DARCY
“What’s wrong with giving gift cards, you know? Like everyone says they’re so impersonal, but tell me how! Thought goes into picking out which store to get it for, does it not? Plus, isn’t giving someone the gift of getting to pick out exactly what they want so much better than forcing them to like what you think they’ll like?” Shayna rambled, getting more heated as she went.
I laughed. “I don’t disagree. I love gift cards.”
She turned toward me as we walked through our twelfth store of the day, trying to find presents for her family members who, apparently, didn’t believe in gift cards. “Right? Like, you already know you’re getting a Barnes and Noble gift card from me. I know you love reading your smutty romance novels, and they have a Starbucks inside, and you love coffee! How is that not thoughtful? Do you really want me to pick out books for you?No! You’d probably end up with minotaur romances, because, honestly, I’m kind of curious about those, but you don’t want that!”
My sides hurt from laughing so hard. “I don’t knock anything until I try it, but a gift card is great!”
It’d been three weeks since Thanksgiving, which meant it’d been three weeks since I’d last seen Archer. I wasn’t sure exactly how he thought fake dating me would help him if no one ever saw us together, but what did I know? Maybe simply saying he had a girlfriend would be enough for the fire chief. But not seeing him after spending four straight days together, sharing a bed, and being trapped in a car for twelve hours, had me feeling off. Actually, the better word for it would’ve been sad. I missed him, and maybe that didn’t make any sense because I didn’t fully know him in the way that you knew your best friend’s birthday, favorite color, or coffee order, but I felt like Iknewhim. He’d shared a side of him he didn’t share with others, and that held more weight to me than whatever his favorite color was. Though, if I had to guess, I’d say it was probably red. Maybe I didn’t know the man, but I knew the darkest piece of his soul, and that was enough to have me missing him. To have me wondering if he was okay—if he’d been having any more nightmares.
We’d texted a couple of times, but they weren’t conversations. He’d let me know when he got his cheek swab done for the paternity test, and there was the time I texted him about the smoke coming from a couple streets over because I was curious, and he most definitely knew what was going on. But that was it, and I was kicking myself in the butt for the part of me that wanted more from him. It wasn’t my place to want more. That was the whole point of the fake dating thing. I was starting to think it was a bad idea. Any book I’d ever read with the fake dating trope proved as much. Someone always caught feelings, and I had the sinking suspicion it was already me.
We were at the register with Shayna’s finds, and she was still defending her stance on gift cards as presents when I heard my name. It sounded like Archer, but that had to have been my mind playing tricks on me because Archer didn’t strike me as a Target guy.
But then it came again, louder and closer this time. “Darcy!”
I spun around, taking in the man himself as he strode toward me and Shayna. A forest green T-shirt stretched across his chest under a black leather jacket, making his eyes pop, and were his boots making him extra tall?
“Archer, hi.” I smiled, then remembered Shayna who was standing next to me, a smirk firmly on her face. Archer followed my gaze, and I scrambled to introduce them before Shayna could say something completely inappropriate. Now was not the time for baby daddy jokes, and she would. “Shayna, this is Archer. Archer, this is my best friend, Shayna.”
He held his hand out to her, and she shook it through all of her bags. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Her smirk turned to a grin, and her eyes sparkled with mischief I couldn’t stop in time. “It’s nice to finally meet you too. I’ve heard so much about you. Well, at least your proclivity for scandalous bathroom activities.”
My hand actually smacked into my face, and I groaned. “Please shut up.”
But Archer looked down at me, a similar expression to the one Shayna wore on his own face. “It was that good you shared with the class, huh?”
“She barely made it out of the bathroom before she told me. I’m surprised you didn’t hear her squealing.” Shayna laughed.
The look on his face said he had a comment he’d love to make, but was refraining from actually saying it, and I was grateful. The mere mention of that night had flashbacks racing through my mind, my skin heating uncontrollably at the memories, andthe urge to press my thighs together only growing stronger when I locked eyes with Archer. The internet wasn’t kidding when it said that pregnancy could enhance your libido. The second trimester had made me insatiable, my body overly sensitive.
I shook my head, desperate to dispel the images before my body could run away with them. “Yes, me squealing, very funny.” I shot Shayna a look that told her to can it before I took physical action, then turned back to Archer. “What are you doing here?”
He held up his own bag. “Christmas shopping. Much like, I assume, you are.”
I tilted my head. “Huh. You struck me as the Amazon kind of shopper.”
“Usually I am, but I feel bad for the delivery drivers this time of year.”
I smiled. “That’s really considerate of you.”
He shrugged, eyes darting between me and Shayna. “Do you two have more shopping to do?”
Shayna responded with a final sounding “no” at the same time the “yes” left my lips, which had Archer continuing to bounce between the two of us.
“Well, she’s done with her Christmas shopping, but I was going to maybe head over to the, uh, baby section.”
“Can I tag along?” His voice was quieter than it had been seconds earlier, almost as if he was scared to ask.
I glanced briefly at Shayna and then back to him. “You don’t have to. It’s not anything too crazy.”
“I’d like to.” The sincerity in his gaze held me still, but then he looked at Shayna. “That is, if you don’t mind?”
“Not at all! Actually, ifyoudon’t mind giving her a ride back, I might take off. I need the room in my car for all these presents anyway.” Subtly wasn’t her specialty, and I wanted to roll my eyes at her obvious attempt to give us alone time.
“I can give her a ride, no problem,” Archer confirmed with a friendly smile.
