Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 106065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Yeah. All that. I could be so sure of something, and then Marcus would argue, and I’d take his side.
“He called one night to say he was moving back home,” he admitted. “I was back in Pittsburgh by then, gathering the courage to break up with him, and he tells me everything is going to be okay. We’re finally gonna fix all our problems because he’d landed a better job that didn’t require much travel. And I bloody choked. I thought I was going to pass out. But he was so smooth. He managed to convince me to go away with him for a weekend. To give us a chance. And I fully believed I owed it to us.”
Always that fucking feeling of guilt and debt.
“So I arrived in some picturesque little town here in Virginia,” he said. “Angelo was having trouble at the airport, and he was flying in from Philly. They lost his luggage and…it was a whole thing.” He waved it off. “He was irritated too, which he took out on me, so I was, of course, pissed off. Great start to our weekend getaway.” He shook his head. “To make matters worse, I had this sinking feeling in my gut that he was only trying to trap me further. He asked if he could introduce me to a childhood friend who lived in the area, which I figured out was the whole purpose of him picking that town. And since he was late, I wandered off to distract myself till Angelo arrived.” He gave me a quick little grin. “This is where Greer enters the picture.”
I perked up, even more intrigued.
“There was a carnival in town when I got there,” he revealed. “So I aimed straight for the nearest shooting gallery to get an outlet for my anger. And I cannot stress this enough—I’m bloody awful with a gun.”
I giggled.
“Then there’s a 6’5” monster behind me, saying I’m doing it all wrong, and I spin around to give him a piece of my mind about minding your business—and all the air gets sucked out of my lungs.”
“It was Master Greer, wasn’t it?” I grinned excitedly. “He was the monster?”
He nodded once. “You bet. Do you think I could function like a normal human being? Of course not. I was a damn fool, and I couldn’t stop staring at him. I mean, you’ve seen him.”
Boy, had I.
“He was there to win some prizes for his nieces and nephews, so I was sure he offered his assistance to get me out of his way at first.” He chuckled slightly. “But that was all it took for me to get hooked. When it was his turn to shoot—by the way, he didn’t miss a single fucking duck—I stayed behind and watched him. And something inside me simply screamed for more time with him. Just a few more minutes—something. So when he’d won his prizes and started walking away, I ran after. I asked if he could give me some more pointers on how to improve my aim, so that I could win a better prize for my own niece. And he sort of shrugged and agreed. But he was hungry, so he wanted to eat first, and he invited me to tag along.”
And the rest, as they said, was history?
“That day with Greer changed my life,” Archie murmured. “Keep in mind, at that point, I had a boyfriend of four years on his way for our romantic getaway. But one barbecue dinner with Greer at a packed summer carnival just swept me away. Before we knew it, we were swapping life stories and flirting and realizing we wanted the exact same things in life. We went to a concert in the area too, and we made out like teenagers. I could breathe for the first time in years. His perspective and his life experience turned my world upside down.”
Ohhh, but why didn’t they run off together, then?
“Then what happened?” I pressed.
He chuckled tiredly and scratched his forehead. “Remember the friend Angelo wanted to introduce me to?”
I nodded, then froze. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes. That was Greer.”
Aw, shit.
What were the odds?!
“Their grandparents had vacation homes in Chesapeake Bay back in the day,” he said. “So Angelo and Greer grew up together—or spent every summer together, at least. But see—and this is a total guy thing, in my experience—Angelo had called his buddy Finlay. And I was crossing all kinds of lines and having a bunch of fantasy babies with a man named Greer. Until I asked what his rank in the Marines had been, and he formally introduced himself as Sergeant Finlay.”
“God.” I couldn’t bear it. I peeked between my fingers. ’Cause this was gonna end badly. “Greer was mad, wasn’t he?”
“Understatement of the year.” Archie dropped his gaze, and I couldn’t imagine his memories right now were very pleasant. Despite that they’d ended up together. “Greer was on the other side of the fence. I was someone he’d just met. Angelo was his oldest friend. It would’ve been weird if he hadn’t taken Angelo’s side.”