“Wait a minute,” I said. “We’re going into town for dinner, right?”
“That was the plan.”
“Then I’m Clara. You’re Archie. Once we come down from the mountaintop and all.”
He mulled this over a moment. “Agreed.” He nodded. “Clara.”
An involuntary shiver ran through my body at the sound of my name on his lips. Mercy.
Work dinner. It’s a work dinner. Stop shivering.
But my name. On his lips? Divine.
Work. It’s work. Focus!
I took the last two steps down, coming to rest next to him. He’d been right, I am short, I barely came up to his shoulders. He held my coat open for me, and as he slipped it onto my shoulders he asked, “Are you ready?”
“Hell yes” was out of my mouth before I could stop myself, and he chuckled in my ear, low and a bit growly. Goddammit, I shivered again.
Archie + growly = mercy.
We sailed out the front door under the watchful eye of literally every single employee, half of whom I’m pretty sure weren’t even on the clock but had somehow materialized at this very moment.
Yeah, it was a very good thing we were heading into town.
“So this is . . . pretty nice.” I’d been tucked into the front seat of a very nice, very luxurious BMW. The heater on, my toes stretched out against the warmth, grateful after the chilly run to the car.
“Are you interested in German engineering, Ms. Morg—Clara?”
Oh yeah, I could get used to this guy saying my name over and over again. “Not necessarily.”
“What are you interested in?”
“Is this what we’re doing now? Asking questions?”
He waved a good-bye to the guard at the security shack, shifted smoothly, and then shot me a pointed look. “You had your tongue in my mouth yesterday, don’t you think a few questions are the natural progression?”
“My tongue in your mouth was after you put your tongue in my mouth, Archie. Let’s not forget that.”
“I don’t think I’ll be forgetting that anytime soon.”
The car was silent. Full. We were heading down the mountain, dark pressing in on all sides. His words hung in the air, I could still hear them in my ears. Did I want that tongue in my mouth again? To quote myself, hell yes. But it didn’t matter, because I was here to do a job and I wasn’t going to put my entire career in jeopardy because some supercute nerd kissed me. And, technically, I kissed him back.
Take control, Clara!
“Running.”
“What?”
“You asked what I was interested in. Running. Sometimes swimming.”
“If you swim as fast as you run you must be part fish.”
“And cycling, although between all three I prefer running.”
“You should do a triathlon.”
“You should come see me do one. My next one is in June.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. Ironman. Technically, Ironwoman. But I’m thinking about doing a Tough Mudder before that.”
“You mean those races where you splash through mud and run up walls?”
“Yep.”
“Isn’t that filthy?”
“God yes, the filthier the better.” I laughed, turning so I could see him. “You want to come with me?”
“To a mud race?”
“Sure.”
“You want me to come watch you get muddy.”
“Hell no, I want you to come get muddy with me.”
“And why would I do this exactly?”
“Are you kidding? It’s a blast!” I punched his shoulder excitedly. “It’s such a rush, you push yourself, you think you can’t do it, but then you do, you bang your elbows, you scrape your knees, you probably cry at least once, you may even vomit . . . it’s the best time.”
“I wonder if my father knows he hired an actual insane person to help turn his hotel around.”
“Oh shush,” I huffed. “You’d do great. It’s not a big deal to get a little dirty sometimes.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” He laughed, swinging the car right and just like that, we were in Bailey Falls.
I’d seen pictures. I’d heard Natalie wax poetic about the cuteness, and even Roxie now admitted that her hometown was nicer than she remembered. I’d grown up in an urban environment, and still chose to live in a city. But when I got to go out on jobs, they tended to be either set in or just outside lovely small towns. And I admit, I did love me some quaint.
For the same reason I loved old family-run hotels, I really enjoyed the sense of pride I felt whenever I was in a small town. There was the “everybody knows your name” aspect, sure, but there was also just such a sense of belonging, of togetherness that was totally foreign to me. It never made sense for me to become “one of them” when I was on a job in a place like this, but I sure as shit could enjoy what it looked like from the outside. And Bailey Falls was obviously no exception.
The graceful homes, the tree-lined streets, some still sporting their original cobblestones for goodness’ sake, the mom-and-pop stores on Main Street and a good old-fashioned town square. Good God, was this place adorable or what?
And the most adorable of all, the one place I’d been dying to see but hadn’t yet visited, was Callahan’s. The diner owned by Roxie’s mom, Trudy. And to my surprise, we pulled up right in front.
“Wait, we’re going to Callahan’s?”
“Is that okay?”
“Sure, sure, I just figured, I don’t know.”
He turned off the car and looked at me carefully. “You just figured what?”
“I pegged you for a more formal guy. I guess I thought you’d want to have dinner at a fancy pants Frenchie or whatever.”
“Is that a real place?”
I rolled my eyes. “You just seem like a guy who likes to eat in a place that has finger bowls.”
“You should probably get to know a guy better, then, before you chase him up a mountain.”
Okay, that’s it. “For the last time, I may have chased you, but it was only to talk to you and then you—” But I was cut off by his door closing, and a wink and a grin through the windshield. I hadn’t lost any steam by the time he opened my door. “—pushed me up against that damn tower and made out with me like you just got out of prison and—”
It wasn’t just towers that he got off on. Because the next thing I knew I was pressed into the cold brick wall in between the diner and a taxidermist with Archie and his impossibly strong hands all over my hips.
“You really are a pain in the ass,” he said, his breath fogging up the space—the very little space—between us.
“You’re the only person who’s ever told me that.”
“I find that incredibly hard to believe.”
I sank my hands into his hair, twisting the auburn locks in my fingertips. His blue eyes went wild.
My heart went wild too, beating almost out of my chest. This was wrong, this was so fucking wrong. I knew better than this. “I find it hard to believe you’re not kissing me yet.” I knew better, but in that moment I didn’t care.