Page 94 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

He’d been losing his mind over the past week. He’d been trying to give Iris space. He didn’t want to push her into anything she didn’t want, but now he had no idea what was going on in her head. She’d barely spoken to him about anything other than the basics for Olive’s day and it was making him crazy.

‘It’s clearly not okay, so why don’t you just tell me what’s going on.’

‘Things with Iris have … escalated.’

His father arched a gray eyebrow. ‘Escalated? In what way?’

In what way? In a way that they’d slept together and it had altered Archer’s entire brain chemistry, and now he had been left in a torturous limbo and he was tiptoeing around his own house.

‘I think I accidentally fell in love with her.’

The shock on his father’s face through his laptop screen would have been comical if Archer wasn’t feeling destroyed inside.

‘You fell in love with her?’

‘Yes.’

Yes.He was in love with Iris.

He’d never been in love with anyone in his entire life, but here he was, in love with the woman he’d hired to take care of his daughter, the woman who was apparently allergic to long-term relationships and the idea of motherhood, and he didn’t know what to do about it.

His father sat back in his desk chair, swiveling slightly from side to side. Archer had thrown him for a loop. His dad did not fidget. He had an opinion about everything. He never held back. And now he was looking at Archer like he had no idea what to say or how to handle the situation.

It was not comforting, to say the least.

His stepmother’s face appeared on the screen. ‘Sorry to butt in,’ she said, ‘but I couldn’t help overhearing your problem, Archie.’ Probably because she had been sitting in the same room as his father, working on her latest cross-stitch pattern. Archer had received more pillows with Bible verses stitched on them than he knew what to do with. They were currently all shoved in a hall closet.

‘How does Iris feel about all this?’ Cathi asked, her face now completely eclipsing his father’s.

‘She … uh…’

Cathi frowned. ‘Well, there you go.’

‘What does that mean?’ Archer snapped.

‘You need totalkto her, Archie. Like, really talk to her. Find out what she wants.’

That was the problem. He had talked to Iris, and she told him what she wanted. She wanted this to be purely physical. She’d been upfront about that from the start. He was the one who wanted more. He was the one hoping she’d change her mind.

He was an idiot.

‘Thanks, Cathi. You’re right.’

His stepmother smiled. ‘Good. Glad I could help.’ And with her job done, she disappeared from the screen.’

His father came back into view, a confused crease still between his brows.

‘What is it, Dad? Why are you looking at me like that?’

His dad shook his head. ‘Sorry. It’s just … you’ve never talked about anyone like this before. It’s good, Arch. I’m happy for you.’

Archer scoffed. ‘Well, don’t get too excited about it. I don’t think we want the same things.’

‘People change their minds about what they want all the time.’

‘Maybe.’

‘I’m proud of you, anyway.’