Accidentally on Purpose (Heartbreaker Bay #3)(16)

“Turn right!” Kylie called from the backseat. Their resident navigator had her nose practically pressed to her cell phone screen. “In twenty-five feet.”

Elle turned right and the road went from asphalt to gravel. Bumpy, rutted gravel that took every bit of her concentration for the half mile until they came to the campgrounds.

“I think half my fillings just fell out,” Kylie said.

“Campsite twenty-four,” Pru said.

Five minutes later they rounded a tight corner and came upon the correct campsite. Elle calmly parked, turned off the engine, and stared out at the rip-roaring campfire, around which sat one, two, three . . . four men-sized shapes, one of them looking suspiciously like Archer. She felt the righteous annoyance that always hit her in his presence, for him simply being a breathing human being. “Dammit, Pru.”

“It’s not what you think,” Pru said quickly.

“No? Because what I think is that you’re a big fibber,” Elle said.

“Okay, so it’s a little what you think,” Pru said, sagging in defeat. “But mostly I didn’t want to drive up here alone. I knew you wouldn’t come if I told you that Archer was here, and I really needed to deliver the s’more supplies. They were desperate.”

Even as she said it, the guys all stood up and turned toward them with varying degrees of expressivity. Finn was out-and-out grinning, clearly excited to see Pru. Spence was looking hopeful, which made sense now that Elle knew their true mission. Spence had never met a dessert he didn’t love.

Archer had never been one to give anything away, but his expression was relaxed, far more so than Elle had ever seen.

The wilderness agreed with him.

That is until his sharp gaze beamed in through the windshield—which he wouldn’t have been able to see through if Kylie hadn’t chosen that moment to open her door so that the interior light lit them up like they were in a fish tank.

Archer stilled for a single beat and his carefree smile vanished.

Terrific. She’d ruined his evening. Just as she’d ruined his life once upon a time—it was good to know she still had it. “Let’s just get this over with.” She said it calmly but she was having an inner and private moment of panic and anxiety, feeling a whole lot like that stupid sixteen-year-old daughter of a grifter, who’d continuously put Elle and her sister, Morgan, into desperate situations, using them as pawns, making them all live like thieves in the night.

Finn and Joe rushed forward like eager puppies, grabbing the brown bag. Well, Joe grabbed the bag and Finn grabbed Pru, the two of them in a tight lip lock like they hadn’t just seen each other earlier in the day. In fact, given how they were busy eating each other’s face, it was as if they hadn’t seen each other in years.

Leaving the lovebirds at the car, Joe smiled at Kylie and Elle. “Ladies, welcome. Come to the fire and get warm.”

“We’re not staying,” Elle said.

“Oh just for a few minutes?” Pru asked, tearing her mouth from Finn’s to do so. “Please?”

Elle looked down at her heels. She’d assumed they were doing a quick turn and burn. It was Saturday but she’d worked regardless and had left straight from the office. And since she hadn’t expected to stay, she hadn’t bothered to change.

Joe took in the problem with one sweep of his observant gaze. “Hold on,” he said, and running to the fire, he shoved the bag into Spence’s arms and then ran back for Elle.

Before she could stop him, he’d scooped her up and carried her to the fire. “I know how you feel about camping,” he said earnestly.

“Joe,” she said on a laugh. “Put me down.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes!” Under any other circumstances, she might’ve enjoyed the physical contact of being up against a man. Joe was tall and built and sexy as hell. He had a trouble-filled smile that promised a girl a good time, and she knew thanks to gossip that he had the moves to back up that unspoken promise.

But the only thing she had backing up was the air in her lungs because she could feel Archer’s gaze on her. Dark. Assessing.

“It’s not that Elle doesn’t do camping or bears,” he said dryly. “She doesn’t do hiking shoes. Or, apparently, jackets.” With that, he shrugged out of his down parka and came toward her.

The initial buzz of warmth at the realization of how well he knew her vanished when she saw his intention. “Not necessary,” she said, eyes glued to the midnight blue flannel shirt he wore beneath, opened over a matching T-shirt, both stretching to accommodate his broad shoulders.

“Your lips are blue,” he said. He wrapped her up in his jacket, which was deliciously warm from his body heat and, adding to the torture, also smelled like him. Which was to say delicious.

She opened her mouth to say something, she had no idea what, but it didn’t matter because the minute he’d finished tucking her into his jacket, he turned away from her and headed back to the fire.

“I’m not cold,” Pru said. “I’m wearing my new camping jeans. They’re fleece lined.” She executed a little twirl. “They’re thick, so as a bonus, I won’t get any splinters sitting on that log in front of the fire.” She stilled and then twisted around, trying to see her own ass. “Wait. Are they too thick? Do they make me look fat?”