The Archer House (The Archer Inn Book 1)

by Kimberly Thomas

  The Archer House

  The Archer Inn Series Book One

  Kimberly Thomas

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Other Books by Kimberly

  Connect with Kimberly Thomas

  The Archer House

  The Archer Inn Series

  Book One

  By

  Kimberly Thomas

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Copyright © 2020 by Kimberly Thomas

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Kimberly Thomas holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

  Description

  A real estate mogul who lost everything. A return to the Florida Keys. Her first love and all the problems she left behind twenty-five years ago--await her.

  Holly Archer's husband ruined her life. While they made their fortune in Miami real estate, he took a mistress and managed to make enough illegal dealings to absolutely destroy them forever. Now, Holly's lost her real estate license, her house, her husband, her friends, and her life.

  But Islamorada calls. It's a sunny, white-sand strip of life and love and sun in the Florida Keys, where she grew up with her three siblings, Randy, Rina, and Amy--all of whom she's lost touch with over the past twenty-five years.

  Now, two years after the death of their father, the Archer House, the inn where the four of them grew up, is dilapidated and has a financial bleed that she can't put her finger on; their mother has fallen into an intense depression and Holly finds a place where someone in the world actually needs her help. It's also a good place to hide in the wake of what her husband did, a place to pretend her life didn't crumble into nothing.

  But patching up the Archer family won't be easy. Her brother, Randy, is the only sibling who remains in the Keys, and his love for alcohol keeps him isolated and unwilling to help out. Their other sisters hardly answer the phone. Even as Holly digs in her heels, she creates conflict between herself and her own children, the people she loves the most.

  All the while, her old high school boyfriend is a mainstay on the island. He's a cop and, as news of Holly's husband's illegal dealings surface in Miami, perhaps he's one of the only people she can trust in the world.

  Secrets unravel in this first installment in the Archer Family Series.

  Chapter One

  "Watch out, coming through!" A deep, booming voice almost gave Holly a heart attack. She had enough time to jump back to avoid getting run over by the two large men who carried a wooden dresser down the hallway. Their muscles bulged beneath their tight t-shirts, and Holly thanked God she'd had the sense to hire people to do the heavy lifting for her. There was no way she would have ever been able to move that dresser on her own.

  It wasn't the heavy furniture the crew was hauling away, though. All around her were men and a few women packing boxes and carrying them out of the house. Her heart ached each time a box was carried through the large double doors at the front of the house. Over the past twenty years, she had lived in this house. And now it was all coming to a close. The final chapter in this part of her life was coming to an official end and tugged at her heartstrings.

  Holly steadied herself against the banister, looking down at the workers as they busied themselves packing and moving her things. Not everything was going, of course. Will's stuff would remain behind. But even with that, the place looked empty. Mementos from their various trips together over the years were already packed into boxes and loaded onto the moving truck. Photos that had hung on the walls for years were gone, leaving unfaded squares of paint in their places.

  It should have given her relief, severing off this part of her life like a rotting limb on a tree. But instead, it made her heart break more and more with each passing moment. This wasn't just a single branch of her life she was trimming away; it was more like chopping down the entire tree right at the base.

  Holly squeezed her eyes shut. In and out, she told herself, focusing on her breathing and trying to push everything else out of her mind. But no matter how many times she repeated the words to herself, she couldn't quite block out the hustle and bustle going on all around her.

  She needed some space, she decided. It was too painful to stand around the house and watch her life be boxed up and carted away by strangers.

  Without saying a word to anyone, she made her way downstairs and through the expansive home. It had never seemed this big before, but whether she had never noticed or if the lack of belongings made it seem larger than it was, Holly couldn't help but feel like the place was preparing to swallow her whole.

  Her car was parked right out front, thankfully not blocked in by the moving trucks. Before she knew it, she was headed down the highway away from the place she had called home for so long. It wasn't until she pulled into her parking spot at the office that she realized where she'd headed.

  She'd driven on autopilot in a haze, not stopping to think. She had wanted to get away from the house and the chaos and memories that had threatened to overwhelm her. Not that the office would be much better, she thought as she watched a muscular man step out of the front door carrying a large box.

  Wanting to be efficient and also to rip the band-aid off right away, she had scheduled the movers to not only pack up and haul away the stuff at the house but to also do the same at her office—her former office that is. Just like the house, the business she had devoted most of her adult life to would be left to her now ex-husband, Will.

  With a sigh, she killed the car's engine. Sitting in the vehicle staring at the building wasn't going to make things any easier. Nor was turning around and going back to the house. And, if she was honest with herself, she wasn't sure where else she could go. Those two places had been her life for so long that she had pretty much forgotten how to live without them.

  Heck, there were days and weeks when she had spent more time at the office than at the house, earning herself many dirty looks from the other moms whenever she'd shown up at the school or to retrieve the kids from playdates. To them, being a mom was their sole identity. She'd loved her kids to the moon and back, but she'd never understood dedicating her every waking moment to them like some mothers did. She had juggled motherhood and her career flawlessly.

  This had made it easier when the kids had grown up and started their own lives. Of course, she had missed them, but it hadn't completely broken her when they had flown the coop like it had the mothers of some of their friends. She loved her kids more than life itself and her kids knew that. She had a very special bond with them that no one could break. Not even her husband.

  Though now, as she stared up at her office window, knowing the career she had spent years building and nurturing was finally over, she fully understood the pa
in those mothers had experienced. Her kids may not have made up the bulk of her identity, but her job as a top real estate agent in Miami certainly had.

  She had busted her butt to be taken seriously as a real estate agent. And she'd been darn good at it, no matter what anyone else said. But of course, her greedy husband had to go and mess that up. No, she corrected, closing her eyes and taking another deep breath—ex-husband, not husband.

  The man didn't deserve the title of husband anymore. It was hard to believe she had ever fallen in love with that man. Here she had thought they'd be together for the rest of their lives. As it turned out, he hadn't had the same notions. It had been over a year since the divorce had finalized, and yet it was still hard to realize everything really was over with.

  At least she'd had the forethought to store away some money separate from everything else. So while he was left broke and penniless, Holly at least still had some money to support herself and wouldn't be homeless once everything was said and done.

  It was a small comfort, but it was better than nothing.

  With another sigh, Holly popped the door of the Jaguar open and slid out, automatically straightening the wrinkles in her clothes out of habit. Not that it really mattered how she dressed anymore. She could show up wearing designer clothes that cost more than some people made in a year and it wouldn't improve her reputation, not even a smidge.

  Will's illicit real estate dealings had seen to that.

  It was a disgrace for her to show her face in the grocery stores these days. Certainly, no one was interested in hiring her anymore, which was the main reason she was having her office packed up and carted away. That and she couldn't stand to share a space with Will anymore. It had been hard enough after the divorce. Now, it wasn't going to happen.

  The further away from him she could get— the better. At least, that was what she hoped.

  When she finally made her way into the office, she was surprised by how bustling it was. It wasn't full of customers, of course, but most of the employees were still hovering around. Groups of two or three huddled together, talking in harsh whispers as they watched the spectacle around them.

  All eyes turned to her when she stepped through the door, and Holly could feel their judgmental gazes burning through her. Not only had Will's schemes ruined her reputation around town and within the industry, but even her own employees appeared to have lost respect for her.

  She caught some of their whispers as she walked by, but she pretended not to hear any of them. She didn't want to show just how much their snippy comments actually hurt.

  "How could she not have known?" one of the secretaries whispered to another one. Both had their eyes boring into Holly as she passed by them, but Holly refused to return their gaze. There was a time when she would have squashed that kind of talk in an instant.

  Those days were in the past, though, much like everything else about her former life.

  "It's not her fault her husband was a snake," the other secretary whispered back, and Holly had to force down a smile. At least everyone didn't think she was as guilty as he was. That small comfort didn't last long, though, before the woman continued. "All she ever cared about was work. Maybe if she'd been a better wife, he wouldn't have strayed off God's path."

  Holly let out a sigh and quickly navigated the halls to her office. It was as barren as her house had been, with nothing more than the furniture remaining. Everything personal had already been boxed up and carted away. It looked very much like it had the first day she had moved in all those years ago.

  She walked over and stood behind her desk, surveying the openness in front of her. She could still remember that very first day clearly. Holly had been so young back then, having just gotten her Realtor license. She was ready to take the world by storm, with her husband right by her side. The brokerage firm had been his father's originally, and the two of them had been able to take it over and hit the ground running.

  Back then, they had been a power couple. They'd thought they were untouchable and mingled with the cream of the crop and be rich forever. Holly had been head over heels in love with Will, awed by his skill in the realtor business and his drive to always push things to the next level. But it got to the point that neither of them had ever been content with what they had, more so Will than Holly. He'd always wanted more, regardless of the price they had to pay, and of course, Holly had always followed suit, blinded by love.

  Maybe the gossip in the hall had been right, Holly thought to herself. If she hadn't been so caught up in taking the world by storm, she might've noticed the writing on the walls sooner. Maybe if she had spent more time with her family, she wouldn't have missed all the obvious clues that something wasn't right.

  It was too late for any of that now, though. Everything was said and done with. Will's illicit dealings had cost the both of them their brokerage and realty licenses, and Holly doubted she would ever be able to get hers back even though she'd had nothing to do with any of it. Maybe if she packed everything up and moved to Alaska or something, she might be able to start fresh. She doubted it, though.

  She was only forty-six with still so much life in her. But the idea of packing up and starting from scratch somewhere brand new wasn't that appealing. And she had spent her entire life living in sunny Florida. Freezing her butt off in Alaska was not a pleasant prospect at all.

  She had to figure out something, though. She couldn't sit around here and do nothing. Sure, she had enough money put away that she didn't need to work, but not working wasn't an option for her. She was liable to go crazy if she didn't have something to occupy her time. She had to keep busy and work at something that she could look back at and be proud of. Holly enjoyed working hard, and she had instilled that work ethic in each of her children.

  She had to figure out how she could accomplish that now that being a Realtor wasn't in her future anymore. Going back to school at her age didn't seem all that interesting, though it wasn't completely out of the question. But if she did that, what would she study? What other field could she apply her skills and drive toward?

  Law school was tempting, but by the time she finished, she would be past her prime, and she wasn't sure she wanted to deal with the stress and long hours it would take to establish herself in that field. Plus, there was a good chance all of this would follow her and ruin any chances she had of making a name for herself as a lawyer.

  A knock on the door frame leading into her office jarred her out of her thoughts. She blinked a few times before reality came back, then she looked over to see Sandra, the woman who ran the office's mailroom, standing there. She smiled at Holly, a sad one, but at least she didn't have the same look of contempt in her eyes the others tended to have.

  "Just had an envelope dropped off for you," Sandra said, quickly crossing the length of the room to hand Holly the manila envelope. There was no stamp or return address, so clearly, it hadn't been sent through the mail.

  But Holly knew that scrawl on the front of the envelope. Staring at it made a lump form in the back of her throat.

  "T--thank you," Holly managed to stammer out. She forced a smile and tried not to show how nervous she was. If Sandra was the only person left in the office who didn't hate her, then Holly didn't want to give her any reason to change that opinion.

  Sandra smiled back and then slipped out of the office without another word, leaving Holly alone in the quiet, empty room once more.

  Her hands shook as she opened the envelope, pulling out the sheets of paper stuffed inside. Just as expected, the paper on the top was a letter from her lawyer. The law firm's dramatic heading took up the top few inches of the paper. Holly scanned the letter faster than she thought possible, her heart pounding the entire time, threatening to break through her rib cage.

  The more she read, the closer she felt to a heart attack. She had hoped the letter might put some of her fears at ease. But instead, it did the exact opposite. It only served to confirm her worst nightmares.

  Will'
s antics had cost the both of them their brokerage and real estate licenses. But now, not only was he under criminal investigation but so was she. The evidence compiled against her ex-husband was daunting, and though she'd had no knowledge of it, she was implicated in a lot by being associated with him.

  Both of them were looking at jail time if her lawyer couldn't pull off some kind of miracle.

  Holly dropped the papers onto her desk and stared at them for a long while, trying to comprehend everything she had just read—her mind in a whirl.

  She'd already had enough on her plate! Now she had one more headache to deal with on top of everything else. She placed one hand over her mouth as a gasp escaped, and then she felt a tear roll down her cheek.

  Her tough outer shell threatened to shatter, and she didn't know how much more of this she could take.

  Chapter Two

  Holly's heart rate continued to skyrocket. But now, it wasn't just anxiety fueling her. Instead, rage slowly eclipsed the anxiousness. Holly wiped her cheek, scooped the papers back up off the desk and then stormed out of her office, hands balled into fists. This time, when she crossed through the open areas, there were no snarky comments or pitying looks.

  Everyone got out of her way. Movers and co-workers alike scrambled to get out of her path, not wanting Holly to take her anger out on them. Those she had worked with had seen her temper more than once, and none of them had ever been eager to be on the receiving end of it. And while none of them was her target right then, Holly wasn't sure she would be able to contain herself if one of them opened his or her mouth and said something stupid. Not this time.