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All he does is stare at me, a wide smile on his face. His eyes completely light up, reminding me of a child on Christmas day. He’s silent for so long, just staring at me with that beaming smile, that eventually I speak up again.
“Archer, what are we going to do?”
His hands find either side of my face as he pulls me closer to him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear a thing you said after telling me that there’s still a we.”
I laugh, shaking my head at him. “I told you I wasn’t going to run.”
He rests his forehead against mine. His eyelids flutter shut for a moment as he takes in a deep breath. When he lets it out, his body seems to become less tense. “I know. But youshouldrun. My family wants to betray yours, and I know it’s hard for you to trust me. This isn’t the?—”
I cut him off by putting my fingers to his lips. I make sure his chestnut eyes meet mine before I talk again. I keep my voice level and composed, wanting to make sure he hearsevery single word clearly. “Archer Moore, I trust you with everything I am. Iloveyou with everything I am.”
His hands tremble against my cheeks. “You love me?” His voice breaks with emotion. “Say it again so I know it’s real.”
“I trust you. I love you.”
“God, all I’ve ever wanted was to hear you say that.” His entire body seems to sag in relief as he pulls me into him, his back hitting the stairs as our lips collide. Our mouths fuse together as we get lost in the kiss. His hands grasp for my clothes, running down my body like he’s making sure all of this is real.
Finally, the kiss breaks, and we both sit up, but our hands stay interlocked. My lipstick is smeared around his mouth. I laugh, reaching up to wipe it from his chin.
“How are we going to figure this out?” I ask, continuing to try and wipe the pink lipstick from him.
He lets me, looking at me with so much love in his eyes that it makes me still for a moment. “I have a plan. But I’m going to need your brother for it to work. Do you think he’ll listen?”
“I think so. Do you want me to call him and set up a meeting?”
“If you trust him to not go to either of our parents for the time being, then yes.”
I nod. “Okay, I’ll do that.” I’m quiet for a moment, hope blossoming in my chest. I hope Archer does have a plan, one that will work out where his family doesn’t betray mine, one that we can figure out together that benefits everyone.
“Before we come up with a master plan to finally put an end to this decades-long feud between our families, should I keep the offer on the house or pull it?”
I push off his body to stand up, beginning to climb the stairs of the house. “I do like the house, but it’s a bit of a commute to the city.”
I can’t wrap my head around that he wants to spend so much money on a house for me—for us. But I can’t deny that I canalready picture exactly how I’d want to decorate it. I’d like to lighten up some of the colors in here; the dark rugs and artwork aren’t doing anything to help the amazing light that filters through the house.
“I want to be away from the city with you. I’ll figure work out if you picture us living here.”
I smile as we reach the top floor. It’s even more gorgeous up here. You can see down the hallway and out a large window where the bay is in view. There’s a private beach where I can picture us lying in the sand and talking about life. “I can picture it,” I confess, turning on a light to explore one of the rooms.
“Then it’s ours. Yours to make it a home however you want.”
I spin, walking into his open arms in the middle of a small home library. “You don’t want a say in anything?”
He shakes his head. “No. I want anything and everything you want.”
“Okay,” I whisper. “But I can’t focus on that until we get this thing with our families figured out. My dad is misguided a lot of the time, but it’s still our family’s dream. Tyson has worked his entire life to take over Bishop Hotels, and I think he’d be good at it. I don’t want him to lose it, Archer.”
He nods, placing a kiss to my cheek. “I’ll talk to him, and we’ll get it settled.”
I nod, placing my head against his chest as I look around the room. It’s so perfect that I try not to get too hopeful about making this house a home. We’ve got a lot to figure out first, but I have faith in him—in us—that we can do it. “It’s a little sad, isn’t it? Our first memory in this house is one tainted by the mistakes of our relatives.”
He smiles, lifting my chin and bringing his lips right against mine. His mouth brushes against mine with his words. “We have the rest of our lives to replace them with all good ones. But first, let’s figure out a way to right all the wrongs of the past.”
We walk hand in hand out of the house and back to the waiting car. When he first led me up the stairs,I was riddled with anxiety about what he was hiding from me. Now, I’m hopeful for us to figure something out together.
After setting up a meeting with my brother for later tonight, I rest my head against Archer’s shoulder as I look out the window. I hadn’t realized how nice it seemed to live outside of the city until he showed me the house, until he put the idea in my head. Now I’m excited at the prospect of having our own space away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan.
The only thing left to figure out is how to mend the bridge between our families and stop this feud altogether so we can start the next chapter of our life.
