Accidentally on Purpose Read online

  Distant.

  And she hated that most of all.

  This time when she tried to tug the knife from his long fingers, he let her. Rising, she stared down at him. “We done here?”

  He rose to his feet too. And just looked at her.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “We’re never done,” he said.

  No kidding. But since she had no witty retort for him, she turned on her heel and headed for the doors. She pushed out into the blissfully cool night and strode across the courtyard, which was lit with strings of tiny, beautiful white lights threaded across the shops and small trees that lined the way. San Francisco in February could be just about anything: icy, wet, powder dry, even warm . . . Tonight the sky was a blanket of black velvet, scattered with diamonds. The air was cold and crisp, and it showed in the white puffy clouds she exhaled, hoping for some inner calm.

  It didn’t come.

  She strode to the fountain in the center of the courtyard and stopped to take a minute. And actually, she probably needed more than one.

  In her life she’d very carefully and purposely gone after the things she’d missed out on in her childhood and she’d gone after those things hard. She was carefully put together, tough to the core, and, she liked to think, loyal to a fault. And the fact was, she felt incredibly loyal to Archer. After all, he’d gotten her out of a bad situation and she was grateful to him for that. He’d changed the course of her life. But she could admit to herself that deep down she was also a little pissy that he’d never seemed to want more from her. Not that this was a surprise, not when she’d cost him so much. Such as his first career.

  And his family . . .

  The water in the fountain fell in soft streams into the copper base, which was lined with coins. The thing had been standing here for fifty years longer than the 1928 building around it, dating back to the days when there’d actually been cows in Cow Hollow. The myth went that if you made a wish with a true heart, true love would find you.

  God forbid, Elle thought with a shudder.

  But it’d worked enough times over the past century that people believed the legend. And in fact, two of her good friends had found love thanks to this very fountain.

  As far as Elle was concerned, only a damn fool would make a wish for love. Love brought nothing but complicated problems and she could do without more complications or problems, thank you very much.

  “Aren’t you going to toss some money in and wish for true love to find you?” came a raspy voice. “That’s what everyone else does.”

  It was Old Man Eddie, who lived in the alley. By choice, mind you. Several of the building regulars, including herself, had tried to help him more than once, but Eddie said he lived an alternative lifestyle and he wanted to be left alone to do it.

  He flashed a smile that went with his shock of white Christopher Lloyd-circa-Back-to-the-Future hair, board shorts, rain boots, and a Cal Berkeley sweatshirt that said Don’t Panic, It’s Organic over an image of a weed leaf. Since he’d actually gone to Cal Berkeley in the seventies after previously frying his brain at Woodstock, she flashed a smile back. “I’m most definitely not going to wish for true love,” she said. A warm deserted island, maybe. World peace, definitely.

  But never love.

  “Pru found Finn by wishing,” he reminded her. “And Willa found Keane.”

  “And I’m happy for them,” she said. “But I’m not wishing.”

  “Bummer, dudette, because I was thinking if you were planning on throwing any money away, you might find a better use for it instead.”

  “Let me guess,” she said. “You’d be happy to take it off my hands?”

  “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

  “For the record, I never throw money away,” she said, but she slid her hand into the hidden pocket of her wrap, pulling out her emergency twenty, which hadn’t fallen out in the bar. Of course not. It’d had to have been the knife. She gave a mental grimace and handed Eddie the cash.

  “Thanks, darlin’.” He slipped the twenty away before kissing her on each cheek. “I’ve got today’s newspaper, can I repay you by giving you your horoscope?”

  “Don’t bother. I’m sure mine says ‘please just don’t kill anyone today.’”

  He laughed softly. “And it’s no secret who you’d kill either. He’s smart as hell, our boy. Intuitive too and a gifted investigator. He takes care of his own. He’d take a bullet for you—we both know that. But one thing he’s not good at is admitting his feelings.”

  “Who?”

  He gave her a don’t-be-stupid look.

  “Archer?” she asked.

  “Well who else do you let drive you crazy?” he asked.

  Good point.

  He patted her on the arm. “Just remember, there’s not a lot of softness in his life, or room for weakness—of which you’re definitely one. He has absolutely no idea what to do with you, and as an action guy, that’s confusing to him. So maybe think about taking it easy on him. Even just a little bit.”

  She sighed and then opened her mouth to say that she and Archer never went easy on each other but the old man had vanished back down his alley, leaving her alone in the night.

  The theme song of her life.

  She went to pull out her phone to call an Uber and then remembered she’d handed her cell to Spence to hold for her during the distraction. Spence, who was in all likelihood still sitting at the bar. “Dammit.” She headed back across the courtyard and let herself into the pub again.

  Spence was indeed at the far right side of the bar, at the area Finn always held open for their gang. But that wasn’t what caught and held her attention. Nope, that honor went to the other side where Archer sat talking to some beautiful woman who was clearly coming on to him, leaning in, a perfectly manicured hand on his biceps. She was smiling with lots of white, straight teeth, her hair carefully tousled in a way that said it was possible she’d just gotten out of bed and wasn’t all that opposed to going back.

  Rolling her eyes, Elle headed toward Spence. Pru was with him, as were Willa and Haley. Willa ran South Bark, a one-stop pet shop across the courtyard from the pub. Haley worked at the second-floor optometrist’s office and was currently single, but she and one of Finn’s waitresses had been flirting for several weeks now and everyone had fingers crossed that it’d turn into something good.

  Spence slid Elle’s phone across the bar top toward her and then, when he caught the look on her face, passed his glass over as well.

  “Jameson?” she asked.

  “Only the best for you,” he said, watching with quiet amusement as she tossed it back and then coughed. “Easy, tiger.”

  Turning her back on the sight of Archer and the woman, the both of them flirting freely now, she nodded a thanks to Finn, who brought her another drink.

  “She came on to him if it helps any,” Willa said, always the peacemaker of the group. Willa had the heart of a saint.

  Elle did not. “I couldn’t care less.”

  “Uh-huh,” Spence said.

  Why were all men assholes? “You know what?” she asked, setting her glass down. “I’m out.”

  “Aw, come on.” Spence grabbed her hand. “Stay. I’ll even let you try to kick my ass in darts.”

  She pointed at him. “I own you in darts. But no. Not tonight.”

  “It’s only ten o’clock.”

  “I have to get up early for class and work.”

  “Adulting means you get to do whatever you want,” Spence said.

  He only said that because he’d sold his start-up two years back for an undisclosed sum, a.k.a. big bucks, and he no longer had to be on the hamster wheel. Instead he bought shit to amuse himself—like this building—and did whatever suited him, which lately had been walking dogs for Willa’s shop. Elle knew he only did so because women were suckers for a man walking their pet. “No, adulting is like”—she searched for the right words—“looking both ways before you cross the street and then