Bound to Be His ( The Archer Family 2)

"Look, it's still early. Why don't you go back to sleep? I'm going to hit the gym, and maybe we can talk all this over tonight."

"But.." Her protest died on her tongue once she saw the look on his face. He hadn't been asking her a question, not really. So all she could do was nod and say, "Yeah, okay. Sounds good."

And just like that, he grabbed his pile of clothes from the floor and slunk from the room.

She watched him go, still struggling for words, but when the door clicked shut behind him, she lay back on her pillows, stared at the ceiling, and lost herself in her thoughts.

* * *

The gym was shit.

Not only did half the machines not work, but it seemed like Matt couldn't get fired up enough to use any of the few he could use to their full potential. Instead, he kept thinking of Shay. Shay and the way she'd looked, all torn up inside about whether or not he knew about Sharon Archer. No, not Sharon Archer. Sharon Scott. A whole new shiny person.

Not for the first time, he wondered what it must have been like for her to pick up and reinvent herself. To decide to start all over again. Because, he supposed, the first try simply wasn't good enough.

He frowned, thinking again of Shay. Maybe that's what it had been like with her mother, too. Like every new marriage was a fresh start. The only difference was that Shay had been dragged along for the ride.

Hell if he knew which of them had had it worse, though.

Groaning, he dropped his weights and made his way to the locker room. After washing his face and getting his stuff together, he headed back to the rental car and tried to make a mental plan for his day. After all, there was no telling how Shay was going to act once she saw him again. She'd barely been able to hold it together the first time they'd slept together. Now that she had to keep it secret from Andy, she'd probably be bursting at the seams. Then add to that the thing with his mother …

An image flashed through his mind. Shay with her dark hair tousled, her dark eyes gleaming in the darkness. "Have you seen her?" she'd asked.

She'd looked so sincere, so concerned. The same way she had when they'd first talked about her after the trip to the party store. The same way she'd looked when she poured out her heart and soul to him about all her mother's marriages and re-marriages.

It had taken balls for her to be so honest with him. Didn't he owe her the same?

Sure, it wasn't some long-term love affair, but she was still his friend. She still cared.

He pulled into the villa's driveway, surprised to find that Andy and Logan's rental had already cleared out for the day, and then let himself into the little house.

Shay was sitting on the couch, reading some article in a magazine while sipping her coffee. On the glossy page in her hand, his own image smiled back up at him.

"So you're obsessed with me?" he asked. "You missed me so much you had to read about me while I was gone?"

"You caught me." She rolled her eyes, the faintest hint of a smile tinting her lips. "I just can't get enough."

"Who could blame you?"

"Nobody reading this." She lifted up the magazine. "This interview is incredible. The best you've ever done."

He shrugged. "I was just my normal charming self."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." She grinned.

At that grin, he faltered. There it was again, that sincerity. That affection.

And seeing it, he knew what he had to do.

"Hey, you wanna come with me on a little trip?" he asked, trying his best to sound nonchalant despite the sudden pounding of his heart.

"Sure. Where we going?"

"It's a surprise," he said, and to his surprise, she didn't bother asking any follow-up questions. Maybe the slight edge in his voice told her all she needed to know. Whatever the reason, he was grateful for it.

When they were in the car, he blasted his music, and she didn't touch the knob. He glanced at her, but when he saw her mouth moving, miming every word to the Aerosmith song, all he could do was smile. When the song wound to a close, he checked the time and then pulled into the parking lot of a tiny, tropical park.

Underneath a massive group of palm trees, there was a playset complete with swings and a slide, some bouncing horses, and a set of monkey bars. And there, on the monkey bars, was a little girl with dirty blonde hair, swinging back and forth while a woman with the same dark blonde mane cheered her on.