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“You…well, um—”

“Bug bites, I know.” She kept itching. “They’re eating me alive.”

“No, that’s not bug bites.” He took a seat next to her.

She stopped her itching. “It’s not?”

“No, it’s not. And I would stop itching. It’s only going to make it worse.”

“That’s like putting a fishing pole in front of Pop and telling him he’s not allowed to touch it all day.” She touched her feet again.

“Tea, don’t.” He lunged forward and grasped her wrists to stop her. “You have swimmer’s itch.”

Her eyes went wide. “No.”

He nodded slowly. “I’m sorry, but yes. It looks like you do.”

She looked down at her feet, then back up to him in horror. “But I’ve never had swimmer’s itch.”

“Sure, when you were a teenager with the immune system of a steel wall.”

Tea squirmed, looking rather panicked.

He squeezed her wrists. The pressure seemed to have distracted her from sudden panic. She fixed her stare on the placement of his hands. He brushed his thumbs across her pulse, watching her shoulders relax with each stroke.

“What do I do?” she asked, desperation etched in her voice.

“Well, for starters, don’t panic.”

“Too late for that.”

He squeezed again. “Secondly, don’t scratch.”

“Also too late for that.”

“I have a cream you can use that will help with the itching.”

“Sure, yeah, okay.”

He lifted her arms. “I’m going to give these back to you. Can you handle it?”

She nodded. Archer stood up and made his way for the bathroom, grabbing hydrocortisone cream and aloe. He settled back on the couch and held them out to her.

Tea stared at them with wide eyes, looking shocked.

“It’s not going to kill you, Tea, I promise.”

She remained silent and stunned.

He sighed, grabbing her feet and placing them on his lap. He then unscrewed the ointment and dotted the tops before massaging it in. Then he repeated the same with the aloe.

Tea bit her bottom lip. “This is so embarrassing.”

Archer shook his head. “It’s okay, I was freaked out the first time I got it.”

“When did it happen to you?”

“Hmm, five summers ago? You have it easy. I had it all over my legs and my ass.”