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24
Archer
It’s on the tip of my tongue to spill my guts and confess exactly how much I’ve missed Lena. It’s not like we haven’t seen each other, but it hasn’t been enough. Something splintered and cracked tonight in the walls we both built up. I want to keep chiseling away, digging down to the bone, until all of her secrets are exposed.
I know that Lena‘s not ready for that, though. She called me out about kissing her tonight and even that surprised me. I know this woman, better than I think I realized. Definitely more than she realizes. Lena avoids conflict. I’m sure it’s come from years of practice dodging her father’s fiery anger, but it also means she never confronts her problems. So her asking about why I haven’t kissed her was enough to let me know how much this means to her.
And the kiss, fuck. If I hadn’t already been gone for her, that kiss would have sunk me so fast there’d be no hope of ever reaching the surface. In the back of my mind, I think I always knew that kissing her would be my downfall. I was holding onto one last tenuous piece of the fantasy that I didn’t need her like I need air. Kissing her would have taken things to a place I knew we’d never come back from. And I was right. The soft submission of her mouth, the feel of her full lips. It was more than I could have imagined.
“Do you need to say goodbye?” I link my fingers with Lena’s, leading us out of the woods.
“Um, is it bad if I just text them?” Lena’s normally perfect hair and immaculate clothing are a mess. Her hair is tangled and mussed from my fingers and I’m pretty sure her shirt is on backwards.
“Unless you want Ruby to interrogate you for the next hour, then I think it’s a good idea.”
“Nope. Definitely not tonight.”
Lena sends a text while I take the long way around the party, keeping to the edge of the woods. I didn’t drive tonight, since the walk to my house is less than five minutes. My house is near Aspen Street, but not directly on the main thoroughfare. The red brick house is one of the colonial style row houses that managed to survive the fire that ripped through the island back in the 1800s. I bought the three-story home last year after Davis and I fully renovated it. The house had been decaying and left to rot, and we’d brought it back to life. There’s a decent sized yard in the back and it’s the first place I’ve really thought of as home.
The longer we’ve walked, the quieter Lena’s gotten, as if each step away from the party is bringing back all her doubts and worries. I tug on her hand and pull her in close, cupping her cheek with my free hand.
“I almost kissed you once in ninth grade.”
Lena’s head rears back and her jaw drops. “What?”
For one brief second, embarrassment at the remembered moment hits me and a low sheepish chuckle escapes my mouth.
“Archer Warren, are you embarrassed?”
I cover up her eyes with my hand and shush her.
“Archer.” Lena laughs, but she doesn’t pull my hand away.
“Do you remember when we went on that field trip on the Lobster boat?”
Lena groans, her hand slapping over the top of mine to keep it covering her eyes. “We had such lame field trips on this island.”
I chuckle because she’s not wrong. A whip of cool spring air finds us where we’re stopped on the corner of the street. There’s not a lot of people out at this hour since most of the shops have closed for the night. Only the diner and Rhys’s bar have any activity stirring, so it feels like we’re in our own private world.
“Only on Wild Haven would they allow Barney McGibbons to take out a bunch of ninth graders on a run-down lobster boat.”
“He was drunk as a skunk.” Lena cackles, telling me she’s still got a decent buzz going.
“Ms. Lepner was sleeping with him.”
Lena peels off my hand, her eyes wide as she gapes up at me. “No way.”
“Oh, yeah. Why do you think she let us get on his boat when he was wasted?”
“Oh my God. I feel violated somehow, but I don’t know why. I didn’t need to know that. Why do you even know that?” Lena dissolves into a fit of giggles and I let my hands slide around her waist, pulling her tight against me.
“I accidentally caught them making out in her classroom.”
“Ew.”
“Indeed.” I laugh softly, loving how relaxed Lena is against me. “Do you remember what happened?”
“Um, yeah. Three minutes after we untied, he ran into a rock. Ripped a hole through the hull.”
