Page 40 of The Archer and his Rosebud

We’re pushing into the Living Center building where Skinny Pancake is located when Archer responds.

Archer: Take your time and enjoy seeing your friend. My girl and I are fine.

A photograph comes in next. Taken from behind, the picture makes it look like Clem is sitting by herself, a Coke on one side and cheese puffs on the other, watching hockey. Priya stops talking when I snort.

“Sorry.” I offer a contrite face. I haven’t the faintest idea what she was saying. “Why don’t you head in. I just need to respond to my sitter.”

Twisting her glossy black hair into a low bun, Priya nods. “Fine, but don’t you dare flake on us.”

I return Archer’s text the moment she turns her back.

Willa: Now I know that picture is fake because you’ve got her watching hockey and you are a born and bred Texas boy, Archer Thomas. Complete with the tattoo to prove it.

Archer: (ignores tattoo comment) Sweetheart, we have hockey in Texas. (cough) Dallas Stars (cough). You think the Midwest and Northeast have a monopoly on the sport?

Willa: (rolls eyes) I think you can’t even name the player’s positions (and ignoring the tattoo comment only guarantees I’ll ask about them sooner rather than later)

Archer: (challenge accepted) Go eat with your friends. We have a date with hockey tonight.

Willa: (rolls eyes harder) The season hasn’t even begun yet “hockey fan”.

Archer: I have the NHL Channel “wise ass”. There’s always hockey.

Smiling, I step inside Skinny Pancake and search for Priya. It’s not until I spot her at a booth in the back corner that her last words register.Don’t you dare flake on us.Us. I should have avoided the possibility of running into old friends and gone to the bookstore on Church Street.

Flaking on them doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, and I’m two seconds from stepping backward until their heads pop up and they spot me. Georgina and Stevie. Girls I know because of Ty. Girls who bailed on me the moment my usefulness to them wore off. So, pretty much the day my morning sickness began.

“And they say a woman’s body doesn’t bounce back after birth.” Stevie waves from her seat as I join their table, my jaw aching from clenching my teeth. “You look amazing, Willa.”

Georgina flashes a fake ass smile, her eyes taking note of every part of me that didn’t bounce back as Stevie so sweetly suggested. I’m not blind. My hips are wider, my stomach softer, and my boobs much bigger. I’m not the Willa I was a year ago. This body doesn’t even belong to me. It’s still Clementine’s.

“Mommy life must be tiring,” Georgina says.

I grunt my agreement and fill the vacant seat next to Priya.

“Priya was just telling us you’re taking online courses. Will you come back to campus in the spring?”

“I hope to. Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out my options. Daycare isn’t cheap and classes are just going to get harder. There’s nothing online next semester. I was lucky I found the two I did for this one.”

Priya scoffs. “It’s not like Tyler’s family can’t afford to pay for daycare.”

I get whiplash from the speed in which I gawk at her.

“What? We all know they’re loaded. Have them help.”

Georgina and Stevie wear the same blasé faces as Priya like I’m the crazy one for not thinking of this. I rip the paper wrapper off my straw and stab it into the ice water Priya slides in front of me. “I told you last spring, Ty has nothing to do with us. Nothing has changed.”

“Sure, you’re not together anymore, but he’s helping you with her.”

I freeze.

Georgina settles into the booth and studies me with narrowed eyes. “I asked him about you just last week, and he said you two were doing good.”

I fail at reigning in the sass from my cocked eyebrows and pursing lips. “Considering he hasn’t seen me since before I gave birth, I find that laughable.”

Her eyes narrow further, like a predator ready to pounce, but I’m the wrong person to be attacking in this situation.

“Look, Georgina, you’ve known Ty for years”—they went to high school together, their families are friendly, I used to suspect she was jealous of me because she had a crush on him herself—“so you probably don’t want to hear this or maybe you don’t believe me, but he can’t even tell you his daughter’s name. No,mydaughter.”

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