her not know who he is than know he doesn’t want her.”

“Leah cheated on me.” His unexpected confession gains my attention. “She’d been having an affair for months when she found out she was pregnant with Eli. She called me on the rig to tell me she didn’t even know if the baby was mine.”

And he uprooted his life to co-parent with her? He doesn’t have to verify Eli’s his. Every inch of that little boy is Archer. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know I said I needed a beer to tell the whole story, and I do. I just wanted you to know that you’re not alone in having your life turned upside down by a stick with two pink lines.”

“I didn’t expect this part to be so hard. I figured she’d come out and everything would click with us.”

“Speaking of, are you going to call your doctor tomorrow?”

“I did this morning, actually. Not call, but I scheduled an appointment online for September 20th. I should’ve said something at my six-week check-up, but I was ashamed and honestly thought it would go away. No one talks about the mental aspects. Even my mom couldn’t stop talking about how Clem and I’d be best friends from day one, that as soon as I saw her I’d know her.”

Archer reaches across the space between us and grabs my arm, tugging me into his side. “Nothing to be ashamed of, Will. It’s not uncommon for women to go through this. Leah didn’t, but my sister did. There’s no shame in asking for help. I’ll watch Clem for you that day if you want.”

Though I’m tempted to snuggle into the warmth of his body, I sit up when he releases me after a friendly hug. “I’ll let you know.” I cover a yawn.

“It’s getting late.” He scoots to the edge of the couch. “Classes start tomorrow, don’t they?”

“Yeah. That’ll be interesting. I’m lucky I can log in whenever and do my work since I don’t have any set times to be in online classes.”

“Online should work nicely for you. That’s how I earned my degree while working off-shore. Okay, let me get out of here so you can get some sleep.”

I walk him to the door to lock it on his way out.

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