that man was skilled at helping situations unravel—particularly if they would cause Julian pain.
He wanted to leave. He wanted to pack up and flee and never look back, but he also couldn’t leave Julian to pick up the pieces. So, he tried to do a little work, he tried to distract himself, and he waited.
It was almost four by the time the door opened, and Julian walked in looking a little tired, but no worse for the wear. There was no accusation or betrayal in his eyes, so Archer had a feeling no one had gotten to him. Yet.
“I…um. Hello,” Julian said.
Archer offered a tense smile. “Busy day?”
“Roped into helping my parents,” he answered, flopping onto the sofa. He closed his eyes and rubbed at them with his thumb and forefinger. “I’m sorry about abandoning you.”
Archer waved him off even though his eyes were still closed. “I was fine. I ended up hanging out with your sister for a while.”
Julian sat forward, eyes narrow. “Was she…”
“She was fine. She was apologetic for the other morning,” he said.
Julian eased back and took a breath. “She’s trying, but being around my mom makes her worse.”
Archer rolled onto his stomach and laid his cheek on his arm. “I know it’s stupid to ask, but why is your mom…that way?”
Julian lifted a brow. “Might as well ask why the sky is blue.” Archer then took a breath to explain it, because he did, in fact, know why, but Julian held up a hand. “That was rhetorical. I know there’s a specific answer, but for the most part—it’s blue because it is. The reason for it doesn’t change the state of it.”
Archer sagged into himself, then laughed quietly. “Fair.”
“It was probably her upbringing,” Julian answered, sounding tired. “She was raised to reach above her station. Her parents had sort of…old school values? Even getting pregnant as a teen, which threw a wrench in her whole life plan, she always knew how she was going to shape her life to her own standards. My dad was the perfect husband until the stroke, but she knew she didn’t have to love him to stay married to him.”
Archer pushed up on both arms. “Is she really that superficial?”
“Yes,” Julian said, and there was a new tension in his voice. “But I don’t want to talk about that right now.”
“We can drop it. I’m just sorry you have to go through this.”
“It won’t be forever.” Julian bit down on both lips, then gently released them and Archer tried not to stare at the way they were slightly more plump, and a little slick with spit. It killed him to know what they felt like, what they tasted like. It made him ache in deep, vulnerable places to know that Julian’s touch was impossibly soft, and more tender than he thought the sharp man was capable of.
“So, I should tell you,” he said, reaching for the truth of his identity, but his fear won out and he jumped ship. “I had a run-in with Bryce today.”
“After the paddle boarding?” Julian asked. There was a weary note to his tone then, and Archer hated that he was putting him through more.
“Do you know he cheated on you?”
Julian lifted a brow. “We’re at the wedding of that little affair.”
Archer squeezed his eyes shut. “Ah. Right. That’s not what I…I mean there were…” He stopped and cleared his throat.
“More of them?” Julian offered, then let out a frustrated grunt. After a second, he sighed and ran a hand down his face. “I knew. There had to be. There was no way he was head over heels for me and meeting Ashton changed all that for him.”
Rolling onto his back, Archer flung the crook of his elbow over his eyes. He felt painfully young right then, because he didn’t know what to do. “He thinks I’m cheating on you. Or well…I set him straight, but he’ll probably try to make it look like I am to other people.”
“Which doesn’t really matter what they think in the end, right,” Julian asked, and to Archer’s credit, he didn’t flinch. “What happened?”
“He overheard me on the phone with my best friend. We exchanged I love yous, and Bryce started trying to relate.” Drawing his arm away, Archer sat up and scooted to the end of the bed. The love seat was close enough that their knees brushed, and it said something that Julian didn’t try and pull away. “I threatened him.”