Page 62 of Quiver

She hadn’t even heard anyone else arrive, much less make it all the way up to the arena doorway, but as she turned around now, she realized it wasn’t just Bex. Ava and Bear were approaching, too.

“Sorry,” Bex said sheepishly. “We didn’t mean to sneak up on you. Honestly, I didn’t know you were capable of being surprised. Don’t you have like some superhero spidey senses?”

“No, but lasers shoot out of my eyeballs, so, you know, don’t stand too close.”

Bex grinned and didn’t move, clearly intending to take her chances. “I wish I could stick around and see if that came up in today’s demonstration, but I gotta get to the hospital in Burlington. I just wanted to pop in and say hi.”

“I think she also hoped to shoot some arrows, but she doesn’t have time,” Ava chided gently.

“Can you blame me for trying? You two get to do all the cool stuff while I have to work.”

“You don’t have to work,” Ava corrected. “You could say no, but you’re too talented for your own good. The more shifts you cover, the more doctors request you.”

Fletcher only half-listened to their exchange, as her eyes wandered back to Kylie, who steered Winston entirely with her legs into a looping, figure eight pattern.

“Right, Fletcher?” Bex gave her a little nudge.

“What?”

“I said being the best in the business comes with high demand.”

“Oh, yeah,” she agreed for the ease of keeping the conversation moving.

“Still, I wish I could join your lesson group. Ava said things went great last Saturday.”

Her muscles tightened at the memory of last weekend. No one else knew what had happened after the class ended, but her body hadn’t let her forget.

“Any prodigies in the group?” Bex asked.

She shook her head, trying not to remember the skill with which Kylie had touched her. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Maybe it would be me,” Bex laughed, and then glanced at Ava, who shook her head.

“You’re already the best anesthesiologist in the entire Northeast. I’m not sure I could handle you being any more amazing.”

Bex smiled broadly at Ava, and for a few seconds, it felt like they had forgotten Fletcher was there. With anyone else she might’ve rolled her eyes, but the two of them were too genuine. No matter how silly they might sound, they were always completely themselves, open, sweet, and supportive. The contrast to her own recent interactions made Fletcher’s chest ache.

Bex and Ava had faced their fair share of challenges, like any other couple, and there were even moments when it seemed like they didn’t have much of a chance. Still, the city mouse and the country mouse found a way to make things work against all odds, but the two of them seemed almost stupidly happy to jump through any hoops necessary to meet in the middle. Fletcher tried to not think about the fact that, when faced with their own challenges, she and Kylie had instead chosen to throw up walls. She couldn’t compare the two of them to Bex and Ava. These two had made a commitment to each other where Fletcher and Kylie had committed themselves to self-preservation.

Ava finally sighed. “You know I’m proud of the work you do, love, but you need to go do it now, or someone will be late for surgery.”

Bex wrapped an arm around her waist and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Fine, fine. Besides, it looks like Fletcher’s already found a new prized pupil, and I wouldn’t want to suffer by comparison.”

Fletcher’s brain took its sweet time to process the comment, but it wasn’t hard to follow Bex and Ava’s gazes to where Kylie had taken up her bow and nocked an arrow. She faltered slightly as she drew back the string, not quite in time with the rise of Winston’s trot, but she managed to get off the shot at a decent angle and strike the target a few inches outside the second ring. Her shoulders slumped slightly, perfectionism likely preventing her from appreciating her progress, but she’d improved steadily. “She’ll get what she’s after eventually. She always does.”

Ava shifted from one foot to the other. “Have you two talked about what she’s after?”

She shook her head. They hadn’t talked about anything other than archery for the last week, and she needed to keep it that way. She’d been absolutely unflinching in her insistence they focus on the work ahead, and while Kylie had made it abundantly clear she’d like for them to have a more in-depth conversation, Fletcher immediately shut her down every time she hinted at any topic other than work. It had taken a while, but Kylie’s focus and demeanor had improved with each passing day.

The same could not be said for Fletcher, and again, she fought to keep her brain from drawing more unfavorable comparisons. While Kylie had shown up this morning and set about her practice routine without deviation, Fletcher hadn’t been able to get her mind off what’d happened in the hayloft a week ago. While Kylie had been cool and professional, she’d felt hot and flustered in the midst of a Vermont winter. While Kylie homed in on form and repetition, Fletcher couldn’t stop noticing finer details like the way Kylie’s fingers curled around the reins or how her thighs flexed responsively in the saddle, and every little distraction sparked a flashback to the way those body parts reacted to her own touch. And horrifyingly, those impulses were getting worse instead of better as time went on.

Hell, she’d drifted off again right now and missed whatever Bex had said in response. “Sorry, what?”

Bex smiled. “I have to go. Tell your star student I said hi.”

She rolled her eyes and called out, “Kylie, Bex says hi.”

Kylie turned slightly in the saddle and offered a little wave. “Hi, Bex.”