Page 95 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

‘Proud of me for falling for a woman who doesn’t want me? Gee, thanks, Dad.’

His dad chuckled. ‘I’m serious. Work was all you cared about for years, Arch. And while I’m proud of you for pursuing that dream, it’s nice to see you finding other things to pursue. Even if it doesn’t work out with this girl, it’s good that you’re trying.’

It didn’t feel good. It all felt pretty shitty, actually, but Archer didn’t have time to explain that before Olive tore back into his room, freshly bathed and sporting her new jammies.

‘I need to show Grandpa my sloths!’ she said, climbing back up onto his bed and crawling into his lap. Archer readjusted the laptop to accommodate her.

‘Hey, there’s my little Livie again.’

‘Look! Sloths!’ Olive pulled out her pajama top to display her sloths.

‘Oh, wow, look at those! Very stylish.’

‘Move over, Jim, I want to see her jammies too.’ Cathi was back, nudging his dad to the side and Archer had to laugh. His parents were so happy about having a granddaughter. His mother had sent multiple postcards from Chile and Olive had them all over her bulletin board. So between his three parents and Cate’s mom, Olive had no shortage of doting grandparents and Archer was so thankful for that.

He could never have done this alone.

He glanced up and found Iris hovering in the doorway, her expression dreamy as she watched Olive talk to her new grandparents.

Hehadn’tdone any of this alone.

Iris caught him watching her and she gave him a shy smile. ‘Sorry. I tried to tell her it was your turn to talk to your dad, but she was very determined about showing off her jammies,’ she said quietly.

Archer slid Olive and his laptop off his lap and let her finish her conversation. He joined Iris in the doorway.

‘It’s okay. She’s excited.’

‘Yeah.’ Iris’s gaze kept flicking back between Olive and his face. ‘Sorry I’ve been so weird this week.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s a weird situation.’

‘I don’t want you to think I regret anything, because I don’t.’

Archer’s heartbeat ramped up, but he kept his face neutral. ‘Me neither.’

‘Maybe we can go out somewhere later, just you and me. I can call Kimmy to babysit.’

Archer grinned. ‘Sure. Meet me in the kitchen at nine.’

Iris smiled back. ‘I’ll be there.’

* * *

‘Hey, Mom.’

‘Hey to you, my little flower. It’s been a while.’

‘I know, sorry.’ She loved her mom but neither of them were very good about setting aside time to catch up.

Iris hung her head over the side of her bed, letting her hair brush the carpet, her phone held to her ear. It was eight o’clock. She had an hour before her ‘date’ with Archer and she felt weird and nervous.

‘Anything wrong?’ her mom asked.

‘Not particularly.’

‘Hmm … okay. So, what’s new? How’s the new job?’

‘It’s fine.’