"No, you don't," she said abruptly.
"Of course I do. And it's not infatuation." I reached out and wiped the donut filling off her cheek. "Did I ever tell you how awful my father was?"
"A little bit," she said in a small voice.
"He would take wife after wife, most of them teenagers. He would promise them the world, then once they were at the compound, his wives would be forced to live in abject poverty. My father would only show up to impregnate them or yell at the kids they would pop out every year. I hate my father. I will never be like that," I said, needing her to see. "I will never use you. I will never hurt you."
"Oh. I'm sorry." She looked down at her apron.
I tilted her chin up. "There is only one woman for me, and that's you, Hazel. I want to marry you and live with you for the rest of my life in a ridiculously nice house, then die and be buried together. I have some grave plots already picked out."
She rolled her eyes.
"You don't like the fancy house? Fine. We can fix up your café and live there. Although if we stay in that building, it's probably going to cave in around us, so we might be doing the dying-together bit before everything else."
"That was creepy and weird, Archer," Greg said.
"Yeah, maybe you should have a do-over," Mike suggested.
"But McKenna said—" Hazel protested.
"Don't believe anything McKenna says," I snapped, then I thought about it. "And I should probably take my own advice."
"You came over to my house and accused me of tricking you into buying my café," Hazel said, arms crossed. "Is that why? Because of something she said?"
"We just didn't understand why you would sell it," I told her. "I thought there was no way you would ever part with that building. You love your café and your studio. But then my mother showed me the bills and the late notices…"
Hazel looked angry. She snatched a donut out of the nearby box, and I flinched as she raised her arm… and took a bite.
"Sorry," she mumbled around the pastry. "I'm getting sugar on your suit."
I let out a breath and took one of the donuts for myself. "I thought you were going to throw that at me."
"I wouldn't waste good donuts!" Hazel said in horror.
"We don't want to waste donuts!" I heard Chloe call out.
Hazel immediately grabbed onto me and starting sobbing.
67
Hazel
"Why are you crying?" Archer asked, wiping at my face. The tears were smearing with the donut filling and sugar. I was a freaking wreck.
"It looks like a bakery war zone in here," Chloe said, walking into the kitchen with Josie.
"What did you do, Archer?" Josie warned. "Mace told me you screwed up."
"I didn't do anything!" he protested. "I'm trying to make her explain why she had us buy her business."
"You sold your café?" Chloe asked me. I could only nod. "Why? I thought you were doing great."
"No," I said, wiping my face on my apron. I smeared a splotch of cheese sauce on my face for my trouble. Archer wiped it off and licked it.
"Hmm, that's tasty."
"Archer, you can't just eat stuff you randomly see on someone," Hunter reprimanded.
