No Vacancy (The Aveline Series Book 2)

Chapter 52

DARCY

A week had passedsince the kiss, and I hadn’t told anyone. Not Lettie, not Peyton, not even Bernie.

Okay, I had told Bernie.

Penn and I had been spending a lot of time together, and I was beginning to lose sight of what he was there for. I had almost convinced myself he was there because he liked me, or because he liked Aveline, and not because he liked Aveline so much he wanted to buy our business and completely change it.

I was lying in bed on a Friday morning, texting with Peyton and trying to get her to pep talk me into remembering why we started Operation AA in the first place.

PEYTON: Listen, Darce, I know he’s nice and like super gorgeous . . . honestly, he might be the most gorgeous man I have ever seen . . . besides your brother . . .

I grimaced. Peyton had been in love with my brother for as long as I had known her. They’d dated for a few months in college, and to be honest, it grossed me out to the point I’d secretly celebrated when they mutually separated.

PEYTON: But he is there to take over the store! Do not forget that!

DARCY: You’re right. He is trying to buy the store and change the entire thing. He wants to take away one of the most important places in my life!

DARCY: And he was supposed to leave over a week ago! I told him I still was not going to let my dad sell to him. Why is he still here?

PEYTON: Exactly! What game is he playing? You have been slacking, and now he likes it here! He can’t like it here, Darcy! You have to make him leave, and even though his eyes are like big, shiny, pools of ocean water, you can’t let them distract you!

DARCY: Right. No. I can’t be distracted. Not by his eyes or his lips or the fact that he kissed me.

PEYTON: HE WHAT?

I had forgotten I hadn’t told her.

DARCY: So, he might have kissed me. In my old bedroom. At my parents.

PEYTON: I need details, and you need to get back to Operation AA, because this guy is good.

I decided it was time to pull out cringy Darcy again and resume Operation AA. I stopped in at Green Gables after work and found Penn playing cards with an old man in the living room. I sighed deeply. He would be the kind of guy that would spend his time with an old man, laughing and cutting up. He spotted me, and I waved and watched as he excused himself.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“Looking for you, of course,” I replied in my sweetest voice.

Penn bit his bottom lip, and I forced myself to look away. His lips were off limits. They were more than off limits; they did not exist. Penn no longer had lips. I tried to picture him as all teeth, but it was no use. He had big, pillowy, soft lips...

I cleared my throat. “Are you free?” I looked over at the old man.

“Oh, yeah. That’s just Mr. Yamiro. He’s back for a couple days.” Penn leaned in and whispered, “If you ask me, I think he has a thing for Marjorie.”

I raised my eyebrows, finding the whole thing endearing, and Penn continued. “But we were finished with that game anyway, so perfect timing.” He smiled, and I winced internally at the fact he was wearing another blue shirt that made his eyes look exceptionally bright. They should be illegal, his eyes. And why couldn’t he wear a different color shirt? Would a brown one kill him?

Maybe I could just pretend he didn’t have eyes either.

Penn no longer had eyes or lips.

“What did you have in mind?” he asked.

“Huh?”

I had to stop doing that. I was supposed to be eliminating the distractions of Penn, not causing them.

“Oh, um, I need to go over to Rosie’s Roses and order some flowers for the Founder’s Day reenactment. It’s a tradition to have big lavish bouquets along the dinner table. You want to come?”

“Well, hell yeah!” Penn replied enthusiastically. “Something you don’t know about me,” he began as we stepped out of the inn, “is that I am an expert bouquet maker.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh really? Bouquet maker?”

“Yep, I make a mean bouquet.”

I laughed as I led the way, and Penn followed, having no idea what was in store for him.