Starting with her mom, Archie had learned this.
Bryn Harmon was chill. She was not only a catch-more-flies-with-honey person, she didn’t allow herself to get worked up about things.
They’d never gotten to the zone where Bryn could explain her sorcery in this matter, but either by nature, or nurture, Archie had inherited it.
And after losing her mom, there was so much to get hyped up about, she’d have exhausted herself if she’d broken the seal on that and let that all hang out.
So she didn’t.
But further, it was like paying homage to her mom that she also didn’t give in to the drama.
She just got on with things.
That said, right now, with her dad being clueless again, she wanted to scream.
She didn’t.
Haley did.
Not scream, exactly, but she lost patience and she did this also exposing she was totally eavesdropping.
“Oh, honestly, Andy,” she snapped, coming out of the kitchen and glaring at her husband with exasperation.
She then looked to Archie and spilled the beans.
“We saw him, a while ago, riding his motorcycle with some of his buddies. Andy told me who he was to you. Your father was worried, him being in one of those gangs—”
“Clubs,” Archie corrected quietly.
“Right, they made a point of that in the movie,” Haley stated, bobbing her head. “And yes, that means we’ve seen that movie. I’d noticed it trending on Netflix and I knew that…uh, Club was in Denver and I mentioned to Andy maybe we should watch. Well, we sure did when we saw your guy wearing that patch.”
Archie felt her heart speed up a little.
“And?” she asked.
“And, I’m sure your father will disagree, but I’m proud I have a man who was not afraid to shed a few tears when he learned all your guy has lost.”
Archie had not yet taken a seat.
After hearing that, she found a chair and sank into it.
Andy watched his daughter do this, biting impatiently, “Haley.”
But Haley kept her gaze steady on Archie.
And she kept her shoulders squared.
Last, she kept talking.
“I’m never, ever, ever going to say you’re lucky you had the time you had with your mother. Andy talks about her and there is no question why he loved her so very deeply. I love your father like crazy. I still wish she was here for all of you. But I will say, after watching that film, I had some concerns about you hooking up with that young man. Because you two are not on equal footing with something essential to life. You had something he didn’t have and he’s in a position where all he lost is surrounding him all the time. He can’t get away from it. But he also can’t understand it. Not in the way everyone around him does. And that has to be…well, it has to be torture. To be of something so good and pure, and never having known the touch of it. Except as a phantom. A ghost. A story someone tells that is integral to who you are, but to you, it will only ever be just a story.”
Oh God.
Archie thought about her mom.
All the amazing things about her mom.
The way she’d smile at her dad.
The way she did voices when she read stories to them when they were little.
The time she sat in bed with Archie when Archie’s first crush decided he liked some other girl and she told her story about how her first crush went through the entire second grade, starting with Bryn. So she had to watch as he went through the rest of them, and that was so much worse than Archie’s story, Archie felt better. But how her mom told it, by the end of it, they were both laughing.
How, every time they went to the grocery store, she made a game of them picking a treat, and made a point of teaching them how to share that love, because they each got to pick a candy bar or a bag of chips, but they also had to pick something to take home to their dad. And they couldn’t pick something they wanted, they had to think hard and pick something their father would like.
And the totally bonkers and insanely loud way she’d shout and cheer at one of Elijah’s games that was so embarrassing when Archie was thirteen, but looking back, Archie saw the love and pride in it, how open her mother was in sharing it and how beautiful that was.
The thought of not having those memories…
Having her dad or her grandparents share things about her mother, but never knowing them herself.
God.
Unthinkable.
She knew that Jagger didn’t have this, but until that moment, it never really sunk in just how much he’d never had.
“Haley,” her father bit again when he watched Archie’s eyes fill with tears.
And again, Haley ignored him.
“Watch that movie,” she advised firmly.
“Haley!” Andy clipped.
Haley was not to be denied.
“Watch it, doll. And I will never advise anyone to keep something from someone they love, especially not a partner. So tell him you intend to watch it. But watch it. You need to. For him. For you. And,” she cocked her head, trying to take the intensity out of what she was saying, “because it’s a really good movie.”
“Mom would say that.”
Haley grew still at Archie’s words.
Andy went solid.
“She would advise me to be strong. She would expect it,” Archie said.
Neither Haley nor Andy replied.
Archie got up from her seat and went to her stepmom.
She then hugged her and said in her ear, “Thank you.”
At first, Haley seemed surprised, and until that moment, Archie hadn’t realized she hadn’t been ugly or mean, but she might have been standoffish.
This meant Haley was stiff, until Archie spoke those words into her ear.
She then curved Archie in her arms and relaxed in her hold.
And damn, being held in Haley’s arms felt nice.
Shit.
Maybe the still-nervous-after-all-these-years wasn’t just about Elijah.
But about her too.
Archie kept hold but she shifted her head so she could catch Haley’s eyes and she shared, “I asked him if he minded if I watched. He said he didn’t. But he was weird about it when we talked about it, so I think he would.”
“Then you two need to have a conversation about why that would be. Because there is a good deal of history behind that Club that’s concerning, but they’re beyond that. So unless he thinks you’ll be judgy.” She kept Archie in her arms even as she shrugged and concluded, “And I know you two are new, but the one thing he has to know about you is the last thing you are is judgy.”
That was such a nice thing to say.
“Thank you for telling it like it is,” Archie said.
Haley looked cute and kind of embarrassed when she replied, “My pleasure.”
Their hug couldn’t have been different than one from her mom—and make no mistake, Archie did not forget an iota of what a hug from her mom felt like.
But her mom was tall and thin, not average height and rounded.
Her mom wore Tom Ford perfume.
Haley wore Chloe.
But dang, how did Archie miss that, when her dad found someone to love, he’d given the same thing to Archie?
“I can’t wait for you to meet him, I think you’re really gonna like him,” Archie told her.
And Haley looked her dead in the eye when she replied, “If he’s anything like his father, I know I will.”