The Strawberry Patch Pancake House (Dream Harbor, #4)

by Laurie Gilmore

‘They’re unpredictable, and I feel like they’re always plotting something. And why are they always so sticky?’

Olive hugged her stuffed wombat and grabbed the remote, flipping on her favorite thing to watch, baking competitions. A small flicker of something lit in Archer’s chest. Maybe she was his after all.

‘The one thing she did say was she thought you were destined for bigger things. She didn’t want to stand in your way. Olive was her dream. She didn’t want to derail yours.’

She had a trail of half-finished hobbies and partially read books long enough that she couldn’t see the end of it. She was good enough, but never perfect.

The man was dressed in a tight white undershirt and a pair of gray sweatpants, which, as far as Iris was concerned, was the same as a woman cooking in lingerie.

Was this a pepper-spray situation? Was it a pepper-spray situation if she liked that her new boss was staring at her legs? Maybe she should pepper spray herself.

Between the accent and the hat, Archer was wondering if maybe she was a bit more Mary Poppins than he’d originally thought. But then he remembered her ass under that T-shirt and he thought maybe not.

‘I’m pretty sure half of dealing with kids is just tricking them into doing stuff.’

This day, this life, felt like a different type of achievement. The type that only required his presence not his perfection.

‘It’s nothing, really.’ Iris dunked her shoulders and lifted her feet out of the water, using her hands to stay afloat. ‘Mmm-hmm, sure,’ said Carol, swimming closer. ‘And that’s why you stopped telling us what to do about ten minutes ago and we’ve all just been flopping around like fish in here until the songs stopped.’

‘I’m in love with you, Iris,’ he said, in between kisses, like it was normal, like they said it to each other every day, like it didn’t suck the air from her lungs to hear it said out loud. ‘I know it’s fast, and I know it’s maybe not what you wanted. But I do. I love you. I love every damn thing about you.’