I folded my arms over my stomach.
“Listen, you’re ... really hot, it’s not that I don’t find you attractive. I do, actually. The red hair is really working for you.”
“If you do not shut the fuck up, Williams ...” Archer warned in a gruff voice. “Not a single pass. All year.”
Williams swallowed audibly. “Right. I think I’m just gonna go.”
“Is someone going to explain what the hell is going on?” I asked.
“No,” they said in unison.
I glanced at Archer, who couldn’t meet my eyes. All our interactions flipped through my head like a Rolodex.
Not like I had much experience with guys like him—a celebrity in his own right. Maybe all the little things he’d done weren’t real, or they weren’t indicative of some unspoken attraction. Maybe it was a giant fucking joke.
It was too easy to imagine them huddled around in some fancy locker room, or on the practice field, joking about the desperate single mom who’d practically screwed him on the dance floor.
The knots in my stomach iced over, dropping like blocks of concrete, and I kept staring until he finally looked over.
“Did you ... did you tell them?”
His face bent in anguish. “No.No, I swear.”
The other guys all stepped forward, talking over each other.
“That’s not it, we promise.”
“Not at all!”
“We’d never do you like that.”
I let out a slow breath. “Fine, whatever. I, um, I have to get back to work.” I gave the other guys a smile that felt tight at the edges. “Take good care of them, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“We will.”
Now it was my turn to avoid eye contact with Archer as I turned to walk back to the shelter as fast as humanly possible.
“I wanted to ask you out and didn’t know how!” he shouted.
I froze.
“Oh shit,” one of the guys whispered. “That was stupid, bro.”
It took an entireyearto turn around and gape at Archer. “Excuse me?” My voice was hardly a whisper, but my heart ... it was thrashing somewhere in the vicinity of my throat.
His eyes fell closed. “Fuck. That’s not what I meant to say.”
“I don’t have time for your games,” I said firmly. “Go home, Archer.”
Chapter Seventeen
Remi
The kennel room was quieter without Daisy and Scout, and as I sat down in Bandit’s space, I closed my eyes and prayed for the cinder blocks to, I don’t know, come to life and bash me to death instead of having to face whatever had just happened out in the parking lot.
Yes, death by kennel block sounded fabulous.