around—for which I was grateful. Second, Charlie and Emmy were on the couch together watching the Hallmark Channel, not looking like they were seconds away from an impromptu catfight. Definitely a good thing. Rose was there as well, making herself a coffee, looking like she’d just woken up at two in the afternoon—which was actually early for her.
“Shouldn’t you still be in bed?” I asked.
Rose shrugged. “Couldn’t get back to sleep. Too much excitement going on out here.”
“You can say that again.”
“So Archer.” She smiled. “Charlie said he stopped by.”
“Him and every other O’Brien on the planet,” Charlie piped up from the couch—to which Emmy rolled her eyes.
“Hey,” she said, “it wasn’t that bad.”
Charlie scoffed. “They were everywhere, Rose. Men in our sacred lady space. Can you imagine? I know you were half-asleep, but you must’ve noticed the difference.”
Rose shot me a smile. “I thought I sensed a disturbance in the Force.”
“A manly disturbance,” I said. “There were tan muscles and chiseled jaws as far as the eye could see.”
“And tight butts,” Charlie added.
Emmy scrunched her nose. “Ew, those are my brothers you’re talking about.”
“Exactly,” Charlie said. “Our new roomie has a plethora of brothers, and apparently, none of them have girlfriends.”
“Not for a lack of trying, I hear,” Rose put in as she and Charlie cut their eyes at me, but I ignored them and walked over to the couch.
“Where did June go?” I asked and took a seat. “She seemed really nice.”
“She is nice, probably too nice sometimes,” Emmy said, still staring at the TV. “June had to go home and help her dad at the garage. They own one about 15 minutes from here. It’s a good place if you need any work done on your car.”
“Hmm, I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
“So, what’s going on with you and my brother?”
The question caught me off guard. “Nothing,” I said quickly.
Emmy looked away from the TV and straight into my eyes.
“It didn’t seem that way to me,” she said.
“Me either,” Charlie agreed, and she smiled as I shot her a glare. “It seemed like a whole lot of something in my humble opinion.”
“Humble?” Rose laughed. “Yeah, right. But really Honor, what’s up with you and this Archer guy? Did he ask you out? And did you seriously turn him down?”
“Yes to both,” Charlie said.
I didn’t know where to look, so I ducked my head with a shrug. “It wasn’t a big deal. He’s a baseball superstar whose final season in college is about to start. He’s probably forgotten all about me.”
“Hmm, doubtful,” Emmy said. “Just so you know, Archer never acts like that.”
“Like what?”
“He doesn’t usually go after girls,” she said. “They pursue him.”
I nodded, feeling a slight pang in my chest. “Got it. I’m just another girl he met at a party, nothing special. I suspected as much.”
Emmy’s brows furrowed. “That’s not what I meant.”
Rose shook her head at me sadly, and Charlie said, “Honor, I love you, but why are you being so dense? He’s totally into you. The guy looked like he’d got punched in the stomach after you turned him down and left.”
“Hey, it’s cool,” I said. “Besides, it’s not like it could’ve gone anywhere anyway. This will actually make spending more time with him easier.”
“Ooh, and the plot thickens,” Charlie said, her eyes bright as she and the other two girls leaned forward. “What do you mean more time?”
“I got an assignment from Walter,” I said. “He wants me to do interviews with the team, follow them around, write an entire series.”
“On my family?” Emmy asked.
“Yeah,” I said, “which means—”
“More time with Archer,” Rose said, fighting back a smile.
“More time with the hot baseball player who’s into you and rocked your world at that party,” Charlie said. “It’s a sign.”
I tilted my head. “Of what?”
She shrugged. “Fun, sexy times ahead?”
“Charlie, be serious.”
“I don’t know, okay? But it has to mean something.”
Yeah, I thought, it meant I needed to get all these feelings locked down, stop thinking like a girl with a crush. Getting to my feet, I shook my head and walked into the kitchen for some water, not realizing Emmy had followed me until she spoke.
“Listen Honor,” she said, “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. I have no idea what kind of person you are, why you said no or what your game is.”
She held up a hand as I started to speak.
“But Archer’s my brother. He may be older than me; he may be bigger and a