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“When did this happen?” I ask, glancing between them.

“You’ve been a little busy,” Sophie says, smiling. “Just like when I walked up here.”

Some friends might be mad or feel like they’ve been ditched with how much time I’ve spent with Archer these last few days. Sophie isn’t one of them. Other than being insufferably smug, she’s been so happy for me. Even if we haven’t hung out as much. She’s been busy too, apparently, which is good timing for me.

“We actually met this week and talked about the stipend for the garden,” Archer says, and my mouth drops open.

“Youwhat?” I don’t know which one of them to glare at first. So I glare at both of their grinning faces and then I yank them into a group hug where I’m the one squished in the middle.

“Are you happy or angry?” Archer asks, and I can hear the smile in his voice. But I can’t see it because my face ended up squished into his chest.

No complaints there.

“Happy,” I say with a sniff, not sure where this threat of tears is coming from.

“Okay, okay,” Sophie says, giving my shoulder a squeeze and disentangling us. “Not a big deal.”

I shoot her a look because it’s a very big deal. And I really, really hope it’s an indication that stage two will be successful when I work up the courage to ask Archer about it.

“Oh, hey.” I point behind Sophie to the flower bed with the non-weed I tried to pull when we were working and I was griping about Archer ruining my business. “Your UFO is blooming.”

“Her UFO?” Archer asks.

“Unidentified floral object,” Sophie says, stepping closer and bending down to examine the flower. Its petals are white with a deep pink center, resembling a mix of an orchid and a lily. “Ihaven’t been able to figure out what this plant is. But I guess it’s one that blooms at night. Interesting.”

I smile at Archer and give him a little eye roll. “Yes. Plant mysteries areveryinteresting.”

“Oh, shut it, Willa. Why don’t you guys go back to making out?”

“Right here? Okay.” I start to reach up on my toes for Archer, who’s looking very amenable to the idea.

“No!” Sophie says. “You’ll scare the flowers. But you have my blessing to christen the rest of the building with your kissing.”

“Mm—sounds like a plan.” I give Archer a flirty grin, and his hand finds mine, squeezing tight. “’Night, Soph!”

She doesn’t respond, caught up in staring at the flowers on the vine, which I’m glad I didn’t remove last week. Maybe now she’ll be able to solve her mystery.

But I’m no longer thinking about flowers when we step inside the building and Archer spins me, gently pressing my back into the wall as his lips brush my ear. “How long do you think it would take to christen the whole building?”

“Guess we’ll have to find out.”

Chapter Seventeen

Willa

“Well, isn’t this cozy?”

At the sound of Bellamy’s voice, Archer and I jerk apart. We are teenagers making out in a basement, caught mid-kiss by a snooping parent. Only in this case, we’re two grown adults who should be working but instead have been making out in his kitchen.

Story of my life this last week since the birthday party. Not thegetting caughtpart so much as thekissingpart. Like, a record-breaking amount of kissing, if there’s anyone who tracks this kind of thing. Someone call Guinness!

No complaints here. I never knew kissing could be so great either.

Guess I was never kissing the right person.

With Archer being eight years older, I wondered at first if things between us might move at a faster pace or be more … I don’t know, serious? Like dating him would be the equivalent of taking a stuffy PhD lecture rather than an intro class taught by the fun professor who comes to campus wearing jeans and wants to know how your weekend was.

I mean, Archer is a fairly intense, serious dude, in addition to being older. I assumed maybe after a day or two, he might initiate some kind of sit-down DTR with a lawyer present.