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“The boat!”
The two of them attempted to twist the boat upright and push it to shore. But the sharp gusts of howling winds made flipping it impossible. Archer’s muscles strained as he pushed with no luck.
“Maybe we should get out of the water?!” Tea yelled at him.
Right. Thunderstorms and water. Not smart.
They abandoned the boat, the two of them making their way to the patch of sand nearby. They weren’t close to any of the resorts on the lake.
Tea ripped off her life jacket and threw it on the beach, then paced back and forth. She looked furious.
He sat down on the wet sand and unbuckled his own jacket, scanning the torn sail as his boat floated sideways in the water. It was the only part that seemed to have any damage, but it meant they wouldn’t be able to sail back to Wild Pines. “There’s a patch of blue sky at the northern end of the lake. I bet this storm will pass, and then someone will hopefully come get us.”
His reassurance didn’t seem to calm her nerves. If anything, she looked more frustrated as she paced, her face pinched into a scowl.
A crack of lightning flashed above.
“Tea!” he shouted. “It’s going to be all right!”
“Of course it is, it always is with you!”
“What is that supposed to mean?!”
She whipped around to him, her wet hair sticking to her face. “Why are you not angry with me? You had to stop working today to rescue me, and now I ruined your sailboat!”
“Who cares! It’s just a boat!”
“Arrggghhh!!” She screamed to the sky. It startled him. Never once had he seen her so agitated about something. “You are insufferable sometimes, you know that? You want me to talk to you and share my feelings, but you can’t ever do the same! I hate it. Stop being so Minnesota Nice to me and be real for once!”
Anger flared in his chest as he jumped up from the sand. “Fine. You want me to be real with you?” He stormed up to her and got in her face. “I hate that you don’t want to talk about your dad.”
Her jaw jutted out, but she didn’t respond.
“He was like a second father to me and I miss him every goddamn day,” Archer admitted. “When I found out he died, I had to cope with the fact that I lost him and you in the same month, and it wrecked me. Then you come back to Wild Pines and you don’t want to talk at all about your grief, which makes me feel like a complete asshole because I’m still grappling with mine.”
She swallowed. “Yeah? Well, I hate how you don’t want to talk about what happened to us that night.”
“Of course, I don’t! You told me I was a mistake.”
“I didn’t mean it, Arch!”
“Oh yeah? How was I supposed to know that, through radio silence?” He waved his arms in the air. “If you didn’t mean it then why didn’t you reach out to apologize—or something after all of those years?”
“Because I was hurting. I lost Dad and I didn’t know how to function. The only thing I knew how to do was box up my emotions and put them away for a while. I didn’t allow myself to really think about it. Or feel.” She crossed her arms, not even bothering to wipe the raindrops away; she was soaked. “You should have reached out when you were in New York.”
“And what? Hear about all of your flings?”
She took a step back. “What? No! I would have wanted to talk things out.”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t. I was still angry that you didn’t try reaching out first, and still way too in love with you. I couldn’t handle watching you walk away from me again. It was horrible the first time. You broke me, Theresa.”
She remained silent for a beat. “You were in love with me?”
Panic climbed up his ribcage. “Y-yes.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you still in love with me?”
Clench. Unclench. He scanned her face.
