Frowning, he looked toward the opposite end of the building, expecting to see someone on the exterior walkway, although he had no idea who he would see.There were four doors, but only two had people coming and going.The first was the office that Spencer rented for his real estate business.Since, according to Violet, he was currently taking care of early showings, he wouldn’t be there.The second was a storage room that Violet used for her bookstore.The third was the converted apartment that Holt rented from Violet, and the fourth was also storage, from what he’d heard.
So, unless Paige was at door number three—which she wasn’t because she was back in Dallas taking care of some things—then that meant someone was at the real estate office.
Was it Spencer?Or someone who worked for him?Were they supposed to be there?
Only one way to find out.
Archer continued up and walked a few feet to the door with the placard that read REAL ESTATE OFFICE.He got the feeling they didn’t have many clients meet them there.He thought back to a few days ago when Simon and Violet wanted to see a house they were interested in.Spencer met them at the house.Made sense that they wouldn’t need to office out of anything fancy.
Reaching up, he was about to knock when the door opened a fraction of an inch.An eyeball appeared as though scoping the area.
“Spencer?”
“Oh, shit.”
Before the door could slam closed, Archer put his hand up to stop it.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Spencer muttered, stepping back and spinning around.
“What the fuck, man?”Archer followed him inside, closing the door behind him.
He looked around, ensuring no one else was there, and was pleased to find they were alone.He took another minute to take it all in, to get to know Spencer just a little bit more by his surroundings.
When it became clear Spencer wasn’t going to say anything, Archer turned to face him.
“So, did you lie to Violet?Or did Violet lie to me?”he prompted, wanting to know why Violet would tell him Spencer had clients to meet early this morning.
“I lied to her,” Spencer grumbled, not meeting his eyes.
“Hey, look,” Archer told him, holding up his hands and backing up.“If you’re not interested, just say the word.I’ll leave you alone.No questions asked.”
Spencer looked up, frowned.
“I’m not an idiot,” Archer continued.“I know when to back off.”
“It’s not that I’m not interested,” Spencer said, his tone somewhat weak.“It’s just…”
“No questions asked, remember?”Archer repeated as he turned to leave.“You don’t need to come up with an excuse.”
“Archer, wait,” Spencer snapped as he turned the knob on the door.
Releasing it, Archer turned back, stared at the man, and felt that same warm buzz in his veins that he’d felt the first time he saw Spencer in Violet’s bookstore.The guy looked professional but not starchy with his blue jeans and polo shirt, which featured the name of his real estate company.He wore his dark brown hair neatly combed, tapered on the sides and back.His light brown eyes were lined with thick lashes and held a hint of worry in them.
When Spencer didn’t launch into anything, Archer leaned back against the door and waited.
He’d been told more than once that he was intimidating.He figured it mostly had to do with his size.Then again, having been a gangly teenager at one point, he’d been called worse than that.
Spencer took a deep breath and exhaled on a rush.“Look.I really don’t want you to think you’re obligated to … I don’t know … date me.”
Archer’s eyebrows lifted.“Obligated?”That was a first.
“Yeah.You know.”Spencer huffed and waved a hand.“Because I told you what I told you.”
“That your brother’s ex-wife raped you?”he asked, addressing it head-on because that was how Spencer had done it when they first talked about it the night Archer interjected when Jennifer Elliott, Slade’s ex-wife, was giving Spencer a hard time at Moonshiners.
You don’t like her much, do you?
Not even a little.
