Page 134 of My Unfinished Heart

When he says it, I stand there in the kitchen with the phone in my hand, stunned speechless.

“What?” he snaps at me. “What’s that look for?”

“I just wanted you to have a phone.” I’m still holding it out to him like an idiot.

He snatches it from my hand and puts it on the counter. “Now I do. Happy?”

“No.”

He sighs. “Archer, listen.”

I shake my head. “No, it’s okay. I get it. Mind my own fucking business.”

He grabs the front of my shirt as I take a step back. He manages to keep me in place, stepping up to me until we’re toe to toe. I make myself meet his eyes.

“That was an overreaction,” he says. “I’m sorry. I’m trying not to let this turn me into an asshole. Don’t let me be an asshole.”

When I don’t say anything, he leans in to kiss my cheek. “Don’t shut down on me. Please. I’m sorry.”

I close my eyes at the feel of his soft lips on my skin. “It’s okay.”

“I never told you this because I was scared of what you’d do if you knew, but I’m not actually perfect,” he says.

“I don’t need you to be perfect.”

“Are you sure?”

I nod.

“Then what do you need me to be?” The words are sexy, maybe meant to distract me.

Here is what I want to say. I need him to be here. I only want him with me, and whatever it takes to keep him here, I want to do that.

His body fits itself to mine, and his other hand slides around my waist. I put my arms around him, too. Hugging him comes naturally to me now in the way that I can’t keep myself from doing it, despite any amount of uncertainty or doubt. I say, “Don’t let me fuck this up.”

“You’re not. That was me. Can I be so honest with you?”

“Yeah,” I say even as my gut twists with a painful amount of anxiety.

“I’m hanging on by a thread with this Connor thing. I don’t want to be anywhere near him, but I’m scared of what he might do if I’m not.”

“Why don’t you go check on him?”

“I don’t feel like you were listening to the first thing I said.”

“Can I be honest, too, and you won’t hate me?”

“I’ll never hate you,” he says.

I don’t believe that for a second, but I say what I need to say anyway. “I’m more afraid of you leaving than whatever he’s planning.”

“Goddamn, Archer, I’m not going anywhere. Why would that make me hate you?”

“I’m not sure what you think you signed up for with me, but it couldn’t have been this,” I admit.

“I’m down for whatever.”

“That can’t be⁠—”