Archer:Don’t. Just let me handle everything.
Me:Are you sure? I didn’t mean for you to bring everything.
Archer:Haven’t you figured out by now that if I’m offering, then I want to do it?
Me:Thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.
Archer:Feel free to thank me with a picture of what you’re doing. If you happen to be shirtless, it would keep us on even ground.
Me:Archer . . .
Archer:That was also not flirting. It was a statement of fact.
I sent him a picture of me glaring at the camera.
Archer:Exactly what I was hoping for. That’s one of my top five favorite facial expressions on you. Adding it to my list.
Archer:Must have the most beautiful glare I’ve ever seen.
Me:You’re ridiculous.
Archer:Remi?
Me:Yes.
Archer:That was me flirting.
My face was beyond heated as I tucked my phone away.
“Mom, what are you smiling about?”
I wasn’t. Was I?
Except I was. When my fingertips traced over my mouth, sure enough. Undeniable proof.
And when I looked over at Gavin, I was still smiling. “Nothing.”
Chapter Nineteen
Archer
“You sure this is it?”
Remi’s car was nowhere to be found, but the address matched the one she’d sent. It wasn’t far from where she lived, and based on what I was seeing, it was a neighborhood meant solely for older people.
The homes were connected like condos, four per grouping. The aluminum siding was faded from time, and each unit had the same face—a single garage stall, a front door with a square stoop covered with an aluminum overhang, and a small window to the side of the front door.
Blocky, geometric hedges lined the front of a lot of the units, but some residents had seemed to have swapped those out for flowers. Remi’s grandfather was one of those people. The front of his home was more open because of it, a neatly kept landscaping bed filled with red flowers.
Williams leaned in. “Where’s Remi?”
“Not here, dumbass.”
He grimaced. “So are we just hanging out in the street until she gets here?”
A face appeared in the front window, then disappeared again.
In the unit next door, a door opened with a loud squeak. The woman was wearing a bright-blue bathrobe over a printed muumuu, her hair wrapped in a scarf. “You two looking for someone? We don’t allow solicitation here.”