For a moment, he let his forehead drop against the top of my head, his hands falling to the desk on either side of my hips. His chest was heaving. So was mine.
“Okay.” He dropped a whisper of a kiss to my forehead, then said it again, almost to himself. “Okay.”
As requested, he stepped back. Then stepped back again.
My senses cleared with each inch gained between us. Hopefully, his did too.
For a moment, we simply stared at each other. The anguish in his face was as clear as his ferocious desire. Mine probably looked similar.
My life—the tentative, chaotic nature of it—was the only thing holding me back from taking that one last step over the line.
“So is that a no to our date?” he asked.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Laughed long and hard, clutching my stomach while he smiled fondly.
“Maybe we could be friends,” I said once I’d regained control.
Archer tilted his head, dragging his gaze from the top of my head to the tips of my toes and back up. “Do you want my honest answer or a pretty lie?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “I think I’ll take a pretty lie right now.”
Archer smiled sadly. “Then yeah, I can be just friends.”
I cannot want Archer Evans.
So why did it feel like my heart cracked clean in half when he turned and left my office?
Chapter Eighteen
Remi
“Let’s mark that one for donation.”
“Like hell. That’s my favorite couch.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Pops, we do not have space for that couch, which you knew. We’re going to let someone else love it as much as you have.”
He snatched the green Post-its from Gavin’s hands, the ones used to flag items that would be picked up by the donation center.
Gavin gave me a wide-eyed look.
I leaned forward, snatching the stack of papers back. “We talked about this.”
Pops glared. “I don’t remember agreeing to this.”
“See, I knew this would happen.” As I pulled my phone from my back pocket, I gave Pops an indulgent smile. “This is why we made video proof.”
“Shit.”
“Language,” I admonished without any heat. “Ahh, there it is.”
I handed him the phone and pressed play. His entire face filled the screen, a lovely close-up of his nose coming into the frame.
“Where am I looking?” he said in the video.
“Back up, Pops. Not so close,”I said in the background.“We don’t need to see your nose hairs.”
The shot was pulled back, and Pops peered over the rim of his glasses into the camera. “What do you want me to say?”