Bound to Be His ( The Archer Family 2)

"Shay—"

"Really, Andy, I'm okay. I don't need a pep talk. My mom is a grown woman. I don't even live with her anymore. I don't need to get invested in her life."

"Good, because that's not what I came to talk to you about."

"No?" Shay asked, but she couldn't bring herself to meet Andy's gaze.

Andy shook her head. "Matt slept at Derrick's last night."

"Good," Shay said, and then decided to unzip her suitcase and check her jeans pockets for her cell.

"Good?"

"I'm glad he's safe. I was worried about him."

"Worried about him because..."

"Because he's a human being and he didn't come home?"

"Because you love him?" Andy shot back, and Shay stalked across the room to check inside the dresser drawers.

"So you're not denying it?" Andy asked.

"What do you want me to say?" Shay said at last. "It was a temporary agreement that's come to an end. Yes, I have feelings for him. Who knows what the hell they are. They could go away at any time. I'm not going to get myself tied up in knots over them, especially not over a man who, I'll remind you, currently hates my guts."

"Do you find yourself smiling when you think about him?"

"What?" Shay asked, and then shook her head. "I'm not playing this game with you." She got down on her knees and searched for the phone underneath the bed.

"Come on, just for fun."

"Just for torture, you mean."

"For me, then. As a wedding present."

Shay sighed. "I guess yeah, I do smile when I think about him sometimes."

"And do you feel protective of him?"

She thought about the call from Lou, and her gut twisted. She'd worried about him, sure. And a fat lot of good it had done her, too.

"Yeah, I worry about him." She nodded.

"And you like spending time with him? Even if you're doing nothing?"

She thought of their night on the beach, staring out at the crashing waves. Of their mornings entwined in bed, simply lying together as their chests rose and fell in unison.

"Yeah. He's fun." Shay shrugged. "But look, this isn't making anything better. Matt was clear about how he feels. He doesn't want to see me."

"Matt doesn't know what he wants."

"He knows a hell of a lot better than I do," Shay burst out, and though she hadn't meant to say it, she knew the words were true. "Look, Andy, if this is love, I'm in it. But that doesn't mean anything. I'm not you and he's not Logan. For normal people, love fades just like everything else and then you're left flat on your ass with nothing but the memories of the bad times. This feeling doesn't stay. It's not real. It's just... it's just—"

"Stop it. You might not be me, but you're not your mother, either," Andy said, and Shay stared at her. She'd never heard her friend sound so fierce before, so confident.

"I didn't say—"

"You didn't have to. Don't think I don't know where all this is coming from, and you know what, you're right. Love will fade if you let it. Love can die just like anything else. The trick is to find two people who are stubborn enough to work on it every day to make sure that fire never dims or goes out. You may be a lot of things, but I know stubborn is one of them. You can do this; you just have to let yourself believe you can," Andy said.