Page 102 of Electric Kiss

“I’m listening,” he answered.

“I’ll hand over the business for Edward Hall and the cottages,” Aunt Cynthia said.

“Fantastic,” Archer said and stood.

“Sit back down, Archer Turner,” she said, giving him an icy glare.

Archer returned to the sofa. His smile slid off his face.

She used silence again. “I’ll sign over the paperwork, but there are conditions,” she said, raising her palm when a smile played on his lips again.

“Okay,” he said hesitantly.

“You only get the business itself. You don’t have any hold over Turner Hall or Copper Island land.”

“That sounds fair,” Archer said.

“I haven’t finished.”

Archer kept quiet, keeping eye contact but barely breathing.

“You are to get married before I sign the papers.”

Archer blanched and sat back a few inches, clearly not expecting her to say that. “What?”

“And you have three months, or the deal is off.”

Aunt Cynthia cleared her throat and smoothed her hands down her a-line plaid skirt. Archer dropped his eyes to her shoes, positioned neatly together and to the side.

“A wife?”

“A wife, Archer,” she answered. “I don’t mean an engagement—a wedding where I am attending. You can get married in the family chapel. A single man living under my roof at your age brings all kinds of trouble. Next, I’ll hear that you’ve got half the town’s single women pregnant.”

“Seriously? What kind of man do you take me for?”

Cynthia gave him a hard stare. He was handsome, and any girl on the island would love to be his wife and live at Turner Hall.

“You look exactly like your father.”

Archer stood, buttoned his jacket, and stepped away from the sofa. She hadn’t heard his reaction to the implied insult, but she felt the room change. His mood shot across the expanse between them. Cynthia knew right then he would make a fine head of the Turner family.

“Thank you for seeing me, Aunt Cynthia. Will you permit me to sleep on this and come to you tomorrow?”

“Of course,” she answered and then rang her bell.

The following morning, Cynthia sat at her father’s writing desk with a fountain pen and a blank sheet of paper in her hand. She gave the impression he was interrupting her.

“I’m surprised you came,” she said without turning.

“We agreed I would come and give you my answer this morning,” Archer replied.

“I’m still surprised. I take it you’ve decided to take me up on my offer.”

“I have. It seems horrendous that you think so little of me. That I would be so careless with a woman and have an unplanned child.”

“Your father was exactly like that.”

“It doesn’t mean I would be. My dad loved my mother, so getting her pregnant wasn’t unwanted.”

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