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He shook his head. He knew she was only trying to make him feel better, but it felt like taking a small pickaxe to his mountain of guilt. “What if someone gets really sick at Wild Pines?”

“Then we’ll figure it out, one day at a time. Together.”

He nodded. The light turned green and this time, he tapped on the gas.

Their results came in an hour later. Both negative.

Wayne tested positive, which was to be expected. But Kelly tested positive as well, despite seeming perfectly healthy earlier that day.

He called his mom. “What were your test results?”

She sighed. “Not great, sweetheart.”

Both of his parents tested positive too. Along with Steph, Chris, Danny, Ashley, Jorge, and Victoria Jansen.

He sat on the steps of his porch, watching Tea pace back and forth. She was on the phone with Molly, her tone too low for him to capture what she was saying.

She eventually hung up and slipped her phone in the back pocket of her jeans.

Archer leaned forward. “What did she say?”

“She said I could isolate upstairs and leave them downstairs, but that’s still a risk. I could go to the inn in town and quarantine for two weeks, but that also feels super risky.”

Archer pressed his hands together. “I don’t like the sound of either of those.”

“Me neither, but what other option do I have?”

“Stay with me.”

The words slipped out of his mouth before he could even comprehend what he was saying.

Her eyes widened.

Well, I’m in it now. He kept talking. “I have an extra bedroom in there, and technically half the food in the fridge is yours. You could quarantine with me.”

She crossed her arms over her stomach. “And if either of us ends up getting sick?”

“Tea, we already spend a lot of time together unmasked. At this point, if you get sick, I’m probably going to get sick.”

“That doesn’t freak you out?”

“Oh, I’m fucking terrified,” he admitted. “But I sure as hell am not letting you stay at the inn, and you will not be spending two weeks locked up in your bedroom.”

Her shoulders relaxed. He wanted to reach out and pull her into his arms. Hold her tight and protect her from everything else going on in the world.

She exhaled, then looked up at his cabin behind him. “Do you have good pillows?”

They made quick work of packing her things at Cabin B. Wayne and Kelly waited outside while Tea stuffed clothes in tote bags. He snatched her pillows and extra blankets, as well as the books she had on her nightstand she told him to grab. Before he pulled away, he noticed a small framed photo by her bed.

It was of the two of them, smiling wide with blue teeth and lips from the snow cones they made. Tea had been obsessed with her disposable camera that summer. She took photos of everything. He still had one himself, a picture she took of him fishing off the edge of the dock. She’d mailed it to him in a Congrats on your new baby! card later that year. It was deep in his sock drawer.

He snatched the picture frame and stuffed it in the bag he held, then grabbed a few of her other bags and helped her carry everything back to his place.

When they stepped into the cabin, they both froze in the entryway. It was pitch-black except for the moonlight peeking in from the window. It was eerily quiet outside. No teenage gang around the bonfire. No boats voyaging out for night fishing.

The only sound he could hear was Tea’s soft breathing.

He took a step forward. “Your room is this way. Want to settle in?”