Page 118 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

‘Liv, it’s July.’

She gave a little shrug like the month was inconsequential and Archer laughed. It was impossible to stay melancholy for too long with this kid around.

He opened the door, rattling the jingle bells he still kept there, even though Olive hadn’t sleepwalked in weeks, expecting it to be a neighbor or a politician with a clipboard, or frankly even trick-or-treaters would have made more sense to his unsuspecting brain than the person who stood on his doorstep.

‘Iris!’ Olive shrieked and flung herself at Iris.

‘Hey, kid,’ Iris said, scooping her up and letting Olive wrap her legs around her waist. She held her tight, her face pressed against Olive’s little cheek. ‘I missed you.’ The confession was barely a whisper, but Archer heard it and he stood frozen in the doorway because he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what this meant.

‘I missed you, too! But I knew you were going to come back. I told Dad. I said you were going to come back and here you are!’ Olive was petting Iris’s hair now and squirming in her arms. ‘Guess what?!’

‘What?’ Iris asked, her eyes shining with tears, and still Archer didn’t know what was happening. Was sheback? Or was this some kind of visit? Did she feel guilty for leaving Olive?

Did she care about leaving him?

‘I got a bunny!’

‘A bunny! Wow!’

‘Yep. I named him Sir Reginald Hoppington.’

A choked up laugh left Iris’s mouth. ‘Wow, that’s quite a name. You’ve improved.’

‘Thank you. I call him Reggie.’

‘That’s a good name.’

Iris still hadn’t looked up, hadn’t taken her eyes off Olive, and Archer still stood in the door, waiting, aching for her.

‘Do you want to come see him?’ Olive asked, and finally Iris lifted her gaze. Their eyes met over the top of Olive’s head. Archer’s heart leapt back to life in his chest.

‘I … uh … I need to talk to your dad first.’

‘Oh.’ Olive deflated in her arms.

‘But I’d love to meet him later. Maybe have a cup of tea or something.’

Olive laughed. ‘Bunnies don’t drink tea.’

Iris frowned. ‘That can’t be right.’

‘They don’t!’ Olive said, delighted to correct a grown-up. ‘They only drink water.’

‘Hmm. Well, if you say so. Maybe you should go check on him?’

‘Good idea!’ Olive squirmed down from Iris’s arms and ran back into the house, leaving Archer without a buffer, without anything between him and the woman who’d left him.

‘Hi,’ she said, her voice still a raspy whisper.

‘Hi.’

‘Can I come in?’

He wanted to say no. He wanted to say she could only come in if she promised she was staying, if she promised not to hurt him again, if she promised…

‘Yeah, of course.’ He moved out of the doorway and let Iris follow him to the kitchen. He supposed it was only right that they have whatever this conversation was in their usual spot, a counter separating them. ‘What’s up?’

She raised an eyebrow. ‘What’s up?’