he was putting up a front, and that underneath that very pretty mask he wore, he was as much of a mess as the next conflicted kid.
I couldn’t believe he was sleeping on my couch right now.
I couldn’t believe his dream girl dumped him and had been hiding something as big as leaving the state from him.
I couldn’t believe she found the courage to tell him, to his face, that he didn’t make her happy.
I couldn’t believe I was the one he turned to for comfort after all the harsh words and ugly accusations we had slung at each other the last time we were in the same room together. I was pretty sure we’d reached the mutual agreement to never speak again after that big blowout.
The only thing that wasn’t a surprise was that he still looked as good as ever.
All those damn Archers were blessed with some pretty fucking superior genetics.
They were all tall with outrageously striking looks. Both Zowen and Ry took after their fathers with dark hair and inexplicably pale blue eyes. Both boys were in really good shape from playing sports. Ry played football, while Zowen preferred soccer. Ry was far more serious about his chosen sport than his cousin. Ry was still playing college ball, while Zowen had given up the game to focus on school when his grades started slipping. The Archer girls, Remy and Daire, looked more like their mothers, who were fair and delicate. They were no less impressive than their siblings, even though they lacked the hulking height and bulging muscles. Any one of them was a headturner on their own. When the four of them were together, it was like they created their own magnetic force that made everyone around them unable to look away or focus on anything but them. The Archer effect was no joke.
Ry had always been astoundingly good looking. He had also always known it.
It wasn’t that he was the conceited or egotistical type. More like, he’d always been the best at whatever it was he did, so of course, he would also be the guy who was the best looking wherever he went. I wanted to be irritated by his self-assurance, but he wasn’t wrong.
Honestly, today was the most real I’d ever seen him. All of that polish and shine he wore like armor had finally tarnished, but he was still better than the average person. His hair was still thick and shiny, even when it was a ruffled mess. His body was still unbelievably ripped and gorgeously toned, even when he was dressed down and looked like he’d shoved his dinner in his face while driving eighty on the interstate. His face still looked like it’d been carved by a master sculptor, even when it was tearstained and slightly haggard. An unkempt Ry Archer was still the best looking guy I’d ever seen in person. I liked him better when his human side was showing, especially since it was so rare.
I had to remind myself he was absolutely not my type. No matter how quickly he softened my hardened heart.
I never understood how a guy whose father owned and operated one of the biggest and most well-known tattoo shops in the US could be so clean cut and proper. It wasn’t that Ry didn’t have any ink, but he definitely didn’t embrace the form of self-expression the way a lot of the older kids had who had grown up running around the different tattoo shops our parents either worked in or frequented. He could be covered in beautiful, colorful designs that made him stand out even when he was covered up in a football uniform. Instead, he only had one complicated, black and gray image covering one of his muscular arms.
I thought it was boring. My dad, who was covered in ink from all over the world, reminded me it was just as bad to judge someone for how normal they looked as it was to make assumptions based on how they decorated their body. It wasn’t my place to question why Ry did or didn’t let his father put his famous and highly sought-after work all over him… but I did it anyway. Mostly because I felt like I needed to question everything Ry did.
The boy was beyond confusing.
So was the way I felt about him.
Because while Aston Wheeler might be his first love and the one he picked as his perfect match… I was his first everything else… and he was