His stare became fixed with hers. He searched the sea of blue staring back at him, and with a barely controlled voice, he demanded that she…
“Say. It. Again.”
15
Say.It. Again.
Archer’s order had been sharp. Enunciated. Commanding. And if Cassie wasn’t mistaken, that was a sliver of uncertainty shining behind his unwavering stare.
“I said I think…” She braced herself before swallowing against the fiery dryness of her traumatized throat. “I think I’m…falling in love with you.” When he didn’t immediately respond, Cassie began a rushed and desperate backtrack. “But you’re right. That’s crazy, right?
Shewas crazy.
Crazy in love with a man she barely knew. An American hero who’d had the unfortunate luck to be the one in-office the day she’d walked into Eagle’s Nest desperate for help. A man she’d only known a few days but felt as if she’d known him forever.
A man who was currently staring back at her with more emotion than she’d seen on Russ’s face the entirety of their marriage. Including their wedding day.
“Cassie, I lo?—”
“People don’t fall in love in less than a week.” She cut him off on purpose. “That’s the stuff of Hollywood.”
Isn’t it?
“Pretty sure if my grandparents were still alive, they’d wholeheartedly disagree with you.
“They would?”
He nodded. “My mom told me the story when I was about ten. She said her dad and his buddy were walking down the street one day, and he looked over and saw two women walking in the opposite direction on the sidewalk across the street. A redhead and a brunette. My grandpa pointed to the tiny brunette and said, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl.’” That smirk grew a little more. “Three months later, they stood in front of a preacher and a church full of their closest family and friends. They’d been married sixty-two years when my grandma passed away. And my grandma was just as in love with him then as the day they said their vows.”
Cassie’s heart thumped hard inside her chest. “Did you just make that up?”
“I could have.” He smiled. “But no. I mean, yeah…when my mom first told me the story, I thought she was full of shit. But I asked my grandpa about it, one day, a few years later, totally expecting him to laugh and tell me the story was just a creation of my mom’s hopeless romantic imagination. But nope.” A small chuckle. “Grandpa confirmed Mom’s story. Even added a few details in there for good measure.”
Sixty-two years. That was nothing short of amazing.
“That’s an amazing story, Archer. But that was a different time. A different world.”
“Love is love, sweetheart. No amount of time is going to change that.”
Pulling herself free from his hold, Cassie put some much-needed distance between them. After a long, awkward stretch, Archer finally broke the uncomfortable silence.
“Cassie?” He took a step toward her.
“I still may go to prison, Archer.”
“You won’t.”
“But Imight.And you…” Cassie shook her head. “You have to prepare yourself for the possibility.”
“You’re not going to fucking prison, Cass.Heis.” He pointed to the man on the other side of the glass.
“You’re right. Eddie will end up behind bars.” There was no way the man was going to walk out of here after what he did. “But what happened to us today and Russ’s murder are two separate cases. So unless Yates confesses, which he’s never going to do, the evidence the cops have in Russ’s case still points to me. Not Eddie.”
God. She still couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that Eddie—Eddie—had actually tried to kill her. Or that Russ was dead or that she’d been arrested for his murder.
In what universe wasthather reality?
And then there was Archer. Sweet. Sexy. Unbelievable Archer. A man who’d all but admitted he loved her, too.