Waiting Fate (12 page)

He dozed on the couch off and on through random talk shows, until he felt Desee stirring next to him. He looked over to see those big hazel eyes staring, that undecipherable look on her face.
Here we go again.
“Hey, Des.”

Ivy was suddenly just there; he had no idea how she even knew Desee was awake. “She takes a while to wake up. Cartoons help.” She slid the remote from under his hand, her eyebrows drawn together like she was stressed.

“I got this. Go back to work, woman.” He stole the remote and waved her away.

Ivy bit her lip, glancing at Desee, who was still staring at him. “Desee?” she asked.

“Archie. Turn cartoons,” Desee muttered, rolling on her side and pulling her stuffed puppy up to her face, staring at the TV expectantly.

“Okay then.” Ivy grinned and left the room. Archer watched her go. She was beautiful. So beautiful. And she had no idea.

****

Archer was sure he had never played house this much in his life. Luckily for him, Desee’s version of playing house was lining up all the dollies, feeding them pretend food, and then lining them up again somewhere else and putting them to bed, and starting all over again. So it didn’t require much creativity on his part. For that, he was immensely grateful, because he was way out of his element here.

He’d always heard that toddlers had short attention spans, but they’d been playing house on the kitchen floor for hours, and her attention hadn’t drifted one bit. He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think that was normal.

Ivy came in at five thirty, rubbing the back of her neck. “Hungry?” she asked, yawning.

“Sure.”

She smiled as she walked past him, ruffling Desee’s silky dark hair. The baby tipped her head up with a bright grin. “Hi, Mama. You workin’?”

“Taking a break, sweet pea. Ready for dinner?”

“Nope, playin’ with Archie.” Desee returned her attention to her toys.

Ivy swung open the freezer, peering inside. “We’ve got sirloin beef tips, mac and cheese, or Salisbury steak. Any of that sound good?”

“Nope,” Desee said without looking up from her dolls.

Archer chuckled. “I’ll have the Salisbury steak, if that’s okay.”

“Of course.” She had said she couldn’t cook, but apparently TV dinners were no problem. She ripped the box open and punched holes in the plastic with a fork without reading the directions.

“You’ve done this a few times, huh?” Archer quirked an eyebrow.

“A few.” Ivy smiled over her shoulder at him, the sexiest smile Archer had seen in his life. He watched as she moved around the kitchen, popping open jars of food with one hand while pulling black plastic covers on TV dinners with her other hand. She might not be able to cook, but she was still a wonder in the kitchen.

“Mama, share!” Desee demanded, abandoning her dollies and Archer to swipe at her mom’s food. Ivy scooped a small bite of potatoes onto her spoon and blew on them before touching them to her lips.

Archer’s eyes stayed on those perfect bowed lips long after the potatoes were gone. And then she laughed at Desee, saying something about how Desee had to eat her own food and weren’t mashed sweet potatoes yummy? But that smile was all Archer could see, and the world seemed to fade around it.

“Archie, share!” Desee poked his leg, and he jerked out of his trance to look down at the pouty little face, demanding his food.

“Okay, Des. Just a second.” He copied Ivy, blowing on the small bite and testing the temperature before spooning it into Desee’s mouth, open and waiting like a baby bird.

“What do you say, Desee?” Ivy sat across from him, watching in amusement.

“Tank oo.” Desee smiled sweetly and went back to Ivy for more.

“She’s working us. Is she supposed to be this smart?” Archer asked as Desee went from one to the other, stealing bites and expertly avoiding her sweet potatoes.

Ivy shook her head. “I don’t know if she’s supposed to be or not, but she definitely knows what she’s doing.”

“So how’s your paper coming?” Archer didn’t even taste the food. He was memorizing her face, the way it moved, the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled. And he was trying to be discreet, sneaky even, because they were supposed to be friends. But he wondered, the way she looked at him sometimes… he wondered if she felt the same way he did. They weren’t supposed to be together, but they
were
.

“Hello?” she smirked at him, waving her fork in front of his face to get his attention.

He choked a little on his food. “Sorry,” he gasped. “What was that?”

Smirk still in place, she said, “It’s about halfway done. But my brain is fried. I’ll take a break and pick it up again when Des goes to bed.”

Archer glanced at the clock. It was after six now. He was supposed to be to Gunner’s to watch football at seven.

“How about this? We watch a movie. When Desee goes to sleep,
you
go to sleep because you look exhausted, and I’ll come back tomorrow morning so you can finish.” Yeah, he’d promised Jay he’d work on the wiring in his shop tomorrow, but he could blow it off. It wasn’t like Jay had never done the same thing to him, and this was for a good cause.

But Ivy was already shaking her head. “I don’t want you to waste your whole day off helping me. Des and I will be fine, won’t we, baby?”

“No. Archie come.” Desee pouted. She looked so much like Ivy, from the brown silky hair to the big eyes, although Ivy’s were dark, dark brown, and Desee’s were hazel. The nose, the lips, the face shape were all the exact same as her mama’s.

“She’s gonna be a stunner when she grows up,” Archer said.

“I’m taking it one step at a time. If I think about her being a stunning teenager, I might just have a panic attack and die.”

“Nah. I’d save you.” Archer winked at her and grinned when her face flushed. The way she blushed was adorable.
Oh yeah, you got it bad,
he thought to himself, but it didn’t scare him like it should have. Instead it just felt… right.

****

He didn’t sleep. He lay in bed, tossing and turning all night long, but thoughts of Ivy kept him awake. And every so often he’d burst out laughing, remembering something random Desee had done.

She doesn’t talk. To anybody,
Ivy had said, but Desee had talked to him.

It wasn’t even nine yet when he’d gotten to Ivy’s, but given the fact that Ivy and Desee were both already dressed, and Desee’s hair already done in cute little pigtails, he guessed that they had been up for a while.

“Hey.” Ivy smiled at him like he was her hero, and he could have died happily right there. “You’re up early,” she said. She and Desee were both curled up on the couch under a blanket, watching cartoons.

“Yeah, I usually am.” Never mind that he had been awake all night and probably looked as tired as she did. And also never mind the fact that he had been staring at the clock for the last two hours, waiting for it to be a semi-decent hour so he could come over. “Don’t you ever sleep?” he asked.

“Sleep? What is this sleep you speak of?” she teased. “Have you had breakfast? We ate a while ago, but I could make you eggs.”

He chuckled. “I’m good.”

“Hi, Archie.” Desee waved but didn’t turn her attention from the TV.

“We’re at an important part.” Ivy grinned. “The princess is about to save her pet monkey.”

“Sit, Archie,” Desee commanded, patting the couch next to Ivy before curling back into her mama’s lap.

So Archer sat and watched the weirdest little cartoon he’d ever seen. “Kids like this stuff, huh?” he asked, tipping his head to the side as if it could make more sense that way.

“Yes. Anything that tortures adults the way this does has to be good for kids, right?” Her eyes were sparkling when she looked at him, as if some of the pain that usually dulled them had been chased away.

He hoped, really, really hoped, that he’d had something to do with that.

They finished the cartoon and Ivy scooted out from under Desee, snuggling the blanket around her and settled the other half over Archer. She glanced up at him once, got caught in his eyes, and her hands stilled for several seconds before she blushed and straightened quickly. “Right. I’ll get to work so you don’t have to spend your whole Sunday babysitting.”

“Take your time. I have nothing to do today,” Archer said. It was true. He’d written Jay and told him he wasn’t coming, so he had no other plans.

Desee made her way over to his lap, her yellow stuffed puppy pressed against one cheek, and curled against his chest.
So this is what heaven feels like
. His heart couldn’t seem to decide if it wanted to stop or explode out of his chest. He wondered if it was possible to love a baby he’d just met?

The cartoon didn’t last long, and before he knew it, she was sliding off his lap and digging in the drawers under the TV, pulling out coloring books and crayons. She spread them out on the floor all around her in neat little piles and flopped onto her tummy.

Archer sat forward to watch her, not even noticing Sadi until she had crawled up next to him, slithering forward on her belly, the top half of her on the couch, the bottom half still on the floor. Keeping a watchful eye on Archer, Sadi flinched when he moved his arm but didn’t back away.

At first he thought she was trying to climb up on the couch, but instead Sadi leaned as far forward as she could and grasped the yellow puppy with her teeth, as gently as if it were a real pup. Finally, it occurred to him what she was after. Ivy hadn’t mentioned that Sadi chewed toys. He lunged forward to save Desee’s precious puppy, but before he could snatch it away, Sadi leaped backward off the couch. She slammed into the coffee table with a yelp, spun around it, and skidded to a stop next to Desee, where she dropped the puppy.

“Tanks, Sadi,” Desee said without looking up, pulling the puppy close with her free hand. Archer’s jaw dropped. Sadi, who was terrified, had faced the horror she thought he was to save Desee’s puppy from him.

“You are a good dog,” he said. Sadi looked at him, and he could swear the same sadness that haunted Ivy was there in Sadi’s eyes as well.

Ivy came in a while later, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Archer was trying to find a book big enough to put under Desee’s paper, because her crayons kept poking holes thanks to the bumpy coffee table. “Santa is bringing her a table just her size for Christmas,” Ivy said, her voice low, when Archer stopped next to her, several wrong-sized books in his hands. “Assuming, of course, that I can put it together.”

The top of Ivy’s head came to just above his chin, and when she looked up at him like that, all he could think about was what it would be like to kiss her.

But instead he forced a smile, trying to control his errant thoughts. “I’ll help you put it together.”

Her face lit up. “You’re a saint.”

If you knew what I was thinking right now, you would not believe that
. His phone rang — a hard rock song that sounded like a lot of yelling, and he dug it out of his pocket while Ivy left his side to sit next to Desee on the floor.

Where you at? Jay just about burned the place down. It was hysterical
. Archer could picture Austin laughing as he sent that text, but Archer couldn’t write him back. He knew how Gunner felt about Ivy. Everyone knew how Gunner felt about Ivy
except
Ivy. Gunner was in love with her. And if Gunner or Jay knew where Archer was, where he’d blown them off to be, it would cause drama, and Ivy didn’t need more drama in her life right now. Austin would understand, but Archer could wait until later to tell him.

He spent the day having tea parties on the floor around the coffee table, playing bears, coloring, and feeding dollies. It was the most relaxing day he could remember ever having. “I could get used to this, Des,” he told her over tea. She grinned at him.

“I think I missed lunch. Are you guys hungry?” Ivy wandered in, her eyes glazed over, massaging her temples.

“We ate…” Archer raised an eyebrow as he smirked. “So did you. I brought you in a sandwich an hour ago.”

Ivy blinked at him. “You did?”

“Yep. Paper going well?” he said, laughing.

“Yes. I’m done. Wahoo.” She raised one hand in the air half-heartedly. “Now I need a nap. Desee? How you feelin’ about a nap?”

“No tanks, Mama,” Desee said, pouring more tea for her puppy and then refilling Sadi’s cup, too.

“Well, if little girls don’t get naps, little girls get cranky and scream at their mamas.”

Ivy’s phone buzzed; Archer had noticed she had no ringtones, just beeps and buzzes. “Don’t people know how to text these days?” she muttered as she hit the answer button. “Hello.”

He snickered. She hated talking on the phone and seemed to take it as a personal insult when someone called her. “Hi, George.”
George? Who’s George?
Archer tried to squash the jealousy that attacked from somewhere he wasn’t aware existed. It was an attempt he failed.

“Tonight? I… guess that will be fine.” Her face creased into a frown and she nibbled her lip. “When will you have her back?” She paced across the kitchen. Sadi, seeming to feel Ivy’s discomfort, fell into step beside her, walking back and forth as Ivy did. “Ten is kind of late. She goes to bed at seven.” Again Ivy paused, but her pacing never slowed. Much longer and she’d wear a path into the hardwood floors.

Desee fell silent, watching her mama, and Archer noticed, not for the first time, that for a child under the age of two, she was unusually perceptive to her mom’s moods. “Well, yeah, I guess that will be fine. I’ll have her ready.”

Ivy hung up and stopped pacing, turning to watch Desee. “Do you want to go visit Uncle George tonight? They’re going to a party for Great-grandma Walkens.”

Ivy put on a falsely bright smile, but Desee didn’t buy it. “Mama go?”

“No, sweetheart. Mama will stay here. But Uncle George and Aunt Shalice will bring you back to Mama tonight.” Ivy knelt in front of Desee, brushing the silky strands away from Desee’s face.

What if Desee says no? Ivy already told them she could go.
Archer frowned, but Ivy knew what she was doing.

“‘Kay, Mama. Desee come home to Mama after.” Ivy nodded, still smiling, but the worry didn’t leave her eyes.