Chapter 33
DARCY
I hurriedinto my bedroom and shut the door behind me. I leaned against it, cursing at myself under my breath.
Darcy. Don’t you dare start to like him. Don’t you dare lose sight of the plan.
Penn was the guy who wanted to change the entirety of my childhood and turn it into a restaurant. Penn wanted to erase a huge part of my life.
I couldn’t let him do it.
I couldn’t let him do it just because he had a really nice smile and biceps that bulged from his T-shirts. I remembered the tattoo on his back and the way the water dripped down his chest, and I stomped my foot. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the electrical current flowing through my body at the thought of Penn.
No. No, no, no . . . infinity nos.
We arrived at the town meeting with ten minutes to spare, and I was feeling anxious. My heart was racing, and there was a feeling in the pit of my stomach that made me slightly nauseous—and it wasn’t because of the meeting. I had been to so many of those; it was nothing short of a normal day for me. It was the fact I was beginning my quest to get Penn out of Aveline. Operation AA was in full swing.
We sat in the back with Lettie and Tuck and watched as Mr. Fitzgerald took his place at the podium. Lettie had a container of fries, and Tuck was holding a dish of chocolate ice cream that she periodically dipped her fries into.
Lettie leaned in and whispered to me, “You brought Penn?”
I had told Lettie about the two of us hanging out a little more; however, I had still not disclosed to her that I was on a mission to get him out of town. That little detail was neither here nor there, and soon enough, it wouldn’t even matter.
“He wanted to see what a meeting was all about. It’s no big deal,” I replied.
Lettie bit her bottom lip and squeezed my leg excitedly, a gesture that made me believe she did, in fact, find it a very big deal. I rolled my eyes as Mr. Fitzgerald began talking.
“Welcome, townspeople of Aveline. We are gathered here today to discuss a few updates and to finally put an end to the Ashford versus Driscoll property war.”
“It’s about time!” yelled Josie Piper. I giggled and placed my hand over my mouth, trying to hold it in as Josie continued. “I’m so tired of hearing the two of them argue every morning. They just stand there, both in those ratty old robes, and yell over a foot-wide piece of grass.”
“Darcy Miller, don’t you start in.” Mr. Fitzgerald called me out, and I looked up and scoffed.
“I didn’t even say anything! That was Josie!”
“Oh,” Mr. Fitzgerald said, taking his glasses off and wiping them down before replacing them. “My apologies. It’s just usually you’re the one blurting out.”
Penn looked over at me, and I saw the half-smirk on his face out of the corner of my eye.
Mr. Fitzgerald went on. “Okay, first thing on the agenda is that there has been a request for Poe Miller to remove the FOR SALE sign from the front of the hardware store.”
My dad stood up calmly, he was always calm, and politely responded. “May I ask what this would accomplish? I need to have a FOR SALE sign in the window for people to know that the store is for sale.”
My mother looked back at me and pursed her lips together. We both knew that even though my dad looked calm, and his words were polite, he was annoyed.
Mr. Fitzgerald looked down at the notes, mumbling to himself. “Well, um, this person states that they do not want you to sell the store—” He stopped. “Darcy? Was this you?”
I rolled my eyes. “First of all, it’s supposed to be anonymous Mr. Fitzgerald. You can’t just call people out. And second, no. I would not put a motion to the town.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
Penn had his hands clasped in front of him, pure joy spread across his face at the entertainment that was an Aveline town meeting.
Mr. Fitzgerald hummed to himself. “Oh, no, okay. This says they do not want you to sell the store because they would have to use the internet or go into town to buy things such as gardening gloves or hammers.”
My mother looked back at me again, and we both mouthed “Mrs. Nelson” at the same time.
“Okay, well, we are just going to deny this motion on principle that we cannot prevent someone from selling their own businesses due to our own conveniences.” He then muttered under his breath, “Even if it is very inconvenient for everyone.”
Lettie and I giggled as my dad sat down shaking his head.
“Next line of business...The party planning committee has a motion to change their name from The Big Bash Brigade to The Party Pioneers. All in favor, please raise your hand.”
Penn looked at me, and I nodded, raising my hand and gesturing for him to follow. “If you don’t,” I said, “they’ll ruin all the celebrations for you on purpose. Look, they are cataloging anyone without their hand up.”
I tilted my head toward the group of people in the back, their eyes scanning all the hands in the crowd.
Mr. Fitzgerald hit his gavel on the podium and said, “Motion accepted! Next order of business. Please, Mr. Ashford, Mr. Driscoll, make your way to the front and plead your cases.”
My phone chimed, and I looked at it sneakily. Rule number one of town meetings was no cell phones. There were signs on every wall in the building.
PEYTON: Have you started yet?
ME: Tonight.
“Started what?” Lettie asked.
I clicked my phone off. “My period,” I said quickly.
Lettie’s eyebrows closed in. “Weird, I didn’t think you were supposed to start for another week.”
The fact that she knew that might mean we were a little too close.
I brushed her off and looked over at Penn. His face was beaming, and I could tell he was enjoying every minute of this meeting. This poor sucker was about to meet his worst nightmare.
Or at least his worst date.