No Vacancy (The Aveline Series Book 2)

Chapter 50

PENN

To sayI felt awkward was an understatement. I hadn’t thought much about having dinner with Darcy and her parents. Truthfully, I had hoped this would be a good opportunity to charm her father, but when her brother showed up unexpectedly and with a distrusting look on his face, I was only wishing for the night to move along quickly.

“So, Penn, you know you’re the first boy Darcy has brought over to dinner in probably, oh”—her mother put her finger to her chin, thinking out loud—“probably seven or eight years. Wouldn’t you say, Poe?”

“I’d say that’s about right.” Her father’s gaze was on her mother with what looked like confusion, as though he were trying to decide how long it had been as well.

“Okay, thanks so much for that, parental units. I’m going to remember this when I’m picking out your nursing home,” Darcy replied, shaking her head.

The way both of her parents chuckled made me think that statement was just another one of Darcy’s antics and quick wit, something that I was finding I liked and admired about her. She said whatever she wanted to at any given minute. There weren’t a lot of people in the world who did that.

“It’s just, you have to understand...Darcy doesn’t bring home boys, and especially not ones she—” her dad began, but she cut him off.

“Okay, I don’t really know if Penn likes being called a boy, but—”

Her mother then chimed in. “You’re probably right about that. He’s definitely a man, Poe. Don’t take that away from him.”

Darcy placed her face in her hands, and I pulled my lips together, enjoying this display more than I could express.

Darcy’s mother continued, ignoring Darcy as she pretended to gouge her eyes out with her spoon. “She just can’t stand anyone for longer than a day or two. They do one little thing she doesn’t like, and she just shuts them out. She goes through men quicker than most people go through underwear. We thought for the longest time she would never find anyone. I prayed and prayed every night that she would be able to tolerate someone. And look, here you are!”

I tried to keep my face stoic, cutting into the potatoes, and slowly bringing one to my mouth. Was this woman suggesting Darcy and I were an item? I was ready for Darcy to correct her and explain the situation, but instead, she had her face so far in her plate she might as well have been eating it without utensils.

What exactly had Darcy told her parents about us?

“Well, there’s still plenty of time for her to get sick of me,” I replied, cheekily.

Her mom laughed, a little overzealous, but she had a nice laugh. “I’ve just dreamed of the day I would see my girl walk down the aisle. Beau over here eloped so we didn’t even have a wedding for him. Don’t be pulling something like that, you hear me?” She pointed her finger at me with a smile on her face. “I want to see my girl in a white dress.”

I had met this woman an hour ago, and she was already talking about nuptials. I was beginning to feel warm, and even though I was wearing a T-shirt, I felt like the collar was choking me. They must have had the heat on. It was a thousand degrees in that dining room. I looked over to see if anyone else was beginning to feel claustrophobic, but everyone seemed completely cool.

“Yeah.” My voice cracked, and I cleared it, trying not to convey my distress. “Yeah,” I said much lower.

“What do you think your parents think of an Aveline wedding? It’s just, Poe and I were married in the white chapel, most everyone here in Aveline was, and I would love to see my girl married there, too. Do you think your parents would mind?”

This time, I choked on my water, and I swore I heard Darcy snicker from beneath the giant potato she had covering her face. My hands were sweating, and I needed to excuse myself to use the bathroom to regain my composure.

“Um, I’m not sure, ma’am.” I wiped my mouth with the napkin. “May I use your restroom?” I asked, looking around the table for directions.

Poe nodded, gesturing to the stairs behind us in the foyer. “You’ll have to use the one upstairs. We are in the middle of remodeling the one down here. It’s the second door to the right.”

“Thank you.” I excused myself from the table and headed up the stairs.

I found the bathroom with no problem and splashed some cold water on my face. There were so many things running through my head. Thoughts were bouncing around like a ping pong machine, and I needed to get them all to slow down. I needed to only focus on one thing at a time so that maybe I could troubleshoot each problem instead of having a panic attack at the idea of them all crashing down at once.

One problem was the fact that if I didn’t deliver the hardware store to Max by the end of the month, my job would no longer exist, at least not for me. I’d dedicated my entire adult life to my career, and if I didn’t close this deal, everything I’d worked for would be gone.

But then there was my betrayal of Darcy with this restaurant lie. I had lied to her from the very beginning, making her believe I was here to do something to benefit Aveline and not here to completely sabotage it for the financial gain of some guy who makes millions of dollars a year. When she caught wind of that, she would hate me.

And then there was her mother, practically planning our wedding. I could just see her devastation when she realized I was nothing but a liar.

Lastly, out of all the problems I had, there was the worst one. The megalodon of all problems. The massive, looming fact I could not deny.

I liked Darcy.

And the fact that her inevitable hatred might be the worst consequence of all.

I dried off and took a few deep breaths, recentering myself, and walked out of the bathroom. The room across the hall caught my eye. I stepped into the doorway and noticed the posters covering the walls. Justin Timberlake, Zac Efron, Eminem, and Red Hot Chili Peppers were a few of the ones that caught my eye. There was a bed with a plaid comforter and a vanity desk near the window, neatly organized. I walked closer to it, looking at the pictures that were taped to the mirror.

I recognized Lettie and Tuck with Darcy in one of them. They were in bathing suits and standing with a waterfall in the background. Another was Beau and Darcy, Beau giving her a noogie. And one of what I assumed was Darcy as a toddler, holding a hammer and wearing a toolbelt standing in the middle of the hardware store, her dad next to her, staring lovingly.

“What are you doing?” a voice asked behind me. I turned around, and Darcy was standing in the doorway. Her expression wasn’t angry but merely devilish. “I was cute, huh?”

And for some reason, unbeknownst to me, with my pulse thumping so loudly I couldn’t hear anything but the rhythmic lub-dub, I strolled up to her and grabbed her by the back of her neck.

Then, I kissed her.