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She slipped her mask back on, her face feeling hot. She blamed the coffee.
She turned to the wall of sticky notes, scanning the ones she read before. Fill out tax forms. Submit lake association fees.
“You know,” she started. “I could fill out tax forms.”
Archer walked around the counter to stand next to her. He placed his coffee on the small oval kitchen table beside him, then crossed his arms in front of his chest. Tea did her best to keep her eyes on his face and not the seven tattoos dotted across his bicep. His eyes remained stern as he stared at his sticky notes.
“I studied business, and I’m pretty good with numbers—”
“I know,” he interrupted. “And I remember.”
She pursed her lips. “Seriously, Archer. Let me help.”
“I would not subject you to such hell.”
“Why not? Please, I am so bored.”
“You have a summer of literally nothing before you. Why would you want to work?” He reached for his coffee and stepped away from her, removing his mask to take a sip. “Plus, I can’t pay you.”
“I’ll work for free.”
He held a palm out to her, like he was trying to make a point. “Don’t you have a master’s degree? I’m pretty sure they tell you to never work for free.”
Tea knew he was right, but now that the seed was planted in her head, she couldn’t ignore it. She wanted to work. She needed to work. She needed something to get her out of bed before ten a.m.
She crossed her arms and sank into a hip, tapping her foot. “How about instead of payment, we make a deal.”
He cocked a brow. “What kind of deal?”
She pointed to her mug. “Free coffee every day.”
“That sounds like an awful deal.”
“And I can put on my résumé that I worked as an assistant manager for the resort.”
She watched a smirk peel from the corner of his mouth. “Clever.”
“I hate the idea of finishing up this summer without gaining any experience.”
“Tea, there’s a pandemic—”
She swiped her arm in front of her, cutting him off. “Don’t care. I want to be doing something. I need to get my mind off of…life.”
He sighed, looking like he wanted to dig into what she meant by that, but he didn’t, and she was grateful for it. “You sure this is what you want?”
“Absolutely.” She pointed to the laptop on the coffee table. “Now grab that and meet me outside where we can drink coffee without masks and I can take a look at your spreadsheets.”
“What spreadsheets?”
She sucked in a breath. “Archer.”
He grinned. “Kidding. Let’s go.”
Chapter 8
Archer
After not talking for eight years and ignoring each other outright during her first week at Wild Pines, Archer was surprised how easy it was to fall into a routine with Tea. He wondered at first if he made a mistake agreeing to let her work for him this summer. But when she tackled his spreadsheets and filled out those pesky task forms that first morning all before it was time for lunch, he stopped questioning it. Tea was good at what she did—which wasn’t a surprise to him at all. Watching her speedily spit out numbers and organize finances reminded him of those summers in their high school years, when she would fill out thick books full of impossible equations preparing for all of the advanced college courses she signed up for. He would call her a nerd, she would laugh, then he would drag her down the lawn to go sailing.
