He never didn’t say it either.
And when I came out to him last year, he’d been totally cool about it. No judgment at all.
“Can I see what you got her?” the girl asked, batting her eyes at him.
He parted the bag and let her peek inside. She squealed and fawned over how great it was.
“Toby actually picked it out,” Archer said, and my heart zinged.
“Oh, well, it’s really great,” she said dismissively. “Hey, Archer.” She redirected, laying her hand on his arm. “Have you, ah, kissed anyone under the mistletoe yet?”
My stomach dropped at my feet. Started collecting snow right there on the sidewalk.
Archer laughed. “They just hung it like an hour ago.”
She shrugged. “Do you maybe want to walk over and look at it with me?”
Ooh, she was bold.
And it was her boldness that made me wither a little. Not only was I jealous, but now I was envious too.
Archer was silent a moment, staring down the street toward the lit-up gazebo with the tree and mistletoe. Then he turned back to the girl still clinging to his arm.
She was worse than a snowflake.
“Ah, sorry. Can’t. We’re going to eat.” Archer looked at me.
“Yep,” I said. “I’m starving. He promised if I helped him shop.”
Archer laughed and pulled away from the girl to drape his arm around my shoulders. “You don’t want to see him hangry.”
I elbowed him in the side, and he laughed.
“Okay. Well, maybe another time,” the girl offered.
“Sure,” Archer said, steering me toward Bab’s. “See you later!”
A few seconds later, I glanced over from beneath his arm. His arm that I really liked the weight of. Just like I liked the feel of his wide frame against my side. “You, ah, could have ditched me back there.”
He made a face. “Why would I do that?”
“Because she totally has the hots for you, and you know it.”
“Well, I like you better than her.”
My heart and my stomach somersaulted at the same time. In opposite directions. My feet stuttered a little under the onslaught as the wiring in my brain also short-circuited. Archer’s arm moved from around my shoulders to around my waist, tightening to keep me from tumbling.
“Whoa there. Did you somehow sneak some of that moonshine back there without me seeing?”
“I told you I’m starving, and you dragged me to every shop anyway,” I complained.
He laughed, and with it right beside my ear, it felt like it was just for me.
“Well, we’d better get you fed before you fall into a snowbank.”
He didn’t take his arm from around me until he opened the door to the bistro.
A short while later, we were back out in the swirling snow, the night even darker than before. I glanced up into the inky sky, hoping to see a few stars, but they were muted by the twinkling lights still illuminating the town.
