I showered quickly before changing into a pair of jeans and my favorite Cardinals T-shirt. When I stepped out of my bedroom, Archie stood and stared, making me feel self-conscious. Was there something on my face? Was there a stain on my shirt? I looked down and breathed a sigh of relief when I didn’t see anything. When I looked back up, Archie stood right in front of me.
“Whoa, where did you come from?” I joked.
Archie responded by wrapping me in his arms and kissing me. Not just any kiss, though. This was a panty-melting, knee-trembling kiss that left me breathless.
“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he said, his voice hoarse.
My hands gripped the edge of his suit jacket as I tried to regain my composure. I licked my lips and looked down at my bare feet. Suddenly, being so close enough to Archie made me nervous. To be caught in his gaze, to be desired by someone so powerful and commanding. Even though I hated Archie, I secretly admired him too. He was one of the fiercest lawyers in the city and commanded respect. That was exactly who I wanted to be someday.
My stomach growled loudly, interrupting us, and we both laughed. “Come on, Layne. Let’s eat.” Archie latched onto my hand and dragged me to the front door while I scrambled to put on shoes.
The chain bagel restaurant across from my building was not my idea of a first date, but at least, Archie paid.
“Sorry it’s not Kingside Diner,” he said as we sipped coffee and ate our breakfast. “And because I have a deposition at two, I’m going to have to take a rain check on a drive along the Great River Road.”
I hummed happily as I ate. “Well, you can still take me out for barbecue tonight.”
Archie smirked. “I see you’ve quickly come around to the idea of me being your perfect match.”
I shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe I plan on stringing you along just to get the upper hand in order to annihilate you in the courtroom.” We were scheduled to meet again in a few weeks for round three in our legal boxing match.
“Beautiful and vicious. I think I’m in love.”
Archie’s eyes were glued to my mouth as I wiped my lips slowly and deliberately with a napkin before dropping it onto my tray. He was hooked, and after that kiss in my condo earlier, I was too.
“Please come and have dinner with me at my parents on Sunday,” I begged Archie a week later after we finished deposing a witness. After that heavenly first kiss, we spent the next week exchanging sometimes flirty and sometimes suggestive text messages. We both had chaotic schedules and this deposition was our first chance to see each other in what felt like forever.
“Whoa, sport! Meeting the parents already? It’s a little soon, don’t you think?” He shot me his million-dollar megawatt smile, and I scowled in response. I followed him into his office and slammed the door behind me. If he said no, then I was going to bribe his secretary, Deborah, to give me his address so that I could send him a glitter bomb in retaliation. I wasn’t above childish pranks in order to get my way.
“Stop calling me sport!” I demanded.
Archie dropped some files onto his desk and spun to face me. Heat darkened his normally bright blue gaze. In a few strides, he was in front of me. Pressing me against the door to his office, he kissed me, stealing the breath from my body. His hands slid down my sides until they reached the hem of my skirt. He tugged it up to my waist and caressed his hand across the front of my lace panties.
“Archie,” I moaned out. I placed my hands firmly on his shoulders and pushed him away. “Please, come to dinner with me.”
He traced his slightly swollen bottom lip with his finger and smirked. “Alright but only because you said please.”
I smoothed out my skirt and nodded. “Thank you.”
“But you have to do something for me.”
It was too good to be true. “What do you want, Archie?”
“Excuse yourself from this case,” he said flatly.
“What? Are you out of your mind?” How dare he ask me to do something like excuse myself from a case. This was so typical of our relationship. He was always making impossible demands.
Archie walked back to his desk and held up a file. “This is going to tank your case, Layne. You’ll lose, and then you’re going to hate me, and then we’ll be right back at square one. Hand it off to some clueless associate.”
He could have asked me for almost anything, and I would have given it to him but not this. “Nice try, Archie. I’ll find whatever you have in that folder and come up with a way to win.”
“Layne, please. There’s no way around this,” he pleaded.
“We’ll see about that,” I said, furious. “Don’t worry about dinner with my parents.”
When I returned to the office, I called my associate, Jeremy, and a senior partner, Allison, into my office because if Archie thought I was going to lose, he was dead wrong. But I was still going to need them if I wanted to beat him.
“I don’t know what he could possibly have that’s big enough to sink this case,” I told them.
“I can’t believe he showed his hand,” Allison said. “Big mistake. We’ll find whatever he’s got.”
For the next few days, I worked tirelessly to uncover whatever information Archie had in the folder that would ruin my case. I put in sixteen-hour days, which I hadn’t done in a while. There was very little sleep and lots of takeout. And then Jeremy popped his head into my office and said, “I know what it is, and Archie’s right.”
I hated those two words: “Archie’s right.” Since I was still a junior partner, I presented the information to the senior partners. A win in this case would have been huge for our firm, but now, all we could hope for was a settlement.
“This is the kind of thing that makes me glad we promoted you to junior partner,” Allison said. “You’re wise enough to know when to cut your losses. We can take over from here.”
A sigh of relief escaped my lips. I just wasn’t looking forward to admitting to Archie that he was right.
On Sunday morning, I went for a run through Forest Park. It cleared my head and helped me prepare for dinner with my family. It also helped me put into perspective things with Archie. When we were together, it got explosive quickly. He burned me alive with his kiss and his touch, but he still worked for a rival firm. He saved me from total humiliation that could have led to a career meltdown, but really, the mistake was my fault. Knowing I should have found such crucial information during discovery made me feel incompetent. Archie reminded me that I still had so much to learn about practicing law.
When I rounded the corner of Euclid and Laclede Avenues, I spotted a familiar form leaning against a bright yellow convertible. A smile unexpectedly formed on my lips, and I did absolutely nothing to hide it.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you,” I said breathlessly. I uncapped the bottle of water I carried and gulped the remaining liquid down, letting it purposely spill from my mouth and onto my T-shirt. Archie’s eyes followed the path of the spilled water with a lustful gaze.
“McClatchy called my office yesterday to talk settlement. You did the right thing,” he said after a moment.
“I felt stupid. I should have found that information during discovery,” I chastised myself.
Archie reached out and slipped his hand into my sweat-dampened hair. “You’re not stupid,” he told me before kissing me lightly. “Get your things. You can shower and change at my place.”
“You don’t have to do this. I uninvited you, remember?”
“You’re pretty much stuck with me now. No more Mr. Temporary.”
I headed toward the entrance to my building, expecting Archie to follow. When he didn’t, I turned back, and asked, “Aren’t you coming up?”
“If I come up, we won’t come back down.”
He was probably right, but what made him confident that we were going to make it out of his house? I hurried inside and up to the fourteenth floor. The sun was already streaming through the windows, bathing my condo in a cheerful
glow. I raced into my bedroom closet and grabbed the outfit that I already had picked out. Family dinners had a dress code, and if I wasn’t wearing appropriate attire, I’d never hear the end of it. I tossed the outfit inside an overnight bag, along with an extra change of clothes, and a toiletry case filled with the essential items I would need to do my hair and makeup. When I walked back through my building’s main entrance, Archie was still leaning against the car.
He politely reached out and took my bag from me and winced. “Jesus, what do you have in here?”
I shrugged. “Sorry but Mom has a dress code.”
“For a family dinner?”
“Archie, don’t you know who my family is?” I eyed him skeptically as he opened the passenger door and I slipped into the leather bucket seat. Seriously, how had he not figured this out?
Archie rounded the front of the car and then folded himself into the driver’s seat. “Hmm. Your last name is Hall. Where do your parents live?”
“In Ladue. Their house is on two acres inside Saint Louis Country Club,” I added, hoping that would help speed this along. Normally, when a guy found out that my father was James Hall, they got dollar signs in their eyes and assumed that I was their golden ticket to the good life. They were all wrong because it was easy for me to spot their schemes and dump them quickly.
“Layne, you’re not…” Archie’s eyes were huge as he was starting to connect the dots.
“Archie, don’t make this weird.”
“Your dad is Jim Hall? THE Jim Hall? Richest man in St. Louis Jim Hall?” I nodded in response. “Holy fuck, Layne.”
“It’s not a big deal. Can we just go? I’m starving.” Archie’s reaction worried me. I didn’t want him to be like all the other guys. I wanted him to be different and not feel intimidated by my dad. The short car ride was quiet and awkward. Several times, I looked across the car to see Archie’s brows tense and his bottom lip between his teeth. Why did I bring this up? Why did I invite him to dinner with my family? Our relationship was going to be ruined before it could even really begin.
We ended up in Clayton, not far from Ladue, at a cute little restaurant with a long line of people waiting for a seat. My stomach growled loudly, and I wasn’t sure I could spend another hour waiting to eat.
“Don’t worry,” Archie said, placing his hand on my knee. “I know the owner. They’re expecting us.”
Archie got out of the car first and then jogged around to the passenger side to open my door. He held out his hand and helped me out but not before tugging me against his lean body and wrapping an arm around my waist. He leaned into me, letting his nose trail along the side of my neck before he planted a smacking kiss on my cheek.
“They have wonderful avocado toast here,” he whispered.
“If you don’t stop worrying about dinner with your parents, I’m going to pull this car over and fuck you senseless,” Archie growled.
“I’m not worried,” I said honestly. I was completely terrified.
After breakfast, Archie and I drove back to his house. He lived surprisingly close to my parents, but his home was nothing like the slick, modern bachelor pad I expected. Archie lived in a mid-century brick one-story that was massive but cozy. He walked me through his home, and I let my finger trail over the snow-white quartz countertops in his kitchen and along the plush furnishings in his living room. I loved all the windows that let in plenty of sunlight and the natural stone tilework on the floors.
It was nothing compared to the extravagance of the home where I grew up.
“This is your house?” Archie said, marveling at the sprawling brick estate that my grandfather built in the 40s.
“Not anymore,” I replied. This was the place where I was raised, but it never felt like a home to me. There were too many rooms I wasn’t allowed in and too many things I couldn’t touch. The only thing I truly loved about it were the two acres where I could run wild and free.
Archie parked the car and turned off the engine, but I reached out and placed a hand on his arm. “Thank you for coming with me,” I said quietly. “But I want to warn you, this is not going to be your average family dinner.”
Archie winked. “Don’t worry, sport. I can handle your parents.”
But he couldn’t. Dinner was a disaster from the moment we walked into the house.
“Layne, you didn’t tell me you were bringing a guest,” my mother said tersely. There was no warm greeting for me.
“I’m sorry, Mother. I didn’t think it would be a problem,” I said, my voice small and timid. I held Archie’s hand for dear life. From the purse of her lips and the way her eyes narrowed into slits, I could tell my mother was scrutinizing Archie.
He looked the part perfectly. When he saw my black sleeveless sheath dress and pearls, he held up a hand, and said, “I’ve got this.” Minutes later, he emerged wearing a pair of impeccably cut trousers that had a subtle plaid pattern and a white dress shirt with the collar open. He wore a fairly ostentatious gold watch on his wrist, and his hair was perfectly parted and styled.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Hall. This is all my fault.” Archie stepped in, extending his hand to my mother. “Layne invited me a few days ago, but we had a small disagreement over a case, and she uninvited me. I showed up to her place unexpectedly this morning and groveled at her feet.”
He was laying it on thick, and for a moment, I thought my mother might believe him. Instead, she declined Archie’s hand and stared at me pointedly. “You should have informed me the moment you invited him. Not only have you inconvenienced me but also Mrs. Jordan.”
I was ready to grab Archie by the hand and make a break for it, but that would have been catastrophic. I had to endure this dinner, and worse, I brought Archie along for the whole miserable experience.
Introducing Archie to my father was a little easier because they had the Cardinals in common. It was only acceptable for me to be a Cardinals fan when my mother wasn’t around. Otherwise, I was chastised for liking baseball.
“I have season tickets, and I can’t wait to catch a game with Layne,” Archie told my dad while he wrapped one arm around me and held me close. “She told me all about her ‘Redbirds rage.’”
My dad actually winked and smiled. “Layne is pretty passionate about the Cardinals. You should have seen her during the whole McGwire doping scandal. She was beside herself!”
I rolled my eyes. “Please don’t tell him that, Daddy.” I knew what was coming next.
“She watched his testimony and cried,” my dad said, which made me cover my face with embarrassment. “Come to think of it, that’s probably what inspired her to go into law!”
“Oh my god, I’m going to hide.” I started to untangle myself from Archie, but he only held me tighter.
“You’re not going anywhere, sport,” he stated firmly.
Dutifully, I sat next to Archie while he and my father talked first about baseball and then business. Archie’s arm was either around me at all times or draped across my knee; they were signs that he wasn’t temporary, that he wasn’t going to abandon ship. It felt good to have an ally when I often felt like public enemy number one in my family.
Sadie and Jacob arrived not long after we did, and immediately, she and my mother ran off to seclusion for top-secret wedding business. I was not a part of this, and I couldn’t stop the ache in my chest from feeling left out. When Mrs. Jordan announced that dinner was ready to be served, they emerged and continued their hush-hush discussions at the table.
I felt like a total outsider.
“Sadie, Archie is going to be my date for your engagement party,” I announced quite suddenly. Everyone was engaged in their own conversations except for me. I sat there alone and silent for almost half the meal.
Sadie smiled tightly. “I’m glad you’re seeing someone, Layne, but I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean? I told mother a few weeks ago that I was bringing a date,” I argued.
“Yes, but you didn’t tell me who,”
my mother interjected. “Now, it’s too late. The final counts have already been sent in.”
“But it’s two weeks away!” My voice was loud and slightly shrill. “Surely, you can call the caterers and add one extra person.”
“That’s not how it works, Layne. Someday, if you ever get married, you’ll understand.”
I glanced around the table, hoping someone would go to bat for me. Jacob looked clueless, and my father looked uncomfortable, and Archie…well, Archie looked furious. His jaw was clenched tightly, and he clutched his linen napkin with a death grip. Under the table, I placed a hand on his thigh, which he quickly scooped into his own.
“If you recall, Layne, you weren’t even invited, so we’re already accommodating you,” my mother said coldly.
A single tear slipped slowly down my cheek. How could I forget?
“You simply can’t ask us to make another exception for you,” my mother continued.
My fist crashed down on the table so hard that the silverware rattled. There was so much that I wanted to say, to scream, but I didn’t. That would be causing a scene. I stood, pushing my chair back, and ran.
Running was becoming a bad habit. In the courtroom, I was a fucking star, but when it came to my own family, I was weak. I couldn’t stand up for myself.
I walked through the familiar wooded area surrounding my parents’ house until eventually, I reached the edge of their property. There was nowhere else to go. I turned back, steeling myself for another battle, when I spotted Archie’s familiar form approaching through the trees.
“You’re fast,” he said, a little breathlessly.
“Sorry, I just couldn’t take it anymore.” I hesitated for a moment before I launched myself at him. He ran his hands up and down my back and hugged me tightly. I felt his head rest on top of mine.
“Is it always like that?” he asked innocently.
I nodded my head. “Pretty much. It’s worse because Sadie’s getting married.”
Dear Mr. Temporary (The Matchmaker Series ) Page 3