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She sat down in a huff. “Shove it.”
He tipped his head back and laughed again.
Nan was waiting for them on the dock. As they got closer and closer to the sandy shore, Tea noticed her grandmother had a mask on her face.
Her stomach plummeted.
She popped out of the boat as soon as they docked, Archer close at her heels.
“Nan? Everything okay?”
Her grandmother sighed. “Not exactly, my angel. Your grandfather said he wasn’t feeling well, so I took his temperature.”
She sucked in a breath. She knew what would follow, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready for it.
“And?” Archer asked from her side, his voice tight.
Nan let out a long breath. “It’s a hundred and one.”
Chapter 16
Archer
Archer pulled his truck into the drive-through line at the testing clinic in Ashland. Every muscle in his body felt tight, and the pounding in his head hadn’t subsided even hours after finding out about Wayne’s fever. A line of cars followed him, all residents of Wild Pines heading for testing.
Tea sat next to him, mask on, legs tucked close to her chest and arms around her knees. She’d panicked when Kelly told them the news, and his heart split in two at the sight of her. Without hesitating, he told her to change and get in his truck, then knocked on cabin doors to spread the news—only to find out that a few others were showing symptoms as well. Coughing, body aches, fever, and chills. The entire resort was on the verge of an outbreak, and it was likely all his fault. Again.
A woman in blue scrubs sat at the window, mask and plastic gloves on. “Hi, sir. Have either of you been showing any symptoms of COVID?”
Archer turned to Tea. She shook her head.
“No,” he replied.
“All right. We have the PCR tests, but if you want, we got those new rapid antigen tests in—”
“We’ll take them both.”
The woman handed them the kits. Archer stepped out of the car and did his test outside, leaving Tea alone in the truck to do hers.
They individually handed them back.
“You should get an email in the next two hours with your rapid results, and the PCR tests in a few days,” she said.
Archer nodded, then pulled his truck away from the clinic and back onto the main road. He didn’t bother waiting for the other cars. They would all find out each other’s results soon enough.
They drove back in silence. Ten minutes into the drive, Archer stopped at a red light. The sun was almost set, the night sky turning to dusk.
The light took a lifetime to turn. His chest flared in annoyance. He gripped the steering wheel hard and took a deep breath and closed his eyes. But no amount of deep breathing was releasing the tight pain in his chest, or in his head.
He slammed his hand against the wheel. “Fuck!”
Tea tightened her arms around her legs. “It’ll be okay, Arch.”
He rubbed his eyes, making sure not to move the mask on his face. “How can you say that? What if someone gets really sick and we can’t get them to a hospital in time? All because I said yes to that fucking party.”
“This isn’t all on you,” she countered. “Everyone made their choice. We all took a risk.”
He white-knuckled the wheel again and checked the light. Still red. “But it wouldn’t have happened at all if I shut it down and said no from the start.”
