Page 49 of Let Me Love You

A wave of jealousy flutters through me because she’s one of my customers who kept asking about him. After explaining several times that I wasn’t running a single’s club, she told me I was rude. Of course it wasn’t hard to find him in this small town, and she quickly signed up to train with him.

“He is,” Tyler confirms. “I had to put up a sign ’bout not recording private lessons. People were posting them online.”

Rage consumes me, and I’m tempted to tell Tyler to control his horny customers, but it’d do no good. I’d give myself away in front of everyone.

“MaryAnn said you two planned a date after New Year’s,” Katie adds. I keep my head down and focus on adding cheese and pineapple to mine.

Archer clears his throat, and his eyes burn a hole into the side of my face. “Well, no. She asked if I wanted to go out for a drink sometime, and I told her I was really busy at the moment, which I am, and that maybe I’d have more free time after the new year.”

“I worked on her house a couple of months ago,” Noah says, oblivious to the thick tension in the air. “She’s really nice.”

Archer nods in agreement, and I wonder if he wants to go out with her. He’s said he wasn’t looking to date right now, but that could’ve changed. Perhaps I’m holding him back and keeping him captive in this roommates who sleep in the same bed but can’t touch hell. It’s obvious we have something brewing between us, but we’ve silently agreed not to cross that line. It’s a constant battle to fight the attraction. All night long, our bodies press against each other, and though it’s torturous, I look forward to it.

Now I’m wondering if it’s a bad idea to get attached to him and vice versa. Especially if he does want to start dating.

Once the pizzas are in the oven, we bring the snacks into the living room and wait for them to cook. Owen opens his presents from me, Tyler, and Gemma. Archer surprised him with three sessions of boxing lessons with his parents’ permission. Then he opened the twin babies’ gifts and held them up for them to see. Of course they couldn’t care less, but we watched in excitement anyway.

We pause to get the food out of the oven and sit back down in the living room to eat.

“Who the hell put pineapple on this?” Noah shouts, and I release a giggle.

“That one’s mine!”

“A whole pie, woman? You better eat every bite,” he warns in his dad voice.

“I love pineapple on pizza,” Archer interjects. “I can help you with it.”

“You do? Why didn’t I know that?” I ask, then realize we’ve never actually made pizza together. “We’re gonna have to start having pizza nights now. It’s a rarity to find someone who actually eats pineapple like me.”

“Sounds like a match made in heaven,” Gemma sing-songs.

Tyler arches his brow at her, and she quickly adds, “For roommates, I mean.”

I roll my eyes at her pathetic save. Tyler’s not gonna let this go. What a vagina killer.

Once we’ve all eaten our weight in pizza and snacks, we continue the gift exchange. I place a small box in Archer’s lap. “For you.”

“I thought we were waiting until tomorrow?” He eyes it curiously.

“Oh we are, but I wanted you to open this one early.” I smile.

Archer rips off the paper and lifts the top. “A watch?”

“An Apple watch,” I say. “I figured since you work out and train so much, you’d like to record your stats. It tracks a ton of other stuff too, plus you can get phone calls and text messages if you don’t have your phone on you. It’s pretty cool.”

Archer looks at me like he’s torn on how to react.

“Before you tell me it’s too much, I want you to have it.” I hold up my wrist to show him mine. “Now we can challenge each other with exercise competitions. It could be fun.”

Archer’s eyes soften. “Wow. Thank you. You’ll have to teach me how to use it.”

“I think you might be the only one who can beat her,” Katie says. “She always wins because she walks five miles a day around the boutique.”

“Yeah, she cheats. Especially since I’m on maternity leave.” Gemma scowls.

“I’m not cheating! You’re the ones who accept the challenge,” I remind them.

“Because if we don’t, you call us big losers.” Katie snickers.