Page 50 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

‘The old one,’ he muttered.

‘The one everyone wants,’ she shot back with a little smirk when he looked at her. She had her hair in her usual braid, cinnamon-laced with ginger that somehow looked beautiful even under the garish lights of the meeting hall. Little wisps of hair had escaped it and framed her face, her eyes twinkling and mischievous, her lips tipped into a playful smile. Like she was always teasing him about something.

The past few days had been awkward between them, neither knowing how to behave. The easy comfort they’d been starting to fall into had been broken by his actions and his subpar apology, and now they spent most of their time keeping Olive as a barrier between them.

But right now, Olive was home with Kimmy reading in the blanket fort she’d set up with Iris earlier in the day. And there was nothing between him and Iris. Nothing between her hand and his knee.

‘Let’s get started.’ A man spoke into the microphone behind the podium and the feedback squealed through the room. ‘Sorry about that,’ he said with a wince. ‘But at least I got your attention.’

He smiled through the groans in the room.

Archer recognized him as the mayor. He’d been back into the diner several times since Archer started, always tried the latest pancake iteration, and always found it lacking.

‘We have something exciting on the docket this evening,’ the mayor went on.

‘Is it about no-mow May?’ someone shouted from the audience. ‘Because I don’t understand it.’

‘Well, no…’

‘It’s for the pollinators!’ someone else shouted back, ignoring the mayor’s protests.

‘I have to have a mess of a lawn for a month for the bees?’ The first voice did not seem pleased with this idea.

‘Yes, for the bees! No pollinators, no food,’ an older lady in a floral top countered.

‘That’s a bit of an exaggeration,’ a gruff old man added.

‘If we could just get back on track…’ The mayor attempted to get the meeting in order, but the room had descended into an argument about, from what Archer could gather, whether or not dandelions were weeds or flowers and if not mowing your lawn for a month really did anything helpful for the earth.

Iris leaned into his side. ‘This is pretty typical. Don’t worry, they’ll tire themselves out in a minute or two.’

‘Hmm.’ He frowned, and to his shock, Iris reached up and pressed two fingers between his eyebrows. ‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m smoothing out these aggressive forehead lines.’

‘Why?’

‘I think this will go better if you look less like you’re going to murder everyone.’ She took her fingers away and he wanted them back. He wanted them tugging on his hair, he wanted them digging into his back.

‘This is just my face.’

She shook her head. ‘No, I’ve seen you with different faces. Like when you look at Olive and you get all soft and gooey.’

‘I don’t get gooey.’

‘Oh, you definitely do. You may not know it yet, but that kid’s totally got you wrapped around her little finger.’

‘Me? You’re the one repainting her room and building forts all day.’

‘It’s all just part of my job.’

‘Okay, sure.’ Who were they kidding? Olive had them both wrapped around her finger. How could she not? She needed them. And Archer had never been needed before. Not like that.

The commotion around them had died down, bringing Archer’s thoughts back to the meeting.

‘What I was actually going to say,’ Mayor Kelly said, with a pointed look to the crowd, ‘is that we need to discuss the brand new, upcoming Strawberry Festival. We don’t even have a name for it yet.’

‘Isn’t the “Strawberry Festival” a name for it?’ Archer whispered to Iris.