Chapter 14
PENN
When I wokeup on Monday morning, I went downstairs to breakfast at the inn and kindly asked the young woman at the counter for the Wi-Fi password. She looked at me like I had three heads and laughed, her black curls bouncing with each giggle.
“What’s so funny?” I asked. Her name was Millie, and I had found out on my first night there that she and her mother ran the inn.
“We don’t have Wi-Fi here. There’s no public Wi-Fi anywhere, actually. If you don’t have it in your home, you don’t have it at all.”
I leaned my head back, closing my eyes. “Jesus Christ. Could this place be any more secluded?”
“Probably,” Millie answered, completely seriously. “If we were in the woods. Or like, so far away from any main road that no one would find us.”
I nodded. It had been more of a rhetorical question, but I was finding that Aveline had an answer for everything. “Yeah, that’s probably true.”
“Very true,” Millie said.
I pulled my lips together. “Okay, well, thanks. I’ll see you later.” I stepped out of the inn and decided to attempt to find anywhere I could steal some internet and get some work done. Maybe there was a residence close enough to the café with a predictable password, or even better, one that didn’t have a password at all. However, after walking around all of Aveline with my computer in the air, hoping for a signal with no such luck, I gave up. I sent emails and conducted business as best I could through a nine-inch screen on my phone.
I was sitting in the gazebo, trying to keep said phone hidden from the judgy old people of Aveline, when I saw Darcy leaving the pet clinic. She was wearing a pair of scrubs, and her brown hair was pulled up into one of those clip things in the back again. I wondered what she did at the clinic. Was she the veterinarian? She was wearing scrubs, so she very well could have been.
I found myself drawn to her and the way she smiled at everyone she passed. I watched as she pulled out a dollar from her wallet to buy a chocolate bar from a kid selling them on the side of the street in a makeshift booth, and I saw the way she helped the window washer with a spot he couldn’t quite reach. She moved so swiftly, an air of confidence in every step she took, and I couldn’t help but think she probably mesmerized everyone around her.
Or at the very least, she had completely mesmerized me.
When she saw me, she rolled her eyes so far into the back of her head, I thought they might get stuck. She passed me in the gazebo without saying a word, but I got up and followed her anyway. There was something about Darcy that made me want to get to know her, despite her being the most dramatic pain in the ass I had ever met.
Scratch that, it was because she was the most dramatic pain in the ass. I needed to get to know her.
“There’s a familiar face,” I said in my most charming voice. I pulled my bag over my shoulder as I caught up with her.
She didn’t slow down. If anything, I thought she may have even sped up a bit.
“Listen, I do not have it in me to argue with you, okay? I was scratched three times by a vicious demon cat, and a parakeet damn near took a chunk out of my finger.” She kept walking, her speed increasing, but I didn’t let it stop me. “Not to mention, I saw some news today that just kind of. . .annoyed me, and, well, I don’t need two annoying things in my life today.”
“You don’t mean I’m the other annoying thing, do you?”
She stopped moving and turned toward me, her hand on her hip, and I began laughing.
“Okay, okay. I’m just kidding. Let’s not argue.” I grinned, showing off my best I come in peace smile, and she began walking again. “I saw you coming out of the vet clinic. What do you do?”
“I basically help Lettie wrangle animals all day. It’s not exactly the most glamorous job, and not at all what I went to school for, but it’s fun working with my best friend every day.” She paused. “Also, is there a reason you’re following me?”
I shrugged. “I thought we could hang out.”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “And why would you think that?”
I repositioned the strap on my shoulder. “Because I don’t know anyone here.”
“You don’t know me,” she replied.
“I know you’re Darcy,” I started. “And you wrangle animals at the pet clinic with your best friend all day.”
She rolled her eyes again, something I was starting to find incredibly endearing. “You bug me. You know I’m going home, right? I don’t just let random strangers over to my house on any given day. How do I know you aren’t going to murder me?”
“Because I’m not a murderer,” I said plainly.
“Yeah, a murderer would definitely say that.”
“Okay,” I replied. “You can search through my bag. Find out I have no weapons.”
She eyed me, her thick eyebrows giving away every emotion she was feeling. “Okay, well, what if I just don’t want to hang out with you?”
“I’ll cook for you,” I suggested.
Her face softened for just a moment, and I thought I had her. “You cook?”
Busted.
“No, not really, but I can make a mean grilled cheese sandwich.”
“I’m lactose intolerant, so that’s just not going to work for me.” She crossed her arms, and we both stood, staring at each other before she dropped her arms to her side and scoffed. “Fine, I’m not, and I am starving, so come on.” She started walking again before turning quickly once more. “I’m not entertaining you. I’m going to eat your grilled cheese in my pajamas and read.”
I nodded. “Noted.”
For a moment, I told myself I should turn around. I pleaded with myself to head back to the inn and forget I had met her. Nothing good was going to come out of following a beautiful girl who had an unspoken pull on me, despite her being incredibly uninterested. The last thing I was going to do was fall for some girl in some small town.
But then she looked over at me and rolled her eyes, and I followed her like a lost puppy.