awkwardness with his dad. He still wanted the security of Callie as his buffer zone, but maybe this time he’d swallow his pride and make the first move.
He’d wanted to in the past, but every time he made the decision to broach the gap he’d realise two days weren’t long enough to make up for the years apart.
This year he was staying for a week. No excuse.
He squatted down to her level. ‘Hey, Iz, long time no see.’
She frowned, but it didn’t detract from the curious sparkle in her big blue eyes.
The expression in those eyes—guileless, genuine, trusting—slugged him anew. A guy couldn’t hide for long from those eyes. They saw too much, knew too much—including the fact he was acting like a recalcitrant jerk in not welcoming his brothers into his home.
He opened his arms, saw the indecision on her face before she slowly stepped out from behind Tom’s legs. She hesitated and his gut squelched with sadness.
It shouldn’t be like this—his own niece treating him like a stranger. He’d done this, with his stubborn pride. He needed to get over the past. For the longer it took the harder it became to pretend nothing had happened and go back to the way it had been before: a close-knit family who supported each other through everything.
Archer waited, eyeballing Izzy, hoping she could see how much he wanted to squeeze her tight.
After another interminable second that felt like sixty, she flung herself into his arms. He exhaled in relief as he hugged her hard, ignoring the flutter in his chest he got every time this kid wrapped her arms around his neck and hung on as if she’d never let go.
‘Where’ve you been?’ She released him, stepped back and crossed her arms as he stood. ‘You never come see me any more.’
Practically squirming under the interrogation, Archer floundered for words that wouldn’t sound like a trite excuse.
Tom placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. ‘You know your uncle travels a lot, honey. We’re lucky to see him when he has time.’
Ouch. Tom’s barb slugged him like the punches they’d traded as kids, wrestling at the water’s edge to see who’d get the long board for the day.
‘At least he always brings me a gift,’ Izzy said, pushing her way past him and bounding to the chessboard set up in a far corner, her natural exuberance replacing the reticence that sliced him up inside.
‘Manners, Iz,’ Tom said, following his daughter into the room and looking around in a not too subtle attempt at sussing out Callie’s whereabouts.
‘Couldn’t keep your big mouth shut, huh?’ Archer elbowed Trav as he brought up the rear. ‘When we surfed the other day you said you’d keep your lips zipped about me being back early.’
His youngest brother grinned. ‘Tom threatened me with bodily harm, and considering he’s around a lot more than you, I caved.’
Great—another dig at his absenteeism. Closely following Izzy’s reluctant treatment, it made him feel like a heel.
‘So where is she?’ Tom stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around.
‘Who?’
‘This mystery woman, of course.’ Tom eyeballed him. ‘When you make it home for your obligatory Christmas visit your date stays in town. So the fact she’s staying here speaks volumes.’
Tom jerked a thumb in Trav’s direction. ‘We want to check her out, make sure she hasn’t got two heads, ’cos that’s the only kind of woman who’d be crazy enough to stay here with you.’
Despite another dig from Tom about his obligatory visits, Archer felt his tension fade at his brother’s jocularity. ‘Wanna beer?’
‘Sure.’
Ideally Archer didn’t want them hanging around long enough to meet Callie, who’d gone for a walk on the beach to clear her head after a marathon morning brainstorming. But Tom was right; he barely saw his brothers any more and, even though they’d been complicit in his dad’s decision to keep the truth secret, he missed the camaraderie they’d once shared.
‘I bring a date home every year. This one’s no different.’ Archer’s heart gave a betraying buck at the lie.
‘So you’re letting some plastic, fake, stick-thin bimbo share your secret hideaway?’ Tom snorted. ‘Not bloody likely.’
Archer wanted to defend those poor women his brother had just disparaged, but sadly he happened to agree. The women he’d brought home in the past had been exactly as Tom described and not a patch on Callie.
‘She’s not real, is she? You’ve made her up so Mum won’t go into her speed-dating frenzy in an effort to have you settle for a local girl rather than those city girls.’
Archer chuckled at Tom’s imitation of their mum, who made those city girls sound as if he was dating a brothel’s inhabitants.
Tom had followed him into the kitchen, and Archer handed him a beer while uncapping another for Trav and popping an orange soda tab for Izzy.
‘She’s real. And you’ll get to meet her at the wedding like everyone else.’
He held up his beer bottle and Tom clinked it. ‘Sure she hasn’t got two heads?’
Archer smirked. ‘Trust me, Callie’s pretty great—’
‘Callie? The Callie?’
Tom lowered his beer and stared at him with blatant curiosity as Archer silently cursed his slip of the tongue.
He’d had no intention of telling anyone her name until the wedding—let alone Tom, the only Flett who knew how close he’d come to giving up his dream for her.
He’d blurted it out after Tom’s divorce had been finalised, sitting on his deck four years ago. That had been one hell of a night. Tom had been miserable, Trav had been blind drunk and clueless how to handle the situation, and Archer had felt like an outcast. The three of them had been in a foul mood and it had almost come to blows. Archer had tussled with Tom and that release of steam and testosterone had opened up a narrow pathway to the truth.
Tom and Trav had told him about dad then—how he’d sworn them to secrecy, how they’d hated keeping it from him but hadn’t wanted to stress the seriously ill Frank.
He guessed he understood their logic—who knew? He might have done the same—but it didn’t make it any easier to handle when he still didn’t know why he’d been the odd man out.
With the air somewhat cleared between them, talk had moved on to Tom’s divorce, and Archer had sunk beers in commiseration, alternating between being outraged and bitter on behalf of his brother, who’d done the right thing by marrying the girl he’d got pregnant and yet got screwed over anyway, and determination never to end up like him.
Tom had been morose, berating himself for losing his head over a woman, and Archer had made the mistake of opening up about Callie to make him feel better.
‘You’re
