Page 79

Serena
“What do you mean?”
“I, um, I told you I remembered you from high school, right?”
He nods, appearing confused at my change in topic. “You said I helped you up off the floor.”
“Mmm hmm.” I smooth out the fabric of my dress, surreptitiously wiping the sweat off my palms. “But what I didn’t tell you was after that, I had this massive crush on you.”
He blinks rapidly. “What?”
Heat licks my cheeks, my legs trembling with the need to flee, but I keep going. “I never completely forgot you after that. And when Dad said he was working on this deal and wanted me to marry into the Bishop family, I agreed because I thought he meant… you.” Now that I’m confessing, the urge to get it all out overcomes me. “How I feel about you has always been real. It was never acting.”
“So at the wedding…”
He would bring that up, wouldn’t he? “I was an idiot.” A naive fool. At least he didn’t realize it then.
“Oh God, Serena.” He turns his chair toward mine, running careful hands along my arms, looking at me like I just told him I have a terminal illness or something. “I had no idea. I wouldn’t have- I was a jerk, wasn’t I?”
“No, no.” I laugh, because otherwise, I might cry hysterically at the remembered embarrassment. “There’s no way you could have known. We didn’t know each other. Not really. And though it hasn’t been that long since then, I like what we’ve built together so far.”
He studies me, his face serious, reaching out to join our hands. “I like it too. It’s more than I ever expected in my life.”
I tilt my head, not sure what he means. “You never expected, what? A relationship?”
He shrugs. “No. I’ve never had time. Never met anyone. Didn’t want to meet anyone actually.”
“Why not?”
He looks down at our joined hands, blowing out a long breath. It’s like we’re on the edge of some kind of precipice.
“A question for a question?” I ask.
A ghost of a smile crosses his lips. “Your questions are hard.”
“I just admitted I’ve had a crush on you since high school. That deserves some reciprocity.”
His lips tilt up more. “Touché.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to meet anyone?”
“I’d have to let them close,” he says after a minute.
“What’s wrong with that?”
His fingers flex and release. “They leave you. Whether or not they mean to.”
“You said you’ve never been in a serious relationship, right?” He nods, still not looking at me. “So does this have something to do with your mom?”
His head jerks up, gaze sharp as it roams my face. “Why would you ask that?”
“You shut down the other night when I asked about her. I- I know she died, Archer. I’m so sorry.”
His hands tighten around mine, but he stays silent.
“I can’t imagine how painful that must have been. You obviously loved her a lot.” I release one of my hands from his hold to stroke it softly through his hair, and he leans into my touch.
“I did. I never want something like that to happen again.”