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Brielle reached her hand out, noticed the yellow rubber glove, and quickly removed it before taking Pauline’s hand in hers. “Brielle.”
Pauline pulled her head back and glanced over her shoulder, but she didn’t make any effort to lower her voice. “So you’re the reason why Archer has been so insistent he get out lately? That we spend ten more minutes at the grocery store?”
Brielle winced. She heard pounding and cupboards opening from the kitchen down the hall.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Archer’s voice echoed down the hallway.
Pauline laughed again. “Normally, I’d thank you for pushing him to get some fresh air once in a while. But I knew something was off when he insisted he needed another fifteen minutes to choose which flavor ice cream to buy. He hates spending time in the grocery store.”
“You say that,” yelled Archer, “and yet last week when I insisted on just grabbing the first pint of ice cream I saw, you complained for days that it was pistachio.”
Pauline shouted down the hallway, “Pistachio isn’t a proper flavor, I’m sorry.”
“Sure, sure. Just vanilla and chocolate. I suppose you see no need for entire aisles of flavor.”
“Not when the classics will do, no.” Pauline turned back to Brielle, grinning. “I’m normally not here this late, but he’s been insistent we go out and who am I to say no?”
Brielle grimaced. “That was probably my fault.”
“Was it your fault or were you simply the cause?” Pauline gave Brielle the onceover and a knowing look, but Brielle didn’t feel like she was in the know at all.
“Enough, Pauline,” called Archer. A cupboard door slammed so loudly, Brielle jumped. “Don’t you have another patient to get to? Isn’t that why you were so insistent we get going?”
“I was insistent we get going because I felt like we were about to grow roots.” She laughed and checked her Apple Watch, swiping at the screen. “But it is indeed about time I got going.” She nodded at Brielle. “Nice to meet you, Brielle.”
“Likewise.” Brielle cleared her throat.Don’t leave me alone with him.
But the nurse had already turned the corner. “Stay cheerful, sunny!” she cried. Brielle heard Archer grunt, followed by the front door opening and closing. The place got eerily quiet. After a moment, Brielle slipped her glove back on and picked up the toilet brush. She finished cleaning and then kept scrubbing a few minutes longer just because she couldn’t stand the idea of going out there yet. She listened for Archer’s slamming around the kitchen to end and once it did, she waited a few minutes more.
Then she decided it was now or she was going to have to lock the door and camp out in his guest bathroom forever. Which would be decidedly more awkward anyway.
She gathered her belongings and headed out into the living area. Archer was in front of his computer this time, a tray table Brielle had never noticed before pulled out to reach about his lap area. He held a digital pen in his hand and it kept making loopy movements on the digital tablet, although Archer’s eyes never left the monitor.
Brielle almost walked right out the door without a word. She wondered if that was what Archer would have preferred. It was what she would have preferred… If the tension between them wouldn’t keep eating at her forever.
But it was also the wrong thing to do. It certainly wasn’t the professional thing to do.
She cleared her throat. “So… Um… I’m finished for the day.”
Archer nodded but didn’t look away from the screen. “Congratulations…?”
Brielle’s face soured. She didn’t know how she’d been in this guy’s presence for maybe less than three hours and already she found him as aggravating as Daniel. It took her months—years, probably, if she was being honest—to start really being annoyed by Daniel. And yet somehow this guy was annoying in a different way—not outright crude, just… Beastly. Yes, that was perfect. He was just like the beast inBeauty and the Beast, all sullen and incapable of saying anything that could possibly be construed for kindness or even civility. At least not as far as she was concerned.
Brielle felt an anger surge inside her she only thought Daniel capable of arousing. She dropped her bucket, letting it hit the hardwood with a clatter. “I wanted to apologize for the other day.”
Archer sighed and put his pen down. He backed up in his chair and it was the first time Brielle got a good look at the drawing on the screen. It looked like he was inking a pencil sketch digitally.
“No, don’t bother,” said Brielle quickly, scrambling to pick up her bucket, which she oughtn’t to have droppedquiteso loudly. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry, and I’ll try as hard as I can to be quiet and not disturb you at all from now on, and you don’t have to worry about structuring your day to avoid me—not that you can’t leave whenever you want anyway, but if thatwasthe reason you were gone the past few days—”
“Whoa, whoa.” Archer wheeled closer, taking one hand off its wheel as he neared to make the universal palm-faced-down hand gesture for “calm down.” He paused in front of her and ran his hand through his hair and over his face. Brielle found the movement surprisingly alluring, like he’d casually flicked on the light switch to her libido. “I don’t want you tiptoeing around my house, afraid I might explode at the slightest sound.”
Brielle stared down at him blankly. Hehadmet himself, hadn’t he?
Not that he likely saw himself the way she did.
“I’m sorry,” he said, quietly. He looked at the floor.
“What…?” Brielle spoke more out of confusion than from not having heard him. She’d heard him.
