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His mouth burst into that grin, the one that Tea couldn’t help but fall for. Gleaming white teeth, teasing dark-brown eyes, a sharp jawline that made him look less like a boy in his youth and more like the man she had come to know. Somehow in the years apart, Archer Vincent transformed into an even more gorgeous version of himself, and it stole her breath away. She wondered what a man like him could see in someone like her, a woman barely holding on as her life sailed by at top speed.

Archer slipped a hand around her waist, then kissed her on the lips.

Nan and Larissa gasped. Wayne and Astor cheered and clinked glasses.

“Since when?” Larissa asked at the same time Nan shouted, “How long?!”

Tea blushed. “A week.”

Astor threw up his hands. “A week?” He pointed to his son. “It took you that long to seal the deal?”

Archer shook his head with a smile. “Hey now, that’s not fair.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, Arch. That is a long time to seal the deal.”

He squeezed her waist as the others laughed then chattered excitedly amongst themselves. He leaned in close, his lips at her ear. “Good things come to those who wait?” he murmured.

She smirked as she whispered back, “Shall I remind you of that later?”

He chuckled, his breath warm on her skin. “You are not playing nice today.”

She turned to look at him, their faces close. “I give you full permission to not play nice later as well.”

“You dirty little—”

She stepped out of his grasp, which made him laugh. Tea took a seat at the table. Archer lifted the last chair and placed it close to Tea’s so he could put an arm around her shoulders, his fingers gliding across her skin.

Larissa clapped her hands together. “I want every detail.”

“No, you don’t. That’s gross,” Archer quipped.

She rolled her eyes. “Not that kind of information.”

Nan furrowed her brow. “I’m confused.”

Astor chuckled. Wayne scanned the group, also looking confused.

“When did you first kiss her?” Larissa asked her son.

Archer looked at Tea with a sweet expression, like he was recalling a special memory. “When we quarantined together.”

Even the mere thought of that kiss, how it went from sweet to very hot in a matter of seconds, made her skin go warm. The way those hands of his took control, making her beg for more and more.

He rubbed her arm.

Larissa looked confused. “That was more than a week ago.”

Archer frowned as he responded to his mother. “Okay, relationship police. We had some things to work out.”

“And what did you work out?” Nan asked.

Archer moved his hand from her arm to her hair, combing sections of it with his fingers. “That I don’t want to leave her side.”

Butterflies took flight in her belly at his words. Not leave her side? What did that mean? Her thoughts spiraled as the awws and how sweets came from the group.

“Tea?”

She looked at Nan across the table.