Page 53 of Sunrise Arrows

“On that note,” Eleanor says, standing up. “Ellie girl, you and I will be heading home now.”

“But Gigi, I want to stay with Tinsley!”

“Hey Little Miss, uh-uh; we don’t whine like that,” Ryder scolds, his eyes narrowing harshly as he stares his daughter down with a look I’ve seen his mom give him, Archer, and Hunter countless times.

Ellie glances away and mumbles, “Sorry,” before looking up at me. “When are you leavin’?”

“Umm…” I stutter, not entirely sure myself. I haven’t spoken with Archer about it yet, but I know the time for me to leave will be here before we know it. There’s only so much I can do in Berry Falls before returning to L.A. becomes necessary. Unable to answer, I offer, “How about we have a girls’ night on Monday since you had your last day of school yesterday, and that way you have Briar and I all to yourself before we leave.” Quickly I add, “If it’s okay with you, Ryder. I totally understand if you’d rather?—”

“Tinsel,” he soothes. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re family and basically Ellie’s aunt. You want to take her for an evening or even the whole night, I’m fine with it. Hanging out with you will be good for her too. You’re proof of what happens when you dream big and stay dedicated to it.”

For most of the evening, Hunter and I have avoided engaging with one another, but the cease fire we’ve been under with everyone present comes to an end.

“She’s leaving,” he hisses, masking the dripping disdain in his tone as the burn of his whiskey. “It’s what she does. Isn’t that right,Tinsel?”

“My job is based out of L.A.,” I flatly reply, internally screaming at myself to not take the bait. “So yes, I have to spend time there, which will take me away, and I have to finish my tour, which will also take me away.”

Archer’s fingers begin stroking and tangling with my hair and along my thigh where we’re pressed together, and I feel his leg start to jiggle. I drop my hand to his knee and squeeze. When it still doesn’t work, I pull his fingers free from my hair and guide his arm around me so the tips of his fingers reach to the curve of my breast where his name is hidden. At the first caress of his fingers along the arrow, I can hear the air he sucks in and slowly releases, his leg coming to a stop the longer he traces the details over the fabric of my dress.

“For how long?” Hunter demands. “A few weeks? Couple of months? Or are we looking at another ten years before you blow back into town?”

Four weeks of carrying the burden of what really happened rushes forward and the words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. “I don’t know, Hunter; you tell me: is someone gonna manipulate the truth and flat out lie to us again?”

“What?” Ryder and Archer both ask, Ames’s eyes going wide and Briar’s mouth dropping before she masks her face into one of matching confusion.

My hands begin to tremble and I suck in a breath. My heart thunders against my ribs and my mouth is full of cotton. I have to say something, anything, to distract Archer, whose mind I can already see is firing away at a million thoughts a second, picking up and discarding pieces of things he’s questioned or noticed that I’ve brushed aside. However, nothing comes to me. I’m frozen like a deer in the headlights with everyone’s eyes on me. Right now, all I want is to yank everything back in and shove it down deep where it can’t affect me, at least not right now.

I don’t even realize my fingers have drifted to my tattoo until they brush along Archer’s. My fingers caress forward making his retreat. At the edge of the hidden ink, we reverse and his slowly chase mine as they pull back to the arrow’s head.

Forward.

Backward.

Forward.

Backward.

Over and over until finally my heart rate returns to normal and my trembling fingers steady.

Carrying this secret is going to ruin me.

CHAPTER18

Archer

Tinsleyhugs the steering wheel of the sparkly blue truck I bought her. Even though we’re parked in the driveway of my house, she doesn’t turn off the engine. She just sits there—her chin resting on her folded arms—staring blankly out the windshield.

I think this is worse than the façade she was wearing when she first came back to me. At least the masks she wore hinted at there being something within. The despondent, near catatonic state she’s been in since we left Dark Horse is unnerving. It’s as if she’s retreated so far into herself, she’s become lost.

Tentatively, I reach my arm over the console and place my hand on her thigh. I don’t get so much as a twitch of reaction from her, so I brush the hem of her dress up and feel her bare skin waiting. Still, I get nothing. Not even when I squeeze her muscle. She’s just a beautiful and haunted shell beside me.

“Tinsley… talk to me,” I coax. “Baby?”

I call her Shortcake next and finally, that gets me a reaction. Her chin rolls to the right so she’s looking at me. Her normally warm eyes are flat and when she smiles, it’s broken, her lips hardly even curling up.

“Superman.”

“Shortcake,” I repeat, quietly sighing in relief when she sits back and drops her hands between her thighs, taking mine between hers.

---