His hand covers mine. “At least we have each other. Everything around us might be wrecked and pulling at us, but our foundation is solid.”
I give him a little squeeze. “Absolutely. But Archer?”
“Yeah?”
“Next time…can you make sure we never run out of coffee?”
Archer throws his head back and laughs. Shaking his head he says, “Coffee is life, babe. Everything can hit you like a hurricane but my woman can handle anything as long as there’s coffee.”
“As long as there’s coffee,” I agree.
CHAPTER EIGHT
– ARCHER –
“Thanks, man,” I tell Vachs as I take the bag from his hands.
He grunts and stalks away, heading for the clubhouse while sipping his coffee. He’s an early riser and I know his first trip is always to the coffee house since the man has a sweet tooth and a craving for fancy coffee. It’s the reason I asked him to pick up a few things for my woman.
I would have gone out and gotten them myself, but he was going anyway and I didn’t want to leave her this morning without knowing she had coffee and not having to take care of it herself. Today is going to be busy enough as it is. We have another meeting planned and there are a few leads I have to check out myself but for now my ass is home.
She’s still sleeping when I stroll into the bedroom. Her hair is like a wild sea, spread all over the place and covering the side of her face that’s bruised. Life is fucked-up enough with the wild ride it takes us on and it’s again a hard realization I need to hit pause more.
She stirs and I swear it’s because she smells the coffee. Blinking a few times, she keeps staring right at me. I’m holding a cup for her to take and watch as a huge grin spreads her face. She dashes up and scoots against the headboard as she beckons me closer. I hand her the cup I pulled from the bag Vachs gave me and place a muffin on the bedside table.
Taking a few sips, she closes her eyes and sighs with contentment. “I could get used to this.”
“Can’t have perfection all day, every day, Bee.”
She raises her cup. “You can when you have one of these to start your day.”
“Glad to hear you’re off to a better start than yesterday.”
Bee cringes and gently touches the side of her face. Dammit. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I regret it even more when she swings her legs off the mattress and grabs a change of clothes before she heads into the bathroom.
A few minutes later she strolls out, completely dressed, and takes both the coffee and the muffin along with her out of the room. I’m left to follow her downstairs where she places the items on the table in the living room and grabs her laptop before she sits down to fire it up.
“What does Zuri do for a living?”
The question she fires at me with a tiny snap in her voice catches me off guard. I raise my eyebrow and silently question where this is coming from.
She waves her hand. “I’m not jealous, I’m just curious.”
An involuntary snort leaves me when I think of her words and simultaneously remember running into Zuri right before I went into the diner. I don’t know if she saw the chance meeting and how it might have looked if she did. My hesitation due to thinking shit over makes Bee narrow her eyes.
I quickly start to answer her question. “Manager, she works–”
“You know what? Never mind. You think I’m jealous while I was just thinking why I know so little about her. I’ve gone through every case Galen was working on, including the few days of Galen himself up until the day he was murdered and yet I know nothing about her.” She slams her laptop shut and it feels as if she punched me in the gut instead.
Why the hell didn’t I ever so much as think twice about the possibility of her being jealous?
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to piss you off. I just thought you might have seen me right before I came into the diner yesterday. And with me telling you days ago how she came onto me…you asking about her just now…I’m sorry. You have no reason to be jealous and I understand you only asked because there’s nothing in those files about her. There is however a file on Zuri in the safe in my office. We always run a background check when someone of the MC gets involved with another person. You can access it with the information I gave you last week.”
“Thanks,” she mutters and takes her coffee with her when she stands.
“What are you doing?” I question, since she doesn’t have anything planned today and she suddenly acts like she’s leaving.
She shrugs. “I’m going to pick up Queenie.”
“There’s no need. My mother said she’d pick her up later today. She was going to visit her brother so she was in the area anyway.” I lean back in my chair to stare at her when I add, “I thought you could come with me to the shop.”
“Fine, and no, I won’t come with you to the damn shop. I’m going to steam clean the carpets,” she snaps.
“We’ll do it together when we get home later today so you can come with me.”
She slams her cup back on the table. “You’ll be too tired and I’d have to do it myself tomorrow and then I’ll have Queenie with me while I have my hands free now.” Bee closes her eyes for a breath or two and when her gaze lands on mine she simply says, “Go to work, Archer, you do your share, I’ll do mine.”
Fucking hell. I thought we were okay after we talked last night. My phone starts to ring and I want to throw it against the wall for interrupting our conversation, argument, what the fuck ever; it proves a point how nothing ever goes as planned.
Even more when Bee gives me a sad smile and says, “Tick-tock, work is on a timer, as is life.” She grabs the muffin and holds it up. “Thanks for the little morning love, made my day start out nicely.”
The defeat in her voice slices through me and watching her head for the kitchen is tearing me up. If she takes morning coffee and a muffin for a little love, I am failing big-fucking-time in making her feel appreciated. But I guess actions speak louder than words since I’m not around much with all the shit landing in my lap.
I grab my phone and jab the screen. Bringing it to my ear I snap, “What?”
“Christ, man, don’t bite my head off,” Wyatt chuckles. “I just wanted to ask what time you’ll be here. I know you’re going to the shop later today but you also called a meeting this morning and almost everyone is here.”
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“You forgot, didn’t you? I’ll handle it. We were supposed to go over the last developments in the Galen case and Vachs already talked to you, right? I’ll get an update on all the active cases and we will go over them later today. How does that sound?”
“Like you’re saving my ass. Thanks, VP. Talk later.”
“Later,” Wyatt grunts.
I make a call to Hadley to make sure the shop is covered for today and go in search of my wife. She’s in Queenie’s room with a bundle of laundry in her arms. Her gaze lands on mine and I take pleasure in watching the laundry fly through the air as it lands on the floor right in front of her feet.
“Shit. What are you still doing here?” She rips the earbuds from her ears and I now notice she has them plugged into her phone.