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“Oh!” Brielle looked shocked. “Right.” She kept looking over her shoulder as if the vacuum might sneak up on her. “I’m so sorry! I don’t know what happened. I heard some of the glass, I think, but I don’t know how that basically caused the engine to catch fire—”
“Catch fire?”
Brielle jumped. Archer hadn’t meant to speak so loudly. Her palm bobbed up and down as if to reassure him. “Well, it sparked. Then the whole thing got black. I panicked and ran for a glass of water, and then I remembered there was fire extinguisher in the front closet, andthenI remembered I should at leastunplug the dang thing.” She winced. “I’m sorry.”
Archer opened his mouth and then closed it, thinking.
Brielle seemed to mistake his hesitance for condemnation. “I… This has never happened to me before, so I’m sorry, I don’t know exactly how we file a complaint with—”
Something struck Archer, something she’d said earlier. “Your mother?”
“Oh,” said Brielle. “Right. I guess I said that.” She threw her shoulders back. “My mom owns the company.”
“I thought the owner’s name was… Clark?”
“Leah Clark. Yeah, we have different last names. She went back to her maiden name after the divorce. She built her business practically from scratch after my dad left.”
Archer was impressed there was such fire in her eyes. She seemed so proud of her mother and well she should be. “Keeping it in the family then?” That reminded him too much of his situation with his dad—of how his dad would have liked things to be. He pushed the negative thoughts down.
Brielle bounced her head back and forth. “Sort of. Although Mom is liable to fire me any day now.”
“Because of this?” He gestured toward the doorway and the surprisingly explosive vacuum somewhere far behind her. “I doubt it was anything you did. Don’t worry about it. I’ll just get a new one.”
“No, not because of that alone, but thank you. Really.” Brielle swallowed. “I feel bad, though.”
Archer glared at her, hoping he appeared commanding. “Don’t.” He didn’t want to say what she might have guessed just by how often she was called to clean for him—they could afford to buy a new vacuum. His parents certainly could anyway. It made him feel bad to think that way when he’d thought of her as working for minimum wage, of taking the first job she could find—although he supposed maybe she was better off than he’d expected since her mother owned the company.
She nodded and didn’t say anything more. She shifted, probably about to leave him to clean up that mess, but Archer wasn’t about to let her go.
“Why will you be fired?” he asked, genuinely curious. “You do a great job.”
“Thanks.” She smiled and tucked that piece of hair behind her ears again. Did shewanthim to pull her onto his lap? His shoulder ached just then, almost as if in punishment for his dirty thoughts. She turned around and put the glass down atop his dresser, then pulled the hair tie out of her ponytail. Her long, dark hair cascaded around her shoulders for a moment as she gathered it back up. She placed the hair tie in her mouth and bit down, her lips curling seductively.
Okay. I am definitely about to do something I regret.Pushing through the discomfort, he slapped both wheels and backed up a little, then moved forward a little, his own version of pacing. He stared at her feet. “Do you have an obnoxious client somewhere who’s been complaining about you?” He couldn’t help but offer a faltering smile. He knew she probably thought he was that obnoxious client if anything.
“Not that I know of… No, I should say no. Mom would definitely let me know if that was the case.” She finished readjusting her hair and sighed.
Archer cocked his head and patted the corner of the bed beside him. “Sit down and tell your old uncle Archer what’s going on.”
She grinned. He felt like an idiot, but he’d made her smile, so maybe the silliness wasn’t half-bad. She looked over her shoulder. “I should clean that mess—”
“It can wait. I can even help.”
Brielle hesitated, bouncing on the balls of her feet and biting her lip.God, woman, will you stop being so delectable? I’m sore all over and I really can’t take it.
“Unless you have somewhere to go right away after your hour’s up…”
“No,” said Brielle, shaking her head. “No plans at all today.” A brief, impulsive thought shot into Archer’s mind, but he knew it was really stupid of him. She practically collapsed onto his bed, the energy deflating out of her like she was a popped balloon. “Well, Ioughtto be spending hours scouring for jobs and drafting a dozen cover letters, but…” She left the rest unsaid.
Archer wove his fingers together and wrung them to distract himself from his naughtier thoughts. She was just at the foot of the bed and she was wearing the unsexiest maid costume he’d ever seen. But damn, did that ugly shirt cling to her. She could she make anything sexy. “Because you’re getting fired?”
“MomsaidI could work for her company as long as I need to. To save up and make sure there isn’t a hole in my resume.” She grimaced. “Although I’ve had to spin a bit of what I do so it doesn’t seem like I’ve only cleaned since I was a teen.”
“Like… helping a person with a disability?”
“No!” Brielle looked shocked and put one hand at the base of her throat. “Oh, god no. I wouldn’t exploit you like that. I don’t even… I don’t do anything special for you.”
Archer shrugged. It definitely wasn’t something you could put on a resume, but he’d call waking up his shriveled heart “something special” indeed.
