Page 112 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

He glared at the box of pancake mix.

‘Are you going to take a break from being my dad?’ Olive asked, and his heart, the heart that was barely holding on after yesterday and this morning, officially tore in two.

‘No, Livie, I’m never going to take a break from being your dad.’ That thought would have sent him into a state of despair just a few months ago but now it just felt true. Olive was his forever. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

She smiled at him. ‘Okay, good.’

‘And your mom, even though she’s not here anymore, she’s always your mom. Forever.’

‘Okay, that’s good, too.’

‘Yeah, it is. Maybe we can finish that garden you and Iris started and put something special for your mom there. Something to attract hummingbirds, maybe.’

‘Yes! And maybe we can get a bunny!’

‘Don’t push it, kid.’

Olive pouted. ‘Can I at least have a Pop-Tart for breakfast?’

Archer sighed, thinking about all the ways Iris had imprinted on their lives. She’d been here from the start with Olive. And now it was just the two of them.

‘Sure.’

‘Yay!’ She clapped her hands, her mood immediately improved by the promise of an overly processed breakfast treat. ‘And don’t worry, Dad. I think Iris is going to come back.’

He swallowed hard, not wanting Olive to get hurt anymore than she already had in her short life. ‘I don’t know, Liv. She might not.’

‘But she might.’

‘But she really might not.’

‘Never say never, Dad.’

He looked at her then, her round face and dark eyes so much like Cate’s, but her mouth, her smile, and that dimple were all him. He thought about all the years they had ahead of them, of all the things he still needed to figure out, to learn how to do. There would be birthdays and holidays and skinned knees and broken bones and heartaches and toothaches and trouble at school and trouble with friends and it was a lot. But looking at his daughter’s face, so full of hope, he couldn’t be the one to take that from her.

‘Okay, Olive. I won’t say never.’

She grinned and bit into her Pop-Tart. It all felt heavy and real, but Archer thought maybe he could carry it. Even if he had to carry it alone.

ChapterThirty-Five

‘What’s going on?’ Iris grumbled, emerging from her pile of blankets. She had cranked Bex’s window air conditioner as high as it would go so that she could properly wallow. It was too hard to wallow when it was hot. And she had a lot of wallowing to do.

Not to mention she still felt sick and more exhausted than she ever had in her entire life.

‘I called in reinforcements.’ Bex plopped down next to her on the couch. Kira took the floor at her side and Isabel lowered herself gingerly into the ancient armchair Bex had inherited from their grandmother.

‘For what?’

‘Oh, you know, to help figure out what the hell you’re going to do about the whole, falling in love with Archer, missing Olive, unplanned pregnancy situation,’ Bex said, patting her roughly on the leg.

‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

Kira and Bex exchanged concerned glances.

‘Iris…’

‘Ican’ttalk about it.’ She already felt the tears creeping up her throat. She couldn’t talk about this without completely losing it. And she didn’t want to do that. She wanted to move on, like she always did. She wanted to be able to walk away from this job like she had from every other job she’d ever had.