Archer's Voice (17 page)

I nodded slowly, yes.

He kept looking at me for a minute.
Okay, then, I will,
he said simply.

I cupped my hand on his cheek, leaning in and kissing his soft lips. "I know that isn't easy for you. Thank you," I said, speaking with my voice right against his lips.

He nodded his head, pulling me into him again and holding me against him tightly.

Archer

I'd never been happier in my life. Every day, I worked around the property as the puppies chased at my heels, getting into trouble wherever they could, knocking stuff over and causing general, puppy mayhem.

And every afternoon, my heart lurched happily when I heard the squeak of my gate telling me Bree had arrived.

We would talk, her telling me about her day. Her eyes shined as she told me about all the new recipes she was coming up with at the diner now that Norm and Maggie had given her the job of re-vamping some parts of the menu. She looked so proud and happy when she laughed and told me how even Norm had begrudgingly, albeit grumpily, admitted that her side-dish recipes were better than his. She said she had plans to move on to some of the main dishes next, and then winked after she said it, making my chest squeeze tightly at how beautiful she was.

Sometimes I felt like I stared at her too much and tried to look away when she caught me. I wanted to stare at her all day long
though–to me, she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

I loved the way her
brown hair had little streaks of gold in it when the sun hit it. I loved how her eyes slanted up ever so slightly and how her lips were full and pink, like a rosebud. I loved kissing them. I could kiss them forever. They tasted like peaches.

I loved the shape of her face–
like a heart. And I loved her smile, the way her whole face lit up and her happiness shined right out of her eyes. It was beautiful and genuine, and it made my heart skip a beat each time she turned it in my direction.

I loved her slim body and the way her skin was white where her bathing suit covered it. I adjusted myself in my pants and moved the thought of Bree's body out of my mind. I was working right now and I needed to focus.

I smeared a little more mortar between the stones I was positioning on the sides of the back, cement steps. They were just stones I had gathered down by the lake, but I thought they made the plain stairs blend in more nicely with the new stone patio.

I was just finishing up when I heard my gate open and then close. I frowned. Who in the hell could that be? Bree was
working at the diner until two today. It was only noon.

I stood up and walked around my house to look up the driveway and saw Travis
, in his uniform, walking down slowly, looking around as if he'd never been here before. Although, the last time he'd seen the place, I was a kid and it had looked a lot different.

Travis spotted me and looked surprised. We walked the couple feet between us to meet each other in front of the house.

"Hey, Archer."

I wiped my hands on the rag I was holding and regarded him, waiting for him to tell me why he was
there.

"The place looks nice."

I nodded, acknowledging his compliment. I knew it looked good.

"You
've been working hard."

I nodded again.

He sighed. "Listen, man, Bree told me how you two have been spending time together, and I," he ran his hand through his hair, seeming to consider, "well, I guess I wanted to come out here and say hi. And that I'm sorry I haven't been out before this."

I kept studying him. Travis had never been easy for me to read. I had fallen into his traps before when he tried to pretend he was my friend, and then metaphorically shot me in the back. Even when we were both kids, even before my accident. I didn't necessarily trust him now, but I supposed maybe people could change–it'd been a long time. I was going to give it a try. For Bree. Only for Bree. Because I thought that would make her happy. And I'd do anything to make Bree happy.

I nodded at him, giving him a very small curve of my lips and gestured to the house, asking if he'd like to come inside.

"Yeah, yeah, sure," he said.

We walked to the front door and I let him in before me, walking behind him and pointing to the kitchen. I went straight to a cabinet and got a glass and filled it with water from the tap and took a long drink.

When I was done, I pointed to the glass and to him and raised my eyebrows.

"No, thanks," he said. "I'm actually on my lunch hour right now, so I can't stay long. What I actually wanted to know was whether you'd like to go out with me and some of the guys tonight? Nothing big–just a simple guys' night out, a few beers, some laughs."

My brows furrowed and I stared at h
im. I pointed to my scar and made a fake laughing movement.

Travis breathed out. "You can't laugh?
" And he actually looked embarrassed. I'd never seen that look on Travis's face. Maybe he had changed a little. "Wait," he seemed to reconsider, "you can laugh. A soundless laugh is still a laugh. Come on, the point is, wouldn't you like to have some fun? Get away from this little house for a night? Be a normal guy?"

I wanted to be a normal guy. Or at least, I wanted Bree to see me as a man who was at least a little bit like other men. I had never wanted that before. In fact, I had wanted the opposite–to look as abnormal as possible so that no one looked at me. But now, now there was Bree. And I longed to give her what she deserved, not a sad hermit who never left his property. I was sure th
at she had gone on dates with men before me. They had probably taken her to restaurants and coffee shops. I didn't know how to do any of that. I needed to learn.

I
nodded at Travis and mouthed,
Okay.

He looked
slightly shocked, but grinned–his big, white teeth flashing. "All right, then!" he said. "I'll be back to pick you up later tonight. Nine o'clock okay?"

I shrugged. That seemed kind of late, but what did I know about
what time guys' night out should start.

Travis extended his hand and I reached forward
, clasping it. "Okay, see you then." He smiled. "I'll let myself out." And with that, he walked out of my kitchen and closed my front door behind him.

I leaned against the counter and crossed my arms over my chest, thinking. For some reason, I didn't have a good feeling about this. But I wrote it off to nerves and went to get in the shower.

**********

At ten minutes past nine, Travis opened my gate and I stood up from the chair on the porch where I had been waiting. I walked up the driveway and locked my gate be
hind me. Travis had a big, dark silver truck and it was idling on the road. I took a deep breath. The last time I'd been in a car–that I remembered anyway, I didn't think the ambulance counted–was the day that I lost my voice.

I gritted my teeth and climbed up into it, forcing thoughts of that day out of my mind.

Travis revved the engine and started driving.

"So man," he said, looking at me, "you clean up pretty well. You might even be better looking than me." He laughed, but it didn't reach his eyes.

Bree had practically jumped up and down when I told her that I was going out with Travis and his friends, whoever they were. Then she had helped me pick out a decent outfit, not that I had much to choose from.

"Archer," she had asked me,
holding up a shirt, "when was the last time you went clothes shopping?"

I had shrugged.
My uncle did that. He bought me some stuff when I was eighteen.

She had regarded me quietly for a minute and then said, "And let me guess, you weren't quite as…" she waved her hand toward me, indicating my muscles, I guessed, "developed."

I nodded my head and shrugged.

She sighed as if this was a problem and started digging through my raggedy clothes. Finally she came up with a pair of jeans that was decent and she said could pass for purposefully worn, and a button down shirt
I'd forgotten about, that had been a little big on me when my uncle initially bought it.

Bree seemed satisfied and so I was too. Maybe I'd even go into town and pick up a few new things if it made Bree happy that I looked nicer.

Travis turned on a music station on the radio and we drove along just listening to the music for a little while. When I noticed that we were heading out of town, I tapped Travis and pointed at the road and raised my shoulders questioningly.

"We're going to a club on the other side of the lake. It's called
Teasers
." He looked over at me, raising his eyebrows and then looked back at the road.

After a minute, he looked over at me again. "Can we talk? Man to man?"

I raised my eyebrows, not knowing exactly where this was going and feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"You get physical with Bree yet?"

I glanced quickly over at Travis and back at the road. I didn't especially want to talk to him about this, although if I had fully trusted him, I might have wanted to ask him a question or two. But I didn't. Until he proved otherwise to me, I was going to assume that he was mostly
un
trustworthy.

"Okay, I get it, you don't want to say anything about Bree." He was silent for a minute. "Can I at least assume you haven't gone all the way?"

I shrugged my shoulders and nodded. I guessed it was okay to tell him what we
hadn't
done.

He smiled, and in the dim lighting of his truck, his teeth flashed and a shadow crossed his face, and for a second, he looked like one of those evil clowns I saw in the stores at Halloween. I blinked and it was just Travis again.

"I'm assuming you want to though, right?"

I looked over at him and narrowed my eyes, but nodded. Of course I did. Who wouldn't? Bree was sweet and beautiful.

He smiled again. "Okay. Well I'm gonna tell you how it is, Archer, when you're… seeing a girl as beautiful as Bree. She most likely has some experience, and she's going to want you to know what you're doing when you take that big step. That's why I'm taking you to this club. There are women who will let you… practice with them. Get it?"

My heart started pounding in my chest. Not really, I wanted to say. Instead I just stared at him, narrowing my eyes slightly again to let him know he'd need to explain this further. So far, I wasn't liking it. Not one single bit. But most of all, I didn't like thinking about the experience Bree might have, the men she might have been with in the past. In fact, it made my blood run cold and made me feel like I wanted to punch something. I'd rather not think about that at all.

Plus, Bree had told me that it didn't bother her that I didn't have any experience in that area. Had she been telling the truth? Doubts started to settle in my chest, making it difficult to swallow.

Travis seemed to read my thoughts
. "Girls will tell you they don't mind if you're inexperienced, but trust me, she's going to appreciate you knowing what you're doing when you get her in bed. You don't want to fumble around like a damn fool with her, do you? Embarrass yourself?"

I looked out the window, wishing I could tell him to turn his damn truck around and take me home. This was not my vision of what tonight was about.

"Hey, don't look so pissed, man. All men do it, trust me. Single, married–my friend, Jason, has been married for almost ten years now, and he still takes advantage of the girls in the back rooms. His wife looks the other way because she benefits from it too. Get it?"

I continued staring out the window, thinking about uncle Nate and how he had gone out sometimes and come back smelling like women's perfume and had lipstick all over his shirt collar. He didn't have a girlfriend or a wife, so he must have been seeing women like the ones Travis said worked at this club we were going to. And Nate was a good man. I wished he was still alive so I could ask him about this.

I knew I wasn't stupid, but I also knew I had a lot to learn. I read all these books constantly, but when it came to the real world, to the way people related to each other, to the way they acted and reacted, I felt like I was constantly playing catch up–I didn't like the way it felt.

We pulled up in front of a building with dark windows and a big parking lot out front. There was a huge pink and black neon sign that said,
Teasers
, in flashing letters.

We pulled into a parki
ng spot and Travis turned to me. "Listen, don't feel like you have to do anything you're uncomfortable with. But trust me when I say, if you do see someone you like, go for it. Bree will appreciate it. It's what men do, Archer."

I sighed and pulled the door open. I'd go inside with Travis. If nothing else, Bree wo
uld be happy that I had the guys' night out she was so enthusiastic about.

We walked up to the door
and a big guy with a shaved head and a t-shirt that said, 'employee,' asked for our ID's. Well, there went that. I didn't have an ID. I started to turn around, but Travis grabbed my arm and leaned in and flashed his badge and said something to the big guy. He nodded and waved us in.

Inside
the club, the music was blaring–something about sex and candy–and I squinted in the dim lighting as I took in the room. There were small tables placed around a big runway in the center of the room, and my eyes widened as a half-naked woman slid down a gold pole. For a few seconds, I simply stood there and stared at her before Travis grabbed my arm again and pulled me forward to a table where two other guys sat with half-empty drinks in front of them.