“You just want it to stop,” he said, quieter now. “Even for a second.”
Yes.
I exhaled, the fight going out of me in a way I hadn’t expected. “That’s… annoyingly accurate.”
“I know.”
“Well, you don't have to gloat,” I muttered, and he kissed me. “So what, you’re just going to fix all my life’s problems?”
“Yes.”
Uhm..
I blinked at him. “You say that like it’s a normal thing to promise someone.”
“It is when I mean it.”
I huffed out a breath, a smile tugging at my mouth despite myself. “What, are you going to slay all my dragons now, Daddy?”
“Baby,” he said, voice low, “for you, I’d take them apart piece by piece.”
Something warm and dangerous curled low in my belly.
Violence shouldn’t have sounded like that.
It shouldn’t havefeltlike that.
Romantic.Sweet.
And yet—I believed him.
How could I not?
15
ARCHIE
Ididn’t knock right away.
Which wasstupid, because standing on my mom’s front porch like I’d forgotten how doors worked wasn’t exactly subtle.
Rhys bumped his shoulder into mine. “You planning to live out here, or?—”
“I’m thinking about it,” I said. “It’s peaceful. Low commitment.”
“Ah, yes.” Rhys clapped his hands in front of him, rocking up on the balls of his feet. “Same uneven step you always miss, same doormat that sayswelcomebut feels vaguely threatening, same door that sticks if you don’t?—”
“What are you doing?”
“Naming things,” he said, pointing at the door. “Knock harder than you think you need to. Which, by the way, hasn’t changed either.”
I stared at him.
He stared back, blinking once before flicking me in the center of the forehead.
“Rhys!” I swatted at his hand. “What the hell?”
“That’s what you’re doing, right?” he asked. “Taking inventory? Making sure everything’s still the same before you commit to knocking on it?”
